JLC-Wilson-Serena

  The book that I read I think was about different characteristics of things. I didn’t understand much of this book, I think because it relied on knowledge that I don’t yet have. Each page had two pictures of things and each picture had one or two sentences using a word pertaining to the picture. The back of the book had some definitions that helped me understand but there's still a lot that I didn’t catch. I think there are books that are pretty common in English that are like this book as well. I think usually they use the context of the sentences to help you understand the word central to the sentences, but I also didn’t understand much of the sentences even apart from the word so it didn’t help too much for me right now. Oh, also the words were really tiny which I think was affecting my ability to smoothly read the Kama. Maybe I’ll try again when I’ve spent more time studying.  

  This book was about a dog and I was happy to understand most of it but not all of it. I think his name is Jet and he is two years old. He ate breakfast this morning and then met his friend シエナ. He then went to the park and then took a nap. Hey likes food and maybe also eats books. He is pleased to meet us! This book was fun and cute and I think that the topic would be handled the same in America. It makes me wonder who‘s dog this is and who wrote the book. I can’t exactly tell where it is, but there is a page that says where the dog is from written in katakana. Unless I already know a word or place in katakana it can be hard for me to immediately relate it to an English word or place.

 The book I read was about a family during the winter holidays in Japan. The family went shopping for presents and then made cards to send and give to people and then they ate dinner together. Then, the went to their grandparents house and gave the cards to their family. Then, the family ate and drank sake. Finally, they go to a shrine where they ring the bell and get fortunes (?) the daughter liked hers and kept it but the son didn’t like his and he tied it to leave at the temple. I think the beginning of the story is very similar to how we start our holidays. Many people here don’t hand make Christmas cards, but sending Christmas cards of your family is pretty common. We also often go to our grandparents houses here for the holidays and eat and drink. The major difference between our holidays and their holidays are the religious practices. Like there, it’s pretty common to go to temples but here most of us will go to church for Christmas since Christianity is the most common reli...

 わたしはせんしゆうかいものにいきました。レストランでたべものをかいました。えいがかんでチェキをかいました。コンビニでのむをかいました。

  On Thursday, we played some Japanese learning games. They were fun, they reminded me of Kahoot if it also had a game within it. I could see playing these games again to study if I could put my own questions into it like Quizlet or Kahoot. The first two I think I did well on but I had a hard time with the third one because I couldn’t remember a lot of the kanji off the top of my head. I was going to go through the game until I got a good score but it didn’t let me back into the game after I finished it the first time. The katakana game was easier for me because I know katakana pretty well and I don’t think I had too much trouble with the first one either. 

  A Baku is a creature made up from all the leftover animal pieces that can be summoned to eat bad dreams. My hopes and dreams for being a Japanese speaker are to visit japan. I hope to be able to live there for a short period of time and make new friends and have great new experiences using the Japanese language. As a language learner now I am able to speak in basics using the Japanese language, though I am still not very proficient I feel that I am developing a solid foundation of understanding of the language that I can build upon in the coming years to become a more proficient speaker. In the future I’d like to be able to speak easily with other Japanese speakers so I can make new friends and get around Japan and do all the things that interest me. In the future I would also like to learn Korean and I think after gaining a good understanding of Japanese, I can do that a lot easier. I am excited to learn more Japanese and become able to understand more, I think that sometimes it...

  The book was about a man named Jon meeting a girl named Yuki on their flight to Tokyo because they were both reading manga. Yuki let Jon sit by the window so he could see Mount Fuji. They got off the plan and said goodbye but then Yuki had a letter that Jon had in his manga. I think that yuki called Jon and then they went to go see kabuki theater. But while looking for their seats they realized that an elderly couple were in their seats. They went to a kabuki worker and found out that yuki and Jon were there at the wrong day for the theater so they left. I think the story would be told similarly here, though I was confused at some sections about the letter and why they went to kabuki. Here, the book wouldn’t include manga or kabuki but I think it could be pretty similar if it was written as if it was in America. 

 I read a book about little red riding hood. It was a very simplified version of the story depicting a grandma and then a wolf eating her and taking her place. It talked about the wolves big teeth, eyes, and tongue. And then the wolf ate little red riding hood, but a man came by and cut them out of the wolves stomach. The story that I know of little red riding hood is more complex, but I would imagine that it would be simplified in a similar way for young children learning to read. I think the story maintains many of the important parts to the story but leaves out anything not involving the wolf. I was surprised that little red riding hood herself was eaten, I think usually she gets away. 

わたしはうちからバスていあるいていきます。Aバスていでバスにのります。Bバスていバスをおります。Bバスていからがっこうまであるいていきます。

Shopping doesn’t seem too much different in Japan than it is in America. There are lots of different things in Japanese stores than in American stores though. I noticed in the grocery stores there was a lot of instant ramen and a lot more packaged meats and fish than there are here. The packaged meat ailed looked a lot bigger than ours here. I also didn’t recognize any brands that we have here in the videos, though I know that some of them do sell things in Japan. The convenience stores do look very intriguing to me. I think a lot of Americans are very impressed with them because of the quality of the food they sell and the excitement of new and fun snacks. I’ve heard that there is always a lot of fresh food there of high quality and I noticed in the video with the Korean guys in the store that there was some groceries that they sell too. I was surprised that you could just grab crab meat at the convenience store but it makes sense. I think if I visited, I’d spend a lot of time in the ...

  The way towns are structured in Japan compared to America is very appealing to me. I love walkable cities and the convenience of having what you need in walking distance. I wish that we did not have such a reliance on cars in America, it’s not good for the environment and it’s isolating. The American suburbs are a little depressing to me, especially when compared to all the people on the streets in Japan. I'd much rather walk to my destination and spend some time outside or ride the train to get farther places than get into my personal car to go somewhere 20 minutes away. Not to mention all the different things you can do in Japanese cities, here I can’t think of many things to do especially if you can’t spend very much money. The main activities here are shopping or going out and drinking which are both very expensive and a lot of times unnecessary. You could go out to eat but again that’s expensive, the only thing I can think of is going to the zoo. It seems to me that the peop...