Fantastic News!!

I have great news. I have a webhost again! Follow me to GoddessCarlie.com

There’s Going To Be A Hana Kimi Special!

Tokyo Graph have announced that the Hana Kimi special is confirmed. They wrote:

Tue, March 18, 2008 (4:33pm EDT)
Last summer’s “Hanazakari no Kimitachi e” drama series is returning for a one-episode special. Starring Maki Horikita, Shun Oguri, and Toma Ikuta, the show was very popular, especially among female viewers. It averaged 17.3% ratings, with the final episode reaching 21.0%.

According to Fuji TV, the special will take place half a year after the series’ end. With Osaka Gakuen getting ready for an upcoming Valentine’s Day event, Sano (Oguri) and Nakatsu (Ikuta) reflect on the final week of their last summer vacation, which falls into the timeline of the original series between episodes 7 and 8. The special also includes a graduation scene and addresses the relationship between Mizuki (Horikita) and Sano.

Filming begins on Wednesday, but no broadcast date has been specified yet.

Yay! I can’t wait

Thoughts on Future Study

Just took two hours to catch up on my cards in Anki from over the weekend. Let’s just say I had a big weekend I usually have about 40 cards a day, but had built them up to 174. Eek! I like to write out each sentence as I do this (especially since I have a Kanji test in two days) so that’s why it took so long. It’s good to have it done though!!

I also finished an interesting book today. It is actually a dissertation by Richard Alan Horodeck (1987), titled “The Role of Sound in Reading and Writing Kanji“. It talks about how Kanji are widely thought to be simply ideograms, however that native Japanese read for sound not meaning. Very interesting, and a quick read. I felt a lot seemed like “common sense” but perhaps it isn’t for the average joe, and I just have somewhat nicer view on Kanji? I don’t know.

It’s also make me think a bit more about what I want to do my dissertation on one day.

Heisig Again

I’ve decided to start up Heisig again. My attitude before was to do it in as little time as possible. I’m more likely to get something done that way. My last “attempt” - life got in the way, which happens. I was planning to do it again this Christmas, as doing Heisig while at uni is HARD.

However, I don’t know why, maybe because I’m insane, I’ve decided to do it while at uni. But take it slow. Uni is my main priority. However, if I learn 7 kanji a day, I’ll be finished by the end of the year. It doesn’t seem like much. I could do this while I need a break from study, or just study these all one day a week (with reviewing every day).

I want to take a slightly different approach though. Instead of reviewing on the Reviewing the Kanji website (which I still think is awesome), I’ll be reviewing in good ole anki. All in the same deck as the other material I’ve been reviewing. I like the fact I can choose how well I remembered the kanji on a scale of 0-4 rather than if I simply remembered or forgot. I like the fact I can’t let the kanji pile up the failed pile, I have to review them as part of the natural process.

I’ll still be using the website to get story ideas, as well as to procrastinate on the forums. Here’s hoping I’ll have these all finished by the end of the year - I also plan to have Japanese for Everyone and An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese finished by the end of the year, plus university. AHHHHHH!

If that hasn’t convinced you I’m crazy, nothing will.

Stupidly

It’s funny when your two languages sort of get confused with each other. Mine aren’t, not really, but there is this one phrase that I guess is.

ばかり　- bakari.

When I hear this, just on instinct, I think of a combination of Japanese and English. I hear the Japanese ばか. And I hear ri - or ly. It’s an ending in English that we use, I guess, to describe how we do an action - happily, sadly, forcefully, ashamedly. If you are a good writer, you should avoid these words at all costs - instead you should show that the action is done forcefully instead of just simply telling.

But enough about fiction writing. Essentially, when I hear the word ばらり I’m hearing something like “stupidly”. Which isn’t in the slightest what the word means. But it is fun to hear.

For a grammar lesson, here’s what ばかり actually means (from what I have learnt so far!)

V(plain past)ばかり = ‘have just done something; have just finished doing something’.

and here are two example sentences:

大学に入ったばかりだから、十八さいでしょう。
Since she has just entered college, she is probably 18.

食べたばかりだから、おなかがいっぱいです。
I have just eaten, so I am full.

- From An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese - a text I will write more about soon. You can buy it from Amazon or    The Japan Shop. I am only up to chapter one, and while the text isn’t perfect I like it.

New Anki File

I’ve started a new anki file. I let the one go too long that the spaced repetition was messed up, and it had such a huge workload as so many cards had expired - I would have never gotten to new cards.

Plus, a fresh start is refreshing!

So I’ve started again. I picked out a whole heap of words I was interested in reviewing. Stuff like 付き合う. I look up the word in my Casio XD-GX9600 and plug in one of the example sentences into anki. I also like to use anki to review grammar, so I’ll start plugging in some sentences from Japanese for Everyone chapter 13 soon.

Zettai Kareshi

Zettai Kareshi is one of my favourite manga. Watase Yu is one of my favourite mangaka. Which is why I’m really excited about this news:

It’s going to be made into a drama! Staring Aibu Saki of Utahime as Riko. Hayami Mokomichi as Night. Mizushima Hiro as Soshi. I believe they are changing it from a high school story to Riko as an Office Lady.

Excited is me.