Reading concerns

Seeing as I only have around 3 weeks study time left, I thought it would be a good idea to actually start and open a book now. The problem is, though, that the only chances to study are at work, after work and during the week-end. I’m too tired after work, so that leaves me with during work time and the week-end. Week-ends, we sometimes have things planned, so it’s hard to be consistent and plan around my parents’ ..plans.  At work, I have to be careful not to be too obvious about not having any actual work and studying instead.

I am currently trying to get back into the Japanese language by reading Japanese Twitter updates, when I realised: I can’t read. If it wasn’t for a browser plug-in that translates hovered words, I wouldn’t be able to read anything in Japanese; there are just too many complicated kanji I don’t know. It makes me feel a bit stupid, not being able to read the simplest messages, and makes me wonder how pathetic I’ll feel walking down the streets of Tokyo trying to read signs, labels in konbinis or restaurant menus.

Until now my main concern has been grammar – I mean what good is it to have someone throw loads of vocabulary at you if you can’t make out what that person is trying to tell you? But now that I feel a bit more confident in smalltalk grammar, it’s time to shift study towards vocabulary and especially kanji. I’m not particularly fussed about learning new words, it’s the insanely difficult to memorise kanji that scare me most.

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  By Rachel, 20.08.2009 @ 09:57

  LOL I’ve done nothing all holiday. FAIL.

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  By casmo, 20.08.2009 @ 10:48

  Yeh… don’t worry. Right after writing this post I went back to reading a webcomic instead of studying.. haha

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  By OsakaBound, 21.08.2009 @ 06:33

  Get to work you bloody slackers! This is why I spent time on kanji, but it’s still not going to help me with names of things/places beyond going “oh, that means colourful, lament and embryo”… damn, that didn’t help at all.

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