Showing posts with label kanji. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kanji. Show all posts

Thursday, February 17, 2011

grammar surge in the snow

So we have more snow. More snow, more slick, more sludge. Indoors, I write entries in crappy Japanese on Lang-8 and try, slowly, to understand and absorb the corrections made on them.

It's pretty depressing. [Edit: Started this entry TWELVE DAYS AGO, and the weather has changed much -- and for the better! since then. Ugh procrastination.]



I meant to do an entry in Japanese every day, seeing as how it looks like an internship in Yokohama is going to happen this summer; so far it's been three entries in six days. I'm improving. Part of the reason I haven't posted an entry about what I've learned/reviewed is because I received TONS of corrections on all my entries, and it's been a little overwhelming to go through them all. Obviously it's great and I appreciate the help, but it takes a long time for me to read each correction and figure out what I should be learning from it.

Some [boring] grammar notes:

Japanese.
1. If a sentence is negated, think carefully about using the "は" particle. (は is a particle put after noun-like words or phrases to indicate emphasis and contrast, "and as for this noun X," as opposed to が, which more or less just marks a subject. I tend to use these two interchangeably but they're not really interchangeable. . . )

Monday, March 15, 2010

with all due respect

I fucking hate rain.




I am in a state of scatter-brained panic currently.

Things I am thinking about:

1. Thesis. I need to find photos of the inside of the Logan Christian Church, pre- and post-1960. I know they exist, because I've seen them. I just have to figure out who to call to beg for them. Everything else is AutoCAD and Daysim, which is just matter of pounding it out.

2. Neurobiology test on Wednesday. I'm wondering if studying needs to be any deeper than memorizing the equation sheet and the toxin sheet -- that was pretty much the way to do the problem sets.

3. Japanese. ARGH WHY DID YOU MAKE MY LANGUAGE BAR INACCESSIBLE, WINDOWS? Apparently the service pack 2 makes it become invisible, which makes it a bitch and a half to type anything in Japanese. Which is bad when you have a story to write (as I do.)

Then there's my new kanji study regimen, which consists of substituting practicing kanji for sleeping in boring portions of 7.02 and 7.29.

4. Next year. I need to fill it up. I want to go to Europe. I NEED MORE OPTIONS. I NEED A JOB. Ugh.

5. Applying for stuff.

6. Gondoliers poster. I'm trying to find pictures of happy people on the Albrecht Durer sketch website I mentioned before.

7. Portfolio. WHY ISN'T IT DONE.

8. Rain.

Fucking rain.