I've been crazy busy with school and AASIA, and I haven't been updating though my goal has been to update everyday. I have a paper and another midterm coming up so I might be crazy busy until then too.

Lao

I finally got my book today. I'm really excited. I kind of flipped through it once. I can't read Laotian, although there are some similarities between the Lao and Thai alphabet. I can't wait to learn. Unfortunately, they have only published Lao for beginners, and so I can't get very far self-taught. Hopefully, I'll be awarded the scholarship to study Lao at the University of Wisconsin next summer. That's something I'm just putting out there, definitely not something I'm incredibly serious about. There are a lot of things I would like to do next summer.

Thai
I learned the Thai months. I never knew what they were in Thai (or in Lao) and now I know them. :D YAY!! They're so long:

January = magaraakom

February = gumpaapan

March = miinaakom

April = meesaayon

May = prutsapaakom

June = mitunaayon

July = garagadaakom

August = singhaakom

September = ganyaayon

October = dtulaakom

November = prutsajigaayon

December = tanwaakom

Okay, I did that from memory so hopefully I didn't get any of them wrong. :D Maybe by the next journal, I will know how to write them in

Thai. :P

Japanese

Oh boy...it might be because I'm just starting or something, but I really dislike kanji. It's hard especially if you're not an artist. I thought to myself, if there is something that would make me dislike Japanese or something that would make me want to give up, it's kanji. It's boring and frustrating when I can't get it to look right.

Otherwise, class is going great. I got a "よくできました”on my last homework assignment so I'm happy. I still haven't practiced learning katakana yet, and it's putting me very far behind so I should buckle up and get on that as soon as I can. But anyways, I should keep track of the kanji we're studying so that in 201 I can look back in this blog and remember:

機 （き） = machine

あっち側 （あっちがわ） = on the other side

階段 （かいだん） = stairs

電話 （でんわ） = telephone

自動販売機 （じどうはんばいき） = vending machine

食堂 （しょくどう） = dining hall

学生　（がくせい） = student

女子学生　（じょしがくせい） = female student

留学生　（りゅがくせい） = international student
宿舎　（しゅくしゃ） = lodging

場所　（ばしょ） = place

階　（かい） = floor (story)

田中　（たなか） = Japanese name, Tanaka