SPRING BREAK!

It is now spring break, which means a few things:

1. A week of rest and relaxation without having to worry about the ton of work I've been getting.

2. Plenty of time to work on my languages.

I've been slacking on the kanji, I should have finished by now, but at least I've got less than 200 now, and I expect to finish by the end of Spring Break(I hope I'm not jynxing myself like last time). I am glad because I can finally move on to the other 2 writing systems(which should only take a few hours to learn), and then I will move on to Japanese In Mangaland as well as Assimil(Did not like Assimil first go around, but I am hoping this time will be better). As with Portuguese, I'm planning on spending a lot more time working on my listening, because it is really slacking in my opinion. Also, I am going to try and work on Afrikaans. I've only gotten through the pronunciation, and I am really ready to move on to reading and writing. From what I've seen, the language looks a little bit like English, and there are some words that the 2 languages share. The site I am using is GREAT, it is a good place to go if you want to start learning Afrikaans. I will post the link on the side. Anywyas, as for Spring Break? I am looking forward to it, and hopefully will enjoy it. Até Mais!

City of God Original Brazilian Trailer

This movie is about a kid who likes doing photography growing up in Rio de Janeiro, a city that has a lot of crime. The main character(Don't remember his name, I don't think he said it in the trailer), grows up around this crime, and almost gets twisted up in it. I am not good at desribing movies, but I will say this one of the best movies I have EVER seen, and really shows how good brazilian film is. If you want a better description of the movie than mine, just check out the whole thing here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_God_(film) if you watch the movie, let me know how you liked it!

It's been a long time...

I haven't posted on here in over a month, due to me entering the hardest semester of school I have ever had in my life. After bombing basically every exam I took in January, I decided I really need to step it up and start doing some work, even if it includes me slowing down with my language learning or lifting weights after school. The workload has been tremendous, and everything is moving so fast it's crazy. But I decided I could still make a little time to make another post since it doesn't really take too long.

I am disappointed in myself because I never got to finish my kanji. I am still doing it everyday, but I should be done with it and starting to work on the actual language(writing, reading, speaking) and I am really tired of just doing kanji, even though I know it is essential for me to do them. But there just aren't enough hours in the day for me to do that. I am about 300 kanji away from finishing the book, so I guess I will just finish it no matter what some time soon. As for my other languages, my Portuguese has really improved, and I feel like I am almost as good at it as I am in French(which I have been taking at school for over 3 years now). My Chinese is going nowhere, but I am going to try and finish the year out strong because my grades aren't so good. The funny thing is, even though I have all this stuff, I really want to start learning Afrikaans. I think I will try to make time for it on the weekends, since I plan on being in the house more from now until Spring Break, which should give me a whole lot of time to work on my languages. I am going to post some more useful links and hopefully get some more readers!

Fear and Trembling (Stupeur et tremblements) Trailer

Wanted to show this trailer, a movie I watched, it has 2 languages I am studying(French and Japanese), and a decent plot.

Long time no post

It has been a long time since my last post, I believe I last posted a couple days after Christmas. I hope people are enjoying 2008 so far, I know I am, it is going great so far, even though my headaches aren't getting any better. I am going to be doing a lot more so I am not sure how often I will be updating my blog but I WILL DO IT!! I am going to post and post and post and make it more interesting. Let me know what I should talk about and I'll bring it. Enjoy January.

Immortal Technique -- The Poverty of Philosophy

I also wanted to wish Merry Christmas to everyone, but I ran across this video by a rapper me and my friends listen to a lot, and he really has a LOT to say and listen to what he has to say, he really has a point, watch this. Happy Holidays.

AND IT HAS BEGUN!

Today marks the first day of Christmas break!... Please, all 0 of my readers, keep the applause down. Not only is this important in the fact that:
1. I get sleep
2. I get sleep
3. I get sleep
but also in the fact that I have no homework, which means a lot of free time to engulf myself into the language books sitting around the house and actually use them instead of making myself feel good by staring at the covers. I actually just got 5 books for Christmas and my mom is willing to let me start reading one or two early so I think I might get a little head start on them. Out of the 5 books, 3 are Portuguese and 2 are Japanese, and I'll just list them:

Random House Portuguese Pocket Dictionary
Dom Casmurro(Brazilian)
O Cortiço(Brazilian)
Japanese in Mangaland 1(Sort of a starter book, will explain further down)
Japanese in Mangaland Workbook

I am going to be at 1225 kanji by the time this night is over in Remembering the Kanji, leaving me with 812 to go. For all of you who want to study Japanese, I am sorry, but, Kanji are hell. There just is no other way to sugarcoat it. They are just hell. I hate them. I want to just get through these 815 and be done. Of course, once I get through, I will still be reviewing them with Mnemosyne, so I don't plan to forget them, but I don't feel like writing the confusing kanji for admonish or looking up the definition for what a decameron is, or trying to find out what a monme is(which isn't even on dictionary.com by the way). I really want to just blow past these kanji in the next couple of days and move on to the other resources sitting in my house. The kanji have forced me to put Assimil, Japanese in Mangaland, The Hirigana and Katakana writing systems, learning another language, and school all on hold, so I am just ready to get them past me and start enjoying languages again.

So, on to what Japanese in Mangaland is. Japanese in Mangaland is basically a 300 pg. semi-textbook that self-teaches you basic grammar, sentences, vocabulary, and kanji, all through manga cartoons. It was not very expensive, $17, you can probably but it cheaper if you really tried hard, I had to get it quickly while my mom was in a good mood, so money wasn't really the issue for me I guess, but if you think that is still too much money, well, you can contact me and I can discuss other ways you can go about finding materials. I am actually in the mood to do a bunch of kanji so I think I might go do like 100 or something and be angry tommorow when I open Mnemosyne and have to review about 300, but I guess I'll have time. I'm going to try and post for Christmas Eve, but if not, Merry Christmas everybody and Happy Kwanzaa!