This semester, I'd like to expand my Japanese vocabulary. The strides we have been making in understanding more and more grammar have substantially increased my ability to understand more of the Japanese I read. While reading, however, I have to use a dictionary quite often to look up individual words. This is to be expected, considering my current level, but this semester I'm going to make more of an effort to study new words. In addition, I plan to continue my study and review of the kanji we have learned as well as new ones I find outside of class.
Of course reading comprehension is only one part of learning Japanese. If I want to be able to use it to communicate effectively, I need to practice speaking it more. As fortunate as we are to have so many helpful exchange students on campus, it's still challenging to not revert to using English when there's a break down in exchange of information. This is something I'd like to improve on by trying to use more Japanese, especially when I'm not sure how to say something. After all, if I don't take the chance to make mistakes, I won't have the chance to learn.
Last of all, throughout this semester, I plan to continue the side project that I started over winter break. I bought both a Japanese and an English copy of the original Girl Who Leapt Through Time novel. Line by line, I'm working my way through the Japanese one, looking up kanji and words I don't know, and translating bit by bit. At the end of each chapter, I'm going to read the professional English translation to see how they interpreted things differently and better understand the parts that I might be confused about. Through this, I hope to become more familiar with vocabulary, recognize more kanji, and, overall, gain a greater understanding through application of the language.
