PE 3 Reflection

Now that the semester is just about over, that although definitely not as good as it should be, my Japanese is much better than I would have expected for a relatively short amount of time.  Aside from learning the vocabulary, grammatical structures, etc. it was interesting to see how a completely different language works.  I can tell my tone has improved not because I can hear it in myself (that would be cool but impossible), but because I hear more of the nuance in the way native speakers pronounce words.  At the beginning of the semester my ears would've completely missed the subtle ups and downs (and they absolutely still do), but now I can at least sort of distinguish them, even if I can't reproduce them very well when I myself am speaking.

Moving on to PE 3 more specifically, I accomplished the first two things on my list (listening to the vocabulary recordings and J-pop), but only one of them really helped.  Having the textbook recordings on my iPod was very helpful and it allowed me to more easily memorize some of the dialogue, too.  Listening to J-pop though was confusing though; I couldn't distinguish individual words and I don't particularly enjoy pop music of any type, so I gave up on that a little before winter break.  I never made it to 日本語の　テーブル again (more conflicts, accidentally sleeping through dinner, etc.) which I regret, but alas!  No use in lamenting that now.

On an unrelated note...
Over the break I read about the Sapporo Snow Festival, which sounds awesome.  These structures are made of snow!