The PE1 Overall Goal...

おはようございます、みなさん！
Good morning, everyone!  Welcome back!
In my previous blog, I mentioned the many goals that I hold for learning Japanese.  However, those were all broad, general goals that cover years of study.  And so now, I would like to provide those goals of mine that are narrower in range - those goals that apply solely to each new PE Cycle.  And, without further ado, the Goal for this PE Cycle is...

• Goal 1: Listening and Comprehending
• To be able to separate the speakers' sounds, accents, and pitches in an ongoing conversation into individual words that I then can fully understand
• Ways to Achieve Goal 1:
• Attend as many Japanese Language Tables as I can, if not all
• Watch at least two episodes of subbed, not dubbed, anime (yay!) a week and make connections between what is said and what is written in the subs
• Listen to at least five new medium-to-fast-paced Japanese songs from various artists, WITHOUT looking at the lyrics, every week, and write down what I think are the lyrics in hiragana
• After the song ends, I will check my work against the 'official' lyrics
• Pauses may be made after segments for time to write the entire segment down, but only ONE repeat is allowed per segment, if not caught the first time
• Time between each pause for writing should get longer as the Cycle continues, and I should be able to recognize commonly used words and pitch with more practice

Alright!  That is my goal for this first Cycle!  If all goes well, I shall be a far, far, FAR better listener in just the next few weeks!
Are you excited?  I know I am!!!
So, until next time...
じゃあ、また！