Katakana Analysis Draft

     Looking for katakana words, I found "ピカーピカー" that means sparkling, online, on some Japanese blog. This word is onomatopoeia. Another word I found was "メガネ", which means glasses. I found this word online from a picture of advertisement and Katakana is used for emphasis.
     Katakana is usually used to represent onomatopoeia and loanword, and to put emphasis on the word. The first word I found "ピカーピカー" is onomatopoeia that describes the sparkling state, thus it is written in Katakana. The second word I found "メガネ" is used as an emphasis. めがね is usually written in hiragana, but since it appeared on the advertisement, Katakana was used to emphasize the product being sold.
     I think there are such effects, because Japanese do not have space in between the words. Instead, by using the mixture of Hiragana, Kanji, and Katakana, one is able to read a sentence without difficulty. During this process, Katakana is not used often, that use of Katakana can really stand out in a sentence full of Hiragana and Kanji. Thus, it makes sense that Katakana gives the effects of emphasis.
     Each textbook is different in explaining Katakana, because Katakana was used and developed in various ways. Katakana and Hiragana were developed around similar period, but since Hiragana was invented by women, many males rejected using Hiragana and used Katakana instead. The process of Hiragana becoming the prominent character was very gradual and there are many different reasons why such thing happened. Because, there are many ways of explaining Katakana that each textbook differs from others.

My weekend

せんしゅうのもくようびにわたしのおねえさんがNYへかんこくからきました。せんしゅうのどようびに5th avenueへあるいていきました。かいものをしました。せんしゅうのにちようびにはどこへもいきませんでした。おねえさんとうちでにくをたべました。それから、テレビをみました。ひとりでしゅくだいをしました。

Last Thursday, My sister came to NY from Korea. Last Saturday, we went to 5th avenue by walking. We did some shopping. Last Sunday, we didn't go anywhere. I ate meat with my sister at home. Then, we watched TV. I did my homework by myself. 

My daily Schedule

わたしはまいにちはちじにおきます。げつようびとすいようびはくじじゅっぷんから East Asian Civilizationクラスがあります。じゅうじさんじゅうごふんからじゅういちじごじゅっぷんまで Data Structureがあります。じゅうにじからにほんごのクラスがあります。にじはんから　Engineering Graphincsがあります。たいへんです。かようびともくようびはにほんごのクラスがあります。いちじじゅっぷんからにじにじゅっぷんまで Ordinary Differential Equationがあります。まいにちしゅくだいをします。いちじにねます。

Why I study Japanese

I decided to study Japanese, because my parent's are almost fluent in Japanese and I was born in Japan. Moreover, being a Korean, Japanese culture had a big influence on me. Thus, I became interested in learning about Japan and I decided to start learning about Japan from learning the language. Furthermore, our family visits Japan often, so I wanted to learn Japanese in order to understand and communicate with Japanese.
I think the difficult part of Japanese is the fact that there are Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji to learn. Hiragana itself is a lot of characters and I have to learn Katakana as well as Kanji in order to be able to read and write in Japanese. Since Japanese is a new language for me, I think it would be challenging to memorize all these different characters and use them.
Another difficulty is that you have to learn a different way to talk with respect, since Japanese value being respectful to each other. For example, there are two different ways to ask about someone's age. なんさいですか to friends and　おいくつですか to  someone you just met or to elders.
I hope I can overcome these difficulties and be able to have conversations in Japanese.

Self-Introduction

はじめまして。わたしのなまえは Susanです。かんこくからきました。わたしは Columbiaだいがくのがくせいです。にねんせいです。わたしははたちです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。