I'm studying over spring break which involves much internet work as the answer key to the homework is online. I'm going back and re-doing ALL of the Japanese homework of the semester thus far. I did pretty well on the exam but I'm actually nowhere near where I want to be. Embarrassingly, Katakana, even more than Kanji is giving me trouble. The second year in and I haven't flexed my katakana muscles enough. While Kanji has visual cues that I can use to help me remember, Katakana still looks like random scribbles to me.
This was a bit of a shock when I actually began read Katakana heavily again a few weeks ago. I'd forgotten quite a bit. Anyway there is studying in my future. I'm twitchy enough on the basics of what we're doing now that I could easily see myself getting lost in a few weeks.
My grandmother is recovering in the hospital from the flu and a kidney infection. My folks are in North Carolina with my Grandmother, so, yesterday I spent all day at my folks house waiting for the washing machine repairman...when he called....4 hours late...to say he was going to be 6 hours late, he asked what the issue was and I informed him that the washer was spontaneously emptying.
He informed me that this was a problem resulting from improper installation causing a vacuum to form and as such it was not covered by warranty. I went into the garage and broke the seal my dad had put on the drain hose and rejiggered the washer installation. The washer then worked fine. I canceled the service call as the repairman was seriously late. 300+ bucks saved with a screwdriver!
Woohoo!!
Tripod, the 3 legged cat of chaos, has re-learned that he can make things happen if he pushes the "ON/OFF" switch on the TV.
I got the old lawn mower to start!
(this...you cannot appreciate....that mower...sooo rusty).
Basically nothing at all exciting to alter my Walter Mitty lifestyle.
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It helped me to katakanize everything within sight and write down names of my classmates. So whenever I see 'ネ' or I have to remember it, I remember a character in textbook, Mone-san. Similarly, 'ナ' is connected in my mind with a classmate called "Jana".
Also, some of katakana characters look just like the hiragana, e.g. 'モ' is like 'も', 'ツ' is like 'つ' (if you draw a line through the short strokes). etc.
Some of these mnemonics are pure fiction. For example, 'む' looks like a cow, because it has a cow tail, and cow makes 'muuuuu' sound. Right? So, I made myself to believe that 'ム' kind of looks like a cow too. Although it clearly doesn't, I think of it as a cow.
My homework was mostly done in a workbook, so redoing it would involve buying a new workbook... Here's an example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaitcev/275966784/
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