Almost Back On Schedule

[silver_tiamat]

Yesterday I finally saw what I've been wanting to see for a long while now: 130lbs on the scale. And yes, to be fair, it was 130.6lbs, and today I'm down to 130.4lbs despite eating McDonald's yesterday (though I TOTALLY PWNED MCDONALD'S yesterday. I got a meal for $4.05 and 450 calories--score). If this keeps up, even if I only lose .2lbs everyday

Comments

[miss_ljv]

That sounds really scary! I wouldn't know where to start! You sound like you're doing amazing, though! And that's so cute to have penpals!

[silver_tiamat]

Well, it's not SO scary. I mean, I have a good idea of where I need to start--basically the JLPT certifies that you're sort of like an equivalent of a Japanese student. So, you just have to start learning the same kanji that students learn in school. If you go up through the grades, you'll be in good shape (I'm now know almost all the kanji taught in first grade, and I'm working on second and third...I need to get around the end of elementary school and beginning of middle school for the JLPT 3).

And pen pals are AWESOME. They've helped me improve my written Japanese SO MUCH just because I constantly have to practice it. And it's helping me to get over the INSTANT FEAR I feel when I'm confronted with a native speaker. I highly recommend it. There are loads of sites out there to connect with people. Plus, they want to learn English like woah, so it's a win-win. =D

[miss_ljv]

The problem with helping them speak English is... I find their grammar errors excessively charming and don't WANT to correct them! :P

There's so much Kanji to learn! I'm much better at learning the words than writing them! It's currently really scary to me, and while in almost every other setting I prefer to learn on my own, I probably will take classes at my uni in the future to learn it. :)

[silver_tiamat]

Really? I think I'd find kanji sort of fun to learn, if it wasn't something that comes with so much pressure right now. I mean, it's really interesting stuff. But, why is it so scary? I mean, you can read hiragana and such, right?

And maybe it's because I'm an English B.A., but I never find grammar mistakes "charming." Sometimes funny or maybe rather interesting, but I'm always willing to correct people if they want to be corrected. If it makes you feel any better, it's actually difficult to find Japanese people who are really willing to correct YOU as well. It goes against their cultural nature (though, obviously, people do think for themselves). So, you'll just keep making the same mistake over and over until finally someone says, "Oh...yeah, you're not supposed to say it that way. That's wrong." =/