Sorry for being inactive...

When I went back home for the holidays, I very quickly found myself sick and busy at the same time. I promise to make more posts in the future, but I'm also kind of working on my story again. Sorry about that. Though I don't think anyone actually reads this...

Learning Japanese

Like most geeks, I've put in a decent amount of effort into learning the Japanese language. Now that I'm in university, I'm actually sitting down and figuring it out properly, but I do have background in the language and I know more than most of my class. So this blog (since I do wish to be a teacher and I wish someone would have told me this when I started) will be a little 101 for people who want to at least dip their feet into Japanese before taking a formal course. The picture, by the way, was my attempt to make a memory trick to remember keezaigaku (also spelled keizaigaku), which is economics. This might be long, but there will be a lot of info.
Alright, so lets get started.

Lets get some basics down first. Japanese has 3 forms of writing: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. First of all, kanji are Chinese characters. Before kanji, there was no writing system in Japan, only oral. That is why there are 2 ways of saying all kanji: on and kun. The on reading is the Chinese reading and the kun is the Japanese reading. You know when to use each one by.... um.... magic... I guess. USUALLY (this is not a set in stone rule AT ALL), the on reading is used when the word is in a compound form and the kun when it's on its own. Take the japanese word for star, which is 星. Star, by itself, is pronounced "hoshi" (the kun reading). Now lets add on 座, which means gathering and is pronounced "gi" in its kun reading. Together, they would logically be hoshigi, right? WRONG! The on reading for hoshi is sei, and the on reading for gi is za. So they are pronounced seiza together. seiza literally means "a gathering of stars", but we would know it as a constellation. Cool, right? But like I said, this rule is FAR from correct (it's just a good default way of pronouncing things you don't know). Take 星空 for example. You'll recognize the first kanji as "star", and the last one is "sky" (the translation being "starry sky"). The way this is pronounced is "hoshizora", coming from the kun readings "hoshi' and "sora". It's a z for pronunciation reasons.
This is horrible and confusing, but it is the way of Japanese. You kind of get used to it and accept it, especially once you begin to realize how horrible and confusing English is. Seriously, English is a cluster fuck of horrible. -_-

Moving on, we have hiragana and katakana. Hiragana was made for women, because it was assumed that kanji were too difficult for women to understand. They are derived from kanji and are all based on phonetic sounds. There are 46 different symbols which are sometimes mixed and matched for different sounds (like mixing "ki" and "ya" for "kya"). I won't go over these, just figure them out on your own. I might do another blog later with some tricks, but not now.
Katakana is also phonetic and derive from kanji, but they look different. The reason katakana exist? Foreign words. This may seem stupid, but it does serve a purpose besides old Japanese people not wanting foreign words mixed in with their own. Primarily, there are different ways to mix and match katakana that give you some sounds that aren't available in hiragana. Also, when you're reading, you'll know if the word you're reading is supposed to be foreign or not. This is very helpful since there's a good chance it's a word English speakers would know and all that's left is to play Mad Gab with yourself! Think of it as a game. A really frustrating game...

With that out of the way, here's the #1 absolute best way to learn slang, modern, and traditional japanese vocabulary: manga scanlations. It may sounds dumb, but you wouldn't believe how much culture you'll pick up from scans as opposed to the official English translations. Also, start watching your anime/ japanese movies with subs. NO MORE DUBS! Subtitles don't change the wording to fit the dialogue timing and usually come with cultural notes to explain things. Seriously, it's crazy how westernized japanese flicks get when they're dubbed.
Watching anime in Japanese also comes with the added bonus of picking up on words they use a lot. Seriously, I will ALWAYS know what "heika" means thanks to Kyo Kara Maoh. And as ANOTHER beautiful bonus (so many perks!), you'll get used to hearing Japanese. Your ears need to get used to the sounds whether you like it or not.
If you go the manga-route, though (and I do prefer manga over anime), you're going to miss out on stuff like getting your ears attuned and getting used to random vocab since everything will be in English. Don't be fooled, though, there's a HUGE plus side for you as well. There are FAR more cultural notes and you can pick up stuff at your own pace. Also, sound effects are left untouched usually, so you get get used to looking at kana and use them as exercises.
Shoujo will be your best friend when learning about culture. Seriously. Shoujo, for people that don't know, is basically chick-flick manga. Don't be fooled by they cliche plot lines and simple characters, they are LOADED with culture. Holidays, classroom games, how school works, what is expected from genders, traditions... I can't even name it all. It makes sense, though. Shoujo are the most life-like ones that are made so that girls feel like the situations can happen to them as well. So things that are very every-day for them come up all the time as a normal thing, even though they are foreign to us.

Wooh! that was a lot of info, huh? Well, we're not quite done yet. Last, but CERTAINLY not least, I'm going to leave you with some pronunciation notes. Why? Because if I hear one more girl in cat ears and gal makeup run up to me at ACen and scream, "Ohmigawd! That is sooooo Kowai de-su!", I will actually start murdering them.
First of all, you do NOT always pronounce the "u" sound... or the "e" sound. This (like how "sora" became "zora" back in the kanji paragraph) is just a speaking thing. The "u" in desu is not really pronounced so much as it is breathed. The u is more of a hard "s" sound. It's kind of hard to explain, but you'll get used to it when your ears get used to the sounds. The u IS pronounced when you say something like "desu ne". The u sound is blended into the "ne". I'm probably explaining this poorly, but you'll get used to it.
Also, besides the u and the e, PRONOUNCE ALL YOUR DAMN VOWELS LIKE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE! See that "kowai" up there? That actually means "creepy". What the obnoxious girls MEAN to say is "kawaii", which means "cute". You have to pronounce it kah-wah-ee. Anything else does NOT mean "cute".
In addition to pronouncing all of your letters, I'm sure you've run into the problem Japanese people have with "L" and "R". They do not have a sound for each one, rather a combined sound. Additionally, it also kind of makes the "D" sound. Crazy, right? Not really. I could explain where the tongue goes and how to hold your mouth, but there's a much easier way to do this. Have you ever watched Veggie Tales? You know the asparagus with the monocle that introduces Silly Songs With Larry? Go to youtube and listen to how he says the R's in "Larry". THAT is the sound. You hear it as "Larry", "Lally", and "Laddy" all at the same time, but you only register it as Larry because you know who he's talking about. Seriously, it's just that simple.
Also, just a note, there is no "F". I'm obviously lying because Japan has a mountain called "Fuji", right? Well... kinda. It's an F/H sound. Even when learning the kana, you notice that there's no "hu" sound because it actually sounds more like "fu". I know, it's confusing, but it's another thing you'll get used to when you start hearing Japanese.

Alright, that's all for now *cracks neck*. It might have been a lot to take in, but hopefully it helps. So keep what I said in mind and get onto learning those kana and reading/watching your manga/anime! See you tomorrow. ^^

As for my music recommendation, we'll stick with Veggie Tales, cause I love my childhood. I suggest the "Hairbrush Song" (and you can totally find the Japanese version on youtube!) and the "Water Buffalo" song.

Let's try this again...

I kind of forgot I had a blog. Well, I have several, but I mean I forgot that I had THIS blog. I guess I should probably start by talking about who I am a little since the last time I tried to introduce myself, I was a bit different of a person.

My name is Kristen Stewart. Yes, that's my real, parent-given name. I kid you not. I am not a Twilight fan trying to play off this name as my own, it is my name. Kristen is a common first name, Stewart is a common last name. It happens.
So let's move on!

I am 21 years old and I live in the United States. I've always liked learning about different cultures and the world around me. I even plan to work as an English teacher overseas in the near future. I'm currently a student at Illinois State University and I'm getting my bachelor's in English to do just that. My English degree is also why I have such a lovely writing style! Hehe, that's a lie. I'm actually a writer, that's where my style comes from. I was a good writer long before I pursued this degree. I might post some of my work here from time to time, but it will be rare if I do. Most of my writing goes onto my deviantart account, which I'll link to.... um...... somewhere. Here? Why not.
the-infamous-jimbob.deviantart.com
There. Now you can go stalk me and my writing. I warn you all, though, my current big project is a novel about gay boys. I write a lot of gore too. I don't know why my brain likes gore and gay boys so much, but I'd rather not question it. I fear the day it decides that it wants to write about both at the same time...

As for music, I listen to a lot of stuff. Recently, I've gotten into Kpop. And by recently, I mean it's been a few years but I like to pretend it was recently so that I don't feel bad for not knowing idol's names. Seriously, I'm AWFUL with names. I'm getting there, though. As for Kpop groups that I like? BAP, SHINee, EXO, Big Bang, and select songs by U-KISS, Super Junior, Rain, T-ara, and.... well.... just about everyone else. As you can see, I'm a bit bias towards guy groups. I dunno, I just like them more. I like edgier things and stuff I can dance to. Even in foreign music, I'm a bit of a lyric freak, so I concentrate on that a lot.
I listen to a lot of rock music as well. Mostly stuff like Straylight Run, Rise Against, Brand New... those kinds of groups. I'm totally in LOVE with One OK Rock right now. They are simply too awesome for words.
I also enjoy a lot of classical music, Jpop, and.... a lot of stuff. I don't really like genres or groups so much as I like songs. Even though I'm not a fan of country or rap, there are country and rap songs that I like. I just like the music that I like, simple as that. I'll probably fan girl about music every now and then. Maybe even have a postly recommendation so you guys can find new stuff to listen to.

I like a lot of stuff and I'll probably just discuss it from post to post. This blog shall be a journey for us. I'll discover things about myself that I didn't know and you can all figure out what kind of person I am. Sounds fun, right?

Do I make that music recommendation now? Alright, let's start with a pretty song. Go listen to Distance by Kana Nishino. There's a really pretty MV that's hard to find on youtube, but I think you can find it if you Google it.

Journal 1: The Beginning.

The title sounds epic, doesn't it? Hmm... lets see. My name is Kristen, but my friends call me Jimbob. Don't ask how that happened, it just sort of did. I haven't really had a blog in a long time. Well... DA isn't really a blog, but i used my journals like that. Xp

I'm very.... everywhere in what I like. I have fallen in love with Lolita about 6 or so months ago. I'm a geek, to the core. I love video games and manga. Totally a fangirl (i think i've read half the BL in existence by now) XD. I love music of many different genres, including: Classical, techno, jazz, emo, rock, oldies, j-pop, scenescape.... ect? As long as it's not rap or pop... or metal.... or country. But even from those categories, there's people I like. (I heart you MCChris and Reba!).

I have strange tastes, but people generally agree with me. I don't know who's really going to see this, but feel free to ask me questions. I love questions and find it fun to answer. Ask me to listen to something, watch something, talk about something; anything really. I'm actually a writer, so any form of writing is good for me. I love giving advice too, so feel free to consult me. I won't ever think it's a waste of time. I live by the line, "One person's Hell is another person's everyday." I don't know if you can reply to this (really haven't looked around too much yet), but if not you can feel free to email me. I will keep you anonymous if you'd like.

So i guess that concludes my first entry. Expect another one soon since i really do just like to blog about random things.