Monday, January 27, 2014

Tsu Hard for Me

This Japanese language really has me in knots.  Mixing three writing systems into one language seems so unnecessarily complicated.  It flies in the face of Japan's cultural value of simplicity.  To ease the frustration, I resorted to using clever representations of each sound to help recall each symbol.  This is Augie Doggie, our happy little Shi Tsu that I miss so much.  His eyes and mouth make the symbol for Tsu.  Doug might better remember Tsu by turning it into a Tsunami.  


As you can see, I am practicing Katakana symbols.  I do so both for recognition and to learn their phonetic sounds.  To help, I purchased a phone app that shows each symbol, speaks it clearly, and offers a clever (very silly) way to remember.  For review, I grab a sheet of scratch paper and practice, practice, practice in order to memorize, memorize, memorize.  Both are highly valued attributes here.  I just wonder how helpful this will really be.  Thankfully there is no national examination before I am allowed to leave the country.

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