にほんごでブログをしましょう

みなさん、こんにちは！にほんごのべんきょうはどうですか。Excited? Happy? Overwhelmed? Whatever you feel, I hope we'll share it together using blogs.

Through blogging this semester, I hope that we will learn more about ourselves as well as each other. Your blog is the place to share your experience, feelings, and everything about learning Japanese, being a Columbia student, and so on. It is also the place for you to practice expressing yourself in Japanese. You may think that you don't know much, but you'll be amazed by how much you can say in Japanese.

This class blog links to your blogs and your classmates' so that you can see what others think and feel about their learning process or just simply what they're up to. I'm interested in your experience as a language learner: what you feel, how you see it, what you think about it, etc. Please feel free to write anything you want. You are encouraged to express yourself about any topics in any language, although you'll be asked to write about specific topics in Japanese from time to time. As the semester goes on, you'll be able to write more in Japanese, so I hope to see more Japanese in your blog :-)

So, let's start blogging. Please follow the procedures below to open your blog using Blogger (if you already have your own blog, you may use it). If you need technical assistance (how to set up a blog, how to type in Japanese, etc.) send an e-mail to helpjpcu@gmail.com.

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

1. Select "Setting"s from the top tabs. Click "Formatting" and select "Universal" for "Encoding" so that you can type Japanese.
2. In order to receive comments from as many people as possible, please select "Comments" and choose "Anyone" for "Who can comment" section.
3. If you want to know how to type Japanese, please click the link listed on the right side.

2) Send your blog address to the helpdesk (helpjpcu@gmail.com).

• If you have trouble opening a new account, please let me know.
• If you already have a blog and if you can use Japanese (e.g., you opened a blog last semester in my class), you do not have to open a new account.
  

3) Post a blog entry once a week. The first entry is due 1/28 (Su). If you're the first-time blogger, you may want to introduce yourself. If not, you may skip self-introduction and write whatever you want :-)

• Don't know what to write about? Here're some suggested topics:
  

• I could read Japanese!
  
• I spoke Japanese!
• I went to Japan!
  
• Why I study Japanese
• My Japanese friends
• I'm confused! Help!
• My secret study tips
  
• My daily schedule
• Japanese restaurants in town
• My hobbies
• Japanese music, dramas, food, anime, manga
  
• What I like/dislike about my Japaense class
• What I'd like to do in my Japanese class
  
• My favorite websites
• My classmates
• Japanese grammar
• Japanese vocabulary
  
• Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji
• My favorite language lab exercises

4) You are also encouraged to visit others' blogs. Links to other interesting blogs can be seen on the right-side of this page. (they include links to other Japanese learners' blogs!)