Life, (Japanese) Language, and Wordplay.
Have you ever heard of “coin parking”?
I hadn’t, until I started learning Japanese. I don’t remember ever using the phrase “coin parking”. Metered parking? Parking meter? Sure. I haven’t seen one in a while, but sure, I’ve said it. Coin parking?! コインパーキング！？Not so much.
POP QUIZ!
Which of these three things will you never see?
A: A lion playing a trumpet while riding a tricycle.
B: A salaryman doing handstand pushups while balancing two glasses of Calpis on his feet at Fushimi Inari at 3 in the morning.
C: The kanji 迄.
The answer is….
Wow, it’s been one year since I first opened up Genki and started memorizing vocab lists. I’d like to think I’ve come a long way.
It’s actually been about 8~9 months since I started all the daily listening/reading/SRSing.
To avoid sounding like a language blog parrot, I’ll keep this post short and sweet.
言語は単に口から一方的に音を出すだけのものではない。言語は意思を伝達する為の手段である。
考えてみて下さい。もし話す時に体を全然動かせかなったとしたらどうなるか。
In an age of Internet Language Gurus, I’m noticing a disturbing trend among some language learners.
I think many people are forgetting the “self” aspect of self-study.
Taking a break from laughing at 医龍*, I decided to have a look see around some language blogs. It’s just something I do from time to time. It’s part of my “always experimenting” mentality. Anyways, I’m browsing the forums of said blogs, and what I saw was shocking, disappointing, and rather frustrating.
This post has been chillin’ in draft limbo for a few months now. It’s time to release it. Actually, it should’ve been released a while ago. But I’m finding it even more relevant now that I’ve switched up my study habits. But at the same time, I don’t really want to publish it, because it’s old news. But then again, people just starting out could possibly benefit from this, which is the entire point of this blog. I’m so indecisive (or am I?)
Continue reading “What My Nephew Taught Me About Learning Languages”