(no subject)

[arisha]

Here is how much of a dork I am these days.

My latest Amazon order (gosh I promised myself I wouldn't spend so much money this year but so far it's not working ;_; ) came today, and here are the DVDs it contains: Iphigenia, Electra, The Trojan Women. GREEK TRAGEDY FTW. (I also recently finished reading Euripides' "Andromache." hahaha my favourite part is how Peleus' entire argument against Menelaus can pretty well be summed up by "Yeah? Well, your wife's a WHORE." xD;;; ) Slightly less dorky, it also contains The Merchant of Venice, which was just ten dollars. xD I figured I have watched this movie three times already, obviously I like it enough to buy it. xD;;

I am spending so much time practicing kanji you would not even recognize me. I mentioned the DS games I got, right? The first one I tried was Tadashii Kanji Kakitorikun (Kondo wa Kanken Taidaku da yo!), and I was a little disappointed because as far as I can tell (I only played for like half an hour) it only gets you to the write the kanji once, and then is like "Oh you need to draw this stroke straighter!," but so long as you get it close enough, you can move onto a different kanji. I don't think it offered any readings, either, but don't quote me on that haha. And so I was like, wow, this is not going to help me remember these things at all. But there are some mini-games that I'll probably try again at some point, where you complete sentences with the necessary kanji.

It took me a while before I was able to steal my brother's DS again and try out the other game I bought, Nazotte Oboeru Otona no Kanji Renshuu (Kanzenhan), but omg I love it. You tell it your age and by that it judges which level to place you in. I think I told it I'm six, so I'm in level two, which is basically grade two kanji, which is well within the boundaries of Kanji I'm Really Supposed to Know Already, but ah well. xD There's a daily practice section where it gives you five kanji each time, and you can look at its readings and you can practice writing it, either by following the stroke order or by doing a little "worksheet" where you write the character out ten times. xD Oh man I was so happy when I found that part, hahaha. Then the kanji you've practiced in that section fill up the test section. To pass the tests you need to get at least 80%, and you can't move onto the next level of kanji until you've passed all of them. There's also a section that tests you on kanji you've messed up on before, and a bunch of mini-games too.

My one complaint about this game is that it doesn't include English translation (or even a Japanese explanation of what the kanji mean), but I can hardly hold that against it since it's a game meant for native Japanese speakers who presumably would already know most of the meanings. But I'm still at a level where I at least recognize most of them, and if I don't it's easy enough to grab a dictionary. haha, it's so crazy that I'm so fanatical about this game and all determined to get 100% on every test and playing it for like three hours every day, considering how hard it was to get myself to practice kanji back when I was, y'know, actually supposed to be practicing kanji. ^^; But it's just so much easier! I don't have to spend hours looking stuff up in my big fat kanji dictionary, I don't have to get out a pen and sufficient paper, I don't have to find somewhere to sit down (haha whine whine), if I want to be tested I don't have to set everything up myself ... instead I just grab my DS and yay! Instant kanji practice! x) hahaha I don't care if this makes me look lazy, because at least I've finally found a way to get myself to practice kanji. :D

And I guess that is where I will end this entry because it's time to go to school. :PP At least it's my favourite class today, but still. x_x;;

Comments

[athena-crikey.livejournal.com]

I hope Iphigenia, Electra, The Trojan Women is one DVD, but somehow I doubt it. ^^ Also, that kanji game sounds like fun. But it would probably drive me crazy. And I would fail the kindergarten level.

[arisha.livejournal.com]

hahaha well they are directed by the same guy and I did read an interview where he referred to them as a trilogy. But no, they're all separate. Sorry if that's less appealing. ^^; Oh, and the first two are in Greek while the last one is in English, go figure!

haha too bad for you there is no kindergarten level!! xD

[aurora-lime.livejournal.com]

haha, oh kanji. at camosun, I used to LOVE doing kanji practices. Now? yeah. LOATHING.


atleast I figured outa good way to make flashcards for them. I used to do a flashcard for each kanji and have all it's readings on the back, but as you might imagine, I only ever remembered one reading. so, instead I made a card for each reading in its context. BAM, Instant memory. You'd think it wouldn't have taken me 2 or 3 years to think of this...

[arisha.livejournal.com]

Do you think there's a difference between the way Camosun courses handle kanji and the way UVic courses handle kanji? A problem I have with UVic's Japanese courses is that kanji is something we're supposed to do 100% on our own time. Admittedly I didn't take Japa149, so maybe I missed out on something, but I would have loved to spend some class time talking about radicals or stroke order or compounds or different readings or ANYTHING. I realize we can't spend class time making flashcards or writing them out ten times each but god, give me SOMETHING. Kanji is such an important part of the Japanese language but in the classes I took it was like barely even mentioned. And if we were reading something and you didn't know a certain kanji? Too bad so sad, you should've learned it on your own.

(Now I am waiting for one of my classmates to step in here and tell me that I'm overreacting. :X WELL IT REALLY ANNOYED ME)

One idea I had was that there should be a class in the PACI department all about Chinese characters. xD You could have people studying Japanese and you could have people studying Chinese and you would just deal with the characters. I know they're different in each language but I have faith that it could be made to work! And GOSH I would have LOVED a class like that. I always think I should suggest this to someone but I'm too shy haha. ^^;

I am impressed with anyone who uses flashcards. I honestly don't even have the patience to make them. :X (Okay, not true, I learned katakana by making flashcards. But then I tried to make a set for counters and halfway through I was just like OKAY I'M DONE NOW. -_-;; )

[aurora-lime.livejournal.com]

we sort of went over kanji in the camosun classes, but most likely because the class was half the length compared to the uvic ones. in my 150 and 249, no time was spent on kanji, at all. everything was sort of in our own hands character wise. I'm not entirly sure why they decided that classes should be worth 3 credits and be extra full, what was wrong with 1.5 and half the material? like a normal, unstressful, productive class? D: