日本語で 話しましょ！

This fall semester I am back to studying Japanese. Now I am in the credited classes, JPN101, instead of the continuing education class I was taking before. It's a much quicker pace, 5 credits, homework, quizzes, etc. I am studying more, practicing more, and loving it. I really remember more from my previous classes than I thought I did.

Here's a set of study aids I use:
1. Denshi Jisho - Online dictionary, w/ Kanji lookup.
2. About.com Verb Conjugation - A quick reference for conjugating common verbs.
3. Japanese Verb Conjugator - A search engine for conjugating any verb.
4. Minna no nihongo renshuu - A nice practice site with great activities for reviewing your knowledge. Covers 101 and 102.
5. Talk Now! Japanese - A cheap software package, good for vocabulary practice. I have an older version I found on a discount rack for $15.
6. Learn in your car - An audio CD set for practicing vocab and phrases in your car or iPod.
7. Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary - A great dictionary for beginner's, includes notes on honorifics, conjugation, tense, etc. All in hiragana/katakana, but also gives the Kanji.
8. エリンが　ちょうせん　にほんご　できます - A Japanese TV show to help non-native speakers learn Japanese. Two things I really like about it is the immersion, and the kanji. It's 100% in Japanese, even though it is targeted at the beginner. And it shows kanji with furigana for everything, which I really wish they would do for all Japanese learning material. So when you finally start to learn kanji you have a foundation of familiar kanji because you've seen them again and again in the show.

Finally, if I can give any advice whatsoever, it would be to learn hiragana and katakana before you even start learning the language. Memorize them, it's not hard, and take all your notes with them and just skip right over romaji. Romaji is terrible, particularly some versions of it. The sooner you are in kana only, the sooner you will be reading/writing smoothly and quickly, and you will avoid some spelling pitfalls introduced by the jump from romaji to kana.

Rock Band 2

When I went to Pax 2010 with Admiral Nelson, we stopped at the local GameWorks and had a blast playing Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania. I was sold on the idea of a drum game, and I have since bought Rock Band 2. The price came down when The Beatles: Rock Band was released, so I got the package deal for $99 (drums, guitar, game). I absolutely love playing the drums on this thing.

Guitar in RB2 is not as fun as Guitar Hero, but still a good time. I say not as fun because the Medium difficulty is too easy (I actually struggle to stay awake while playing) but then Hard difficulty is a huge leap and just too difficult. In Guitar Hero, Medium had hammer-ons and pull-offs and other things to keep it interesting. RB2 doesn't really start to do anything interesting until Hard, but then it is all too much. It adds hammer-on/off, the 5th button, and way more complexity. Too much complexity for one step up in difficulty.

In any case, the game was well worth the cash, especially since my wife will actually play with me. She is saving her earnings to buy the ruby rings.