Starting July 1, and every day for a year, I will get rid of something. I will donate, discard, re-gift or recycle some bit of debris accumulating in my house. Anything non-perishable considered, exempting books and music.  –Randy Redding, ydnar.com

     Several days ago I came across a blog post titled “Less 365″.  Scripted over on ydnar.com, it made short work of reminding me how cluttered and encumbered my life has become.  By getting rid of at least 1 item every day for a year [as the post suggests], I doubt I’ll reach Nirvana but maybe a little more peace of mind is obtainable.  Committment phobic as I am, I definitely can’t say that I will discard an object from my life every day for the next 365 days but I can make a better effort at cleansing and ridding myself of the unecessaries I seem to have accummulated over the past (uhmmm) some-odd years.  I give myself 30 days, people.  It’s all the committment I can muster right now.

     So, there we have it … 30 days.

     “So how, praytell does 30 days equate with the 131 mentioned in today’s title” you ask?  Well, for some reason committing myself to this small task called into question my committment to learning the Japanese language.  There has been no dedication whatsoever in my Japanese studies.  Now, I know as well as the next guy/gal, that a sabbatical of sorts from studying isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  However …

     I know myself and I know when I have wavered versus when I’ve just plain stopped.  And stop, I have.  While I’ve spent much time watching Japanese dramas and anime, listening to Japanese songs and pretty much retaining my love of Japanese speech and culture, I haven’t done much of anything in the vein of preparing myself for the JLPT 3 this December.  Nothing. 

     Having realized that and having given myself the requisite flogging, I’ve decided to spend the next 131 days studying Japanese for at least 20 minutes a day.  Nope, 20 minutes isn’t a lot and nope, I don’t suppose that trivial bit of time will be suitable for a student hoping to pass the next level of the proficiency test.  Then again, I believe that since life circumstances have changed, so too have my goals.  It’s not a bad thing.  This is what I keep telling myself and this is what I must believe for now.  One day my passion will return, my efforts will regain strength and I’ll be in a better frame of mind to move forward faster.  Until then…

     …today I gave away a 6 quart glass jar originally purchased to hold change.  There’s nothing wrong, however, with my purple or pink ceramic piggy banks and this jar was just an impulse buy.  In addition to that, I studied Japanese grammar for 30 minutes this morning.  Day 1 is complete and both committments seem to be intact.  29 and 130 days to go respectively.  Wish me luck.

 ** You can follow the #Less365 hashtag on Twitter **

When I can make a correlation between something I enjoy and learning something new in Japanese, I really get excited so I was more than overjoyed when the words to this song popped into my head!!!

According to jGram, ~tari is used to string together a set of verbs using the Verb stem + tari and is generally referred to as the ~tari suru form.  One of the examples they used:  Tabetari, nondari, nonbirimashita – eating and drinking, I relaxed. 

The ~tari form uses the plain past tense of a verb, the –ta form, and adds ri to the end.  So …

• taberu = tabeta = tabetari (ate)
• nomeru = nonda = nondari (drank)
• asobu = asonda = asondari (played)
• kau = katta = kattari (bought)
• au = atta = attari (met)

 You get the jist, right?  If you need more clarification then just visit the jgram website and have at it.  In the meantime, take a gander at these partial lyrics to the song and my meager, measly attempts at translating.

** Disclaimer(s) **

I’m not that great at Japanese y’all, so if I’ve mispelled any words, used incorrect kana and/or kanji, or just generally have misrepresented the whole concept of ~tari, it is by accident … I apologize … and please leave corrections in the comments.  Also, I do not own any rights associated with Kamenashi Kazuya, KAT-TUN, or the lyrics contained within this post.

* P.S.*
I found a really good set of worksheets on the ~tari form at Japanese Teaching Ideas Have a look-see, it might help.

Instantaneous cognizance is the ability to immediately recognize particular elements and/or concepts within the Japanese language and to…

…okay, you caught me.  There’s no such thing as instantaneous cognizance.  It’s not some hot, new theory being studied by masses of multiple-degree carrying researchers and it isn’t the nouveau trendy topic of discussion of the moment.  It’s simply my attempt to understand what’s been transpiring here lately with my quest for Japanese fluency.

Recently I’ve been watching a lot more anime and Japanese drama television than before.  I’m also listening to quite a bit of Japanese music (mostly Pop, Rock, and a liiiiitle bit of visual kei [Gackt, I LOVE you]).  As a result, I’ve been garnering quite a bit of exposure to the language in its most native element.  The more I’m exposed the more I find myself recognizing words, phrases, even whole sentences, immediately after reading translations/subtitles.  Does this ever happen to you?…

I’m not talking about just an “oh, I knew that” reaction.  I’m saying even before you completely finish reading the subtitle, something drops into the pit of your stomach, filling your whole body and you are aware with every fiber of your being that you absolutely, undoubtedly, knew what was being said before you read the translation!

I guess, technically, what I’m experiencing is knowledge without practice or practical application.  Stay with me here.  Remember back in grade school science (way, way long ago for me) we learned about innate responses?  Innate responses are reactions to stimuli that emanate from the spinal cord, completely bypassing the brain.  Like pulling your hand away from fire.  I think with enough use, language becomes quite close to an innate response.  Instead of constantly thinking, mulling over and analyzing what we want to say, we just do it because we’re so used to it.  It just comes naturally.

Of course, I say all that to say this … knowledge without use is useless and it’s important to find opportunities to practice and use the language as often as possible.  I know it may be difficult for some of us and opportunities may exist few and far in between.  But…if you really want your language learning to take off and soar, ya just gotta do it!

So, after 10.5 hours on the job (9.5 if you don’t count lunch) I’ve managed to find my way home and to the computer … and to the internet … and to Twitter.  Yep, I’m addicted to Twitter.  Love it.  But it was there in the Twitterverse where reality burst in and bit me on the back end today.

In a conversation with fellow twitterer, @kailahana [visit her blog, Otearai Wa Doko Desu Ka?] I found myself once again contemplating the JLPT and whether I will take level 3 this year. Unfortunately, since taking level 4 last year and passing but barely, my study habits have been atrocious and not much progress has been made in my quest for Japanese fluency.  I’ve been a lazy daisy, simply floating around in the breeze, being watered half-heartedly by half-hearted attempts at study and nothing in my soil to make me grow but for the ocassional Japanese drama and/or anime online.This phenomenon, this lack of Japanese study, is nothing new.  As a matter of fact, Ryan over at Caught*Red-handed did an excellent blog post on just such a thing. I, of course, paid no attention to that niggling little voice that said “pay attention, idiot, this is you!!!” while I read it. I simply lamented the turn of events that had Ryan in a tizzy and continued with my lackadaisical habits and attitude.

So here we are, months later and it’s beginning to truly dawn on me how much time I’ve wasted.  What a pity.  What a shame.  But ya know what?  It happens.  Yep, it does.  The question is where to go from here?  Okay, yeah … I’ve taken a sabbatical of sorts and probably lost some good study time.  But I’ve also had great fun seeing some crazy J-dramas, trying to keep up with my favorite anime, Bleach, and oh yeah… spending time with my family and friends.  And Japanese has still always been in the background.  It’s just time to bring it to the forefront again and get my lazy daisy standing up straight and tall.

So, off I go to sun myself with a few JLPT practice tests and even a little conversation practice at the hanasukai coming up at the local college this Friday.  I will not fret for nothing has truly been lost.  Only temporarily placed in another spot.

Arise and grow, daisy.  Arise and grow.

It’s Black History Month but I haven’t heard too much mention of that fact.  Perhaps we don’t need it anymore.  We have, after all, elected our first Black (African American) President.  Personally, I can live with or without it but on a basic level this year, my contemplation of a lack of celebration just reminds me on an incident that occurred during a visit to Japan.  Read on…

I met Minami November 2008. She bunked with me for just a short time during my stay at Khaosan Hostel Asakusa, Japan during my very first trip abroad. Minami-chan checked in late in the night so I didn’t discover her until bright and early the next A.M. She was a morning person, practically rising with the sun and chirping away like a little bird. She was an absolute delight; beautiful, vibrant, and full of wonder. Our 2^nd room partner, on the other hand, was the polar opposite of Minami-chan and she took an immediate dislike to me.

I don’t remember her name but her presence in the room was strong. Slight as she was, her dark hair hanging the length of her back, she seemed to be a study in disdain. Her side of the room was neat and tidy to the point I figured she suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder. Seriously, she wore gloves when dealing with her own belongings.

The morning after Minami’s arrival, the two of them began tittering away in Japanese. My language proficiency at the time was next to nothing but I didn’t mind the camaraderie their shared heritage brought them. As they spoke together, words flying from their lips in traditional Japanese cadence, I simply contemplated brochures garnered from the lobby in an attempt to determine my course for the day. I barely registered their conversation until a single word burst into the room, landing in my psyche with a thud! “Gaijin”. Roomie 2 had called me gaijin. Glancing my way, she lowered her eyes and delivered the word with a flick of her chin, as if to physically throw the word so that it landed next to me with intent and purpose. I was mortified.

I’ve heard of the “gaijin” phenomenon and I’m sure most of you who are avidly fascinated by the Japanese culture/language have heard of it as well. I won’t get into the in’s and out’s only to say that for the most part, Japan can be very protective of its homogeneity and on occasion attempts to keep “outsiders” and “foreigners” operating solely at the fringes of its society. That’s all well and good. I’m normally a proponent of the “to each his own” theory so I figured I shouldn’t let this perceived tongue lashing get my nose out of joint. I simply continued to peruse the colorful pamphlets that outlined the lay of the land and marked spots I thought I’d be interested in visiting.

Later that morning in the community room Minami joined me in plan making. We spoke together excitedly, she in her broken English, me in broken English as well, as Roomie #2 entered the room. She had cleaned up her bunk, assembled her things inside her suitcase and was checking out. As she sat in the community room awaiting her ride, she offered me bottled water she hadn’t consumed during her stay. Pointing to the refrigerator tucked in the corner of the communal kitchen, she mumbled a few words I took to mean “put this water I’m giving you into the refrigerator”. Somewhat taken aback by her offer I rose to receive the gift, bowing slightly in appreciation. As my upper body bent forward and the water was placed into my outstretched hands, I quietly whispered “arrigatou gozaimasu, demo, atatakai suki desu [thank you but I like it warm]”. The silence was palpable. She hadn’t assumed, I suppose, I had any knowledge at all of the language and probably wondered if her earlier use of “gaijin” had been completely understood by me. I neither confirmed nor denied the questioning she held in her eyes. Instead, Minami-chan and I tucked the bottle of water along with a few other items into our bag and made our way to the Asakusa Kannon area to take in a bus tour. We had great fun walking downtown together but before I knew it, I was dropped headlong into the opposite end of the “gaijin phenomenom” pool.  Myriad conversations were  tossed at me and my picture seemed to be taken endlessly by  tour participants as well as casual passersby.  It took some getting used to but the faces were friendly and smiles were very easy to come by.

It was a good day.  A very good day and gaijin or not, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

December 6th was the day after my dad’s birthday and my day of reckoning with Level 4 of the JLPT. It was the day I would come face to face with a seemingly ferocious opponent but wouldn’t know the outcome of the battle until months later. The passing of time, however, would not be a big issue. I was fairly certain I would fail.

My decision to take the JLPT was multi-fold.  1-I thought it would give me a better feel as to where I really stood with the language.  2-It might inspire me to get my butt in gear to study harder and more efficiently.  3-I’d forced my University into a rather unique situation pertaining to transfer/proficiency credit.

Though I knew I wouldn’t pass JLPT this time around, I knew at some point I would definitely need to in order to attain my degree.

In the weeks preceding the exam, my resolve wavered. “Get a hold of yourself” I would admonish my inner self, “remember why we’re doing this”. I held tight to the premise of just wanting to know where I stood and how best to move forward. BUT!!! When it came right down to it, I was afraid to fail.

With a gentle push from my family (thanks Mom), my sister and I made the 6-hour trek to Atlanta, GA. It was chilly and with such a late start I barely got any sleep in the hours leading up to the exam. A self protective sense of ease fell upon me as I ascended the stairs to room 700. Many of us hung around in the hallway until the proctor told us we could assemble inside. Most did last minute studying, carrying bags of books and electronic devices designed to drill the Japanese language into your head. I, on the other hand, listened to the iPod featured on my iPhone. Gackt … I listened to Gackt. I didn’t even bother to access the myriad Japanese learning applications I’d loaded in the few months I’d owned the phone. I knew it wouldn’t help.

The test lasted several hours and there were more than a few times I thought the sweat falling from my face would mar my answer sheet. During explanation of the listening portion I was so turned around in my mind that I barely recognized when the instructions (in native/fluent Japanese) had ended and the exam actually began again. It was intense. Immensely intense. And liberating.

By the time I’d finished, I was feeling good. I wasn’t scared anymore and knew the next year when I took the JLPT for “real” everything would be okay. Congratulations and sighs of relief were bandied about the room as we lovers of the language parted company. It was a good feeling.

An even better feeling came just a little under 2 months later. Those of us taking the exam through the Japan Foundation of Los Angeles were informed our scores had been posted a full month earlier than expected. I admit my hands shook and I was slightly ill as I logged in. Although I knew I’d failed and had come to no uncertain terms with that, my world was rocked to its core when I finally scrolled down to see a passing score. 75, 71 and 100 in Sections 1, 2, and 3 respectively. A pretty decent score by any measure, I must say.

I’m not fooling myself, though. The exam is a tad bit flawed and does not truly indicate mastery or proficiency at the Japanese language. It is, however, a starting point and a method of measure. I’m glad I passed but can also see the long road ahead.

If you’ve read anything in this blog so far, you’ll know I whined a little while back about how this particular class started out as  a “literal” study in “Introductory” — covering the same old same that every class before it had covered.  I’m not sure if the “powers that be” somehow got hold of that post, but the next week we jumped from “Introductory” to “Whoa, what the heck!”.

I liked that, though.

Unfortunately, one of the problems with this class was there was really no indication of who would be taking it before it actually began.  Since there was nothing to tell the instructor what levels she would be dealing with, she just went with what she knew would work: More Introductory.  As a result, the pace at first was pretty slow and repetitive.  As some of us [okay...me] became frustrated with the slowness, she began to speed it up.

The side effect of that speed change, however, was a dead sprint towards the end of the class instead of a nice, even flow of material.  I hope the University will figure out a better system for the next set of classes if they are offered.  So far, no one knows the future of this program and even if it were to continue, I’m not so sure I could partake –time and gas permitting.

Some things I’d like to see in the next set of classes, though, are …

• Instructor, please have clear goals and expectations of the outcome of the class.  A curriculum would be nice whether it be based on a text or proprietary material.
• Sensei, understand there will always be gaps in ability among your students.  Perhaps conducting the class in breakouts would help:  30-45 minutes of Introductory stuff, 30-45 minutes of Intermediate stuff and for the fun of it, use the sink or swim method and throw some really hard stuff out there the last 15 minutes of class.  The difficult things encourage us as students to set goals and promotes a desire in us to learn well enough to be able to accomplish the hard stuff.
• Administrators, think outside the box and stop relying on the students you already have.  Promote, promote, promote!  Move into the next century and explore some creative options.

• Try a mixutre of face-to-face meetings coupled with online gatherings (think Edufire dot com).
• How about a “prize” at the end of the session, like a 4-6 week class that ends with a trip to an authentic Japanese restaurant so your students can order in Japanese?
• Speaking of restaurants, how about a “field trip” or two?  Going to a Japanese restaurant or grocery store to use language skills in the real world… huh, huh… whadya say?
• How about tapping into the young people who are interested in manga and anime?  How come you don’t have a booth at the only anime convention held in this area?  You’re missing a whole demographic, eh?

Anyway, those are just a few things I’ve been going over in my mind.  But who am I?  I’m just some lowly student looking for my next Japanese language “fix”.

• There is a table, television and chair in the living room.
• There are flowers and a newspaper on top of the table.
• Tanaka-san’s wife is in the living room.
• Tanaka-san is in the garden with a young boy.
• No one is in the kitchen.

This is a [very] close approximation of what sensei wrote on the board in Japanese class the other day.  She asked us to translate the sentences to Japanese, writing them out in our practice notebooks.   Sounds so 3rd grade doesn’t it?

You’d think a task like this would be fairly simple but it took me 15 minutes of feverish writing before I realized  what I was writing was ALL WRONG!!!

How quickly we (okay, me …I) fall into a spasmadic way of thinking when I’m being tested.  Logic and common sense fly out the window and in their place, I get brain farts and burnt up synapses.  Luckily, I had the opportunity and the presence of mind, somehow, to slow down and really think about what it was I was supposed to be writing.

Once I stopped hyperventilating, huffing for air like a claustrophobic maniac, I managed to write the following:

いす と テーブル とテレビ が いま に あります。はな や しんぶん が テーブル の うえ に あります。 たなかさん の おくさん は いま に います。 たなかさん は おとこのこ と にわ に います。 だいどころ に だれも います。

Not too bad for a beginner, I guess.  Here is  the markup  sensei gave me at yesterday’s class:

いす や テーブル や テレビ が いま に あります。はな と しんぶん が テーブル の うえ に あります。 たなかさん の おくさん が いま に います。 たなかさん と おとこのこ が にわ に います。 だいどころ に だれも いません。

Can you spot the corrections?

]]> http://www.shiirashiira.com/?feed=rss2&p=219 2 http://www.shiirashiira.com/?p=180 http://www.shiirashiira.com/?p=180#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:50:33 +0000 Shiira http://www.shiirashiira.com/?p=180 I’ve had some issues lately with my Japanese class.  Not “issues” really, but just some … well … issues.

Several days ago I waxed on about hitting the wall in my Japanese learning and then I expounded on the situation when I went 3 days without studying.  I was feeling a bit flustered because all I can ever seem to take are these short, introductory Japanese courses at the University that end up being a re-hash of very basic stuff.

It’s been a tad frustrating and had me contemplating whether to attend this week’s class or not.  A sense of obligation  co-mingled with the hope that things would move forward a bit more quickly had me with the rubber to the road — taking that 1.5 hour journey to the U to see if I could learn something new.

Procrastination had me 15 minutes late to class, but stepping inside the room had me doubting I was in the right place.  Talk about a shocking surprise!

Sensei was busily explaining some things to the only student who’d shown up but I felt like I’d traveled in time … catapulted from ichinensei (1st grade) to gonensei (5th grade) in just under 7 days.

Written on the board was an example of a person’s typical day.  Up at 630am, shower and breakfast.  Off to work, lunch on the go, then home for dinner and family time.  No big deal really, except it was written in kana and kanji, and the language used was more than that of a beginner Japanese student.

I was shocked.  Happily shocked.  I dropped into my chair, probably with my mouth open, took out paper and pen and began the assignment — to write in kana what my day had been like on yesterday. 

Sensei transferred our responses to the board, then asked us each pointed questions in Japanese that helped us expound on our answers using more detail and more complicated words and grammar.  This was followed by a listening exercise where Sensei read aloud 3 sentences that we were to transcribe in kana.  Whoa!

Now don’t get me wrong.  This was no advanced, or even intermediate, lesson but it was a marked jump in levels from last week to this week.  Truthfully, I had some trouble with grammar and I think Sensei will find a few weaknesses when she grades my transcription assignment tonight.

BUT!!!…

My brain was working in overdrive the whole class, and though there was probably smoke coming from my ears at having to use so many brain cells, being forced to keep up with a higher level and quicker pace will mean more information sticks with me than not.  I think it’s that old “sink or swim” theory.  I might have been doing the doggy paddle but I was swimming by gosh!  I was swimming.

So, I’m glad we stepped into that little time warp today.  Really, I am.  I don’t want to move too quickly but I prefer today’s time travel to the slower pace we’d previously adopted.

[I'd have to say]  It was a good day, eh?

Unfortunately, the combination of that “standstill” along with my current three University classes has caused me to set Japanese aside for the past 3 days … and counting.  I can no more afford to take a day off from learning Japanese than I can go a day without breathing!

Holy crap, Batman … What do I do???!!!The obvious solution is to immediately start studying again.  But when you have discussion boards for Operations Research that go like this …

Explain the theoretical basis for the statistician’s horror!

A friend was bragging to a statistician over coffee one afternoon how two-day volatility in the stock market had treated his holdings rather kindly. He chortled, “Yeah… yesterday I gained 60% but today I lost 40% for a net gain of 20%.”

The statistician sat in horrified silence. He finally mustered the courage and said, “My good friend I’m sorry to inform you but you had a net loss of 4%!!!”

… and you have absolutely no clue as to the answer, it’s easier to say study Japanese than it is to actually study Japanese.

So, I’m off to expound on the Delphi Technique for my Operations Management class and then I have to hit the sack.  Hopefully the answer to my “when will I have time to study Japanese” dilemma will present itself  in a wild and wondrous dream tonight.

I hope, I hope, I hope …