Anna's Japanese 101 blog : January 2017

みなさんは,
こんにちは！
Thank you for reading my blog.
My most recent statement:
Goals
1. Improve the grammar of my speech.
2. Improve my intonation and pitch.
3. Speak with more naturalness and ease.
4. Feel less nervous while speaking!
Activities to Achieve These Goals
1. Attend office hours once a week with the purpose of just having conversation in Japanese.
2. Do at least one shadowing exercise a week to improve pitch and intonation.
3. Set up a coffee date once every two weeks with another Japanese student so that we can practice speaking together.
4. Listen to two songs in Japanese a day (sing along as much as possible!)

I think I achieved some of these goals, but I still have a long way to go. I attended office hours as much as I could, though I still wish I had been able to more often because it is one of the best ways to improve your Japanese. I did a lot of shadowing but probably not enough. I was able to set up coffee dates! My friend Tessa and I would often go to Small World and practice our Japanese there. It was fun! As I attempted to improve my Japanese, I discovered a lot of good Japanese music that I'm excited to keep listening to.
Overall, I would say I did improve the grammar of my speech and the naturalness and ease of my speech. Now, I feel a lot more comfortable talking. Though, I still find I am often quite nervous when I need to say long sentences. I think I still need to work a lot on my intonation and pitch; these are the first two things I forget about when I start feeling overwhelmed as I speak.
I plan to keep practicing and to try out new methods of learning!

どうもありがとうございます!

ザベル