しゅうちゅうできない！

June 23rd, 2011, 0:13 | 3 comments

Nothing is as rewarding as when you encounter a word you’ve just learned in a non-study setting. This happened to me tonight. I had met a new Japanese conversation partner, まさし. We went to a café, and due to heavy showers we stayed for a whole 2,5 hours, during which I spoke Japanese all the time (the conversation was one-way this time) – I can’t stress enough how demanding that is on your brain!

Anyway, I learned some new words and expressions, among them しゅうちゅうする (to concentrate), or the more common expressions しゅうちゅうできる (I can concentrate) and しゅうちゅうできない (I can’t concentrate). As in:

図書館でしゅうちゅうできる。
In the library I can concentrate.

家でしゅうちゅうできない。
At home I can’t concentrate.

When I came home, I made a cup of green tea (hihi) and watched the ninth episode of 世界一初恋 (Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi). It’s an anime (adapted from the manga) made by the creator of Junjou Romantica – therefore just as good. Or I would even say better, because 世界一初恋 takes place at a manga publishing company, and you get to learn a lot about the business. Having worked at many magazines myself, I can nothing but love it!

Anyway, I couldn’t believe my ears when I realised that I understood the very first line of this episode perfectly well. Because it was:

しゅうちゅうできない。
I can’t concentrate.

Woooooooooooooooow!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Publishing this silly blog post makes sure I will never forget this expression.

PS: It seems the correct kanji for しゅうちゅう is 集中.

Category: English
Tags: ,

10 months of Japanese studies – less studies, more conversation

June 19th, 2011, 22:30 | 3 comments

I’m one day late with this post and not really in the mood to write it. I haven’t studied much in the last month, I’m afraid. I moved in to my new apartment, and what else? Don’t remember.

However, I had plenty of conversation training; a whole 7 tandem sessions with コウヘイ, who has become my main tandem partner – each of our sessions is 2 hours. I also spent Karneval der Kulturen with コウヘイ and his Japanese girlfriend – that was a blast to speak Japanese for a whole day! And some English, naturally.

I also met my tandem partner みずき 3 times, but she went back to Tokyo today.

Next week, I’ll meet two new tandem partners, as well as あゆみ, whom I’ve met once before, and コウヘイ of course.

In addition to the tandem training, I’ve had 2 paid tutoring sessions with my tutor 真吾. I actually said no this week, since it’s important that I study before these sessions in order to get the most out of them.

Iknow status: 989 items (words) started, 733 mastered. I’m about to finish step 5 and 6, and have just started step 7 of Japanese Core 1000, which contains the 1,000 most commonly used words in Japanese (100 of them per step).

And today (one day late, I know, so I can’t really count it), I studied chapter 7 in Elementary Japanese.

As for Genki II, I think I’m at chapter 16, somewhere in the middle of it. Yeah, that must be right. And I’m about to finish the exercises to that chapter in the workbook, or if I’m still at chapter 15 in the workbook …

Suddenly it all became so blurry.

Anyway, wish me good luck with my next month, the 11th! In only two months I will have studied Japanese for a year, but I also feel that is a great responsibility! When that date comes, I feel I should provide you with some sort of proof of my success/failure.

PS: I’ve watched some anime as well. Which ones you can see on my anime list.

Category: English
Tags: ,

Nyttan med telefonavlyssning

June 10th, 2011, 15:15 | 1 comment

Polisens telefonavlyssning ökade med 50 procent förra året till 2531 avlyssningstillstånd. En rapport från Rikspolisstyrelsen och Åklagarmyndigheten menar att dessa avlyssningar “varit till nytta” i 67 procent av fallen:

Med nytta i det här sammanhanget avses att en misstänkt person frihetsberövats, att beslag gjorts eller att uppgifter använts som bevis vid en rättegång.

Nytta kan också innebära att misstankarna mot en person kunnat avskrivas och att denna kunnat avföras från utredningen.

Den där sista meningen … betyder den inte bara att polisen hade fel? Intressant definition av nytta.

Category: Politics, Swedish
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Avföljningsregler på Twitter

June 3rd, 2011, 11:15 | 1 comment

Tre saker som får mig att avfölja twittrare (här gäller det Sverige):

1. Folk som bashar Pär Ström. Anledning: Det sker inte av politiska skäl, utan av sociala. Att klämma åt Pär Ström med någon fyndig formulering som i bästa fall kommer retweetas är ett sätt att säga det som alla andra säger, att följa mobben. Genom att upprepa det som det coola gänget på skolgården säger vinner man respekt. Dock inte hos mig. Oavsett vad man tycker i politiska sakfrågor bör man kunna mötas som vuxna människor, anser jag.

2. Folk som frågar vad engelska ord heter på svenska. Ja, vi förstår att din engelska är helt fantastisk! Så bra att det rentav ofta sker att du får upp ett engelskt ord i huvudet i stället för ett svenskt. Och vid dessa tillfällen måste twittra om detta i stället för att slå upp ordet. Du är så cool! Och om någon nu betvivlar syftet med dessa tweetar, vänd på saken och fråga dig hur många gånger en twittrare frågar vad ett svenskt ord heter på engelska. Som Majbritt sa: Just det!

3. Folk som twittrar om sina baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarn.

Category: Esoteric, Swedish