The number 8 and other thoughts from this week

I did not do a whole lot of language stuff this week; time got away from me. Today I have been making up for that somewhat.

In Japanese, I started working on the Katakana alphabet (syllabary, if you want to be technical). It seems to have similarities with the Hiragana, but it is different enough that one actually has to learn it, rather than just guess at the characters. Katakana is used to spell out words that are borrowed, i.e. not native Japanese words. Here's what it looks like. 
I'm up to the t's, so I have a ways to go yet. I also started working on Kanji. I'm using Heisig's Remembering the Kanji I: A complete course on how not to forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese characters. The approach of this book is interesting because it focuses only on how the characters are written and what they mean and completely ignores pronunciation. In a way, this makes sense because kanji are only a written convention, not a spoken one. However, a Japanese learner must eventually integrate these skills. Today I learned the first 15 kanji in the book--there are 2,042 total. So, if I do 15 everyday, I'll be through it in about 4 months. Uh...we'll see how that goes.

Here is the entry for 'eight' from Remembering the Kanji (hereafter referred to as RTK).

What I found interesting about this entry is that it says "Just at the Arabic numeral '8' is composed of a small circle for a larger one, so the kanji for eight is composed of a short line followed by a longer line." When someone mentions "Arabic numerals," I do not think of our western numbers, I think of these:

Coincidentally, the Arabic numeral for 8 actually does resemble the Japanese 8. I think the RTK description of 8 would be hard to remember, but it did make me remember this kanji, so job well done, Remembering the Kanji!

I started using the flashcard program Anki. I downloaded a deck that corresponds to RTK, showing the kanji on one side and the meaning on the other. I also set about making a companion deck that shows the kanji on one side and the pronunciation on the other, so hopefully that is going to work well.

I have to admit that I haven't done any Spanish this week, although hopefully I'll get some done this afternoon. I have decided to start on an Akni deck of Spanish words I've alreaday learned where I have the word and its definition in Spanish. One problem I have with Spanish is that I know words in isolation, but I have a hard time going into much detail, I'm hoping this will help with that, as well as get my brain to work in Spanish better.

I'm not going to post any goals for this week, since I'm going on vacation to Mexico! I'm hoping that this will be a sort of practicum for my Spanish skills. I should return with pictures and hopefully some funny stories.