Often, I hear words in conversation that I know, yet I am unable to recall. If someone else uses them, I know immediately, but I don't think I would be able to spontaneously insert into a sentence. Today it was "誤解", a mistake. A good word for me to know.

Studying Kanji too, I have become very familiar my memories capabilities. Memorizing is actually a pretty exact science. If I have a certain amount of words, I can fairly accurately determine how many days of study I need to remember them. That's just for test prep. I have to read the Kanji pretty regularly or I'll forget it.

I read everyday aloud now, which sometimes is an exercise in frustration, but it really helps. I just finished Winnie the Pooh (Kuma no puu-san), which I highly recommend, partly cause it's fun to read. Now I am starting The Little Prince. It's harder, I hope I can do it. There's a fine line between challenging yourself and wasting your time, I am learning. If I get through a chapter and re-read it a few times and have no idea what I just read, I try and find something easier.

Japanese is full of homonyms. English is too but I wonder who has more? Japanese has a rather small sound pallette, so it's full of words that sound different to native speakers, but very alike to my Western ears. Plus, there are many similar sounding words, where you have to differentiate between "go" and gou" or "kyu" and "kyuu". One of the first I remember was:顔ーKao：Face　＆　買うーKau－To Buy

Above, the meanings are different, but with some words the meanings are similar or even more confounding, near antonyms! For example, if you are in Japan and anywhere near a baby, you will hear a steady stream of :

かわいい！-Kawaii! Cute!! Originally my pronunciation was so bad it was easily confused with:

怖い! -Kowai! Scary! Not a nice thing to call a baby, especially if you are an American trying to make a good impression. To exacerbate the situation, another common expression for pathetic or sad (think "Aww, poor thing") is：

かわいそう -Kawaisou. I originally thought this was an expression consisting of:

Kawaii(cute) + Sou (seeming). And it is, but a not the same Kawaii (different Kanji)! Look at this:

可愛いーCute

可哀そう-Pathetic

It became easier when I realized nobody says "Seems Cute!!", as that kind of implies that upon further inspection, perhaps it's not. ("~Sou" is used a lot for food that looks good, but the speaker has no idea if it is or not.) Again, this isn't something you would say about a baby. You would just say, "Cute!", obviously.

When I was learning to ride a motorcycle, the most important thing my teachers taught me was, while turning, not to look in front of me, but look at where I was going, i.e. the end of the curve in the road. We had to drive around a square lot, and at each corner, we had to learn to turn our heads away from where we were headed at an uncomfortable angle, then proceed into the turn. After a few weeks of practice, my turning became less wobbly and nerve-racking.

As I practice reading here in my room, I find the same excercise is important. If I hover over ever word as I read, I am not doing much more than spitting out a series of sounds. It's not smooth at all, and I understand very little of what I read.

However, when I am moving my eyes past the characters as I read them, they form into the proper word (no spaces in Japanese, so sometimes it's a little hard for me to see where the last word ended~), and even though I still mispronounce certain hiragana, overall I can hear myself getting more and more fluid.

It's a simple concept really, reading English I am always reading the words from my mind, not the page.

Look where you are going, not where you are.

Sometimes as I try to speak, I find myself trying to take an English sentence in my head and convert it verbatim to Japanese. At dinner one night, I wanted to say something to the effect of:
"The immigration issue in America is different (than Japan) because as polarized as it is, every single (Non-Native American) citizen came from somewhere else a few generations ago."
Now, there are several words I don't know in Japanese, and a few words that, at the dinner table, I wasn't able to recall. It used to be frustrating, like trying to push thoughts through a funnel. But now I try and reduce it, like a fraction to a simper sentence.
"It's a little different because 200-300 years ago, we all came from another country."
少し違うんだから２００－３００年前に全ての人は他の国から来ましたね。
Not exactly eloquent, but better then silently cogitating as people stare at me, awaiting a response.
Part of this process for me is trying to keep my English simple, and that makes it easier to convert it to Japanese.
I downloaded Declan's Kanji flashcard software and am playing with it. On the good side so far, you go through a series of tests to move to the next level, so you can't get away with not memorizing the on-yomi or alternate kun-yomi. It's also pretty easy to navigate and load new kanji. On the bad side, it's like a lot of apps made by smaller companies that lack the typical windows integration that I like. I prefer to use keystrokes over mouse-clicks, especially when entering data into fields, etc. For me it's annoying to "..tab, type, tab, type...tab, type. -Shit, mouse click. Reset hands. ok...tab..." Small potatoes, ya. Also, it seems like you can only study 10 Kanji at a time, which is a pain. it also default at startup to 一、二、三 , which is good as an option, but for non-beginners, it would be good to be offered a choice. Also studying stroke order on a computer is lame. But that isn't their problem. I think is will be a good supplement.

So while I have a month off I am focusing on preparation and review. In America, review (復習-fukushuu) is a common study method, of course. But here in Japan, equally ubiquitous is yoshuu (予習) or studying ahead. At first it seemed kind of strange to study lessons I hadn't worked on with the teacher, but it's become a necessary tool. At the rate we study, the only way I can survive is to come into class with a fair idea of what we are going to work on. If I have any questions, I can ask, but during the class, we practice the pronunciation and usage. The rules, etc. I work on at home.

So I'm trying to learn the Kanji for the whole semester during my winter break. For me, Kanji is the easiest part, because it is just memorization. Plus the more I can learn, the more billboards and text seems to jump out at me. It's neat. For example, a few months ago, when we were studying body parts and professions, all of a sudden around my train stop, dentists and ear, nose, throat clinics were everywhere!! It's funny to think I walked right past 5 of them in my neighborhood, to go to into the city to find one.

So I practice Kanji, I write about 150 now, and add 20 a day. In a few days, I will have covered all the Kanji I am going to learn this semester. Then I can work on the vocabulary that uses them.

Also, from my textbook and the accompanying CD, I do about 20 minutes of shadowing. I put on my headphones and repeat the stories that is being spoken. I then do the same thing with a 25 minute daily news (Yomiuri) podcast. This is a pretty new exercise for  me, it's kind of hard now. We will see in a few weeks, though. I hope it will improve my listening and speaking abilities.

As far as reading goes, I split my time between easy reading like Doraemon etc, and various websites, textbooks, more difficult manga, and various periodicals I have picked up since I got here. Sometimes this gets pretty ponderous, but I need to improve me reading. Reading manga helps, because it's more interesting than the textbooks ("Let's go on a trip! What should we bring?") .

I need to add more writing to the daily chores, but I will wait until after Christmas.

I was talking to a couple of aquaintences, one of whom is an English (ESL) teacher.  I was telling the other about  the differences in  grammar. The English  teacher remarked that Japanese grammar is much easier than English. Now he doesn't speak Japanese, but does speak Spanish and teaches at a reputable school, so I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I am not so sure I agree.

Japanese has so many grammar patterns, not to mention politeness levels. Iwonder if that technically qualifies as grammar. Not even including Keigo, which has various levels. But it's hard for me to say, since one is native and one is not.

Anyway, Japanese grammar hard for me!

Shinjuku is the heart of Tokyo. It's probably the first place people think of for nightlife, shopping, and dining, really without leaving the station proper, but make sure you walk around. Take the Kabukicho exit out of the station and walk around the that area.

My favorite bookstore Kinokuniya is there, 9 or 10 stories of books. The comics and manga sections is massive. I am not a manga geek, but it's growing on me. It's good for my Japanese and the artwork is pretty cool. I used to think it was only for pervs, but some of the stories are really amazing. I love the size of the books. They are designed to be read on a packed train...

Advise.

If you live in Tokyo for more than a month, you have probably learned the shuffle/waddle you use to navigate the crowds. It's amazing how this wears me out. If you come to Akihabara, and want to enjoy the atmosphere, by all means come here on a weekend and waddle around. If you want to shop for video games, manga, computer parts, anything electronic basically, I was here on a Monday at about 11:00 am and it was cheez-whiz.

I have little interest in games, but the used books and little stores that are tucked away are fun. Definitely worth a visit. Here's a pic of nothing that you would associate with Akihabara.

I got back the end of the semester test and I did really well, 6th in the class! It's probably the best I have done on a test this semester. Today was the Kanji test, I think I did ok, but it was hard. I stayed up till 2 last night studying, and got up at 6 this morning to study more. Still I hope I break 80. Not too sure...

Next semester I will have to do more review, and do it consistently, so these tests don't kill me. I have to study about...20% harder. I think I can do that. flashcardexchange.com saved my ass again. I memorized about 300 words in 3 days. The writing section （書き方）, I didn't do too well but the reading (読み方) , I think I did okay.

Tomorrow is  the conversation test, then Wednesday is pronunciation. I still need to work on my speech, punch it up. Tomorrow morning, maybe.

This semester is winding down. I have to plan my winter break study routine, I really hope I can make some headway reading.

This semester was hard.  At times, I didn't think I would make it. To be honest, I'm not positive I will move up to the next level, but I think I will. Even if I don't, I promise I will swallow my pride and take it like a man.

I'm tired. Tonight I will relax and think about the speech.

Lately I ask my girlfriend to read to me. When I listen to her read, it helps me with my pronunciation and flow. Also it reminds me of how pretty Japanese sounds coming from a native speaker, as opposed to the oral butchering it receives from me:)

The Foreign words always stick out to me. My teacher says that they sound cool to Japanese. I can do without them.