Since I’ve been so negative on Twitter today, let’s turn some of the negative things into something positive.

1. Negative: I’m not happy with the physics test I had today.
   Positive: I’m finally done, which means that I don’t have to worry about it any more. Also; it does not count for my final diploma, and I think I have a good plan in order to get better at physics.
2. Negative: One of my tweets got re-tweeted by some kind of a communist-related guy.
   Positive: The article I linked in that tweet was in Norwegian, so he didn’t get the joke. I’ve also learnt that there are some freaky people out there, and therefore, I have to be careful. And I’ve blocked him (which means that I got rid of the tweet)
3. Negative: I almost got hit by a car while walking to the supermarket.
   Positive: It didn’t happen. Also; it wasn’t my fault because I was just walking on the pavement, as you’re supposed to. However, she was literary driving on the pavement, while there was a parking lot and a road next to it…
4. Negative: I tend to find spam comments on my 22 July posts offensive.
   Positive: They’re robots, so I don’t care as much as I would if it was an actual human.
5. Negative: A NASA satellite is going to hit the earth tonight.
   Positive: According to what I’ve read, there is a super small chance that it’ll hit a person.

To conclude, days like this are good if you want to learn from your and other people’s mistakes. Just because you can’t change the past, doesn’t mean that you can’t change the future. If you try to improve, you might succeed later, which is a good thing. Also, being positive makes it easier to get over it. There is no reason to think about something negative for a long period of time, if you don’t know how to get over it.

Just figured out (well, sort of), that my Norwegian skills are getting worse, so I started a Norwegian blog:

TwistedStars.org

And.. Blogurat..

For some reason, I suddenly felt that this blog was turning anonymous. It’s kinda sad, isn’t it? And it can be changed so easily. So, this is a picture of me as of 17th September 2011.

The girl with a fringe.

I’ve decided to share my favourite online resources for studying the Japanese language. There are probably not as many as some I’ve seen, but I find them extremely useful whenever I’m on the computer. Here you go:

1. Youtube.com
   As you might already know, YouTube is probably the world’s largest video sharing site. Here you can find tons of videos in Japanese and Japanese lessons. Youtube covers pretty much your Japanese music video/vlog/news needs.
2. Surfmusic.de
   This is a site with a lot of radio stations from all over the world. I try to listen to Japanese radio as often as possible, and I find this site very helpful for that. It’s a good thing to have if you want to practise Japanese using the input method.
3. Japanska.se
   A Swedish-Japanese bilingual online dictionary. This is the only online dictionary I use. I have a Japanese-English paperback dictionary as well, but japanska.se is my favourite online dictionary. Compared to a lot of English-Japanese online dictionaries, this one is easier to use as you don’t have to look through the 10000 options that some of the Japanese-English ones might give you. However, there are two requirements for using this dictionary: You have to know your Kana, and you have to be able to at least read Swedish.
4. Virtual Keyboard
   This is good to have if you’re writing on a Western computer (mine is Norwegian, obviously). Yes, you can change your keyboard on the actual computer, but that’s like writing with your eyes closed. The virtual keyboard is way easier to use, but you have to know what kanji you’re planning to use as it shows many different kanji when you start writing.
5. ToFugu
   This site doesn’t directly have much to do with learning Japanese, but it’s still good. It’s more about the culture of Japan, and tips on how to learn the language rather than “direct teaching”. The articles are about the crazy “insides” of Japan, and are well-written, easy to understand and of course; always super fun to read!!!
6. Wikipedia
   This site is full of helpful articles about grammar, kanji, kana, vocab and language history. Not only have I seen good articles on the English version of the site, but the French and Swedish versions are also good.
7. Livemocha
    A site full of lessons for learning tons and tons of languages; and it’s all free! It uses a method where you associate the phrase with a picture as well as listening to a native pronouncing the phrase. To be honest, that’s not the part of Livemocha I find helpful. I find the flashcards more helpful than the main lessons, and I used them as a main resource when I learned Hiragana.
8. Japanese Wikipedia
   I have to list the Japanese Wikipedia by itself because the way we, as learners, will be using this site is different compared to the Wikipedia in other languages. The purpose of this is mainly reading practise, which is of course quite fun. However, don’t expect to read the whole article, but try to pick out words, kanji and kana you might know. It’s a good way to test your skills.

Put these pieces into words

Put these words into sentences.

Put these sentences in a story.

…and give the story a life!