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On Friday, after class we headed up to Siren, Wisconsin, to hang out with our longtime friends at their lake-side cabin. It's been rainy here, but this morning we managed to do a little kayaking, as well as a little jumping around while shivering in the lake. It was sort of like swimming, but with more goosebumps. The wind was very cold, but the water was fairly warm. I think it counts, though. We had our swimming suits on.
Our friends have an amazing greyhound named Cody. Cody very sweetly woke me up this morning so I could take him out to pee. Thanks to years of training by my cats, I wake up very easily to animal noises. He just made one soft little whine and I was up and headed for the door to open it up for him. Not quite sure how he knew to come to me, but it worked out well for him.
Because of the rain and wind, however, we've been more indoorsy than we usually are at Siren. So, I've been reviewing a lot of my Japanese. Mason turned me on to Duolingo. That's been very helpful in teaching me 'kana (Hiragana and Katakana), but the folks at Duolingo don't really provide LESSONS as such. You have to put sentences together, but they never really have material to tell you WHY you're doing it the way you are. So, I've gone back to supplementing with Japanesepod101.com, which I've long enjoyed. They try to pressure you constantly into upgrading, BUT you can listen to almost any lesson with just a basic membership (about $6/mo.) Occasionally, I'll just pick a random lesson that's actually way outside of my abilities and just listen--not worrying overly much if I actually understand any of it. I also just love how deep they go--how language geeky they can be.
My friend in Wales turned me on to Memorise.com as well, but that's more focused on kana learning.
Bit by bit, though. I mean, the good news is that I have no deadline for any of this. I'm just learning for the sake of learning.
We head home tomorrow, but not until late afternoon. Hopefully, we'll have more sunshine. Otherwise, I'll just keep listening to my Japanpod101.
Our friends have an amazing greyhound named Cody. Cody very sweetly woke me up this morning so I could take him out to pee. Thanks to years of training by my cats, I wake up very easily to animal noises. He just made one soft little whine and I was up and headed for the door to open it up for him. Not quite sure how he knew to come to me, but it worked out well for him.
Because of the rain and wind, however, we've been more indoorsy than we usually are at Siren. So, I've been reviewing a lot of my Japanese. Mason turned me on to Duolingo. That's been very helpful in teaching me 'kana (Hiragana and Katakana), but the folks at Duolingo don't really provide LESSONS as such. You have to put sentences together, but they never really have material to tell you WHY you're doing it the way you are. So, I've gone back to supplementing with Japanesepod101.com, which I've long enjoyed. They try to pressure you constantly into upgrading, BUT you can listen to almost any lesson with just a basic membership (about $6/mo.) Occasionally, I'll just pick a random lesson that's actually way outside of my abilities and just listen--not worrying overly much if I actually understand any of it. I also just love how deep they go--how language geeky they can be.
My friend in Wales turned me on to Memorise.com as well, but that's more focused on kana learning.
Bit by bit, though. I mean, the good news is that I have no deadline for any of this. I'm just learning for the sake of learning.
We head home tomorrow, but not until late afternoon. Hopefully, we'll have more sunshine. Otherwise, I'll just keep listening to my Japanpod101.
