Day 29 (Osaka) : Kanji fu

I've been studying the 18 kanji that will be on the upcoming test all weekend. The said part is that it isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. I also have to learn and recognize all the kanji in the examples. I fell for that twice already. Last time they got me with 保証期間 （ほしょうきかん - hoshoukikan). It basically means warranty service or service plan. To put it in perspective that jumble came from the example sentence for 二 (に - ni) the kanji for two. How the heck I go from a kanji test over a two stroke kanji to missing a question involving 保証期間 is beyond me.

This kanji set follows the same pattern. Really simple kanji, very complicated examples with tons of kanji that I don't know. So I had to try to fake the difficult kanji into my DS kanji dictionary. For anyone studying Japanese who doesn't have a stroke enabled electronic dictionary, I recommend the DS version. It doesn't allow much time to write the kanji before it gives the the closest match though so sometimes you have to try it a few times to get it right. The best part is it even comes with English definitions so if I can see the kanji, I can know what it means. It just takes a little time and the more difficult the material the more things I have to look up.

Most of the day I was either reviewing kanji drills with the Declan software kit or scribbling straight out of my text book the old fashioned way with a mechanical pencil. Again, for those of you who are studying Japanese I highly recommend using Declan's package. It's relatively cheap and it is very effective at improving your ability to recognize characters, meaning, reading, and even pronunciation with the sound bytes. Fair warning though, using the software will not help you remember how to write it if you don't practice with pen and paper. At least it never worked that way for me. There is something about clicking the stroke order with a mouse that doesn't translate to useful repetition for remembering the actually characters that I want to write.

There really isn't that much witty to say about Sundays. I ran through a quick field day and cleaned the whole apartment. Oh, I lost ten pounds since April first so I'm starting to look like I do more than just sit in front of a computer all day. There really isn't much other than that so I'm going to get back to my studies.