せんりゅう

あたらしい
クラリネットを
キーッきー

ムゴンです
まだまだですが
はなします。

あめザーッ
ジャンジャンが
ちんもく

Here are three せんりゅう、the last of which is possibly a はいく.  Any suggestions, comments, or questions are welcome!  I would like to not describe the poems so people can interpret them on their own, but like I said, if you have questions let me know!

ありがとうございます、
アレン

PE 1st Half Reflection and PE 2nd Half Goals

 三月十四日

PE 1st Half Reflection:

• For this half, I set many goals including to increase my free speaking abilities and to continue to speak with correct speech patterns, and assigned activities such as daily shadowing and listening to vocabulary audio.
• Practicing shadowing every day is very difficult; I often do not have a quiet place to do so.  Also, free speaking is hard to schedule, especially making it regular.  
• However, I have noticed my free speaking abilities increase a lot; the oral midterm went much better this last time than any of the other oral exams had went.  Also, the time that I have shadowed has really helped me understand phrasing in Japanese instead of just thinking about individual words.

PE 2nd Half Goals and Activities 

Goals:

• I would like to continue developing my skills in phrasing Japanese sentences and prepare for something substantial like the speech that we will give at the end of the semester.
• I would also like to increase the fluidity of my free speaking, especially in not having to think of grammar points (or plain/casual form) as I speak.
• I would finally like to continue memorizing the pitch of words, but also start using them early on so I don't forget them

 Activities:

• I would like to continue shadowing, trying to do so every day for at least 10 minutes; I would also like to find shadowing models other than あずみさん's radio show.
• This half I will attend しばた先生's office hours a few times, go to 日本語テーブル, and try to find someone with whom to free speak regularly.
• I will listen to the pitch patterns of the words I hear and also repeat them as I hear them.

アレン

カタカナ（Katakana）Analysis Project

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Katakana Analysis

The above advertisement is taken from this site: http://webdesign-log.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A0%E3%81%AE%E6%B0%B4%E3%81%98%E3%82%83%E3%80%81%E3%83%84%E3%83%9E%E3%83%A9%E3%83%8A%E3%82%A4%E3%80%82%E2%94%82glac%C3%A9au-vitaminwater%C2%AE_1202231.jpg  

Above is an example of a Japanese advertisement for the American Product, "Vitamin Water," taken from their Japanese website. Although Vitamin Water is a loan word, roman characters are used, perhaps to maintain the familiar brand label. However, at the top of the screen, we see that the company calls regular water "ツマラナイ," or "boring." Because this is a Japanese origin word, we would expect to see that Hiragana is used; however, Katakana is used in its stead.

The fourth textbook example explains, briefly, that Katakana may be used for, "words the writer wishes to emphasize."  This is supported by http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/katakana-uses.html, which states explicitly that Katakana is used to emphasize important words, similar to the use of Italics in the English language.

These explanations make sense in context of the above advertisement.  Because the company wishes to emphasize that regular water is inferior to their product, they will use text that reflects that emphasis.  Imagine that the English website claimed that regular water is boring; you might expect their site to display the text: "Regular water is Boring," to represent the emphatic sound someone might place on the word boring when speaking it.  The use of Katakana in writing ツマラナイ has the same effect, which is intended to convince the reader that they shouldn't drink regular water as opposed to vitamin water; in this case, Katakana is used as a marketing tactic.

To further this idea, because Katakana often has the impression of being the more pointed and harsh than hiragana, perhaps it was used not only to draw attention to the word ツマラナイ、but to make it look harsh or unattractive.  One first year Japanese student,  マシューチャンちゃん said that he read it as having the English equivalent "B-O-R-I-N-G!"








 
The above image is taken from: http://www.takaratomy-arts.co.jp/specials/clockman/


In this example, we find two repeated Katakana words that appear to be coming from the alarm clock. These appear to represent sounds that the clock will make when the alarm sounds.

Thanks to a comment from frytvm, I discovered that キョロキョロ is a sort of idiom for "Restlessly" or "to look around restlessly, with restless eyes," and is often spelled in Katakana. (Information from frytvm and http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%8D%E3%82%87%E3%82%8D%E3%81%8D%E3%82%87%E3%82%8D).  This makes perfect sense as most early risers will be searching restlessly for the snooze button every morning.

Curiously, the only definition for パクパク　that I could find is "Eating, munching, or chewing loudly." (Definition obtained from http://thejadednetwork.com/sfx/search/?keyword=%E3%83%91%E3%82%AF%E3%83%91%E3%82%AF&submitSearch=Search+SFX&x=).

Personally, I find the use of Katakana perfect (and rather humorous) for this cute clock; katakana distinguishes the clock's noises from normal sounds, giving them a fun and playful air, but with the edge of restlessly looking for the snooze button. It also matches the idea that キョロキョロ is almost an onomatopoeia because it's a funny sound that the clock makes.

 The second textbook example claims that Katakana may be used to represent sounds or "Onomatopoeic words." Another textbook called Let's Learn Katakana devotes an entire section to onomatopoeic Katakana words, and claims that setting these words apart from others gives them a distinct character apart from nouns, adjectives, etc..

This advertisement uses Katakana to lend the onomatopoeia a fun or playful sense to go along with the theme of the alarm clock.  By replacing Hiragana with Katakana, the advertiser draws the reader into the fun and attractive sounds that the alarm clock makes, and making him/her want to buy the product.

In both of these examples, we find that advertisers use Katakana to their advantage; by using this text, they put emphasis or change the feeling of the words in a way that expresses something that usually would be expressed with tone or word order.  Clearly, Katakana can be used not only for loan-words but to indicate a variety of spoken nuances. 

Two of the four textbook examples (2 and 4) note that Katakana can be used for onomatopoeia, and only one notes that it can be used for emphasis (example 4).  Perhaps because the most common use of Katakana is for foreign words, the textbooks wanted to focus on the most common interpretation and ignored the others.

Perhaps it helps learners of the Japanese Language to have a simplified view of Katakana in their early days of learning the language.  Clearly though, there is so much missing from how these textbooks explain it!

アレン

ビデオブログ：「私の家族」

私の家族：

これは　Translationです：

私のかぞくは小さいけど、おもしろいかぞくだとおもいます。さんにんかぞくです。私はきょうだいがいないから、ひとりっこです。

すみませんが、りょうしんのしゃしんがないので、ざんねんですよね。でも、たくさんしゃしんがあります。ちちはせがたかくて、かみがくろくて、めがちゃいろいです。よく、ちゃいろいシャツをきていて、くろいジーンズをはいていて、めがねをかけていない人です。DuPontにつとめていて、Bioinformaticsをします。コンピュータがとてもじょうずです。

はははせがちょっとひくくて、かみがあかくて、めがあおいです。よく、きれいなブラウスをきていてパンツをはいていて、ネックレスをしている人です。びょういんにつとめているから、とてもいそがしいです。えをかくのがとてもじょうずだとおもいます。

私のかぞくです！