It’s the last weekend of September already! Outside is getting chilly, and the leaves are changing colour
How did your studying go this month? Did you manage to stick to your routine?
What was your favourite CIJ video this month? Do you have a favourite word or phrase that you learned?
As for me, this month I have been working through the complete beginner videos, and my favourite video was What are the Dwarfs doing by Yoshito-sensei. The little dwarfs were so funny, I had no idea they had those around Wrocław.
I also really enjoyed learning the word for fireworks (花火), I love fireworks, and I thought that the way this word is formed makes for a really lovely way to describe them
Your message has a nice introduction. It reminded me of a lesson in my Japanese textbook with tips about writing emails in Japanese. It says that it’s good taste to open an email with some remarks about the season. It’s true that it brings a warm feeling.
Thank you for the recommendation about the 小人 video. I hadn’t seen it yet but it was a good one. Among the September videos, I especially liked けい先生のシェアハウス生活. Most of Kei’s videos are too advanced for me but I could understand many things from that one. It painlessly introduced a lot of vocabulary about household stuff and, for some reason, maybe because of Kei’s voice, I thought the video was relaxing.
As for new vocabulary, two new words that I especially liked were ギュウギュウパンパン (at 9:18). The sonority of these words made me laugh. It’s amazing how many things can be described in Japanese with onomatopoeia.
Now that you two mention it, it’s very Japanese to start a conversation by talking about the weather.
I remember when I first started language school in Japan, my teachers would always start every lesson by commenting on the weather. They asked us if the weather was a popular topic in our respective countries and we all shook our heads, but funnily enough, it soon became natural to start every conversation by talking about the weather.
I liked both of the videos that you two mentioned. My favourite video in September was probably 日本語でゲーム Shashingo by Yuki-sensei. It was instantly nostalgic for me to see Japan’s landscape so accurately captured by the game and it doesn’t get boring because of Yuki-sensei’s commentary.
I don’t have any new favourite vocabulary, but one of the many things I like about CIJ is how painless and natural it makes learning new vocabulary. In September, I was able to pick up random new words like 生活、 さつま芋、 夕方、生（なま）、and 材料。
I’ve never seen that word for fireworks before, thats a really interesting use of kanji flower and fire I love the little interesting nuances that Japanese has. That Dwarf video seems funny tho I’ll give it a watch!
Thank you all so much for your replies, it was nice to read about what you’d been learning.
Benjamin, ギュウギュウパンパン is such a great onomatopoeia! I am always surprised at how these words capture what they are describing so well! They’re super fun
Aki thank you for mentioning the Shashingo video, I hadn’t seen that one yet, and I hadn’t heard of the game, it looks really nice!
It is also interesting you both mentioned it being common in Japan to start the conversation by talking about the weather, I didn’t know that! It is very similar where I am from, we talk about the weather constantly (usually rain )
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