Literacy with Japanese 7

 

            This time I read オーストラア の もりの かじ。I first noticed the kanji for もり being 森 I've seen this kanji before meaning forest. The kanji looks like a forest of trees spreading their leaves out. Knowing some information about Australia and the orange cover of the book makes me wonder if this is about the forest fires that got super huge a few years ago. 

            The photos were super helpful this time. The first photos are of the Earth and Australia below with a thermometer that makes me think my guess was correct. The first thing in the first sentence is 2019 and I remember there being a bunch of fires in Australia around that time. Especially since videos of people saving wildlife became popular on social media.

            Continuing onto the next page it shows the right side of Australia with flame imagery. It then shows that the fires were from 2019 to 2020. They also mention South Korea and there being many fires, which leads me to expect there to have been so many fires that it was the size of South Korea. It then shows a hurt Koala and a hurt Kangaroo, leading me to expect that a lot of animals were hurt during this event. 

            They mention South Wales though I'm not sure what they were saying South Wales did. They also mention New South Wales which I didn't know was "new." There then is a photo of the Earth with Co2 Labels on it and the Earth is sweating and having a face that is in pain and sweating. I believe this part is talking about global warming due to these fires. The end is shown with the photo from the cover but more saturated showing the sky that turned orange because of these fires. This reminds me of when Canada was having wildfires it led some areas of America to get orange skies as well. 

Literacy with Japanese 6

  

       This time I read よるのりかしつ. Reading this was super interesting and a bit weird. With some of the words I looked up, this story is about a science room though I don't understand why they chose super weird and creepy photos of the room in the dark. The room looks like it's from abandoned building photos. I think it may be showing that school isn't in session. I also think that they could be talking about what the skeleton does at night. Strange though the Skeleton didn't seem to have a name. Though the story turns into the personification of a skeleton don't worry they say he isn't alive. There are more images of the skeleton and then at the end, there is a goofy photo of him around the pitch-black science room. 

My Day Off

 

            うちで  そうじと。  せんたくを しきした。 たいへんでした。ねこ のせわを します。うれしかった です。KCAIでアルバイトを しました。いそがしかったです。

Vacation Days

         Looking at various videos that were shared, I find it interesting how many Japanese end up traveling to Japan. I think of this as interesting mainly because in America a lot of people vacation outside of their state or even out of the country. Though the way they travel I feel is very similar in the sense of activities. I noticed some people vacationing at the beach, which of course is very common here. I also noticed people visiting other landmarks like temples, hiking trails, and restaurants. Nearly all the videos mentioned and showed food/restaurants. However, I think a lot of the vacationing areas shown in the video are more in nature than America usually does. I mean this in the sense that a lot of people in America when they travel, shop. Instead of it only being for souvenirs people will shop at stores in the area and consider that vacation activities. A lot of tourist attractions are indoors, like escape rooms, theaters, and performances. I wonder if there's something that is different between the two societies or if it could be that America doesn't have as much nature or beauty in that nature as Japan does. 

          In the Marugoto topic, I found it super interesting learning more about Nara Park. I've seen Nara Park in many videos of people going there, but I never knew the other side of the park, the stall vendors. I also didn't know about deers being the messengers of the gods. I find it is a common theme to wanting peace and quiet in many of the spots shown in these videos. Every vacation spot seems to have such a big length of history placed on it. Even the pond has its own name and history. 

Shopping

        

     わたしは  Build A Bear かいものに いきました。ワイソを おもちゃ 2 かいました。おもちゃ わ かわいい です。Build A Bear わ すごい です。ワイソを 1ぬいぐるみ かいました。

Literacy with Japanese 5

 

            This time I read ほね which I found out means bone. The book was a bit harder to understand though I think it was still relatively understandable. The photos were beneficial in understanding what the words were saying. I think some things in class did help with understanding some things. The mention of 200 bones being a lot in the body brought the word two hundred, similar to how we learned 100 in class. 

            Though this book was super simplistic. However, I think it may have been a good start to transition into a higher book without overloading me with information. I did struggle with learning words and sentence structure of what it was meaning.

Blooket

        

              I had a lot of fun with the activities, especially the kanji Kingdom game mode being my favorite. The kanji kingdom I enjoyed because I did know some of them as some from class were in there. I feel a lot of the kanji you can maybe figure it out with the shape. If not you could deduce from the other kanji and their meaning. Similar to the tricks we learned in class about water and meat. 

            I realized when I was doing the katakana game mode that I definitely need to be studying katakana more as I struggled a lot with being able to remember them and had to refer to my katakana chart. I did learn some things from the Lesson 16 vocabulary after I was seeing a few of the same ones. Though the issue I ran into is you can’t replay the games, unless you input multiple different names. This was particularly difficult as you could only replay them if there were other people playing them. I did join twice more with a different form of my name, and I feel being able to replay them helped a lot with me remembering some of the vocabulary. 

                I wasn’t sure if anyone was playing with him, as I’m not aware how to see it. Though the games were the same when I planned alone and with others (I assume people got on during class time.)

Shopping

         As a fan of Japanese media, culture, and items I’ve seen videos similar to the first one. With people going to shop and filming themselves shopping to show foreigners or fans what it looks like. I’m not overly surprised with how big they are as I’ve seen a decent amount in the videos that look like this. I’ve also noticed their shopping centers look similar to Korea’s shopping centers. I know the man in the first video mentions that because there isn’t many shopping centers similar to the one he is in, there tends to be big shopping centers like this in other places. 

        I really enjoy seeing such clean grocery stores compared to what we have in America. Every time that I go out for groceries it is very messy in the aisle and or they’re stocking. I haven’t seen employees with big boxes stocking when people are shopping in these videos.  I wonder if this is because they have set times to do outside of shopping hours or they do it when not many people are there. 

        It’s also interesting for me to see the contrast that a lot of these stores have in a mall scenario. For example, there was a kimono shop and knife shop that was super traditional compared to a lot of the more modern set ups. though I think I like the modern contrasts a lot better compared to how American malls work. I feel American Malls all have the same store in it, just with different names. 

Towns

              As someone who doesn’t have a car right now and has to walk a lot, I feel I have a big say in this. It’s super cool seeing roads designed for people and not centered around cars. America generally doesn’t have the accessibility for those who don’t own a car. I know it’s a bit harder in the Midwest making that possible due to open land. As a Kansas City resident, the city doesn't cater to that accessibility. 

With all the construction going on, all the buses or forms of public transport are not accessible where I live. They were torn up leaving many without a way to get to work or groceries affordably. I agree with a comment on the video saying that America is very isolating to nondrivers. I feel the only area that this would be an exception is big cities, though not everyone lives there. 

       Growing up, I lived in a neighborhood, very much an American-styled one. There were no places I could walk to besides going to other homes in my neighborhood. You needed a car to go to any of the places a kid or teen would want to go. I feel that also impacts why kids who turn 16 go to get their licenses so fast. Compared to other countries, I’ve heard they don’t let 16-year-olds get on the road. With the way towns are structured, the difference is also drastically safer. Japan and Korea's way of structuring their towns and roads increase the safety of wrecks and possible injury to people. 

How to get to school

     

                わたしわ　ちから　えきまで　バスで　ちかてつ。えきで　ちかてつに　のります。えきで　タクシ―　あります。えきかり　タクシ―　あるいて　いきます。　らくです　です。

Baku Baku Baku — Possible Selves 1

 

                            The Baku is a chimera yokai that is known in Japanese media, though it’s imported from Chinese folklore. They’re very common to see in Buddhism and Buddhist temples in the architecture and design. They’re a yokai that eats people’s bad dreams. The Baku can be compared to a Tapir or a warthog with the Baku having tusks and a sort of trunk look to their face.

                            Who am I as a language learner now? When I see this question I instantly come to the thought of me learning Spanish and that is how I see myself as a language learner. I’m not sure if this is because I haven’t hit a part of Japanese yet to consider myself a Japanese language learner. Or if I feel I’m not a Japanese language learner due to the struggles of learning I’ve been having. It would make sense to have some doubts as I did have the same thoughts when I grew up learning Spanish, I actually hated Spanish A LOT when I was learning it and it wasn’t till later in my life I enjoyed learning it. 

                            Who do I want to be as a language user in the future? I want to be able to confidently call myself a Japanese language learner and be confident in my ability to speak Japanese. Having a faster memory recall and remembering how to form sentences and/or having the ability to communicate higher. I want to be able to open my mind to learning in person aka going to the said place I’m learning the language of (for example: Japan.) 

    

                               The Baku has definetly been something I loved learning about. I actually have been drawing them a LOT because I enjoy their little stubby bodies (the music video version.) I’ve also incorporated them into my projects, with my new most recent project being a series of yokai artist trading cards. 

                            

Literacy with Japanese 4

     

                This time I read あめ　(雨)。The book was about an unnamed squirrel who invites you to go on a walk with them. He say it’s a lovely day hence why you should take a walk with them. Though while you’re following the squirrel on the walk, it starts raining. He finds a leaf that he ends up using it as an umbrella to shield from the rain. Though the squirrel gets scared because it starts thundering and lightning.  A part I couldn’t understand was how he was referring to what I assume is a god or demon. There is a photo of lightning alongside a figure smirking which I assume is the god/demon he is talking about. During the storm he ends up looking his umbrella and gets even more scared. Though the lightning and thunder dies down and he ends up seeing a lot of puddles. He starts splashing and jumping in the puddle. At the very end the squirrel is very sad because he is soaking wet.