Learning a Foreign Language

This past week was spring break for me, so I had plenty of time to work on Japanese. I have also been watching videos on Youtube about Japan. My goal this week was to find out more about transportation in Japan and continue learning Japanese. Both of these goals were accomplished and I haven't really ran into any obstacles. Japanese is different than English, Spanish, and French in many ways, but that is probably why I like learning it so much. In high school, I took French sophomore year because that was the only language the school I went to offered. Then, I changed schools and took Spanish my junior and senior years because that was the only foreign language they offered. Now since I left, that school offers German and Spanish. I really liked those classes, but now I am learning Japanese on my own and I can go at my own pace. In the book that is teaching me how to speak Japanese, I have finished two chapters. The book started out by telling me how to use the book, ten reaso...

I have started learning Japanese in my books. One of the books I am using is called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Conversational Japanese and I bought it at a bookstore. I have also began to practice writing in another book I got. Last week, the first week, I got my supplies and made a plan of how much I would like to accomplish. I bought two books for learning how to write on Amazon and then I found a Japanese translation dictionary from a second time around store . I also downloaded an app to help me practice numbers and phrases. I am enjoying this project so far. I am glad I chose to learn Japanese for my project. In high school, Spanish class and history class were my favorites. Since I took foreign language in high school, this experience is going to be quite different because I am learning a language on my own. So far, learning the greetings and phrases isn't very hard. I have the pronunciation down but I see how different Japanese sentence structure is from English...

Last Tuesday, March 20th, I shared my project idea with my Composition II class. Each of us were assigned to present our project idea to the class. The assignment was called "Pitch to the Sharks" and I had 3 minutes to share what I am doing for the Genius Hour project. To prepare for this assignment I typed out what I wanted to tell the class. I will post here what I typed up. Learning a Foreign Language: Pitching to the Sharks             Hi everyone. I chose to learn a foreign language for my Genius Hour project. This idea started in January right after New Year’s. Around this time, I made a New Year’s resolution to travel to a foreign country in 2018. I have always wanted to travel somewhere outside of the U.S. and I have a list of places I would love to go. Japan being on the top of that list. Since February, I have been planning on where I want to go in Japan and I have been figuring out how much it will all cos...

Hello! My name is Sarah and this is my first time creating a blog. I am creating a blog for the first time because I am going to share my experience of learning a new language. Each student in my Composition II class is starting a blog and creating or learning something for a project called  "Genius Hour." It is really exciting to learn something new. I have always had a curiosity for foreign languages and culture. This summer I am looking forward to traveling to a country I have never been to before. I'm saving up to go to Japan and I think that learning Japanese will help me be a little more prepared for when I'm there. I, at first, had a hard time thinking of what to do for my project. We could pretty much do anything for the project. This project allows us to spend 20% of class exploring a topic that we get to chose. Around New Year's this year, I got motivated to save up my money for a trip. I have never been to another country other than the United Stat...