はじめまして

Edit: I've already changed the blog name XD But the intent remains the same!

こんにちは！

Hi! Welcome to my newly created blog, isshoni benkyoumasshou (一緒に勉強しまっしょう). The title means, "Let's study together". And it took me forever to get the spelling right. See, I'm a new Japanese student; I've been studying for only about four months, but I am fascinated by it!


I avoided taking Japanese for the longest time because I didn't want to be seen as "one of those damn otaku", but in college I needed an extra class to be full time, and I ended up taking a quarter...I loved it! Right afterwards, I ended up changing colleges, and my new one does not offer Japanese classes, so I'm learning by myself right now with the help of several great resources.

I created this blog so I could share resources I find with other people who are also new to learning the Japanese language and culture, and so my friends won't kill me for talking about how much I like it all the time. A lot will be written in English, but a lot of Japanese as well, so installing Japanese fonts will be necessary. This is a good place for directions on how to install fonts and type in Japanese:

http://www.coscom.co.jp/japanesefont/inputjapanese/installime.html

My resources:

-Genki textbook + workbook. I have to say, I love Genki! I took Spanish in high school and also in college, but I would never be able to follow those textbooks by myself. Genki is easy to follow and gives lots of examples. When you begin chapter three, kanji lessons are given in the back of the book as well.

-smart.fm. A learning community majorly focused on learning languages; many members keep journal entries in the language they are learning.
Also offered is the iKnow flash application that drills vocabulary; make your own vocabulary lists or search for others'. Oftentimes people will make vocabulary lists based on the textbooks they are studying.

-Tofugu.com. A damn good Japanese blog. Why am I even making one?

-kanji-a-day.com. Offers a kanji a day (duh), and a great online kanji dictionary showing the stroke order for the characters. Based on the JLPT.

I think that's enough for now. Happy studying!