Japanese Journals #1

Today marks the end of INTS 221, the first of UNBC's two intermediate Japanese langauge courses. This is the third Japanese course I've taken-- I took UNBC's introductory Japanese courses (INTS 121 & 122) back in the 2009/10 semester to prepare for my trip to Japan. After a year-long hiatus, it was fun being back in Japanese-- I ordered food over a pay phone, wrote a recipe for Haluski dumplings, and made a mock commercial. I also met with two exchange students from Tokyo once a week as part of a language partnering program.

And in addition to all that-- and more to the point of this post-- I wrote weekly Japanese journals. Since it's been a long time since I've posted anything new (Jesus, how many of my posts have begun with those words?) and since I have that neat label "ニホンゴゴをしています" just sitting there waitng to be used, I thought I'd post up my Journal entries. Aside from corrections pointed out by my instructor, these will be the exact entries that I submitted in class. In addition to the original Japanese, I'll also include my own English translation (which I'll try to make as literal as possible) and, just for fun, an autotranslation from Babelfish.

Now, the problem with a posting stuff in Japanese is that most computers aren't set up to display Japanese characters. Every operating system and/or browser has its own way of changing language settings, so unfortunately I can't just tell you what I did to get Japanese support on my computer. Hopefully, these links will be of some help:

http://japanese.about.com/od/fonts/ss/setup.htm

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/sheaa/projects/genki/computer_support.html

http://thejapanesepage.com/beginners/japanese_on_computer

http://www.yesjapan.com/install_japanese/

With that (hopefully) out of the way, here's my first Japanese journal entry:

　二千十一年九月七日(水曜日)
天気：はれ

　今日、大学は始まった。（｢始まる｣は、「はじめまして」になりますか。）昨日、僕のコンピューターはびょうきになりましたので、今日、僕は、しあわせじゃなかったです。

　九月十日(土曜日)
天気：はれ

 　コンピューターは元気ですよ。昨日、まあやさんとみなさんと会った。来週、公園へ行く。今日、 パーティーへ行った。にぎやかだった。

My Translation:

   2011, September 7th (Wednesday)
Weather: Sunny 


   Today, university started. (Does "start" ("hajimaru") become "nice to meet you" ("hajimemashite")?) Because yesterday my computer became sick, today I was not happy. (Ed: I got a nasty computer virus around this time.)


   2011, September 10th (Saturday)
Weather: Sunny


   My computer is healthy! Yesterday, I met with Maya-san and Mina-san (Ed: My Japanese partners) Next week, we go to the park. Today, I went to a party. It was lively.


I didn't realize how primitive this stuff was until I translated it just now. Christ, I sound like a bloody five year old; usually, I sound at least thirteen or fourteen.

Finally, as promised, the Babelfish version:

2011 September seventh (Thursday) Weather: [re] 　Today, the university started. (“It starts”, “beginning,” it becomes? Because) yesterday, my computer became the rivet coming, today, happiness there was no I, is. 　September tenth (Saturday) Weather: [re] 　The computer is vigorous. It met yesterday, well and with everyone. Next week, it goes to the park. Today, it went to the party. It was bustling.

Oh, computers. You're so vigorous.