山田さんに てがみを かきます。

山田さんへ

はじめまして。私はフロレスさんです。私はアメリカ人ですが、私のりょうしんはメキシコ人です。私はたべるのが好きです。メキシコのたべものが一番おいしいです。日本のたべものもとてもおいしいです。私はおんがくをきくのが好きです。クラシックとジャズをききます。私はプリンストン大学の三年生です。毎日日本語のじゅうぎょうがあって、月曜日にアルバイトをします。月曜日はいそがしくて、たいへんです。プリンストン大学はにぎやかなですが、むずかしです。私の大学もとてもゆうめいです。私のせんこうはせいぶつがくです。山田さんのまちはどんなまちですか。何をたべるのが好きですか。どこでしこどをして、べんきょうしますか。じゃあ、よるしくおねがいします。

フロレス

ねしてる

 かわいですね！まめしばは　いえごで　はなします。

まめしばは　スペインごでも　はなします。

とても　かわいですね。

ビバメキシコ！

今ばんは！

メキシコのおんがくをきて下さい。

うたのなまえはラビキナです。私のははは一番のマリアチのうたです。このうたはおもしろくて、うれしいです。メキシコ人はげんきなで、やさしくて、うれしです。私はマリアチをあまりききます。マリアチは好きでもきらいてもありません。でも、このうたは大好きです。

みて下さい。日本のコンサートです。

じゃ、また。

PE Cycle 2 Reflection

This recent PE Cycle has been unproductive for me as I did not provide an extra shadowing exercise.  In my opinion the last required shadowing exercise demonstrated a dramatic improvement from the first shadowing exercise.  My rhythm has improved and my pronunciation is more natural.  There is still room for more improvement, but I believe that the difference between my first and second shadowing is noticeable.  I can enunciate words better, paying more attention to mora, tone, and pitch.  Though the improvement is noticeable in the recording, I actually have to put in a lot effort to make this happen.  This improvement starts to disappear when I start speaking quicker.
In the next Cycle, I would like to hear the improvement in faster shadowing exercises.  I will try to improve this by shadowing faster dialogues.  I will also try to listen to more Japanese media.  This helps me feel more comfortable with Japanese pronunciations as I have very little interaction with authentic Japanese accents outside of class.  If I have time, I will try to see one of the instructors to work with them and get direct feedback and advice on what I need to improve on and how can I accomplish it.  Well then.  Off to round three.

PE Cycle 2

For this coming cycle, I will continue to work on my intonation and pitch.  This is still a very new concept for me and it is difficult for me to reproduce naturally.  I think listening to native Japanese speakers will help me get accustomed to this concept (or at least call me out on it, when I do make an error).  It would be nice to have another one of those homework assignments where we had to distinguish the pitch and tone of a sentence/word.  This actually helped me understand the differences between different pronunciations due to pitches.  I will additionally try to shadow some of the dialogues on blackboard and submit them for evaluation.  For this cycle, I am going to focus on pitch and tone(doesn't mean that I will neglect other aspects of pronunciation), but I want to ensure that this is resolved as soon as possible so that it doesn't become a hassle later on.

わたしは ニューヨークに いきます！

みにさん　みて　ください。わたしは　きのは　ニューヨークに　いきました！わたしは　ごぜんじゅういちじに　おきました。　そうして　うちじはんに　えきに　いきました。ニューヨークで　わたしのあにさんが　います。ニューヨークは　ゆうめいなまちです。

ニューヨークのたてものは　たかいですね。

はちじごろ　わたしは　ばんごはんを　たべました。なにを　たべましたか。みて　ください。

ラーメン！！！

わたしのあにさんは　さっぽろのビールを　のみました。

ばんごはんを　おいしです！　そうして　わたしは　ロクフェルセンターに　いきます。

あにさん！

それから　わたしは　ごぜんはちじごろ　ねました。　きょうは　ニューヨークで　えいがを　みました。きゅうは　おもしろいないです。　じゃあ、また。

Reflection Statement!

Our first pronunciation cycle is over and I now realize that it is a little more difficult than I initially thought to stay on track with my goals.  I did try shadowing Japanese anime and Japanese songs to improve my pronunciation.  But most of time I could only get a single word or phrase.  I also cheated sometimes by looking up the lyrics to songs to see what they were exactly saying(although to be honest sometimes I do this for songs in English and Spanish, I'm just not very good at making out what people say when singing).  I attempted to shadow the third dialogue on blackboard, but there were some words that I could not make out and therefore struggled to reproduce in my recording(in my next cycle I plan to include this recording along with another).

As for my oral midterm, I honestly thought it was fun.  I also thought it was difficult, especially trying to return to the dialogue that we had created.  There a lot of things that I want to improve on my next oral exam.  I want to improve on my intonation and pitch, which is something that I did not work on much while I was practicing.  I also want to feel comfortable using the grammar thus far so that I can use it fluidly in conversations.  I think みやぎさん and I did a good job making the dialogue as natural a conversation that we could possibly make.  For instance, we incorporated what we do at home and often we do things.  

That's it for now!  Have an amazing break!

フロレス　＾＿＾

せんしゅうのどようび

こんばんは！　せんしゅうのどようび　わたしは　ごぜん　じゅういちじはんに　おきました。　そして　フォオブスのがくしょくで　あさごはんを　たべました。それ　りょうに　かえりました。　わたしは　シャワーを　あびました。　そして　よじはんに　プリンストンのかわに　いきました。それ　ろくじごる　ばんごはんを　たべました。　わたしは　ピザを　たべました。　せんしゅうのどようびのばん　えいがを　みました。　えいがのなまえわ　Dogtoothです。グリスの　えいがですよ。

しゅうまつは　なにを　しますか。

Pronunciation Exercise Goals!!!

こんいちは！！！  I have so many goals for my pronunciation exercise and a lot of work to do to improve my pronunciation.  Earlier I talked about my family labeling me as "el gringo" of the family because of my slight American accent.  If I were to introduce myself to native Japanese speaker, I don't think I would have to mention アメリカじんです, I think they would figure that out on their own.  I had a lot of troubling of making my recording sound like an authentic Japanese speaker.  One of the reasons I had trouble was because I was unable to shadow at the speed of the model.  Words that had the constants r or k had a strong american accent in my recording. Most of my recording sounded monotone(T_T), and probably because this concept of pitch and tone is quite foreign to me.  My goal for this cycle is to work on these problems and the solution, theoretically, will be enjoyable.  I will listen to Japanese songs daily to and from classes.  In addition, I will try to practice using the ほやくち　ことば。Honestly, I will have an extremely difficult time with these because I have never been good at saying tongue twisters in えいご or スペーンご.  Occasionally, I will watch an anime (some thing by みゆざき preferably) and try to shadow what they are saying.  Well then I am off!!!  (Wish me good luckは　にほんごで　なんと　いいますか)　　じゃあ、また！

こんばんは！

はじめまして。

フロレスです。あめりかじんです。さんねんせいです。

せいぶつがくです。

どうぞよろしく。

じゃあね。

こんにちは！

Welcome to my blog site はなのせかい!  Just to let you know, the title is a reference to name, which means flowers.  I spent an awful amount of time thinking of a title for the name of my blog site, and when I finally decided on the one I have now, I discovered that the Japanese in hiragana for flower is はな.  Now at first I was really confused because I thought back to our drill class and remembered that nose shared the same spelling.  At this point I was really confused and was unsure on whether or not I should change the name of the blog.  What I ended up doing was leaving the title in kanji, so I could leave my mind at rest.

Well then, enough blogging about blogs(my roommate started comparing my blog entry to the movie Inception); let me tell you a little bit about myself.  I am generally interested in Japanese culture, and it probably has something to do with my older brother making me watch anime every morning before school.  I enjoy watching them with subtitles, but if I have to i'll watch them dubbed in English or Spanish.  Spanish is actually the first language I learned to speak.  My parents are from Mexico and they did a very good job of teaching their children their native tongue, or at least most of their children.  My family frequently refers to me as the "gringo" of the house because of my slight American accent when speaking Spanish.  Many Americans believe that the word gringo is derogatory, but in Mexico it is occasionally used as a term of endearment. Hopefully, I do not end up with a similar stigma when I leave Japanese 101/102.  I'm looking forward to learning Japanese, and eventually (someday in the distant future) travelling to Japan.  

ありがとお　ございます！

じゃあ、ね。