Goal Statement for Cycle 2

For cycle 2, I plan to listen to at least 1 Japanese song a day, and try to sing along with it. This may require me looking up the lyrics, but hopefully it will be able to improve my pronunciation somewhat. I also plan to shadow anime at least 3 times a week. To improve my anime shadowing experience, I plan to find segments with easier vocabulary and slower speech, so that I can more easily follow along and accurately reproduce the sounds. I plan to focus mainly on pitch and tone in my shadowing, since I feel these are currently my weak points.

Reflection on PE Cycle 1

During the first cycle, I somewhat accomplished my goal. I didn't shadow quite as much as I had hoped - 20 minutes 3 times a week was a bit ambitious. I did, however, shadow some parts of anime about 4 times a week, but only shadowed for 5 to 10 minutes at a time. I did, however, do something more than I intended - I ended up shadowing this song a lot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBTZEtM_V5E. It's the opening theme to the first season of Code Geass, which my roommate was watching. Every episode, I would sing along with the song. I would even sing it when it wasn't playing, just because it was catchy. I have it on my ipod too. I feel like through these exercises, my rhythm got a little bit better, but my pitch could still use some work. For the next cycle, I plan to focus a little harder on pitch, and actually shadow as much as I said I would in the first cycle. Perhaps even more. We'll see. I definitely think singing along with songs helped though - I plan to find some more songs I like so that I can sing along with them.

わたしのにってい

こんばんわ！
まいにち わたしは はちじに おきます。はちじごじゅうごふんに にほんごのじゅぎょうに いきます。 じゅうじに あさごはんを たべます。 じゅういちじはんに ひるごはんを たべます。 それから、 あにめを みます。 わたしのすきな コードギアスです。 ごじに ばんごはんを たべます。 それから、 ビデオゲームを します。 いちじに しゅくだいを します。 にじに ねます。
じゃまた。

Goal Statement

My goal for this cycle is to get a better grasp of pitch and to be able to say my words correctly with the correct pitch. I also want to work on my pronunciation of the different sounds in general. To accomplish this goal, I will try to shadow anime for 20 minutes at least three times a week, and also speak to myself whenever nobody is around.

Introduction in Japanese

はじめまして。れいぇんです。ぷりんすとんのいちねんせいです。あめりかじんです。どうぞよろしく。

Why I'm taking Japanese

こんにちは, everybody!

Let's jump right into it. You must be wondering, 'Hey, Chet, why are you studying にほんご?' Well, you probably aren't actually wondering that, but just in case you are, here's the story. Ever since I was a little kid, I've loved anime and manga, and spent a lot of my time watching or reading it. I wondered what it would be like to enjoy in its original format, in Japanese, rather than to be forced to behold it through the eyes of the translator. To this end, I wanted to study the language in college. However, my parents suggested that I instead learn Spanish, since, living in California, it is becoming as useful or more useful than English in everyday life. I had planned to comply with my parents' wishes until, looking at the reviews for the course, I discovered that many people disliked Spanish class, and, upon further researching, I found that Japanese had incredible reviews. すみません, mom and dad, but it looks like I'm following my dream after all!

Well, until next time.
サようなら
-Chet Reyen