旅行の思い出: Travel Memories

みなさん、

     このブログポストのトピックは私の好きな旅行の思い出 (My Favorite Travel Memory)です。

まずはじめに、みじかいIntroductionです (but first, a small introduction):

     私は中国人ですから、子供の時によく中国に旅行しました。両新はHangzhouから来ました。HangzhouはZhejiang州の中のまちです。今、両親はテキサスに住んでいます。けれども、おじいさんとおばあさんはまだHangzhouに住んでいます。家族の家のちかくに有名な湖があります。名前は "West Lake" (にし湖)です。とてもきれいなので、みなさん旅行をしに行った方がいいです。

     Because I am Chinese, when I was small, I often traveled to China. My parents are from a city called Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a town in Zhejiang province. Right now, my parents live in Texas. However, my grandma and grandpa still live in Hangzhou. There is a famous lake nearby my family's house called West Lake. Because it's extremely pretty, you should go travel and visit there too!

     6年さいの時に私と両親はHangzhouに三週間旅行しました。母は計画をたてて、ひこうきの切符を予約しました。ひこうきにのるのは１４時間かかったんです。ながすぎだと思います。

     Hangzhouについた時におじいさんとおばあさんの家に泊まりました。毎日、朝ごはんと晩ごはんに食べたりょうりは家族の作ったものです。昼は出かけましたが、外のレストランに食べに行きました。その間にもHangzhouのちかくのいい景色と有名なたてものでかんこうしました。その間にたくさん歩いたから、足がちょっと痛かったけど、テンションが高かったです。

     When I was six years old, my parents and I traveled in Hangzhou for 3 weeks. After my mom made the plans, we reserved plane tickets. The plane ride was 14 hours, and it felt so long!

     At the time we got to Hangzhou, we went to stay in my grandparents house. Every day, the breakfast and dinner meals we ate were my family's home-made ones.  For lunchtime, we went out and ate at outside restaurants. Also at this time, we went sight-seeing in Hangzhou's nearby beautiful sceneries and famous buildings. Because we walked a lot, my feet sort of hurt, but my spirits were still high during that time!

     Hangzhouにたくさんのことをしました。たとえば、中国のおてらに行ったり、安いいりょうひん店に買いに行ったり、美味しそうな中華料理を食べたりしました。それから、いろいろなこうえんでしんせきとあそびました。旅行がぜんぶとてもたのしかったと思います。もう一度行きたいですから、来年の夏休みの旅行の予定をもうたてています。

     There was so much we did in Hangzhou. For example, we went to Chinese temples, shopped at cheap clothing stores, and ate delicious Chinese good. Furthermore, I played with my cousins in various parks. All in all, I thought the trip was very fun. Because I wish to go again, I am already planning next summer's trip to China. :)

PPE Concert + Joe Hisaishi

みなさん、
こんにちは！昨日の晩はリチャードソン　ホールで　PPEのコンサートに行きました。The theme of the concert was "Wanderlust." I thought it fit in perfectly with this week's new chapter on "Travel Plans."

コンサートの音楽の中が一番好きなうたは「Spirited Away theme song」です。とてもゆうめだから、ちょっとないた。

If you haven't watched Spirited Away or listened to the soundtrack for it, 下のリンクをクリックしてください。

Also, here are some other famous songs from Studio Ghibli, a famous Japanese animation company that produces many great movies such as Howl's Moving Castle, and Castle In The Sky

みなさん、Studio Ghibliのえいがを みましたか。どのえいがが一番好きですか。
コメントして下さいませんか。

New Cherry Blossom Starbucks!

みなさん、

I recently found out that Starbucks has released a new Sakura flavor themed beverage and drink-ware for this year! したのウエブサイトがチェクをしませんか。http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/02/03/starbucks-japan-unveils-new-lineup-of-sakura-beverages-and-drinkware-for-2017/

新しいコーヒですが、おいしいそうですか。This is a new flavor, but does it look tasty?

さくらのコーヒはとてもきれいですけど、コーヒをあまり読みません。I don't drink coffee so I might not like it, but I know some friends who might. 

What do you think? Would you try such a drink?  

Midterm Reflection

こんにちは、
Midtermはちょっとむずかしいと思いました。でも、テストよりMidtermの方がやさしいです。While I thought the Midterm was hard, it was better than the first test this semester. Unfortunately,  I made a lot of careless spelling and particle errors on the Midterm. While the Midterm overall was not as great as I had hoped, I studied really hard. There was also not a lot of time to finish the long test and I am glad I was able to get through the end (I was rushing on the last section though). I also know I can do better on the final, especially since there will be more time for checking. I will continue to work hard and try my best again this quarter!

Some key areas I need to improve on:
1. Careless mistakes. I need to make sure to check over my spelling and particles in the Dict-a-conversation part.
2. Working on the listening section. In both my test and midterm, my listening section was the weakest. It is still hard for me to catch all the words, especially since they are now spoken at a faster speed. I will continue to practice with the textbook listening activities and going to office hours.
3. Noun modification. In general, plain forms and particles for nouns.
4. Tense. Be sure to account for past tenses.
5. Speed. Get faster at writing.

Some areas I improved on or did well in:
1. Reading comprehension. My speed of reading is very fast too.
2. Particles/Grammar! I finally got this section all correct (first time ever!)
3. Casual speech

I do not know the results of my oral exam yet but I think I also practiced a lot for it and felt fluid speaking. I might have made a small error with "ne" and "yo" (for some reason, it's very instinctive for me to end with ne instead of yo. But overall I think I challenged myself to talk a lot and speak quickly, to use different kinds of grammar and to be accurate with my particles, and to have correct intonation. I liked having the oral after the written part because I felt like the written part prepared me better for the oral.

リリアン・チェン

4th Quarter Goal Revisions

こんばんは！
Here are my revised goals from spring semester:

1. Go to Sato-sensee's office hours twice a week. さとう先生のオフィスに火曜日と木曜日に行きましょう。
2. Go to Shibata-sensee's office hours once a week to review Thursday's PE shadowing assignment + practice speaking. 
3. Write in blog two times a week to practice/review the Japanese we learned in class (ie. grammar, vocab, sayings, etc).
4. Go to Japanese Table once a month
5. Review past Japanese grammar/vocabulary on weekends.
6. *optional* Learn about famous Japanese locations/ monuments

While I did a good job to go to office hours twice a week with さとう先生 and sometimes once a week with しばた先生, I think some of my other goals were a bit lofty.

I was able to continuously post in my blog, although not always twice a week. Some weeks had more posts while some weeks had none. I will continue to make an effort to post twice a week because it is very fun and good practice to do so. 

I also will try to stick to a new goal of going to 日本語ターブル once a month.

I will have to drop my goal of listening to Japanese podcasts. While I will continue to listen to the soundtracks of きみにのなわ and Miyazaki's films in my free time, I will have to find more effective ways of practicing listening and speaking, like doing the workbook listening activities when I review on weekends. I will also have to shorten my review sessions on weekends. 

I've also added a goal of researching famous Japanese locations/monuments. I want to do this culture activity because I want to create vector graphics of these places on Illustrator (since I am trying to improve my skills in Illustrator as well). I think this would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

YukiKitchen Website

みなさん、
下のおもしろいウェブサイトをチェックしてください。かわいい日本のベジタリアンのりょうりがあります。とてもおいしそうです！

http://yukitchen.com/

http://yukitchen.com/vegan-ramen-with-a-pola-bear/

何が一番おいしそうですか。何が一番かわいいと思いますか。コメントをしてください。

Nassau Sushi Restaurant Review

こんにちは！

ナッソーストリートの日本のレストランの中でNassau Sushiが一番おいしいと思います。去年と今年三回レストランに行きました。

昨日は友だちとNassau Hallの前で会って、いっしょにNassau Sushiレストランに晩ごはんを食べに行きました。

昨日の朝はハーフマラソンをしたので、とてもたべたかったです。かんこくのりょうりをちゅうもんしたけど、Tofu Stewがからくなかったです。おいいしそうだったから、ごはん二つやたくさんやさいを食べました。友だちは大きいすしと"Ohmu"ライスをちゅうもんしました。友だちと話して、楽しかったですよ。

みなさん、ひまな時にNassau Sushiに行きましょうか。