Finally Learned 100!! 80/2042 Kanji

No Rosetta stone today, but Pimsleur finally came through on counting. Today I finally learned 100 (百) that means I can now count all the way up to 99,999,999! An odd thing about 百 is that it changes pronunciation from ひゃく to びゃく for 三百 (さんびゃく), 六百(ろっぴゃく), and 八百(はっぴゃく). It does make them a little easier to say.

One difference about the Japanese numbering system is the use of a 10,000 grouping. In English we get to 1,000 and it is the same all the way until 1,000,000. 999,999 is nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. Thousand is the highest grouping in that lot. But in Japanese, 万(10,000/まん) is used. so you get to　九千九百九十九(9,999) and then go to 万. So one million is 百万(ひゃくまん）. The next grouping is 100,000,000 which I have not learned yet. So, that means Japanese numbers are grouped in 4's making commas (grouped in 3's) in the English counting system annoying and translating between the 2 difficult. I could more easily hear a number, write it down and then say the English for that number than I could trying to direct translate.
 (For more I recommend reading this).

so I can count from 一 to 九千九百九十九万九千九百九十九 (1-99,999,999).

Watchers of One Piece will likely remember 百万ベリfor those pirates who had bounties over 1,000,000 beri. It gets repeated quite a bit.

Pimsleur only covered up to 千 (1,000). But my Remember the Kanji has taught me 万 (10,000) today. So I can go ahead and use it. Just to check if I was right, this site has a convenient chart of all the numbers (I didn't cover it here, but notice the changes in the pronunciation of 千). Now, counting to 99,999,999 is all well and good, except the words you use when counting different items changes. I don't know all of these yet but some examples are:

一人「ひとり」 1 person
二人「ふたり」 2 people
二日「ふつか」 2 days
三日「みっか」 3 days

Also, for anime watchers, if you have ever heard someone itemize points (1st, 2nd, 3rd) you will hear a different one (I haven't those yet, I only know them when I hear them). We do this in English all the time too and take it for granted (couple, single, triple, first, second, etc). One way you can tell a native from a non native English speaker is how they handle counters. One step at a time.

Dekomori vs. Milk

Today's Rosetta Stone lesson includes the phrase:

この牛乳はますいです。

Which translates "This milk tastes bad". I was immediately reminded of Dekomori from  "Chu 2 Byo". In fact, Dekomori is how I remember 牛乳(milk).

Back to studying.

今日は！ 私のお名前はマークです。

Hi! My name is Mark and I am learning 日本語. I have been a fan of Japanese culture and language since I was a child. It all began with karate lessons and in my recent adult years I have become a huge fan of anime and manga. I have dabbled with trying to learn Japanese in the past, but after having completed 300 full series of anime, I decided it was finally time I ditched the subtitles and went native.

I'm currently taking a multifaceted approach to learning the language. For listening and speaking skills, i'm making use of the Pimsleur's Japanese I, II, and III audio lessons. Which I do Monday through Friday on my daily commute home from work. I and also making use of Rosetta Stone Japanese I, II, and III Saturday through Tursday for reading, listening, speaking, and typing. Finally, I will begin using a combination of Remember the Kanji I, II, III and Anki to learn kanji this week.

This blog is not really meant to be read by anyone, but I have learned that making language learning blogs while studying a language is super helpful. I also have stumbled across a few others' Japanese learning blogs which I have personally found helpful answering novice questions. Since I don't have a teacher or native speaker to rely on for these kinds of questions answers, blogs like this one have helped fill that gap.

To give you an idea of where I am at in the learning process, I'm an nearly completely proficient at reading hirigana. I have not studied katakana for some time so i still struggle with it. As for kanji, my last estimate was that I'm at about 30 or so. Part of this blog's purpose is to serve as a count tracker for my kanji studies.

My listening ability is warped well ahead of my reading, writing, and speaking abilities as I have been watching anime daily for the past 4-5 years with subtitles. I have picked up on a lot of phrases, nouns, verbs, and even grammar. I realize most of it is impolite and informal, but it has made the ear tuning portion of my learning that much easier. I already have a decent sense of when to use certain particles, even though I have no formal teaching of when they are used.

My speaking ability lag behind all else. This is because I have no one to speak to. I have a friend who plans to start studying soon, but even when they do they wont be at a conversation level for awhile. So, for now I talk to my cats and use Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur. None of which really offer the feedback required to gauge my progress. That is an avenue I will pursue after i have gained a better understanding of the language as a whole.

As for handwriting, I will tackle that after I have finished my goal of 2000 Kanji. I may dabble here and there with hirigana,  but I don't have any immediate plans to focus on this area as I have almost no immediate use for handwriting in general. I am learning and slowly become proficient a using the Microsoft IME. That is really serving as my writing outlet at this time. Stroke order and other such handwriting related knowledge is just too much to fit into the already intense coursework I have created for myself.

I hope anything I write here helps another learner, or at least provides some entertainment.

じゃまた！