Thursday, October 1, 2015

Learning Goal

こんばんは、

My goal in Japanese learning this semester is the following:

1. Speaking: I want to be able to speak naturally. I think speaking exactly like a native speaker is too tall an order (case in point, my English, hahaha). However, I will not make the same mistake as I did with English language by trying to identify and fix all my pronunciation early on before it becomes a habit. Thus, I will focus on pronouncing word one by one and not rush it. My main goal for the semester is to be able to speak correctly and confidently!

2. Listening: This is skill that I am most confident of. After all, I have been consuming quite a bit of Japanese media. My goal for listening skill is to recognize grammar structure and to listen more comprehensively. I wish to become better at picking up small details in speech. Also, I want to be able to not just understand but differentiate voices so that I can reproduce it in writing.

3. Reading: My goal is to be able to read most if not all of Japanese material with furigana on it with a certain level of comprehension. I also want to be able to assign word meaning more quickly to the text just by looking at it not reading it aloud.

4. Writing: I want to use my writing skill to enhance my understanding of Japanese. For example, I want to be able to transcribe Japanese sound I hear.

How I will reach my goals:

I probably won't reach all of them in this semester, hahaha. The goals I list are merely what I want to achieve, but my schedule is probably not made for them. I will refer to them as my ideals and remind myself I have more to do!

But this is how I will try to reach those goals:

1. I will do ALL vocab pronunciation exercise to learn how to say each word one by one. I will do ALL chapters' dialog shadowing and simulation to speak more naturally.

2. I will attend at least 3 Japanese language table per month with possible exception if I have a major project or test due on Wednesday.

3. I will find and read Japanese reading material and read for 2 hours per week.

4. I will continue to listen to Japanese music, but I will switch to looking up lyrics in Japanese instead of karaoke language.

These I believe are very minimal. However, as a freshmen, I have absolutely no clue how busy I am going to be, so I will just go with something I can probably do for sure!

Thanks for reading this, or taking a glance at this,
またね!
Kasarn J