The secret to speech

When I find out I'll tell you!

I new reached a stage that even thought pronunciation is super easy, my speech ability is still very weak. But I do I feel it improves a bit everyday, even without virtually no effort. So I just keep doing what I always did.

When I'm closed in my mind I can speak what I want, but when I face a real opportunity I simply can't maintain the pace. I can't come up with words at the required speed. Like an iceberg, the words are there, but very little shows up on the surface. I'm afraid of doing mistakes or I feel ashamed of what I might say.

I feel what I need now is not really output training, it is social interaction.

Claymore chapter 93

Claymore was one manga that I started to read in English and then reread it completely in Japanese. Definitely worth it. Specially these last chapters are getting more and more tense.

Professor Layton for DS

Warning: This post is for you, even if you are not a gamer/anime freak.

Unless you lived under a rock, like me, you probably heard about Professor Layton games for Nintendo DS. I just started it yesterday. I'm in the 7th riddle (very beginning). It is an adventure game that requires you to solve small riddles, unrelated to the story, in order to progress. The game has an inexplicable charisma.
I strongly recommend it. Even if you are not a gamer.

Finished Jump Ultimate Stars, for nintendo DS

Today I finished Finished Jump Ultimate Stars, for Nintendo DS. That means, I got all characters, played all the scenarios in the story mode and reached all the objectives for each of them.

It is a fighting game, but it has a mission description for each stage, that requires understanding. Character names and skills are all written in Japanese. But the most important is that the game is addictive. Specially for this last one, I strongly recommend it.

One of my favorite characters in the game is Allen Walker, wich I knew it was from D.Gray-Man, but I never watched it. Now I'm doing it. It also seems like a nice series. I still not recommend it, but definitely try Allen when playing Jump Ultimate Stars.

Caught up to Evangelion

Wheew, for EVA I had to use the dictionary for some terms. I thought that EVA would be one of the hardest series to understand, but maybe because it is so familiar for me (I've seen the anime + the movie a 100 times) it was easier then Naruto. Wich btw, remembered me that I still need to read that last One Piece.

Caughting up to Naruto and One Piece

I had read Naruto until volume 44 in English. Now, last week, I've read the volumes 45 and 46 in Japanese. For One Piece there are still 1.5 volumes left.

On how to learn Japanese: 2nd phase

I wanted to go to Japan, but today I assumed a great commitment. This commitment will keep me where I am for at least 3 more years.

Reaching fluency was an urgent matter, but now that things are different I'm here to announce the second phase of my Japanese learning.

I decided to stop worrying about how many hours, how many words, how much time, what dictionaries to use, what kind of input is best, how much I got better with how much time.

I'm glad with the Japanese I got until now. I discovered I can read manga and 小説 just for fun. And I'll keep doing that. For fun, not for learning purposes.

I'm confident that just by doing that, in a few years (not 18 months anymore, but just in time for my real goals), I'll be fluent.