East Asian culture is really cool! I love the history and the traditions of East Asian countries. Japan in particular is my country of interest for the semester. In addition to learning Japanese, I'm also taking Arts of Japan and Judo. Japanese and Arts complement each other quite well -- Japanese helps me to more easily understand and retain Japanese terms in Arts, and Arts teaches me about the history of the Japanese people as well as adding words to my limited Japanese vocabulary.
I'm really excited to learn about Japanese culture this semester. I really like how in class we have been learning about different customs, such as bowing. It's fun to be able to compare American culture with that of the completely different Japanese culture.
I can't believe it's only been two weeks since I started learning Japanese! It feels like I've been learning so much already. I can definitely tell that I'll need to do a lot more practicing with my listening skills -- it's really hard to pick out words from such a foreign set of sounds!
Anyway, I have to be going now. But so far this blog thing seems like it will be kind of fun =)
<3 Izy
そうですか。 Haha, well said! :D
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said here haha. I'm also doing a Japan theme this semester, since I'm taking Intro to East Asian Civilizations: Japan. I really like getting to learn about the history of Japan while also learning the customs and language of modern Japan, since that way I get to see where a lot of the modern day culture comes from. For instance, today in my Intro Japan class we were looking at the invention of ひらがな and I was so proud that I could actually pick out some of the characters, even from these faded pictures of ancient calligraphy-style texts.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, じゃあまたあした！
おはよう ございます。アヤラです。どおぞよろしく。
ReplyDeleteI don't go to your college, but I'm at one of the colleges that is doing the blog project with you. I go to the University of Notre Dame.
Why did you decide to start taking Japanese? I know you talk about enjoying the class at the moment, but what pushed you to take it?
はじめまして。ゴメスです。ノートルダムだいがくのにねんせいです。
ReplyDeleteJudo is so cool! I tried Tae-Kwon-Do for a year, but that was so long ago and I don't remember any of it...
アヤラさん：I wanted to take a language, and にほんごのdepartment here at コロンビアだいがく is really good. The professors are awesome! Also, Japan has many of the most innovative building structures in the world and as a civil engineer, knowing Japanese could help me get a leg up in that field.
ReplyDeleteゴメスさん：I took Taekwondo as a kid, then stopped for a while and picked it up again in high school. I made it to にだん, or 2nd degree black belt! =) Martial arts are so awesome. I'm hoping to take Israeli Krav Maga at some point, or perhaps Filipino Martial Arts (since I am a filipina!). Have you heard of Krav Maga?