Nihon-go Progress

Midway through Lesson 4-06 in Rosetta Stone Japanese Level I. I started on December 13th (it logs your test results with dates), so I'm pretty happy with that speed. I can write a few kanji without aides to show me stroke order and direction. I can write complete simple sentences using kanji and hiragana. I can't read or write katakana, and I'm finally going to have to crack and learn to do that. I think my hiragana are solid enough now that learning (the similar but not directly analogous) katakana won't mess with my head too much. I'm not sure how many kanji I know. More than a hundred to say the meaning of in English; a much smaller number to associate a Japanese word I know with, so that I could actually use them in a sentence; and only a handful of simple ones with all their On, Kun, and Nanori readings.

I could not hold a simple conversation in Japanese. There's a written children's story online that I still can't make heads or tails of. And I couldn't figure out what akaspeedo 's kanji icon means, although it was an excuse for a fun foray through the kanji dictionary. {g}

The little starbursts of aural comprehension when I'm watching movies in Japanese are really cool.

(It just shows how in denial I am about katakana that I spelled it "katagana" before fixing it just now. Sigh. But I just found out that in addition to borrowed words, katakana are also used to spell rude words, which makes them seem much more fun. And sometimes they're used for emphasis. Interesting. I just watched Kurosawa's Scandal, and there were katakana all over the tabloids and ragsheets and advertising posters. And Western exclamation points!)

Danger + Opportunity

The Kanji SITE speaks for me regarding kanji compounds.

I get lost in the kanji dictionary. I thought I was bad with Webster's Third Unabridged and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Dip in for a second and two hours go by. One thing leads to another.

Some compounds have annoying cultural implications: "woman" and "child" makes another word for "woman." Some are sad: "dog" plus "die" means "die in vain" ("die a dog's death"). Some are intriguing: "hemp/flax" plus "be intoxicated" is "anaesthesia." (Reminds me of a 1950s Irish Gaelic tape I used. Trip to the dentist. "Will it hurt, Doctor?" "No, cocaine makes it painless." Those were the days.) Yet what a thrill to realize that with two kanji I know, "nose" and "water," I can write "nasal mucus." Mmm mmm good.