It's coming up this weekend, hooray! Not only will there be both Sidewalk and SHOUT, but also the Japanese film festival at the Birmingham Museum of Art (and that is free!). Needless to say, there are lots of difficult decisions for us to make. But we're planning to see all or parts of:
Friday
6:00 - Jigoku Mon
IMDb 7.3/10
Saturday
11:00 - Trans Francisco
SHOUT's transgender doc this year.
1:45 - Life of Oharu
IMDb 8.1/10
Fictional chronicle of a former prostitute, set in 17th century Kyoto.
3:30 - Sasame Yuki
IMDb 7.2/10
Exploration of pre-war life in Osaka, seen through the eyes of 4 sisters.
OR
3:40 - Parking Lot Movie
IMDb 7.1/10
Doc about parking lot attendants in Charlottesville.
Might duck in for part of 6:00 - Beijing Taxi
Doc about taxi drivers in Beijing.
7:15 - Make Believe
IMDb 6.8/10
Documentary about a competition between young, aspiring magicians.
9:15 - Mutant Girls Squad
IMDb 7.5/10
From the makers of RoboGeisha. So, obviously, we have to see it.
Sunday
11:00 - Clean Flix
IMDb 7.0/10
Doc about a company that took "objectionable" material out of blockbuster films and the backlash they received.
1:30 - Barbershop Punk
IMDb 8.0/10
Internet privatization doc.
OR
1:40 - On Coal River
Coal pollution doc.
4:15 - Ready, Set, Bag!
IMDb 8.9/10
Grocery baggers' competition documentary. :D
Probably will be bushed by then, but might choose see all or part of Evil Things or Raspberry Magic to finish out the weekend.
Luckily I will have my iPhone and Anki App with me so I can study during the downtime. :)
Monday, September 20, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Well, I got an iPhone...
...and it has CHANGED MY LIFE. And sucked up a lot of time that I should have spent studying... ^_^;;
My drive to work, which under normal conditions would take ~20 minutes, takes a full hour. So now, I use the Anki iPhone app to study during my ~30 minutes of being at a dead stop. Of course, I don't use it when in motion. :D
I will be reviewing it later. Thus far, I get some sort of error every morning that prevents me from finishing each deck (and I have 3 right now - Heisig Kanji, Reading Vocab & Unicom Vocab). It's a little frustrating when the app costs a premium $24.99.
So, I'm more than halfway finished with よつばと! Vol. 7. It is something I really look forward to reading, and I'm gleaning a lot of new vocab (or new kanji for vocab words I am familiar with). Some pages are very easy to understand, and fly right by (as *cough* in the picture at left). But some exchanges between Fuuka and her friend, "Shimau," or Asagi use more complex diction/structure. So there are some pages that take me a while to get through, as I laboriously add flashcards for every little thing that isn't second-nature.
I am also continuing with the Heisig method of learning kanji, where you learn the meaning of the character only, and none (or in my case, few) of the readings. I use the Reviewing the Kanji site to share and find interesting stories for each character, then add it to my Anki deck. I am practicing writing each character to cement them in my mind.
I was going to discontinue the Heisig learning, but in just a few short days I have seen how easy it makes studying vocab for characters I have already learned the meaning of. Smooth like butter! So I am continuing with this, but trying to hurry it up... I know I don't have much time.
Right now, out of my study books, the Unicom Jitsuryouku Up! N2 book is my focus. The words are divided up by their sounds, and a number of compounds for each kanji are presented. I started off adding both the words and the sentences to my flashcard deck, but realized it was taking an inordinate amount of time. So my plan now is to whiz through and add all the words, then make a second pass through the book, adding all the sentences. Translating all of those sentences should reinforce the vocab that I will already have a jump start on studying.
In non-study news, we attended an amazing tea ceremony last week courtesy of the Urasenke Birmingham club. We will be going again this weekend, and I am very much looking forward to it. I would like to give learning the complexities of 茶道 a try!
My drive to work, which under normal conditions would take ~20 minutes, takes a full hour. So now, I use the Anki iPhone app to study during my ~30 minutes of being at a dead stop. Of course, I don't use it when in motion. :D
I will be reviewing it later. Thus far, I get some sort of error every morning that prevents me from finishing each deck (and I have 3 right now - Heisig Kanji, Reading Vocab & Unicom Vocab). It's a little frustrating when the app costs a premium $24.99.
So, I'm more than halfway finished with よつばと! Vol. 7. It is something I really look forward to reading, and I'm gleaning a lot of new vocab (or new kanji for vocab words I am familiar with). Some pages are very easy to understand, and fly right by (as *cough* in the picture at left). But some exchanges between Fuuka and her friend, "Shimau," or Asagi use more complex diction/structure. So there are some pages that take me a while to get through, as I laboriously add flashcards for every little thing that isn't second-nature.
I am also continuing with the Heisig method of learning kanji, where you learn the meaning of the character only, and none (or in my case, few) of the readings. I use the Reviewing the Kanji site to share and find interesting stories for each character, then add it to my Anki deck. I am practicing writing each character to cement them in my mind.I was going to discontinue the Heisig learning, but in just a few short days I have seen how easy it makes studying vocab for characters I have already learned the meaning of. Smooth like butter! So I am continuing with this, but trying to hurry it up... I know I don't have much time.
Right now, out of my study books, the Unicom Jitsuryouku Up! N2 book is my focus. The words are divided up by their sounds, and a number of compounds for each kanji are presented. I started off adding both the words and the sentences to my flashcard deck, but realized it was taking an inordinate amount of time. So my plan now is to whiz through and add all the words, then make a second pass through the book, adding all the sentences. Translating all of those sentences should reinforce the vocab that I will already have a jump start on studying.In non-study news, we attended an amazing tea ceremony last week courtesy of the Urasenke Birmingham club. We will be going again this weekend, and I am very much looking forward to it. I would like to give learning the complexities of 茶道 a try!
Saturday, September 04, 2010
A Perfect Day
Temperatures in the high 60s, a beautiful clear sky, and a shady, screened-in porch, a 3-day weekend. Lovely conditions for being able to calmly study. Learned about 50 kanji this morning. My goal is to learn about 350 more over this weekend (and by learn, I'm following Heisig's method, where I am just learning the basic meaning).
Also want to finish よつばと！ this weekend and add more vocab flashcards. But for now, I'm going to head off with my lovely partner to the AT&T store. We need a charger, but this means that I get to check out the iPhones, yay!
I'll be posting photos of the books and reviews as I use them more. :)
Also want to finish よつばと！ this weekend and add more vocab flashcards. But for now, I'm going to head off with my lovely partner to the AT&T store. We need a charger, but this means that I get to check out the iPhones, yay!
I'll be posting photos of the books and reviews as I use them more. :)
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