I think most of my previous vocabulary is still firmly entrenched in my brain. I'd thought that some of it might have disappeared due to lack of use, but I reviewed my little book today and didn't get stuck!
My new words and phrases of the day:
tatta - only
totemo - very
demo - but
tokoro de - by the way
itsu ka - sometime, someday
Demo is confusing me a bit because I've already learned a word for 'but', and it's kedo. But apparently they are used differently... kedo is a particle, demo is not. Kedo goes at the end of a phrase, demo is a conjunction used at the beginning of a sentence. I think this explains why Japanese people sometimes end up with phrases like this:
The lunch is expensive. But the breakfast is in expensive.
...which, in Japanese, looks something like this:
Hirugohan wa takai desu. Demo, asagohan wa yasui desu.
...which is perfectly acceptable.
Also, through random readings about ESL learning and teaching, I've discovered that learning opposites at the same time can result in confusion... which I suppose I would have realized myself if I'd actually thought about it. I'm having troubles remembering telling words like 'akarui' and 'kurai' apart (bright and dark). In the future, I'll try to learn half of the pair first, and then add the second half later.
No comments:
Post a Comment