ええがとうた

てんくうのしろラピュタをみました。とてもおもしろかったですよ。にほんごをすこしわかりました。

Recently I watched Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky (instead of studying like I should be). I was pleasantly surprised to be able to understood some words here and there, maybe if I work hard someday I'll be able to watch it entirely without subtitles.



The story itself was very charming. It had a little kid story's simplicity but was still beautifully made with a lot of action and emotion. One criticism I would have however, would be that the pacing in the beginning was a bit slow and made me bored at first.




 きれいですね。 My favorite scenes were those of the castle. The architecture was very pretty and coupled with the tree roots and the "ruined effect" it was amazing. I'd post a better picture showing how elaborate it is... but I can't find one of a good close-up T.T

Maybe after finals are over I'll watch some more Japanese movies


I mentioned before how Super Junior is my favorite band. Recently they released a new song in Japanese. Also, the name is Snow White, which makes me excited because that's my Chinese name, and the name of this blog because Shiro Yuki is a bit catchier sounding than Melissa's Blog -.-. Super Junior, Japanese, and a reference to my name? Triple win :D. My Japanese isn't good enough to grasp the entire meaning of the lyrics but I recognized some words here and there.

Here's a video with both Romaji and English lyrics if anyone wants to see how much they can understand

Katakana Literary Work [Final]

Reads right to left.

Katakana words used:
ワイワイ- Sound effect for people talking in the background
カチャ- Sound effect for door opening
パタ- Sound effect for falling down
ジーー- Sound effect for stares
チリペッパー- Chili pepper
ニャ- Sound effect for grin
ハンサム- Handsome
ガヤガヤ- Sound effect for excited crowd
アメリカ- America
エ- Sound effect for shock
ギョ- Sound effect for fear
ヒヤヒヤ- Another sound effect for fear
チリソース- Chili sauce

New Word: べんなかいじん- Weird foreigner

Composition 3 [Final]

二十ねんごのわたしはﾆｭｰﾖｰｸにいます。にぎやかなまちですから。しごとはにほんとちゅうごくでします。そして、にほんとちゅうごくへときどきいきます。わたしはべんごしです。とてもいそがしいですが、たのしいです。まいにちくじからごじまではたらきます。ﾀｸｼｰでかいしゃへいきます。しゅうまつかんこくごをならいます。そしてともだちとあそびます。わたしのせいかつはいいですよ！

Katakana Analysis (final)

ゴニーヤツ
This was a sound effect of a car crash in a manga book. I think one reason that sound effects are written in katakana is so that readers won't confuse it for a word. It can also grab at the reader's attention so he/she will know to pay attention to it. Also, it makes the manga more dynamic when readers can visualize the sound effects and helps convey the mangaka's intent better.

クレンジング
This seems to be an English loanword for "cleansing" which was found on a bottle of skincare product, aptly called cleansing oil. Since I know that sometimes names are written in katakana rather than hiragana or kanji, the makers may have decided to put the katakana version of the name on the packaging to emphasis the product name. Also, using a katakana loanword instead of a Japanese word may be more trendy/catchy as a marketing strategy, like how some American skincare brands use French names for their products.

I think the purpose of katakana is let to the reader know that this word is important in some way. Whether to indicate onomatopoeia, English loanwords, or just topic-relevant keywords. Katakana can be used to emphasis certain words, like how in English some words are italicized to show that it is notable for some reason. Also it may be used in lieu of hiragana/kanji to sound more trendy and modernized.

Our textbook covered katakana very briefly, other than how to write it correctly and basic uses for it we did not go into detail about katakana. However, I think that I have learned enough to be able to use/read it sufficiently as an elementary Japanese learner. As I progress in my Japanese studies I will probably explore deeper uses for katakana. Through some outside research I have found out that katakana is also use for scientific and technical terms as well. It was created by Buddhist monks as a form of shorthand for Chinese characters.

Katakana Literary Work

Reads "manga style" from right to left.

Composition 2

やまださんへ

はじめまして！わたしはメｒッサです。テキサスのヒューストンからきました。じゅうはっさいです。コロンビアのがくせいです。いちねんせいです。コロンビアはとてもきれいですが、いまとてもさむいです。だいがくのせいかつはたのしいですが、むずかしいです。ろくがつよっかにひこうきでにほんへいきます。よろしくおねがいします！

Katakana Analysis Draft

ゴニーヤツ
This was a sound effect of a car crash in a manga book. I think one reason that sound effects are written in katakana is so that readers won't confuse it for a word. It can also grab at the reader's attention so he/she will know to pay attention to it.

クレンジング
This seems to be an English loanword for "cleansing" which was found on a bottle of skincare product, aptly called cleansing oil. Since I know that sometimes names are written in katakana rather than hiragana or kanji, the makers may have decided to put the katakana version of the name on the packaging to emphasis the product name.

The purpose of katakana seems to be for letting the reader know that this word is important in some way. Whether to indicate onomatopoeia, English loanwords, or just words that are topic-focused.

Our textbook covered katakana very briefly, other than how to write it correctly and basic uses for it we did not go into detail about katakana. However, I think that I have learned enough to be able to use/read it sufficiently as an elementary Japanese learner.

こんしゅう

わたしはメリッサバイ！ I learned my name in Katakana; it sounds a little funny because of the "r/l" sound. My Chinese name means white snow alliance, I know that the first part in Japanese would be しろゆき,  but I don't know the Japanese word for alliance. When I put 盟 in Google Translate it gave me アライアソス... not sure if this is right.

まいにちべんきょうします。わたしもまいにちてれびをみます。I kind of てれびをみます too much and べんきょうします not nearly enough... I will try to あしたてれびをみません。Technically I watch everything online, not on a TV, but I haven't learned the Japanese word for online video streaming yet, if there is one.

こんしゅうはFamily Weekendです。I'll get to see my mom きんようびとどようび, although I'm not sure what we're going to do.

What I'm REALLY excited for is next week. らいしゅうにちようびにともだちとconcertのSMTownをいきます！SMTown is a Kpop concert and I'm so lucky to be here in New York because Kpop rarely comes to the US. Now I can see my favorite group Super Junior:

I never would have thought that I can have the chance to see them in person :D Maybe if at the concert one of the groups performs a Japanese song I'll be able to understand a little bit^^

If you've never heard of Super Junior before this is their most well-known song:

little achievements

I'm taking both Chinese and Japanese and already I'm starting to get confused, especially since we're starting Katakana and a lot of the characters are similar to Chinese ones T.T It's been a bit of an overload trying to memorize sets of both Chinese and Japanese characters at the same time, hopefully I won't become so disoriented that I end up writing Chinese on the Japanese midterm.

Yesterday I tried reading my bottle of Japanese cleansing oil and I was able to recognize a couple things here and there. It wasn't much, but I was pretty pleased to have made just a little progress, although it'll probably be a while before I can read a full on novel and not just skincare bottles.

It works really well! I recommend to any girls with stubborn makeup that won't come off  in one wash.

...I would type in Japanese, but I realized that I just don't know enough to convey my thoughts properly.

English makes me :)

Konichiwa! My name is Melissa and I present to you my blog Shiro Yuki, dedicated to Japanese.
I first became interested in Japan because its amazing creativity in street fashion. Now, I'm a fan of all things Japanese such as food, anime, music, art, and random little cute things. I hope to one day visit Japan so I can see the fast-paced society for myself, and try legit takoyaki.

Right now I'm a freshman at Columbia University, (prospectively) majoring in East Asian studies. I actually spent three months agonizing about whether to take Japanese or Korean. In the end, Japanese was the clear winner because not only would I like to speak Japanese and visit Japan, I can see myself staying there. I've just recently learned hiragana, although it is still a little difficult for me to read through a sentence.

はじめまして！

わたしはMelissaです。あめりかからきました。Columbiaのがくせい。じゅうはっさいです。このblogはわたしのです。どうぞよろしく、おねがいします。