Japanese "Homework Assignments" & Roll Call

Let's GET THIS STARTED!

This thread will serve for two purposes.

Roll call & Homework Assignments.


Roll Call

Really, this is self explanatory. Unfortunately, most public schools do not offer Japanese as a language to learn. In fact, if you live in Texas like I do, about the most you'll be able to hope for is Spanish. So unless your parents are willing to pay for you to have separate classes, not to mention if you're willing to actually have to do it for graded assignments, you pretty much won't come into contact with it unless you either A.) Wait for college or B.) Decide to do it on your own in the comfort of your own home.

Learning a different language is difficult. Extremely so. I've been in the American school system for fifteen years now, 99% of my classes studied in the English language, and I'm -still- not very good at it. I think my grammar says it all. ^^ It requires motivation and dedication beyond what normal attention span allows for. So if you're -serious- about learning this language, get serious about my roll call! Drop in once a day, say that you did / didn't do your studying for the day, and tell us what it is you plan on accomplishing for yourself. This will take you a YEAR of your LIFE to learn this, and to learn this well. So take it slow, don't overload yourself, and most importantly: keep it fun for yourself! The BEST way to do this is to DO IT WITH OTHER PEOPLE!!! So really, my roll call serves for two functions. Not only does it encourage you to actually do your studying for the day, but it makes you feel like you're part of a team - like you're not alone in this cruel, non-Japanese speaking English world... ... or something like that >____>;;;

Moving right along!

Homework Assignments

Yes, I'm going to be creating homework assignments for you!!! If you don't use it , you lose it! Seriously, what good is -studying- all this stuff if you're not even trying to practice it? I will post assignments maybe once a day, or once every two days, depending how I decide to space it out. To keep it somewhat organized, simply look down the post below this one for my posted assignments. They'll be labeled something similar to like "Week 1- Day 1." And what not. IN YOUR ROLL CALL it is up to your discretion if you want to upload a scanned image of the homework you did! I would PERSONALLY do this anyways so we can correct you if you're doing something wrong; -I'm- doing it because I KNOW I'll make mistakes, and I'm hoping someone with more expertise (*cough*) Kagaea (*cough*) will happen to come along and tell me what I did wrong and why.

So with that, GOOD LUCK! And tomorrow I'll start making up homework.

- RESERVED -


Week 1, Day 1

~ Introductions ~

Sign in for the roll call is your 'official' first assignment. It can be something as short as "present!" or whatever catchy phrase you choose. If you haven't started studying yet, tell us what you -hope- to achieve by studying Japanese, or why you wish to learn this fun language =)

Week1, Day 2


~Let's Learn the Alphabet!~

Note: To do this lesson you need a notebook and a pen. GET A NOTEBOOK! They're what, 30 cents at the dollar store! Get a notebook, and a pen, and get comfortable. Don't use your notebook to draw in, don't use it for a coffee holder - it is now officially your Japanese notebook!




Alright, so I said you had a homework assignment coming your way and this is what it is! Learning hiragana is absolutely important. Especially if we want to be able to actually read Japanese text. So for our first actual bit of work, I want us to work on memorizing it as well as memorizing the basic sentence structure. HOWEVER - we're going take this SLOW. We do NOT want to overload ourselves, have it memorized one night, and then not be able to remember anything after we've had a good night's sleep.

Look at the chart above and look in the HIRAGANA section. If you REALLY want to push yourself, then go ahead and do this for Katakana as well. HOWEVER, do not take more than you can handle, or you will discourage yourself!

Write down the symbols A I U E O & Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko ---- 50 times each. No exception. BY THE TIME YOU ARE DONE you should have written 500 characters. This will take you a grand total of -maybe- 15 minutes. AFTER YOU ARE DONE WRITING EACH SET, write them down as a whole set 5 times each. If you are NOT able to WRITE THEM DOWN EASILY, and FAST, then you write each symbol that you had to hesitate on 10 more times and try it again.

A あ I い U う E え O お

Ka か Ki き Ku く Ke け Ko こ

Tools to help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana

Click on each hiragana to take you to a page where you can see how to do the stroke order. Is stroke order important? Sort of. You see, Japanese are like us - really. They have chicken scratch handwriting as well. Sometimes the only way to be able to read their scratchy hand writing is by looking at the general direction of the strokes.

Note:

Take a look at the bottom of the hiragana chart and see where the G line starts. Y'know, Ga, Gi, Gu, Ge, Go. Seems awfully familiar, huh? Geez, where did we see these symbols before...

... You're right! They look EXACTLY like the Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko symbols! The only difference is that they have a slanted " on each one of them! To cut back on your work load later, just remember that if you add a " to the hiragana, you replace the K with a G.

~~~

Now for sentence structure.


Let's learn the very basic sentence pattern.


[Subject] wa [verb].

Or.

[Subject] wa [adjective] [verb]

Let's see an example.

Watashi wa Sharon desu. <--- I is the subject here. Desu is the verb. Desu is the the to be verb.

Kono ringo wa takai desu. <--- Ringo, as indicated by Wa, is the subject here. Desu is the verb, and Takai is the adjective. This sentence literally reads out as This apple expensive it is, or rather, This apple is expensive.

There are also 5 very important words we need to remember before stopping tonight. These are our 'question' words.

Doko - Where

Itsu - When

Dare - who

Naze - Why

Nani - What


Let's see an example of how one might use one of these words in a sentence.

Kono hito wa dare desu ka? <--- This person (subject) who it is? Or, Who is this person? (Note: For right now, to turn a sentence into a question, always tag ka? at the end of desu. You can even write it as desuka?.

SUMMARY: Memorize the hiragana for A I U E O & Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko. Know the 5 question words, and know the basic sentence pattern that I set out before you. (( Ex. [subject] wa [verb]. )) This is only the beginning! It's going to get real fun soon as we have all the hiragana memorized, as well all the basic sentence patterns!

Ganbatte! (Good luck!)






Week 1, Day 3

Alright, today's assignments are extremely similar to yesterday! Today I want you to write the symbols for Sa Shi Su Se So & Ta Chi Tsu Te To. 50 times each. 500 characters in total.

Then, try to write everything in order 5 times each. Write any characters that you miss or have to hesitate on, and try writing it all again. This is for YOUR benefit, not mine!

A I U E O
Ka Ki Ku Ke Ko
Sa Shi Su Se So
Ta Chi Tsu Te To

The hiragana should be in that order! (Or if you want to write like the Japanese write it, right it from Right to Left instead in reverse order).

Let's also learn some nouns!

hon - book
kyoukasho - text book
ongaku - music
rekishi - history
me - eye
hana - nose
kao - face
kuchi - mouth
mimi - ear
te - hand
inu - dog
neko - cat
saru - monkey
tori - bird
buta - pig

NOW!

As your HOMEWORK for today.

Declare each of these nouns as existing.

How would this look?

Ex.

Neko desu.

That's all you have to do. That literally means It's a cat.

So, practice writing it down with each noun to try to remember it!

GANBATTE!

Week 1, Day 5

So I haven't updated in a while.

Mostly cause no one seems interested xD *Cries in a corner alone*


So, won't go into much detail. You should have been studying your hiragana. If you have, good for you! Keep doing it until the very end. If you haven't, well, then you're screwed xP Cause now you should EITHER be FINISHING hiragana... or working on Katakana. If you haven't, you've slacked!

So, this homework assignment, although vague, is incredibly important anyways. FINISH WRITING ALL YOUR HIRAGANA! 50 times, EACH! D< Do it! No excuse! HERE! Look at MY notebook. -I'm- not slacking, and I've already done this before. xD ((you can see it in my roll call))





- RESERVED -

I'm in
Among other things, I intend to be somewhat more convincing in my characters, who I claim to have been born in a reflection of Japan

Additionally, at my school I was taught Japanese in years 7 and 8(or whatever you Americans call the first two years of real school....Junior high, or something like that?)
Sadly, I was not much of a student in year 9, but I intend to be better at it this time around

Welcome aboard Kerrins =3

Ok, here's my roll call. Updated with a homework assignment! Wooo! I'm doing my homework right a long with you. I already had the hiragana pretty much memorized, but there are still some symbols that I completely freeze up on. I have to sit there and tap on my forehead until I can finally remember which is the right symbol! So hopefully doing all this extra work on it will make me that much better at it. I'm trying really hard to expand my vocabulary, as well as try to make Japanese sentences in my head to describe certain things. Like if I have an apple in my hand, I try to think of a sentence on the spot in Japanese that would describe it.

I am here because you said I have to be the one guy who knows less than everybody else. :<

LOL!

I'mma have to hound you extra hard then, Gate! Do your homework! D<

I'll be making up a second homework assignment tonight. Tonight you get.... yeah, that's right, the S and the T's! As well as a recap over what I attempted to try to explain yesterday. We're going to go into more detail about how to declare something as existing, as well as how to say they -don't- exist. As well as some extra vocabulary. =3

And this goes out to everyone:

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND!

PLEASE!

I'm -not- a teacher. At all. This is stuff -I'm- still learning. If you're unclear about ANYTHING, I can sure as hell TRY to help you find the answer, but you really should be looking up grammar guides as well. This is sort of just extra stuff to help motivate you!

Nobody's called in for roll call!

*cries*

Oh well.

Here's my homework thus far, albeit, I have a LOT


and I mean a LOT

More pages of this stuff, this is just a few pictures.





And, whenever you finally get done with your hiragana...
you can make faces with it!

へ　へ
の の
し
　ー

Sorry for not doing it....

I've still got exams to contend with, but come Thursday I will be free

I thought up a title for a new story, but I wanted the title in Japanese.

I wanted it to be "The Autumn Priestess" and using a simple translator I got these...

The = Sono or Za
Autumn = Aki
Priestess = Nisou

Which of these are correct?

a) Aki Nisou za
b) Aki Nisou-za
c) Aki Nisou sono
d) Aki Nisou-sono
e) Za Aki Nisou
f) Sono Aki Nisou

If it was The Princess of Autumn, it would be something along the lines of "Aki no Nisou"

no being a conjunction(I think that's the right word) that indicates a relationship between the two