Japan 111R Seventh Class

Today was probably exceeded the majority of the class' learning capability! I mean, its ALOT of new material ! Even I am worried. And I haven't worried before in class =(

To begin today's class, we had a quiz, about the days of the week and counting months, of course. Aced! YES!

Then we were reviewing the relative locations material, left, right, beside, etc

We did some other reviews, like asking where something is at an airport, or in someone's house, etc. All oral practice, professor says its important. And I agree.

Then came our break.

We were told that we were ahead of scheduel so I was expecting the class to be pretty relaxed for the time being. However, after the break, all h*ll broke loose !

Professor went on to the next lesson. About ordering foods. And what good is ordering food without first learning the verbs, "Tabemasu", right? RIGHT?!

You bet thats right! But she didn't stop there... Ohhh... no.... She went onto a list of 30 verbs. YES 30! Including what is known as the "u" verbs and "ru" verbs including the irregular verbs!

Holy crap! Thats too much. Seriously. But we were told we did have 2 weeks to cover it all. Thank goodness. Though, I bet most of the brains in the class already snapped.

But lets think of the good side. With these many verbs, we'll be able to engage in meaningful chatter in japanese! Right? Cause clearly verbs like migaku (to polish) is important... right...?

But seriously, on a plus side. The prof is going into the conjugation of verbs! YES ! I've been waiting for this day since day 1. I don't know how much she will teach, but any is better than none.

Yes, thats right, we're not just learning the -masu form for those 30 verbs ! but the -ru form as well. Isnt that cool? Thats like... 60 verbs! YAY!

We previously covered the negative and past tense and negative past tense also, so we'll put it all together now.

Oh, and for your interest, for "u" verbs, which are verbs not ending in "iru" or "eru" though there are exceptions where some "iru" and "eru" verbs fall into this category, but you will have to memorize those, the conjugation rule for -masu ending is:

Convert the _u to _i then add masu.

For example,
kaku -> kaki -> kakimasu
nomu -> nomi -> nomimasu

For the "ru" verbs, which are verbs that must end in "iru" or "eru", the conjugation rule for -masu ending is:

Drop the last "ru" then add masu.

For example,
miseru -> mise -> misemasu
neru -> ne -> nemasu

So we have a whole new bunch of words to practice in our free time. Of course we still have that presentation next week. Also we just got our final project today. Now I need to find some group members then decide what to do. Busy class... for a first year course =/

Heres what was learned today:
- Difference between "ya" and "to"
- "ya" is used for if there are many things more than just what you listed, for example, you use it when you want to say there are pencils and books on a desk with several other things as well. Tsukue no ue ni enpitsu ya hon ga arimasu.
- "to" is used if you are listing out everything on in that environment or system, for example, you use it when you want to say there are pencils and books on the desk which only has pencils and books.
Tsukue no ue ni enpitsu to hon ga arimasu.
- Verbs, 30 of them
- Learned their -masu form and -ru form
- Learned how to conjugate them between forms
- Learned the groups of verbs, 1 for "u", 2 for "ru", and 3 for irregular