cathrynm: suomi/日本語

[cathrynm]

And I'm back from China, now in the USA. I was surrounded by Chinese, but I think mostly the sounds just go through me. The written though is much more transparent, and I did spot quite a few Chinese characters when I was there. It's pretty easy to pick up the difference between simplified and Japanese, even if they look completely different. The tones are tough to remember. I may end up having a long term programming work, going to China regularly, which is going to increase my interest in this language. Concerned, though, I'll just end up fussing with too many languages and never really getting all that good at any of them. Hmm.

Now, I'm back to Japanese and trying to get some Finnish time in. Class is starting up, and I'm starting to think about the N2 again, for December. We'll see how it goes. The class, we're back on the N2 grammar points, which I keep learning and forgetting.

[cathrynm]

http://lang-8.com/8649/journals/7488862 ... 0558527184

Here, did a little post in Finnish on lang-8. Trying to get back into this habit. Maybe once a week, at least.

[cathrynm]

Ahh, here it is, found my topic again. Well, signed up for the JLPT N2 again. Funny thing, the website asks how many times you've taken this before, and I wasn't sure. But I think now, it's 4 times I've taken it and failed. So starting to get back into my yearly JLPT buildup.

It looks like I will be going to China again for about a month come this October for about a month for work -- this does look like a long term gig. Have been there twice this year already so this will be my 3rd trip. Not sure I'm doing about Chinese. When I'm there, I'm in a mostly Chinese speaking office surrounded by incomprehensible language. I do still manage to get work done by depending on their English, hand waving and just the fact that programming is mostly English. Frustrating that I'm not farther along with Japanese.

[cathrynm]

Have been trying this for a little bit, just for recognition, to English.

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/127562610

[Basil]

That chinese Anki deck is such a good premade deck, its the perfect wanderlust lure. Good luck studying Finnish and Japanese!

[cathrynm]

Yeah, it looks really good. But today I'm back on my Japanese N2 reading book. I've determined this is the thing I'm going to focus on this time. While I'm here in the USA I'm going to stay focused on Japanese. Maybe when I'm in China I'll do some more Chinese over there. That's how it's been in the past, I'm drawn to the language more when I'm in the country.

[cathrynm]

Why didn't I do this before? Because I'm going to China, the land of massively filtered internet, I picked up a VPN subscription. But, what I realize as soon as I activate, I can use this to watch Finnish TV on areena.yle.fi. Watching now.

[cathrynm]

Back on the plane to Beijing. I'm quite busy with work, so I think my plan is to focus on Japanese. JLPTN2 is coming up, and I want to get some effort in on this.

[cathrynm]

And it seems a little odd, but I'm here in China surrounded by Chinese guys, but I'm on my weekend going over JLPT N2 stuff. Didn't bring any books with me, but found this site here. Also have a few Japanese TV channels here.


Focusing on reading. Actually last few JLPT's my reading scores have been pretty lousy. It's weird, that I kind of feel like I understand what I'm reading, but then the score is not good. I think I'm falling for the 'bait' answers and am missing subtle points. Anyway, we'll see.

http://web.ydu.edu.tw/~uchiyama/test/mogi.html

[cathrynm]

Every time I post to lang-8, I have this dread, someone is going to ask me to post in English too. I know they mean well, but it's always kind of a disapointment, when it comes out baffling.

http://lang-8.com/8649/journals/2942872 ... 5350179536