PE Goals

こんぼんは！

My pronunciation goals:

1. 'Like a native speaker': My main goal for the year is to speak Japanese as naturally as possible. As a native Spanish speaker, some of the sounds between the two are somewhat similar, and I'd like to use this to my advantage. 

2. Getting the long vowels/double consonants down: I feel as though this will be the most difficult thing for me to pronounce properly. In class, it's easy to pick up on the differences between long vowels vs. single vowels and double consonants vs. single consonants, but I think that outside of class this will be difficult to do. We may overemphasize these in class when practicing, so I hope to make the transition from overemphasizing/over-stressing to sounding more natural outside of class. 

3. Mastering the 'r' sound: I find it difficult to pronounce this sound since it's kind of a mixture of the English 'r' and 'l' sounds. Of all the consonants, it's the one I have the least confidence in pronouncing, so I'd like change that! 

How do I plan on achieving these goals?

1. Go to Japanese language table at least once a month! I should probably have a goal of going more often, but I know that I'm always incredibly reluctant to going to language tables, so even going once a month will be a big step for me. 

2. Practice speaking with friends who are native Japanese speakers or who may have studied the language for a long time. It will definitely be easier for me to approach friends for conversational practice, so I should take advantage of them as an additional resource!

3. Watch an episode of anime at least twice a week. I noticed on someone's past blog that their goal was to shadow the characters while watching, and I think that's a great idea. Shadowing and trying to sound like the character will definitely help in speaking more naturally. 

4. Read manga! At this point, I know I won't understand most of what is written, but even familiarizing myself with the characters and starting to recognize some things will be nice. I think it will be especially nice to see the progress that I make throughout the year.