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Post by Jembru on Feb 16, 2015 1:25:23 GMT
Ah, so I actually need to start with 上 rather than 下? Thanks for that Chocopie! I guess if I have the second parts, they'll at least contain all the characters, so it's probably better than the other way around.
Yeah. The quality is exceptional. Even the stories are taken from published works, and using the original illustrations. They really are just beautiful books. I know what you mean about the nature vocabulary too, they contain quite a few articles on planting seeds or collecting bugs and so on.
I think I'll pick up some spare copies when I'm there in October. They'll be great as gifts for friends, or as future gaiwa giveaways! I was just taken off guard this time, because it wasn't until I was paying that I realised they were free. By then, I just had too much to carry to pick up much more. I'll take JP with me next time though, and maybe a backpack! ^^
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Post by Bokusenou on Feb 16, 2015 20:41:36 GMT
Yeah, the 上(じょう) & 下(げ) thing confused me at first too. I had it explained to me as going back to when things were written on scrolls, and when you unfold a scroll, the top part is read first. That helped me remember the order better.
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Post by Jembru on Feb 17, 2015 18:51:04 GMT
That makes sense when you explain it like that! I'll have to be more careful to get the full sets next time!
(btw, it's a bit late now, but I changed the blurry photo of the books to a slightly less blurry photo of the books.. I had uploaded the wrong one but was too busy fawning over said books to come back and change it!)
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Post by Jembru on Mar 17, 2015 20:41:24 GMT
Well, I've worked out how to deal with the textbook confusion. I only had 2年生下, but although when I started it, it was talking about autumn all the time, I quickly caught up and now it's preparing me for the end of the school year, as it should be! The book is sweet, but I'm already frustrated by the lack of kanji, so one volume was more than enough. I have both volumes of 3年生, so I'll start off with 上 and then when I switch to 下, hopefully my reading and writing will have improved enough that I can work from both 3年生下 and 4年生下 at the same time. If I can get the missing volume when I go back to the book fare, I'll do the same next spring, and work on 4年生上 and the 5th grade book at the same time. Anyway, I'm really quite settled at my new desk now. It's a bit weird having a study space squashed into the corner of a bedroom (I feel like I'm back at uni ^^), but the set up makes much more sense. I can practice speaking much more now that there's 2 or 3 doors separating me from JP. I don't notice it when I'm studying because I have a desk lamp, but the light quality in here is terrible. I think the light fixture is too small for such a large room. It made taking photos of my new space a bit of a pain, but I got one in the end... by standing on the bed! ^^ I'm going to be putting up some shelves in the corner and painting the bookstand* black to match the rest of the furniture in here. This was the best I could manage for a closer picture. Even if I switched the lamp off so my flash would come on, this is the best I could get (I tried with TV off and it was worse, believe it or not). It's not ideal, but I can work here very comfortably, and it's not the quality of ones work-space, but the quality of ones work that matters, right? *Is this even called a 'bookstand' in English? This is one of those rare cases where I learnt the word for something in Japanese before I knew it in English (other examples being 'semi' and 'gejigeji' because we don't have cicadas and house centipedes in England). I tried to look it up a while ago, and it shows up as 'book ends' But book ends are those things that stop books falling over on free standing shelves. I made it myself by re-purposing and old TV stand (like I re-purposed an old TV as a PC monitor ^^), but it's meant to be one of these; My first encounter with a 本立て was when Marukochan's dad built her one in one the stories in my kanji book.
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Post by Bokusenou on Mar 21, 2015 7:33:01 GMT
Jembru Looks like a great study space! I like all the ゆるキャラ.^^ "Bookstand" sounds like the closest word, but when I Google image search it, I get images of an angled stand which people write on. Hmm... Also, you don't have cicadas or house centipedes there? That's super lucky...Here they track the cicada sightings on the news, since they only come every once in a certain amount of years, and their call is just a loud buzzing noise that makes it hard to hear people when talking outside. It doesn't sound pretty like the Japanese ones.
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Post by Jembru on Mar 21, 2015 11:50:45 GMT
Jembru Looks like a great study space! I like all the ゆるキャラ.^^ You don't think it's a biiiit over-kill? ^^ haha I know I talk about this a lot (more than is probably healthy), but surrounding myself with nice things is really important when I study. It is probably the biggest factor that has had me return to my desk every single day for the last 3 years! It's a double-edged sword though, because I also frequently get distracted thinking about stationary and how my notes are organised, rather than focusing on the content of those notes. "Bookstand" sounds like the closest word, but when I Google image search it, I get images of an angled stand which people write on. Hmm... Also, you don't have cicadas or house centipedes there? That's super lucky...Here they track the cicada sightings on the news, since they only come every once in a certain amount of years, and their call is just a loud buzzing noise that makes it hard to hear people when talking outside. It doesn't sound pretty like the Japanese ones. I wondered about this because when I was in Japan, one of my American friends told me how they spend 13 years underground as grubs and then will all suddenly crawl out of the soil and then hatch into their winged form, breed like mad, lay their eggs and then die within a week or two. I wondered how this could be true because it seemed pretty unlikely I'd just happen to be in Japan when they were around. I guess Japan has more species, so some will have shorter life cycles. I do like their song in Japan. I remember watching an anime a few years after returning to the UK, and they played cicada song in the background. It really took me back and brought back so many feelings (good and bad) from my summer in Japan. God I hated summer in Japan ^^ What I remember most about the cicadas was how bad they were at flying. You couldn't walk anywhere near a tree without one of the things flying into you and then crashing to the floor. I was amazed by their size too. There isn't any insect even close to that size here in England. Some of our bats are smaller than Japanese cicadas! I could talk for hours about insects in Japan so I'd better stop here. Wait.. no.. I'll start a thread for it and continue there. Haha.
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Post by Jembru on Apr 26, 2015 19:39:36 GMT
I want to rave about my dictionary. As I've mentioned, I'm currently using kokugo study materials. This is a series of pokemon kanji books (2nd grade to 4th grade), a juku workbook (3rd to 6th grade), curriculum textbooks for classrooms (2nd grade to 5th grade), and workbooks that accompany the main textbooks. The textbook I'm currently using has a section about using your kokugo dictionary, and the accompanying workbook has exercises you need to use your dictionary to complete. It made me think that this might be useful for me. I can look up words and get a simple explanation of the meaning that has been written so children can understand. Coupled with the context I met it in, this is usually enough to go on, although I have been known to have to look up a word from the explanation too! ^^ So, I ordered my kokugo dictionary (for elementary age), from amazon, by typing in kokugojiten in romaji. It cost me just £11 and took about 3 weeks to come, but was still here in time for me reaching the part of the textbook that called for it. I really love it and if like me, you are a bit intimidated by anything calling itself 'advanced', then I couldn't recommend it more. Being designed for kids, the interface is friendly and fun, so it's a gentle way to ease you into monolingual study. The definitions are easier to follow than say kotobank, so help to reduce the need to use Japanese>English dictionaries. There are little articles dotted about, more akin to encyclopedia entries, and panels explaining grammar points. It's often fun to just flick through and read these at random. My version even has a little animated angel dog in the corner that runs and flaps its wings if you flick the pages! Thanks to this dictionary, I'm not studying at my PC much anymore because I don't need online dictionaries when I meet an unknown word. It's really freeing and stops me from constantly checking forums and so on. Mind you, this is probably another reason why I'm not posting on Gaiwa so often anymore. :/ Anyway, it wasn't difficult to find, didn't cost the earth and I definitely recommend a kokugo dictionary for elementary age.
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Post by Jade on Jun 7, 2015 2:42:00 GMT
I had to clean up my desk yesterday, and I decided instead of all my figures and stuff on display in the top part of my desk I'd put some of my textbooks and magazines there instead. So, have a couple of photos: I've got my Chinese, Korean, and French textbooks, as well as some of my Japanese ones. I'd take photos of the rest of my Japanese ones, but my bookcases are a huge mess right now. Magazines are: Vivi, B's Log, PlayStation, Ribon, Chara, and Cobalt. The Ribon and Vivi magazines are just there to take up space at the moment as they're nowhere near recent, and I'll probably replace them with some more textbooks or some other magazines as they arrive. Notepad, coloured pens, etc~ The paper's really thin though, so I can't really use the pens I have in my Eevee tin much.
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Post by Jembru on Jun 14, 2015 1:45:08 GMT
Ooh stationary!! Love it. Especially love the eevee tin. That is too cool!
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Post by Jade on Jun 16, 2015 9:27:55 GMT
Jembru Thanks! It was originally filled with biscuits, but obviously they didn't last lol Also some fun study stuff now: It's kinda embarrassing, but I am really into otome games. Unfortunately, all the seemingly good ones are PS Vita only and I've mainly been stuck with old PSP games or mobile games. Such a pity. Buuuut I found out last week that I got accepted for a job I applied for last month (I start on the 6th of next month~) so I figured I'd blow a shit-ton of money on things I don't need to celebrate(;´▽`A`` Unfortunately, the PlayStation Network has changed their settings so that foreign cards can't buy anything off their Japanese store, so I'm gonna have to buy a Japanese PSN card every time I wanna buy something (which really sucks because the majority of games I want are over ¥5,000 even though quite a few of them are old now), but the only sites that sell them are US ones and the AU$-US$ exchange rate is awful atm (atm? What am I saying? It's always awful). Anyway, they're silly, but a load of fun and full of words and kanji I don't know. Always a plus, that. I'm so glad that the PS Vita ones are generally narrated (barring the player character (though sometimes she gets narrated too~)) because compared to the mobile ones this is so much easier than having to look up kanji readings when I can just have them repeat the line as much as I want. ALSO SOME OF IT'S SUPER CUTE.
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Jacob
Junior Member
練習して、がんばりますね!
Posts: 95
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Post by Jacob on Jun 24, 2015 3:19:29 GMT
These are some of my Japanese books, I mainly use online resources, however. LittleGaijin what is the name of the program that allows you to hover over kanji and see their meaning for firefox and chrome?
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Post by Jade on Jun 25, 2015 2:39:29 GMT
These are some of my Japanese books, I mainly use online resources, however. LittleGaijin what is the name of the program that allows you to hover over kanji and see their meaning for firefox and chrome? That would be Rikaikun (Chrome) or Rikaichan (Firefox). There's also another version called Rikaisama (Firefox).
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Post by Bokusenou on Jun 28, 2015 20:41:33 GMT
Jade Congrats on the job! Otome games sound like fun reading practice. What PSP ones do you like? I've got a PSP emulator on my phone, and while it can't handle more processor-intensive games, it's perfect for visual novels like Umineko no Naku Koro ni (which I should really get back into finishing at some point) because they're mostly static images. Jacob Wow, lots of good-looking books! I remember "Making Out in Japanese"! I didn't like the title, but it was a surprisingly good book to help me get the hang of casual Japanese.
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Post by Jade on Jun 29, 2015 0:51:04 GMT
Bokusenou Thank you❤ I don't have that may PSP ones, unfortunately, but I liked the Are You Alice? visual novel, and if you don't mind awful characters and abusive relationships in fiction Diabolik Lovers wasn't too bad. Well, it had some good moments anyway. Diabolik Lovers game list: Diabolik Lovers: Haunted Dark Bridal, Diabolik Lovers: More Blood, Diabolik Lovers: Vandead Carnival, Diabolik Lovers: Dark Fate, Diabolik Lovers: Lunatic Parade (announced, and teaser website up. No release date yet). I haven't played it yet, but the protagonist of Heart no Kuni no Alice is apparently pretty good? Compared to other player characters she had a backbone so says tumblr. I really need to get around to starting that. Starry☆Sky is pretty cute, but the love interests are really boring? I don't have it, but a lot of people recommend Hakuouki. It's on my list to get, but there are so many damn games for it. Amnesia is also for PSP and it's cute. The love interests aren't awful either, except for one. Toma. He's scary protective of player character and in his route locks her in a cage to protect her. She escapes, gets hurt, and then goes back??? He attempts to rape her before he finds out that 'oh, she liked him the whole time'. In the end, everything's all waved off and they forget about it. It's referenced a few times in other routes and in the sequels, and he actually kills you or kidnaps you in some of the other character's routes as well. While I'm going, I may as well mention that Ukyou has a second personality that wants to kill you because he keeps changing worlds to find one where you'll actually survive after 25th August. Ikki does kill some people in one story, but it's only because they tried to kill player character and put her in a coma so he decides to take revenge. Everyone else is sparkles and rainbows, basically. ... Unless you play the sequels, because Ruki ends up kidnapping you because he thinks you're in the way of the romance between his sister and Ikki. This is actually in Ukyou's storyline in Amnesia: Crowd. He ends up becoming a love interest for a side story in Amnesia: World. Amnesia game list: Amnesia, Amnesia: Later, Amnesia: Crowd, Amnesia: World. I think this might be PSVita only, but I'm currently playing Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly; it's a fantasy/mystery/suspense with the romance taking a back seat. There's the main plot and then there's little side stories to play. The side stories are mostly humour and cute moments, which is a good break from the 'oh we're stuck in a mansion with no memories and things trying to kill us' thing.
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Post by Bokusenou on Jul 6, 2015 0:35:42 GMT
Jade Thanks a bunch for those! Can't wait to check them out! It's too bad that Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is PSVita only....I wonder if I can find a playthrough video for it.
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