漢字 （かんじ） は。。。

漢字　は　とても　むずかしい　ですが、　おもしろい　です。　わたし　は　漢字　の　書き方　（かきかた）　が　あまり　じょうず　じゃありません。　いつも、　わたし　の　かきかた　は　せいかい の　かきかた　(correct way of drawing?) より　わるい　です。

So, I'm finding Kanji really difficult... normally, I can recognize the reading (though sometimes I need some context), so that's not so bad, but I'm just *so* bad at drawing! When doing writing drills, I try my best to use the segmented squares to replicate what's in the book, but mine always comes out ugly: too fat or too short or out of proportion. Sometimes, I get back my Kanji worksheets, and it looks like 先生 simply drew over my characters in red pen.., but I don't really see the difference.

My stroke order's pretty good most of the time, but I still don't really make my stops distinct from my sweeps, and my hooks look too exaggerated.

Kanji's kinda crazy in some ways: why do 医者　の　者　と 会社　の　社 have the same reading? I get 半　と　来　mixed up alot... not when reading, but I end up getting stuff that looks like "平" (which apparently is a character...)

Out with the bad, in with the good:

I love Kanji: for all its difficulties, it's very rewarding once you "get it". Kanji is kind of the Japanese equivalent of English etymology: root words, prefixes, and suffixes. By knowing Kanji, you can know the meaning of words you can't even say! Here's an example that came up in class the other day: 誕生日。 At first look, you can't make neither heads nor tails of it, but if you think hard about it: you have the symbol for life (生), and the symbol for day (日), so this word has something to do with a "life day". A good guess *would* have been (I say, b/c I didn't make this connection at 9am that day) "birthday", or たんじょうび。

Kanji's full of wonderful puzzles like this, if you know their origins: 先生 is "one who has lived before (you)",　中国　is "middle country" (a name the Chinese gave themselves), and so on. As a hint to my fellow 日本語　の　一年生, in the back of our Kanji textbook, there's a mini-textbook full of Kanji origins and meanings: I actually find it easier to memorize those than knowing each of the readings.

じゃ　また！
ミカル・ホ一ン
土二月四日　(which is easier than saying/writing/remembering じゅうにがつよっか)