JLPT sample questions

 This is fun

I got the first answer right. I selected the answer which seemed like a real world compared to other jumbled ones.

正解 desu 

recognize the 

解 (kai)

character from ryokai yesterday?

正 (sei, “correct”) +‎ 解 (kai, “explanation”)

• 誤答ごとう (gotō, “incorrect answer”)
• 誤解ごかい (gokai, “misunderstanding”)
• 不正解ふせいかい (fuseikai, “incorrect answer”)

You want to know what the JLPT says for wrong answer. Its easy to know from the x answer symbol. The correct answer wasnt easy to figure because it came with a red circle. 

You want to know what the JLPT says for wrong answer, its easy, get the wrong answer. (Some humor)

 間違い (Machigai) mistake.

Shiva as Guru

Dakshinamurthy stotram

 vibhuti yoga

Onyomi vs Kunyomi bridge

 onyomi Vs kunyomi

When you read about these, it does not stick what its all about. This article summarises it very well. How I came to it the second time is -

On pg 14 of Wesley Robertson's book, you will see the character for long. In this book, I was stuck at there for a long time. The reason for that it is, I dont want to move to the next character without internalising the current one. Here is the journey from long to short. I recognize that the next character is short now. Now I can move onto the next character. It is a snail pace, but it takes the time it takes. 

I was going over my notes of words from another book and saw 部長. The second character is the long character. I have it written down as buchou(manager).

From Wesley Robertson's book - Sample uses 長 なが い

 社 長

しゃ ちょう 

I hadnt thought of the readings yet. Since the long character is now in my brain, I dared to look at its sound. There's two waya of reading it なが(naga) and ちょう(chou). This is where the onyomi vs kunyomi fits in. Its one thing to read about something especially when you are learning the basic .. its time for a haiku.. :)

"I RO HA (A B C) 　いろは

One two three 一二三


.. ONE .. TWO .. THREE ..
a winter day spent
studying basics

Gabi Greve, December 2007" - wkdhaikutopics

Do look up the image. Its those calligraphic writings that call me to understand them.

Continuing our thread, when you beginw ith learning the numbers you will write down the onyomi and kunyomi reading for those but only when ypu see the detail of how the word is pronounced differently, does it really drive home. Two things that I loved about the article, apart from all the good stuff:

1. The other day, during a lunch walk we were talking about how English is not English everywhere - meaning American English is different from what everybody else learns as a second language learner of English.

Even Americans themselves are stumped if its a word from yester years - eg bubbler - water fountain, spoon of beer and so on.

The article shows the example of soda and other related words 

2. There is a reference to a cookie emoji, if it were to be used to replace all the related words-- it would eat up cookie, biscuit and so on.. That really made me understand the complexity of word transfers. 

My journey of learning Chinese-Japanese is all inside-out, squiggly, wiggly.

"匂い Fragrant におい" from breakdown of kimi no wa novel

2147. aroma A] R-3103 bound up ... spoon. [4]

aroma

Remembering the Hanzi

 Just learned that there is Remembering Simplified Hanzi I for Chinese.  There is Remembering Simplified Hanzi II (sample) as well as Remembering Traditional Hanzi 1(sample) and Remembering Traditional Hanzi 1I(sample).

This learner's comments make me understand why my initial inroads into the Reading & Writing Chinese book did not make inroads. There wasnt a clear 1-1 correspondence that I could maintain with initial characters. I should have stuck with it. But thats ok.

I had come across this page before. I can document my learning experience in a similar way.

RTK or remembering the Kaniji

 There are 3 volumes.

Volume I

Volume 2

Volume 3

Some experiences of others with this Remembering the Kanji.

When I saw 外字(excluded/external/foreign characters) in the introduction of third volume, I recognized the 外 character from shienmasu(die).

• 外角 【ガイカク】 external angle, exterior angle, outside corner story behind this is that I am looking for words that use the second character and came across it with starting with 外 . There is a word with second character 角 that I couldnt figure out in the class that we are going to be taught today. 

I found it. 了解. It means understood/ok/roger that.

I found the Chinese pronounciation for 角 and from there, I looked for that in the index of my Reading & Writing Chinese book by William McNaughton.

kanji 1 to 1000

Long to Short

 Recently I learned the Kanji for long. I was interested in the letter for short which I came across in a haiku, but there was another surprise in that haiku.

"making the short night

even shorter medicine --Mojio 短夜をもっと短くする薬　喪字男"

薬 kusuri for medicine is similar to ongaku or 楽 (gaku- music)

Kusuri Kanji explanation

23 words with kusuri/yaku

Came across short in Reading & Writing Chinese - where the first part of 短 is an arrow which is smaller than a spear. The chinese letter in the book is collection of arrow, grain and woman all shorter compared to spear, tree and man respectively.

I find bigger words easier to learn and possibly complex kanji already has a story. It is easier to learn the complex and remember the subparts for me, than learn the organelles and then up.

Longer words have more letters for the memory to hang onto. Complex characters are unique and easy to identify. I find Volume 3 of Remember the Knaji more fascinating.

Reverse lookup

 A while ago I read this definition poem by Michael Ondaatje and wanted to know the Sanskrit words referred to ---

"the name for an alcove --- 
of coin washers whose fingers glint ----
all night with dark lead, grains of silver

Here root vowels take
an accent at high altitudes

the way dictionaries
speak over mountains

A single word to portray light ----
from that distant village
reflected in a cloud,
or your lover’s face lit
by the moonlight on a stage

Landscapes nudge the dialect.
In far places travellers know
a faint gesture can mean
desire or scorn,
         just as
a sliver of a phrase thrown away
hides charms within its grammar

         —A guru
“someone with a light touch”
derives from that short vowel, alone
and before a single consonant

The precisely named odour of a man -----
who is a heart-thief

a word for the highest complication ----
during a play used also for impregnation

Attributes of character
link themselves to professions
—a metal worker, the river merchant,
the Commissioner of Oaths,
the census taker of birds who
continues the medieval art
of whistling,

those who carry bees on their arm ----
like a dark flame,

the sullen recluse  -----
who was once the author
of a prayer

This word for a pool before a temple,
or a n s a—“the shape of a shoulder blade”
as in the corner of a holy quadrangle

     *

     The ancient phrases
give you the coin of escape
—that epithet for those who return
to broken relationships repeatedly
will row you away from confusion

or remain only for remembrance"

Saundaryalahari

 Saundaryalahari of Sankaracharya

Tantra  -   Siva         Sakti

Vedic  -    Purusa     Prakriti

Advaita - Brahman  Maya

Kinds of liberation:

Samipya

Sarupya

Sayujya

Salokya and Sarshti

samayachara tathpara  - 98th name of lalitha sahasranama stotram

saundarya lahari

Stotras for health

A friend shared that these are good for health - 

Aditya Hrudayam

Subramanya Bhujangam

While listening to Subramanya Bhujangam, I came across Shri Rama Bhujangam.

Narayaneeyam 100 dasakas in 100 raagas.

Tobira

 Tobira i beginning Japanese workbook

kanji sample

Tobira power up your Kanji

How kids learn Japanese

 How Japanese Children Learn Kanji has a way to read this website.

I saw this dictionary without an English word and wondered how and then duh! we have self language dictionaries. 

mnemonics

Multiple times

Remembering the Kanji 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters 

 

aka SRS or spaced repetition

you have to see a kanji many many times, to say that you got it.. I have been holding onto this page.. pg 14 for a long time. But I can now say that I have rewired my brain cells to hold a parking lot for the character long because that was the only letter in a set of 100 basic kanji that I didnt know ( Basic Kanji) and it stood out. Its like sentence mining aka Goldilocks of having just one difficult word in a sentence.

I am going through the "Remenering Kanji" book over and over. Already I see some words making sense the Kanji way with many enthusiastic people posting for Japanese people learning English. 

For eg.. the the first character for agreement is petition character 135 from the "Remembering Kanji" book.

This is a cute color coded list of basic kanji.

Language exchange

 If you are in on what the reverse language learners ie native speakers of the language that you are trying to learn, intersted in learning the language you already know then there is a bit of alignment in terms of the level of ease or difficulty of words athat you are both trying to learn.

Language is new and concious is older

 Why is the unconsconscious reluctant to talk in language? from Couldn't Care Less. Cormac McCarthy in conversation with David Krakauer

This morning I woke up with some Japanese words rhyming.. getsukon, kekkon, poskon .. 

Learnign a bit of katakana with List of gairaigo and wasei-eigo terms

Kichouhin

Japanese in record time

 

The other day I went late to a Japanese class because I was tied up with teaching a Telugu class. I was prepared for the class thoguh with the meanings written out for the new words except for a few. From the meaning shared by the classmates, I understood it was meant to be 'valuables' because I remember from the hotel conversation in this Japanese in record time book. I checked back today and it is that.

After a bit I tried to recall the word and recalled the romaji of it. I feel thats ok, whatever makes the connection. It will be a long time before I can remember the words from hiragana and Kanji. Currently its by sound and meaning association.

I am happy for this journey which is making me learn from the books I stashed from 2002 and 2007.

sentence mining

11/10/24

My eyes have now opened to see this as two books. A book to learn Japanese for English learners and a book to learn English for Japanese learners. That is what a brdige is all about, taking people both ways. A river.