About a year ago I told myself that if I was actually serious with myself about learning Hebrew, I had better get things going.  Not getting any younger and all that!

I started with some literature from First Fruits of Zion and online goodies from the Hebrew for Christians website, but that wasn’t entirely the path I was interested in.  I wanted modern Hebrew.  I wanted something where I could listen to a Hebrew podcast and then let loose a precocious laugh in front of people who couldn’t get the joke.  In short, if I wanted to be an upper middle-class twit, I had to do better than this.

So next up was Rosetta Stone.  But this too was disappointing.  While it is a good program, it does not teach how to use sentence structures and would only be handy if I wanted to point at an apple and say “tapooach” like some Quasimoto idiot tourist.

Then I found the Pimsleur approach.  While expensive, I had the luxury of getting it from my community library, so it was ultimately free for me.  Finally, I think I’m onto something here.  The Hebrew series comes in 3 volumes ( vol 3 has just been released ).  As of now, I’m just a few days shy of completing volume one.

Right up front, this alone will not make anyone fluent, so lower your expectations of being a UN translator.  You’ll be able to ask where the bathroom is, greet people, ask for stuff, and count.  Slowly. Take it from a  guy who’s been watching a lot of Hebrew movies ( love “Giv’at Halfon Eina Ona“…with subtitles! ), these folk talk fast.   But really, who said anyone could learn a language in just a couple months right?

Pimsleur teaches with repetition, and constantly throws old lessons back at you to keep your brain working.  Although my speech speed is nothing like a native Israeli ( perhaps one who has had 10 shots of tequila ) , I can begin to formulate simple sentences.  And I would say that one should not expect more in such a small amount of time.

It is probably worth mentioning that this is only an audio course, and as such there is little to no ( in volume 1 anyway ) written or reading work.  This is unfortunate because written material that is on par with the audio would be awesome.  But as it is, that is something that will require additional effort on your part to remedy.  Thankfully, you can learn the alef-bet and all the vowels by watch YouTube instructionals.  The rest is practice.

So now I eagerly await to begin Volume 2.  And then 3.

My goal?  To argue with an Israeli taxi driver!  Haggle in the marketplace for something I probably didn’t want to buy in the first place.  Or better yet, live dangerously and share the gospel with a group of Orthodox Yeshiva students!

I may also want to brush up on being able to dodge stones…

Что ж, постепенно входим в ритм правильного режима суток – еще нет и двух ночи, а японский и “Соло” уже сделаны:)

Итак, что новенького нас ждало в 4м уроке:

39) ええ – yes,

40) はなせません – can’t speak:

- わたしはよくはなせません – I can’t speak very well,

41) はなします – speak:

- あなたはにほんごがよくはなします – you speak Japanese very well,

42) そして – and:

- そしてわかりません – and I don’t understand (стоить заметить, что в предложении “and you?” “and” опускается – あなたは？) ,

43) どこ – where:

- どこですか？ – where is?

44) ひびや – Hibiya (знаменитый токийский проспект),

45)  しんじゅく – Shinjuku (другой знаменитый токийский проспект),

46) どおり – avenue:

-  ひびやどおりはどこですか？ – where is Hibiya avenue?

47) ここ – here:

- ここです – it’s here,

- ここですか？ – is it here?

- ここじゃありません – it’s not here,

48) あそこ – over there/there:

- ひびやどおりはあそこです – Hibiya avenue is over thereб

49) けっこです – never mind.

В общем, всё простенько и понятненько.

Теперь по письменности. Перешел к изучению 5ти новых кан:

- か – честно говоря, боялся её, боялся, что трудно пишется, но оказалось, что пишется она легко – трудно только выглядит:),

- き – а вот эта вызвала больше трудностей при кажущейся простоте (из 18 написанных экземпляров получились 1-2),

- く – легко! (эту кану я знаю еще по имени Микуни, Симокава Микуни – 下川みくに) ,

- け – средняя по сложности,

- こ – тоже достаточно простая по написанию кана.

P.S. За окном – опять дождь… Сезон дождей?

Третий урок. Ну, хотя бы до 3х ночи успел. Прогресс на лицо:)

Пока всё просто. Что нового (продолжаю думать над тем, писать слова или конструкции):

26) あなたは – and you?

27) おげんきですか – Are you well?

28) わたしはです – I am,

29) あなたはです – you are,

30) わたしは(アメリカ/にほん)じんです – I’m an American/Japanese (じん means person and usually ads to the name of the country to make a japanese word for nationality),

31) せも – but,

32) まだ – yet,

33) でもまだじょうずじゃありません – but I’m not good at it yet,

34) よく – well (in knowledge/skill, not health) ,

35) げんきじゃありません – I’m not feeling well,

36) どうも – very much (только сейчас понял, что “домо” оказывается записывается тремя канами, а не двумя – ども),

37) にほん/にっぽん – Japan,

38) はなせます – can speak:

- あなたはよくはなせますね – you can speak very well, aren’t you?

О! Только сейчас понял, как правильно вести подсчет выученного: считаем слова, а после каждого слова – несколько строчек с выученными фразами, где это слово употребляется. Надо бы завтра подправить 1 – 3 уроки…

Что касается хираганы, то можно считать, что あいうえお я уже освоил: каждый симовл написан по 127 раз, исписан целый лист А4. Завтра начианем разучивать написание следующих пяти кан: かきくけこ.

Кстати, кану учу по урокам, взятым с www.nihongoresources.com. Рекомендую, хороший ресурс с бесплатными уроками и авторской книгой (тоже бесплатной) по японской грамматике.

Итак, второй урок. Только что закончен – 4й час утра. Вообще, он простой. Особенно, когда ты его уже проходил.

Что нового в плане словарного запаса мы узнали (нумерация сквозная):

16)  おはようございます – good morning (おはよう – early, ございます adds for politeness),

как я понял, японцы – очень, ну, просто очень, вежливые люди, причем сама вежливость заложена в их языке,

17) いかが – how,

18 ) げんき – fine (about health) ,

19) おかげさまで – thanks to you (ну, вот вам еще одна форма вежливости японского языка),

20) こんにちは – good afternoon/hello (кана は вообще-то звучит как “ха”, если входит в состав слова, например, はな – цветок, однако, когда речь идет о частице, то эта кана читается как “ва”),

21) さよなら – goodbye,

22) ね – this particle is uded for making so called “tail-questions” (isn’t it? don’t you?),

23) ありがとうございます – thank you (вновь вездесущее ございます),

24) じょうず – skilled/good at,

25) じょうずじゃありません – not very skilled/not very good at.

Вот пишу и думаю: считать ли новые слова или конструкции? Наверное, еще и конструкции выученные надо писать.

Касательно письменности: опять все те же 5 слогов (あいうえお), по строчке на каждый слог. Лист А4 скоро закончится, значит надо приниматься за следующие 5 кан.

Сегодня (наконец-таки!) вновь взялся за японский. Учусь по аудиокурсам PIMSLEUR, любезно предоставленных мне ErreFan’ом. К лету прошел уже уроков 15, но потом более, чем на 2 месяца, выпал из учебного процесса.
Итак, снова 1й урок, плюс хирагана.
Успешно освоено написание слогов あ, い, う, え и お, а также произношение и значение слов (все слова здесь пишу каной):
1) すみません – excuse me,
2) えいご – the English language,
3) わかります – understand,
4) か – question particle,
5) いいえ – no,
6) わたし – I,
7) わかりません – don’t understand/don’t know,
8 ) にほんご – the Japanese language,
9) すこし – a little/a few,
10) アメリカじん – American (about nationality),
11) あなた – you,
12) です – is/are,
13) はい – yes,
14) が – nominatival connective particle,
15) にほんじん – Japanese (about nationality).

Urgh, I’m failing to meet my own goals. Geez, the bad thing is, I don’t really mind as much. That can’t be good. Well, earlier at least I got my application for membership for the Japanese library out of the way.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Kanji Characters
* Flash cards = 40 – 50

Japanese for Busy People I
* Lesson 2 – 3

On Hiatus
* Pimsleur Japanese I = Track 18-20/30

drumroll please….

more drumming….

OK OK I can’t tell you just yet! That was a teaser, so sorry about that. There is one clear leader among my two choices, Pimsleur Spanish and Rosetta Stone Spanish. But to say anything definitive right now wouldn’t be fair or fully informed. I can say for certain that I’ll be planning a trip to Mexico with the missus in the next few months…not too soon because I want to make sure my Spanish is muy bueno but also to let her have a few weeks to get a crash course in before we go. Anyone have recommendations on the best time of year to travel there? Swine flu still active? Thanks in advance!

The single most important point when trying to improve your English pronunciation is to avoid speaking too fast.

Speak English Slowly! It’s a fact, that when you speak fast you often can be called a  sloppy language user who doesn’t have a good pronunciation.

When you speak fast, you are likely to make many more mistakes more often. This means: Give yourself time!

When you speak a little bit slower, your English will improve.

When you slow down, your foreign accent will be less noticeable. The English language can be difficult, therefore take time when speaking and  speak without an accent and speak English well.

In the English language foreigners speaking a truly remarkable  English take moren than two seconds for every word to pronounce. Try to measure your language output and if you speak English faster, reduce the pace!

Here’s a great site to download audios to improve your English pronunciation

Got to listen through lesson 19 and 20 but I don’t exactly feel confident enough to put it as any of form progress. As of late, my head is not really into the listening the lessons. I’m itching to start on learning sentence structure and other basics and then go back to this.

At least I got to add more finished Kanji cards. To be quite honest writing down several meanings and compound Kanji characters is getting to be a bit intimidating but I just have to bear with it.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I = Track 18-20/30 (Hiatus, sort of)

Kanji Characters
Memorized (English meanings) = 78
Flash cards rewritten = 30/78

Yesterday I was out drinking with a buddy. Fun stuff and of course dampened my progress. Well, on a happy note, I’m getting a good start on learning my Kanji. Flash cards FTW.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I = Track 18/30

Kanji Characters Memorized = 58

My how time in the summer slips by! Last night I got a chance to watch Like Water for Chocolate with the wife. Yeah I know we’re about 17 years behind the curve in movies, but it was a nice time. Set in the Mexico of old, it’s a touching love story, and also is conveniently in both Spanish and English, which meant that a newly aspiring language geek like me had a lot of fun, and probably too many side comments!

I tried forcing myself to stop reading the subtitles, which proved to be very difficult. When they’re there, you want to read them! At certain points I actually closed my eyes to concentrate on the words, and pick up as much of the Spanish as I could. Maybe because it was a historical drama (and not full of modern slang) I felt that I could keep up pretty well. I couldn’t exactly pause and look up words (not with our date movie night anyway!) so I missed a couple of things.

Also I thought it was funny that Doctor Brown clearly didn’t use either Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone Spanish. Ha! His accent was terrible! Spanish is a beautiful language, and that’s part of why I chose audio courses…why learn from a book and get the accent all wrong? More updates on my progress to come.

Hasta luego!

Urgh, I’ve been on this slow progress for a week now. This doesn’t bode good at all. Well, I am currently procrastinating, I should be taking up lesson 17 and 18 now but I don’t feel like it. It doesn’t help that I missed to put up an update yesterday due to this impromptu get together with my friends. At least I enjoy that bit.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 17 – 18/30

Yey, I’m almost back on track. When I got home, I could have gotten back to to lesson 17 but I just relaxed for a bit and made more Kanji flash cards. I’ve been taking them to the office and hopefully I can use them there on the down times.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 16 – 17/30

Well, I’ve been the lazy bastard of of late. I wasn’t able to do any studies on my days off. Grraah… now I’m forcing myself to catch up.

Note: My officemate who knows Japanese is suggesting that I go take the JPLT (Japanese Proficiency Language Test) just for me to try and get experience out of it. It would be around P450 and the registration will end (or was it start, I can’t remember) on October but exams will start on November. At least this give me a clear set time frame to cram.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 14 – 17/30

Was suppose to be in Baguio but it didn’t push through due to the bad weather. Well, I ended up slacking off on my lessons still. Two days, just two lessons covered. But tomorrow, I’ll be making a hand full of Kanji Flash Cards, I really don’t have any more excuses not to.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 8 – 17/30

Just got 2 lessons done during my trip home from the office. I hope I can get back to lesson 17 when I come back home from the Baguio trip. And no, I wasn’t able to make any Kanji flash cards. Oh well…

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 6 – 17/30

Eep, almost forgot to post my progress here. Well, I am currently on lesson 4 on my review. Hope I can do more lessons later.

Earlier I was able to sneak in slicing up some flash blank cards for my Kanji memorization. I’d love to have all 150 characters ready (at least) before this weekend, but I doubt that would happen. Oh yeah, I’m going to be delayed on my progress posts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Me and my old office buds are going to Baguio.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 4 – 17/30

I think I got a study pattern set down that seems to work for me. That’s a good thing of course. Last eve, I was able to bring some Kanji characters to memorize but no go, was too busy at work. At one point I should just make flash cards for them as well.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 17/30

Note: Now I have to go back to Lesson 2 and climb back again to 17. Honestly, I need the review too.

I got this slightly annoying limp going on with my left leg, just behind my calf. Urgh. It’s making sluggish. I spent the majority of the morning just rolling around the bed but it’s okay at least I got through lesson 16.

I’m back to Graveyard shift again later. Due to the lack of time, I just decided to brush up on my Katakana and Hiragana. In a bit I would be writing down at least 5 Kanji characters to take with me to work later.

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 16/30

Japanese Writing

* Katakana Memorization – 95%
* Hiragana Memorization – 95%

Just done with my second day off and… wasn’t productive at all in the aspects of my Japanese studies. Hope this isn’t me burning out. I seriously don’t want that to happen.

I blame that biscocho I ate earlier for my snack… urgh

PROGRESS TO DATE:

Pimsleur Japanese I

* Track 15/30

OK everybody, it’s been a while. Busy with getting the kids off to camp, but now I should have some peace and quiet to get some major studying done, and maybe mow the lawn for once. Speaking of which, I decided that mowing the lawn and learning a language are pretty much the opposite. The longer you wait in between mowing, the more it grows. The longer you wait in between lessons, the less you remember and your language skills shrink!

I found that taking a week off of Pimsleur was a bad idea. I had to review the past 2 lessons to get back up to speed, and now I feel confident about speaking Spanish again. Rolling back to review in Rosetta Stone was kind of a pain, lots and lots of clicking back, but I managed to get far enough back to get a decent review session in.

So what’s the Rosetta Stone vs Pimsleur comparison looking like so far? Well, if I want to speak some Spanish off the cuff, like to a friend who speaks Spanish, I’ve found that the whole way I think about the language and put it together has been formed by Pimsleur lessons. But if that friend asks me a question I didn’t quite expect, or calls upon certain details, then I find I’m relying on words that I learned from Rosetta Stone.

For example, if my friend and I are talking about the weekend, and she says something like “hey, did you take the kids out to the lake?” I would have to use my Rosetta vocabulary to think about how to say words for beach, or swimming, or lifeguard. But Pimsleur fills in all the gaps, so I can use verbs to make actual sentences! It’s kind of incredible how fast I’m progressing. I can’t tell if my brain is wired for Spanish or the programs are wiring me for Spanish. Time will tell!