もやしもん

かわいいですね。

もやしもん is a drama I only finished moments ago and could not wait to share. It has to be one of the funniest dramas I've seen. "Moyashimon" follows Tadayasu Sawaki in his freshman year at an agricultural university. Sawaki possesses the unique ability to see and communicate with micro-organisms and bacteria. It sounds silly, I know, but believe me the silliness is what makes it great. Its based on a manga and has also be adapted into an anime. I'm considering checking out the manga, only its not complete yet, which is always a hassle with these adaptations, but what can you do?

Check out もやしもん: here or here.

Japanese Roots From Discover Magazine

This is a fascinating article about Japanese history. Check it out: here.

Characterizer

Yet another spiffy kanji learning tool has cropped up. The Characterizer - Japanese and Chinese Character Reinforcement can be found: here. This add-on only works with Firefox. Once installed, it transforms the first letter of English words to kanji. There is even a way to specifically have the transformations correspond to Heisig. To keep things simple, the add-on must be enable on the via the tools in the menu bar before it will work and when enabled, it will only work in that tab. The creator emphasizes the fact that the add-on is far from perfect. To be honest, it more of a novelty than anything else, but its a small thing that can reinforce what I'm learning everyday.

Third Mass Review

As stated before, this third mass review was suppose to begin on Monday and include frames 1-1500. However, things didn't work out quite that well. Nevertheless, progress has been good. The review began Friday, December 3rd and has included frames 1-1400. Here is my big plan to make this review as inclusive as possible. I'm making a chart. Sounds underwhelming right? No. This chart is huge and when complete will included all 2042 frames. Via iWorks Numbers, this chart includes: Frame Number, Key Word, Kanji, Story, Primitives and Also Looks Like ( or alternative appearances for the kanji). The kanji is currently being pasted from Reviewing the Kanji (http://kanji.koohii.com/) because it would be impossible for me to attempt to type these considering I have yet to learn the sounds. My method may seem circuitous, but its inclusive, which is what is most important. My flashcards are rubber-banded into groups of 100, because that was how they were initially studied. Each day I review 200 and type 100. Here is how it looks:

Day 1: Reviewed 1-100 and 701-800. Typed 1-100.

Day 2: Reviewed 101-200 and 801-900. Typed 101-200.

Day 3: Reviewed 201-300 and 901-1000. Typed 201-300.

Day 4: Reviewed 301-400 and 1001-1100. Typed 301-400.

Day 5: Reviewed 401-500 and 1101-1200. Typed 401-500.

Day 6: Reviewed 501-600 and 1201-1300. Typed 501-600.

Day 7: Reviewed 601-700 and 1301-1400. Typed 601-700.

Day 8: Reviewed 701-800 and 1-100. Typed 701-800.

Day 9: Reviewed 801-900 and 101-200. Typed 801-900.

Day 10: Reviewed 901-1000 and 201-300. Typed 901-1000.

Day 11: Reviewed 1001-1100 and 301-400. Typed 1001-1100.

Day 12: Reviewed 1101-1200 and 401-500. Typed 1101-1200.

Day 13: Reviewed 1201-1300 and 501-600. Typed 1201-1300.

Day 14: Reviewed 1301-1400 and 601-700. Typed 1301-1400

Today, I am at day 6. I do the two reviews in the morning and try my best to finnish typing the first 50 frames by noon and the second 50 before the sun sets. Though out my entire process of the Heisig Method, I've kept a composition notebook with the kanji in the margin, the keyword and the story written on the page. I am now into my second notebook and still going strong. And it is from the notebook that I am taking my stories and not the flash cards because I have always consider the notebook to be the definitive versions of all my stories. However, that is no longer true. In the process of creating this chart, I have been able to improve upon many of my flawed early stories and some of my troubled later stories. This has also means my flashcards are troublesomely incorrect. Something I will need to fix during the third week of my review. I am also planing to return and fix my primitive problem. Initially, I made flash cards and stories for all of the primitives, until I realized it was consuming time and Heisig discouraged it. However, now I am of the opinion that it is best to do so. I will spend a day or more in week three completing the process. And the remained of the week will be spend focusing on those frames I have flagged as troublesome. The ones I frequently get wrong during reviews.

The primitives are also impossible to type, as far as I know. They are primitives, pieces of kanji, and there for do not exactly exist as a part of any Japanese input systems. As a result, I am forced to leave those parts of the chart blank until I Macgyver a way to post them in as images. Nothing is ever easy. At some point, I plan to also return to include stroke numbers, but that may need to wait until the next mass review.

Once completed I will post a PDF version of the chart on the blog. I do warn, that not all my stories are in good taste. I freely admit this. However the important fact is that I remember them. Anyone who wants is welcomed to use them. I've had a ball coming up with these stories, however I realize that not everyone gets a kick out of coming up with 2000 plus stories that are generally incoherent and at times illogical. In case you're curious, here is a screen cap of my chart:

Click to see a bigger version.

Another Funk

Remember those funks? I've hit another. My first was in the 300s. I played around with actually making an image for each frame all because Heisig stated that it would be a good idea to visualize an image for each element. It seemed like a good idea until I realized how much time and effort it took. There are still around 50 jpg files sitting in My Documents. My second funk was the one I previously posted about. It changed my perspective on a number of things. And so has this most recent one. I've come to the realization that this massive undertaking of learning 2042 kanji must be broken into easy to conceive pieces, otherwise its overwhelming. Personally, I've just been ignoring how big the number is, 2042. But, if I break it into say 4 groups of 500 plus 42, its not so bad on the out set. This is what I am determined to do with the kanji I have remaining.

My motivation is lagging. That is the worst possible thing that can happen at this stage. I have not put any real effort into studying this week. I went through the motions like always, making the flashcards. And I've looked at them but to be honest, its just not happening.

Henceforth, I am stopping here. My review session which was suppose to begin next Monday, will begin tomorrow. And this is how the remainder of my lesson plan will look.

I will drop the cards I have studied thus far this week: 1401- 1460.

I will review for the next 3 weeks.

I will then study over the following 4 weeks: 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700.

I will review for 4 weeks (give or take, deepening on how I'm progressing).

I will study over the following 3 weeks: 1800, 1900, 2000-2042

After that, I will institute a daily review of at minimum 100 flashcards for the foreseeable future. I would like to take about a month to collect my wits before beginning Volume 2 of Heisig's method.

I refuse to let these funks lead to the crashing and the burning in the fiery flames of death and defeat. I will finish this if only to prove to my self that I am capable of doing anything I put my mind to.

Also, because curious minds want to know. I will be posting my on Japanese Dictionary. I'm not making a big deal out of this because technically I am breaking a copyright law by using someone else's images without permission, but I am in no way claiming them as my own. This was a picture English dictionary that I found floating on BT Airlines. I'm photoshoping in my own homemade brew of furigana. This will be a long term project, useful in expanding my vocabulary. It will of course take a back seat to my main course of study if only because it is time consuming. Future posts containing the Japanese dictionary can be found under this label: 日本語辞書.