あたらしいほんをかいました。

The Handbook of Japanese Verbs, Taeko Kamiya

All about Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words, Naoko Chino

Söndag (日曜日)

日曜日 and I’m so tired. This week has been more hectic than usual, I’ve been out and about a lot more than I usually am. That gave me less time than usual for my studies so now I have a lot of catching up to do. 　来週、私は忙しいですね。

We are now going to start learning the -te forms of Japanese verbs. むずかしいですね。私はとてもうざっこいです。I think I understand the part where you use them like the -ing form of English verbs; walking, sitting, talking etc. But you also use the -te form of Japanese verbs to connect several things that have happened, right? Like, for example: “I watched tv and knitted”. That’s where I get lost. Completely.

テレビをみてがあみものをしました。　??

This is giving me a headache.

いいです

I am so happy I decided to study Japanese, I LOVE it!

私はたのしいでう。

Just wanted to say that.

Another letter

今夜中の十二じにです。I should go to bed, but first I want to post a letter I wrote as an excersise. It’s in the extended entry.

And now… おやすみなさい。

Pictures, and some Japanese.

Finally, I can blog some again! I had to buy a new laptop and have been installing stuff and getting things in order. I think I’m all set now.

今、午後一時にです。く時からじゅうに時までにほんごのべんきょうおしました。今、写真をみせます。

Frustration

I just did the second of this week’s 3 tests.

Lots of kanji, but I got all of them right.  And then… particles! Horror! Of course, I made several mistakes. It is soooo frustrating. I read and read and read about particles, and still I can’t get them quite right. Of course, it doesn’t help that the tests are time limited. Each test usually consists of 4 pages and you have 1 hour to finish it. (The tests are done online.)

So… back to the books it is, for more reading about p a r t i c l e s.

Stress, stress and more stress

I LOVE the Japanese language. I love studying it, speaking it, learning new words – I love everything about it… except for particles.

Particles: my enemy number one right now. Sigh.

Will I ever get the hang of it?

to ni mo wa e o ga…… heeeeelp!!

Ok. Deep breath, and back to the books…

An attempt at blogging in Japanese

Here we go…　(I’ll write in English, below each sentence, what I mean to say. Just in case.   )

今日、わたしはじしょをかいました。

Today I have bought a dictionary.

にほんごのじしょです。

It’s a dictionary in Japanese.

今、わたしはしゅくだいをします。

I am doing homework now.

わたしのいもうとはよじにきます。

My (younger) sister will come at 4 o’clock.

わたしたちはコーヒーをのみます。

We are going to drink coffee.

明日、わたしはべんきょうをします。

Tomorrow I’m going to study.

あみものもをします。

I’m going to knit, too.

土曜日、わたしはオレブロ　(Örebro)　にいきます。

On Saturday I’m going to Örebro.

ともだちをあいます。

I’m going to meet friends. 

わたしたちはあみものをします。

We are going to knit.

Photos from the grocery store, and new pets

When I’m in a foreign country, one of my favorite things to do is to go grocery shopping. It’s so interesting to see everyday items – what people buy/eat/drink, what the boxes/containers look like, the names of different things and so on.

You might not think that’s interesting or fun at all, maybe you’ll just think I’m weird, but hey – that’s ok.

I took some photos today when we went grocery shopping, to show you. They are in the extended entry.

A letter in Japanese, and some photos

I wrote a letter and then tried to translate it into Japanese. Some of it was beyond what we’ve gone over in class, so I had to look things up and try to get it right. Lots of fun, but I’m sure at least half of it is very incorrect.

If you read it and see any mistakes, it would make me very happy if you’d let me know. The letter is in the extended entry.

Peek-a-boo

Just wanted to pop in and say that I’m still around. Just very busy with Japanese books, tests, words and so on.

Jâ mata!

Winter is definitely here

We’ve had a very warm winter so far, and hardly any snow at all. Well, a couple of days ago it started snowing and it’s been snowing since. This is what the weather’s been like:

This is in our garden.

This is the road beneath our house. In the far back there, there’s a big hill (or a small mountain you could almost call it) – you can’t even see it in this picture, it’s snowing so hard.

Standing on our “porch” looking out into the garden/driveway. My youngest son playing with the snow. He’s very happy about the snow. Me? Not so much. I don’t like winter at all. But, it’s January so this is only what can be expected.

Some day I am moving somewhere where they have no winter or at least very mild ones…

And it keeps snowing

いちがつ

This is what we woke up to this morning. It’s  been snowing all night and it’s still snowing heavily. Not very cold though, only about -3C.

げつようび

It’s getsu-yôbi (måndag in Swedish) and I am practising writing hiragana and katakana. It’s hard but fun! I am also doing a bit of あみもの in between the various worksheets. I have cast on for another Clapotis, this will be my 5th. It will be a bit smaller than the others because I don’t have enough yarn to make a full size one. I love the Clapotis pattern – it’s easy and fun to knit and it looks good on you. What’s not to like about that? ^^

Some fun facts:

The area of Japan is 377,873 km² and Sweden’s is 449,964 km², which means that our countries are of a fairly similar size. But Japan’s population density is 337/km² while Sweden’s is only 20/km²!

じゃあまた。

Listening to: “Cheatin’ “, Sara Evans.