Self Introduction

おはようございます〜

はじめまして、わたしは「Jae」です。わたしはプリンストンだいがくのがくせいです、にねんせいです。わたしのせんこうはけいざいです。わたしのにほんごのせんせいはさとうせんせいとしばたせんせいととくますせんせいです。

I wonder how I can combine independent sentences using conjunctions? That would help my introduction reduce its clunkiness.

One full week into the class now-- so far really enjoying it. We have finished learning all of the ひらがな, and although I knew them already, it was still nice to see しばた 先生 write them out on the board. The workbook exercises are simple but useful; my handwriting has improved considerably already. It has been ages since I've watched any anime, but maybe it's time to start again so I can practice listening. Any suggestions?

Besides basic greetings, we have also learned numbers, the time, various majors, as well as particles. I have had the same thought years ago when I started self-studying, but the similarities between Japanese with Korean and Chinese is truly astounding, as my teachers have told me. Particle-by-particle I can match up Korean and Japanese, and obviously looking at various kanji (Chinese characters) I am able to know the meaning (although the pronunciation is different). For example, the particle は in Japanese seems to match up perfectly with the usage of the Korean particle 는. On the other hand, the particle が seems to be 가, and か seems to be 까. The last two example, they even sound similar: ga/ka, ka/gga. As for kanji, the Japanese word for student, 学生 (gakusee), derives directly from the Chinese word for student, which is also written as 学生 (xue2 sheng1). So seeing a new kanji, I can roughly figure out the meaning, although the pronunciation is unknown. It's amazing to see such connections, and I'm sure I'll come across much more through my studies!!

じゃ、また