Let's blog in Japanese!

How was your winter break? Did you watch Japanese movies/anime? If you did, I think you could catch some Japanese words/expressions while watching them! Let's study Japanese more, and you will be able to understand more while watching Japanese movies/anime/TV shows!

In this term, we are going to share our experiences/opinions/complains/etc through weblog. This experience will be a good opportunity for you to use Japanese outside the classroom.

The objectives of this blogging project are;
- to share your experiences, opinions, feelings, etc in Japanese (and English).
- to comment on your classmates' entries.
- to respond to comments that your classmates made.

Please feel free to write about whatever you want to share with the readers of your blog. Write at least one and comment on someone's blog every week.


Here are the steps you need to do.

(1) Go to http://www.blogger.com to open your blog.

1. Select "Settings" from the top tabs. Click "Formatting" under "Settings" and select any language you like for "Language" so that you can display information such as time and date of your post in the language of your choice.
2. In order to receive comments from as many people as possible, select "Comments" and choose "Anyone" for "Who can comment" section.
3. You may want to know when someone left a comment to your blog. Go to "Settings" "Comments", scroll down to "Comment Notification Address", and type e-mail address to which you want notification to be sent.
4. If you want to know how to type Japanese, click the link listed on the right side under "Typing in Japanese."

(2) Send your blog address to me (hhamada@knox.edu).

- If you have trouble opening a new account, please let me know.
- If you already have a blog and if you can use Japanese, you do not have to open a new account.

(3) Post a blog entry once a week.
Here are some ideas for your blog topics (they are just suggestions, so write whatever you want!)
o I could read Japanese outside the classroom!
o I spoke Japanese outside the classroom!
o I went to Japan/Japanese restaurant!
o Why I study Japanese
o My Japanese friends
o I'm confused! Help!
o My secret study tips
o My daily schedule
o My hobbies
o Japanese music, dramas, food, anime, manga
o What I like/dislike about my Japanese class
o What I'd like to do in my Japanese class
o My favorite websites/youtube
o My classmates
o Japanese grammar
o Japanese vocabulary
o Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji

(4) Go to classmates' blog and make comments. Links to your classmates' blogs can be seen on the right-side of this page.

There is no maximum or minimum length for each entry. You can write as much as you want. Do not worry too much about mistakes, but try to be as accurate as you can so that the readers can understand your blogs. If you want to discuss linguistic errors (spelling, vocab, grammar) in your posts, feel free to come to see me.

If you can't say what you want to convey in Japanese, you can use English as well. However, try to use Japanese as much as you can!