Alina's Japanese Blog

STARTING TO WRITE IN JAPANESE Friday August 31, 2018 I have a blog post that I will be completing before the Michigan game this Saturday where I have to write in hiragana. I'm kind of nervous because I feel like I sometimes forget certain characters and it's frustrating. I tried to focus on studying for my Ch. 2 test today, but I feel like I need to vamp up my studying of hiragana in general over the weekend so I can do well on my hiragana test next week. I went to the best of LaFun last night which was fun (lol). I'm going to try writing out some romaji as a little warm-up for my blog coming out this weekend where I'll use hiragana: Hajime Mashite. Wastashi wa Peterson desu. Amerikanjin desu. Ichinensei desu. Senkoo wa jinruigaku desu. Doozo yoroshiku! Okay, so I only had to look up the romaji for anthropology, and the rest I remembered on my own! Anyway, till next time!

PREPARING FOR TEST Monday August 27, 2018 I'm currently in the Hesburgh Library preparing for the Japanese Ch.1 test tomorrow! I wrote out all the vocabulary words we need to know out on the wall and an extra whiteboard (luckily I did not fall off the chair when writing them)! I feel pretty confident about how I will perform on the quiz tomorrow, but I'd rather be overprepared than underprepared when it comes to learning new languages which is why I'm studying so hard. I will need to leave soon for a roommate agreement meeting in my hall, but I assume I'll just study in my dorm (for other classes too for the rest of the night). Till next time!

CREATING FLASHCARDS Sunday August 26, 2018 I'm currently in the study lounge of Ryan Hall (my dorm) creating hiragana flashcards, along with flashcards of phrases I will need to know for my Ch. 1 test on Tuesday. I only have homework in Japanese and my class for Gateway to Global Art History so I will get to spend some quality time actually reviewing and synthesizing the material for this class. I do plan on going to the Carter Work Project Opening Ceremonies today, so I think I'm going to schedule my homework so I can complete some before and after going. Till next time!

(L-R) Catie, Myself, and Lauren at Flick on the Field TAKING A BREAK Friday August 24, 2018 This post is going to be a short update on my Japanese learning journey. I was in the library for almost 3 hours last night practicing my hiragana characters and phrases for the chapter 1 test on Tuesday. I was planning on studying for a while and making some flash cards, but I decided to give myself a break for Friday night and go to flick on the field with my friends. I'm going to complete my redo assignment tomorrow, along with my new homework for Monday. Both Catie and Lauren are impressed that I'm trying to learn Japanese, but Catie is trying to learn German which I think is cool too (Lauren has a 20 hour week so I feel very bad for her). I'm excited to continue learning more practical Japanese, and I plan to set up a study schedule this weekend for learning Japanese going forward. Till next time!

(L-R) Lauren, Myself, and Catie in front of Touchdown Jesus INTRODUCTION Thursday August 23, 2018 Hey! I'm Alina, an anthropology major in Ryan Hall here at Notre Dame. I went to high school in the D.C. area, but I moved around a lot as a kid (my dad works for the federal government). In elementary and middle school, I took French and some Spanish; I have zero experience with languages outside the romance, slavic, and germanic family. I decided to take Japanese I this year because I'm really fascinated with traditional Japanese culture and history after learning about Japan in courses like AP World during high school. I've never been to Japan before, but I'd really love to study abroad my junior year in Tokyo (I'm also considering participating in one of those summer language immersion offerings as well, but I haven't decided either which way yet. Even though I took French for almost a decade in high school, I still feel like I'm missing so many funda