Brett Molka Japanese Blog

 The show is really starting to grow on me. During the first few episodes, it felt like everything was just violence to illicit a reaction from the audience. More of a brute force rather than slowly conditioning the watcher. These last few episodes, 8-13, shifts the show from a focus pure violence and horror to a show about a political conflict. Eren can now go from human to titan on command now, rather than during extreme emotional distress. However, he is not in total control over his titan form. This made the show much better for me, the question is no longer "Can they survive the titans?", but instead is now "can they trust their own?" There are definitely a lot of sentences where I could get the gist of what the characters are saying. I definitely would be lost if I didn't have captions, but a good number of sentences I could get what they are generally saying. Sometimes they speak at lightning speed like Hanabusa sensei and I understand nothing lost. One t...

 I started watching a few more episodes of Attack on Titan. The show is starting to get really exciting. I understand why my brother had nightmares watching this as a kid, as it can be quite gross at times. I was very confused when Eren died as he seems to be the protagonist, but then he was alive all of a sudden again. While I think the show has been great so far, I do have a few issues. My first issue is that the show seems to rely heavily on violence and brutality to create its stakes. My second issue is some of the political messaging. There seems to be an overarching imagery of militarism and ethnic destiny. Perhaps the show will search into this idea and give a fair critic of such, but as for now, it seems that ethnic destiny has a central role in this story. かっこよくないです。 Watching this show has definitely helped so far when it comes to listening to Japanese. Listening and speaking are significantly harder for me than reading and writing. Reading and writing can be simplified in...

 I have never really watched anime before in my life. Even though I am Japanese, it was never something that interested me too much. However, now that it may help me in this class, I am emboldened. I watched the first few episodes of 進撃の巨人。It started out really exciting with the war with the titans. While I think some of the main characters, specifically Eren, are a little cringy — albeit he has a lot going on... Given that, I will continue to watch this show, hearing phrases and words you know keeps you on your toes, I'm excited for the rest. One word that I noticed they use a lot is 今. I did not know ima was used so often in a sense of urgency. Also, I noticed a ton of verbs and adjectives. A few examples would be みる、いく、おいしい、たかい。The last thing I noticed I thought was funny that showed up was うるさい. This was amusing to me as my mother would yell "うるさい” to me as a kid all the time. At the time, I had no idea what that meant, but I now have learned it can essentially just mean ...

こんにちは。  このふゆやすみ、私のニュージャージーにかえります。かぞくとともだちにあいます。私とかぞくはニュージャージーしゅからフロリダしゅまでひこうきでいきます。私はおよぎますが、おさけはのみません。私とかぞくはレストランでおいしいさかなをたべます。マイアミというまちにいきます。マイアミはフロリダしゅにあります。ペレスというびじゅつかんをかんこうします。私はびじゅつがすきですから、とてもおもしろいです。ペレスにはいいスペインのかいががたくさんあります。Maybe I will have a tan when I am back! I cannot believe the semester is already over. It feels like I was just writing in romaji the other day. Although we have many 小テスト, this class was very inviting and low stress. This class ended up being very fun. I have always been poor with foreign languages as I am more of a math guy, so this is really the first time I have enjoyed a foreign language class. I cannot believe that I can read Japanese as well as I can in only one semester. While I still have a long way to go, especially in terms of listening and speaking, I can't wait to see where I will be after second year Japanese. Maybe I will be able to eavesdrop my Japanese relatives without them knowing... It was a great semester and I can't wait for the n...

サンクスギビングのやすみはとてもたのしかったです。私はかぞくとあいましたから、たのしかったです。サウスベンドからニュージャージーまでひこうきで十三時間ぐらいいきました。それから、私のかずこいしょうにサンクスギビングのばんごはんをたべました。たべものはおいしかったですから、たくさんたべました。それから、私はロースターズというカフェにいきました。ロースターズにはとてもいいいすがあります。金曜日私のともだちのうちでパーティーがありますが、けいざいがくをべんきょうしました。 じゃ　また、 モーかです。

 私のへやは小さいです。Francis というルームメイトがいます。Francis のしゅうしんはちゅうごくのぺきんです。へやはちょっときれいですが、たのしです。つくえはあまりきれいです。つくえのうえにコンピューターがあります。へやのベッドはふるいですが、とてもいいです。Francis のベッドちょっときたないですよ。 じゃ　また、 モーかです。