Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Which foot goes first?

I began reading through the book and soon realized that the entirety has 7 different stories within.  This works out nicely.  A variety of stories to cover, all in one book.  How do I start this up...


第一章(だいいっしょう):この世(よ)でいちばん好(す)きなのは、回転(かいてん)ずし。

私は回転ずしが大好き。好きなネタは、ハンバーグと卵(たまご)焼(や)き。あと、ツナまきに、ユッケぐんかんに、エビアボカドにぎり。おすしのあとは、チョコレートムースとメロンプリン。


Let's not dive in too deep here.  This is about half of the first page (just under).  I'm still making this up as I go along and I'm sure I'll find a pattern that works.  Sooner or later.  Use whatever tools you can to help you read and translate this sentence.  I like using http://jisho.org/ or the dictionary app on my phone.  A nice tip for phone apps, you can download the Chinese character keyboard that will enable you to hand draw kanji.  It's always a life saver when I'm trying to look up unfamiliar kanji and I don't want to mess with the search by radical portion.  I'll add more sentences later and eventually work up to pages at a time.   


B



Monday, June 8, 2015

The First Book

As planned, I opened up my bag of books and plucked one out at random.  I will be working through 回転(かいてん)ずし、conveyor belt sushi。Which many American's have experienced at some point, I know there's several varieties near me.  The author is, I think, Shibata Katsumo(芝田 勝茂).


I did a quick flip through of the book to gauge the difficulty of the reading.  There are about 131 pages of text, with a few single page pictures spread throughout.  Generally, 9-11 sentences per page.  This would probably be a good book from someone in 2nd, or possibly 3rd, grade (moving on up!).  I'll start reading it today and find some good content to discuss later on.  Well then, let's start leveling up!

B

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Almost there...

Surprising even myself, I'm really looking forward to diving into this little project.
大変(たいへん)興奮(こうふん)している!(taihen koufun shite iru)

Just writing that line though, I'll have to give some thought on how to provide the content. I could keep everything fairly intermediary (using kanji and furigana), but it's not too burdensome to go the extra step by providing romanji.  We'll see.  

Anyway, a single weekend left to go and I'm free of many pressing responsibilities.  I happen to have a bag of books that were given to me by a friend.  She read them with her children when they were younger and gifted them to me when she learned I had a growing interest in translation.  Her eldest is a girl, so I'm expecting a big 'ol bag of girly children's books.  Should equate to a heap of fun.  I'll reach in the bag on Monday and pick my first book at random.  Until then, I'll just leave this song about brushing your teeth.

B