Practice

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” – Benjamin Franklin

Hey, welcome to your very first practice page. What’s a practice page? Basically it’s an opportunity to put all your reviews, new cards (you don’t have any yet) and everything else in one place. The goal is to make sure you know what you just learned and then to make it even better before you move on. At the end of most chapters there will be a “practice” section. Take your time with these and make sure you complete everything. All the practice pages have important stuff in them, so if you skip them you’re going to find things getting harder and harder as you move forward (and that’s no fun).

Questions

This practice page, however, is particularly short and easy. Just a few questions to make sure you know the differences between the alphabets. You don’t have to know the alphabets yet (or at all), I just want you to have a general idea of what they all do so you know what you’re learning as you move forward. Here are the four “alphabets,” just for reference:

• Romaji
• Hiragana
• Katakana
• Kanji

1. Should I bother to learn romaji? Click For Answer

2. Which “alphabet” is used to write all the “vocabulary words.” Answer

3. Where did kanji come from? Answer

4. Which “alphabet” do you use to write foreign words? Answer

5. Which “alphabet” tends to be more “boxy shaped” and “rigid.” Answer

6. Do Hiragana & Katakana consist of the same sounds? Answer

7. Which “alphabets” are you going to learn on TextFugu? Answer

8. Which “alphabet” would you use to write the “Roma” in Romaji (Roma = Rome) Answer

Language Log

Since you have a language log set up, we might as well make use of it. Make sure you write notes on the four “alphabets” in Japanese. It depends on how solid you’re feeling right now, but here’s some suggestions of things to write down.

• A quick summary of what each of the Japanese “alphabets” do.
• How you felt about this chapter (i.e. did you have trouble anywhere? Did everything just connect? Did you feel focused, unfocused, etc?
• Write more about the one(s) you are having trouble remembering. Try to pretend you’re teaching someone else about them, as that’s an awesome way to sort out any speed bumps in your own mind (and a great way to remember things better).

Mainly, focus on what gives you trouble. Those that focus on the trouble spots are those who get ahead. I know it’s hard to do things that are difficult, but if you do the difficult things, then only easy things remain!

Once you’ve gotten through everything, move on to the next chapter. You’re going to start to learn hiragana (remember which one that is?).

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