Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Continuing down Hirigana Highway
First post in a week or so, I know. Hard to support a ritual when you're not where the ritual is supposed to take place. (I'll need to figure something out for thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, cause there's no way in the nine hells that I'm gonna be taking that long of a break from this, with the trip looming ever closer!) I've had a very busy week or so with several major assignments that were due, and not one, not two, but three major tests. Long story short, I've been letting the excuses win, and I need to get back to the path and continue trudging along. Without further adieu, I shall dive back into the sea of characters that I must learn.
To sum up the last lesson, there are 5 basic vowel characters, a, i, u, e, and o. I drew them out in my notebook. I'll need to find a way to type them if I want to keep you guys up to date with what they look like too.
Onward!
Today we move on to more complex kana (characters) as far as pronunciation goes, combining a consonant and a vowel.
Most fall under a basic pattern, of:
a
ka
sa
ta
na
but every once in a while there is an exception: for instance in stead of:
i
ki
si
ti
ni
it actually goes:
i
ki
shi
chi
ni
With si and ti replaced with shi and chi.
The other biggest one to remember is tsu instead of tu.
Otherwise the notable exceptions are that the Y(vowel) column only has 3 kana: ya, yu, yo,
and the W(vowel) column only has two kana: Wa and Wo. Wo is pronounces strangely, almost completely dropping the w and pronouncing it more like "oh".
R(vowel) is weird, because it is pronounced not like Arrr, but more a blend of the Arr noise and the ELL noise (R) and (L) so to the untrained ear they will sound more like:
la
li
lu
le
lo
than:
ra
ri
ru
re
ro
HOWEVER! It is a mix of the two, about 75% R and 25% L sound. It's tricky to get, and I'm gonna need to go back and practice it tomorrow night too. Note: This is why the Japanese have such a tricky time pronouncing their Rs and Ls, and deciding which goes where; because in their language the two letters are one, and as such there is no difference between them.
And with that, I am going to call it a night. Let this muscle memory sink in before I overload it with other things. I'll completely review all of this tomorrow.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Step two
Tonight I take step two upon this journey. Barely out of my house, my feet have barely touched the earth along this path to knowledge, yet I have learned so much about myself, and truly focusing on a task at hand, and about dedication to a goal. This, however, has nothing to do with Japanese. So far as the language goes, I have learned quite little thus far, simply the knowledge contained in yesterday's segment. To review, there are 4 Japanese syllabaries, or alphabets. Romanji, a romanization of Japanese syllables, responsible for borrowed words in English such as Sushi, Sake, and the like; Hirigana, the first place my studies shall take me, it contains relatively simple flowing and curved characters and deals with things such as spelling out frustratingly complex kanji characters, verb and noun tenses, and honorifics; then there is Katakana, a sharp and angular alphabet used for words borrowed from other cultures, pan, borrowed from portugese and french, for bread, as well as onomatopoeia; and finally there is the myriad of characters in the Kanji alphabet, simply living in Japan will necessitate the knowledge of approximately two thousand characters, around the level a Japanese student will know by the beginning of high school, however academic studies above the high school level, and professional work often requires a knowledge pool of at least three thousand characters deep. Enough of the looking back, let us now return our gaze to the present!
Step two: The beginnings of my study of Hirigana.
Tonight I begin to learn the sounds of the different hirigana characters, as pronunciation is quite key, with slight differences changing the meaning of the word, and furthermore it is this one set of sounds used for the majority of the Japanese language. If you can sound it out, you can write it in Hirigana, even if you do not know the other two alphabets and most people will know what you mean, and may even be able to show you the correct kanji or katakana character(s) for the word!
Today I only learned 5 kana (characters, think of them like letters) in Hirigana. They correspond to simple vowel sounds, they are listed here in the Romanji form, with a couple examples of their sound bolded and underlined in words that follow:
a - car, bar, you should get the picture here,
i - key, or the pronunciation of the English letter E
u - Oooh, moo and so on
e - eh (and not the canadian way of saying that), meh, eggplant, elephant
o - oh, go, so, you know?
That is all for tonight, as I am quite tired, and memorization doesn't work if you force it for too long in one sitting. I will review those tomorrow, and begin associating them with their Hirigana kana instead of just their romanji.
That's all for tonight, and a short distance down the first leg of my journey. I've come a ways so far, but I might as well have made it to the edge of Boston while walking the whole way to Japan as far as actual progress towards completion of this goes.
G'night all,
~Dragon
Step two: The beginnings of my study of Hirigana.
Tonight I begin to learn the sounds of the different hirigana characters, as pronunciation is quite key, with slight differences changing the meaning of the word, and furthermore it is this one set of sounds used for the majority of the Japanese language. If you can sound it out, you can write it in Hirigana, even if you do not know the other two alphabets and most people will know what you mean, and may even be able to show you the correct kanji or katakana character(s) for the word!
Today I only learned 5 kana (characters, think of them like letters) in Hirigana. They correspond to simple vowel sounds, they are listed here in the Romanji form, with a couple examples of their sound bolded and underlined in words that follow:
a - car, bar, you should get the picture here,
i - key, or the pronunciation of the English letter E
u - Oooh, moo and so on
e - eh (and not the canadian way of saying that), meh, eggplant, elephant
o - oh, go, so, you know?
That is all for tonight, as I am quite tired, and memorization doesn't work if you force it for too long in one sitting. I will review those tomorrow, and begin associating them with their Hirigana kana instead of just their romanji.
That's all for tonight, and a short distance down the first leg of my journey. I've come a ways so far, but I might as well have made it to the edge of Boston while walking the whole way to Japan as far as actual progress towards completion of this goes.
G'night all,
~Dragon
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
First steps
My bags are packed, my mind set, my gear stowed, my boots tied, my maps drawn out, and my mind empty. The first steps upon a new road are taken this night. I sit here listening to a preparatory song to set the mood right now, while doing as much of the "writing" writing as I am be doing tonight. As my mind empties and focuses, I decide that tonight is going to be a short night, I have an early morn and a busy day tomorrow, and the extra sleep will be helpful. Time to dive in. Open the door and take the first step down this road. My mood setting song is this if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIdo4EhOidY
It is in Japanese, and the lyrics are quite interesting, and the song quite inspiring. I thought it an apt song to focus my mind and put me in the right place every night.
Step one: The four syllabaries. (alphabets)
There is: Romanji: In the website's words, it is useless. It is literally a romanized version of the Japanese characters. Things like Sushi, sake, and bento are all romanji words. Literally a Japanese word written phonetically in the roman alphabet.
Hirigana: a poetic alphabet that is of greatest utility to those just learning Japanese, as it is the easiest to learn pronunciation from, and generally you can scrape by with just hirigana, as long as you're planning to keep learning the other "alphabets" like:
Katakana: The syllabary used for onomatopoeia, and for words borrowed from other languages (such as the Japanese word for bread which was originally borrowed from Portuguese and french, which is why it sounds so similar to the traditional Roman "pan")
And finally: Kanji: the biggest syllabary, with literally thousands of characters, and multiple pronunciations to each character. Apparently if one plans to study in Japan academically it is wise to know between two and a half THOUSAND and three thousand characters. Kanji was "imported" from China, and was "imported" multiple times, once from one dynasty, then again (all the same characters) from a later dynasty who had decided that some words needed a little different pronunciation. Then the Japanese themselves decided that there needed to be a "Japanese" pronunciation to some of these words as well. TextFugu apparently has a revolutionary way of teaching them so I'm not too worried. For now I will focus on what is coming up immediately next, that being step two, which I will tackle tomorrow night. The start of Hirigana.
Sorry tonight's post was so dry and short, but there was not a lot to talk about really. Personally I think Hirigana will be the most useful, because it is what the majority of Manga seems to be written with, likely with a good amount of Kanji characters hidden in there, and obviously Katakana when onomatopoeia is needed (see EVERY DANG PANEL BECAUSE THE JAPANESE FUCKING LOVE ONOMATOPOEIA! Which isn't a bad thing, if I knew what they were saying I feel like it would make it much more imersive! even professional, official released translations rarely bother to translate the onomatopoeia which is quite unfortunate in my opinion. (that and english is a little lacking in actual onomatopoeia words. Lets see how many times I can write onomatopoeia tonight! the count is: 5 times)
That's all for tonight, I will plant my foot for a second time tomorrow with step two!
~Dragon
It is in Japanese, and the lyrics are quite interesting, and the song quite inspiring. I thought it an apt song to focus my mind and put me in the right place every night.
Step one: The four syllabaries. (alphabets)
There is: Romanji: In the website's words, it is useless. It is literally a romanized version of the Japanese characters. Things like Sushi, sake, and bento are all romanji words. Literally a Japanese word written phonetically in the roman alphabet.
Hirigana: a poetic alphabet that is of greatest utility to those just learning Japanese, as it is the easiest to learn pronunciation from, and generally you can scrape by with just hirigana, as long as you're planning to keep learning the other "alphabets" like:
Katakana: The syllabary used for onomatopoeia, and for words borrowed from other languages (such as the Japanese word for bread which was originally borrowed from Portuguese and french, which is why it sounds so similar to the traditional Roman "pan")
And finally: Kanji: the biggest syllabary, with literally thousands of characters, and multiple pronunciations to each character. Apparently if one plans to study in Japan academically it is wise to know between two and a half THOUSAND and three thousand characters. Kanji was "imported" from China, and was "imported" multiple times, once from one dynasty, then again (all the same characters) from a later dynasty who had decided that some words needed a little different pronunciation. Then the Japanese themselves decided that there needed to be a "Japanese" pronunciation to some of these words as well. TextFugu apparently has a revolutionary way of teaching them so I'm not too worried. For now I will focus on what is coming up immediately next, that being step two, which I will tackle tomorrow night. The start of Hirigana.
Sorry tonight's post was so dry and short, but there was not a lot to talk about really. Personally I think Hirigana will be the most useful, because it is what the majority of Manga seems to be written with, likely with a good amount of Kanji characters hidden in there, and obviously Katakana when onomatopoeia is needed (see EVERY DANG PANEL BECAUSE THE JAPANESE FUCKING LOVE ONOMATOPOEIA! Which isn't a bad thing, if I knew what they were saying I feel like it would make it much more imersive! even professional, official released translations rarely bother to translate the onomatopoeia which is quite unfortunate in my opinion. (that and english is a little lacking in actual onomatopoeia words. Lets see how many times I can write onomatopoeia tonight! the count is: 5 times)
That's all for tonight, I will plant my foot for a second time tomorrow with step two!
~Dragon
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Keeping to the Path
Today thus far I have read upon a number of things, none of them are directly pertaining to the Japanese language yet. Instead, I have spent 4 hours learning how to effectively learn. I think this is a beautiful thing.
The first lesson today was about work space and focus. My work space was cleaned in a matter of minutes, as I closed every other window on my computer, except for some music to aid focus, though I will be changing to a set play-list after tonight. But beyond this, I cleaned and organized my physical desktop as well, and turned off all potential distractions. The text then said to prepare to make the task of studying Japanese not a task, but a ritual, part of every single day. This, I have begun preparation to do. Every night, for a half an hour before bed, this will be the last thing I do in the day. I will take no breaks when doing it, and I will start it the same every night.
I will close or minimize all other windows on my computer.
I will close the blinds to my room.
I will close and lock my door for the night.
I will turn off the fish tank light. (they can be distracting at night, they get particularly active.)
I will tidy my desk.
I will make sure I need not use the toilet, or get a drink for at least half an hour.
I will open itunes to my study playlist, put on my headphones and start the playlist.
I will open Blogger and TextFugu in a new window in Chrome.
I will study for at least half an hour, and no more than an hour and a half. (Excluding finishing writing my post for that lesson.)
I will minimize the window after posting that night's entry.
I will use the bathroom as is already ritual, and then turn off the lights and go to sleep, again, as is ritual already.
As a ritual, once it is set in my daily habits, it will not take willpower, or determination to do, and I will be able to better apply those where they are more needed throughout the day. It is worth mentioning now, that it has been scientifically proven that every person has a limited pool of willpower each day (sort of a mental stamina, similar to how there is a physical boundary to your physical strength where you simply can not do any more in a given time and need to rest.) and that everyone has a similar amount of this willpower. Those who get more done are not stronger, but they have learned how to conserve this willpower, not using it for as many tasks by setting these tasks to be rituals. To quote the text: "It is not 'I will do', but 'I do.' Not 'When I get home, I will study' but 'When I get home, I study.' Similar to how some take off their shoes every time they enter the door to a house, it will become an action that needs no will to do." Tomorrow I will make the playlist that I use when studying Japanese. See what I did there? ; )
The next section discussed not talking about my goals. This leads me to ask my readers: Please feel free to comment, but please don't mention my progress, or anything at all pertaining my work towards my goals, no matter how proud or impressed you become (or really any reaction you have to my progress at all). Comments should pertain exclusively to my writing, or personal things I mention to explain thought processes or the overall story of this journey.
The last section of tonight's lessons pertained directly to this blog. It has asked me to keep a log of my learning, my progress, any notes I feel I need, what have you. This blog is to be my "learning log" and as such, not all the posts will be particularly interesting, but may simply be notes of what I did in a night, such as making flash cards (which I will type out in chart form on here for added repetition/practice), or what characters I need to work on, or words and the like that give me trouble and need more practice on. In short, this is a complete journal detailing everything that happens during my ritual of study at night.
Thanks to those still reading for bearing with me!
~Dragon
The first lesson today was about work space and focus. My work space was cleaned in a matter of minutes, as I closed every other window on my computer, except for some music to aid focus, though I will be changing to a set play-list after tonight. But beyond this, I cleaned and organized my physical desktop as well, and turned off all potential distractions. The text then said to prepare to make the task of studying Japanese not a task, but a ritual, part of every single day. This, I have begun preparation to do. Every night, for a half an hour before bed, this will be the last thing I do in the day. I will take no breaks when doing it, and I will start it the same every night.
I will close or minimize all other windows on my computer.
I will close the blinds to my room.
I will close and lock my door for the night.
I will turn off the fish tank light. (they can be distracting at night, they get particularly active.)
I will tidy my desk.
I will make sure I need not use the toilet, or get a drink for at least half an hour.
I will open itunes to my study playlist, put on my headphones and start the playlist.
I will open Blogger and TextFugu in a new window in Chrome.
I will study for at least half an hour, and no more than an hour and a half. (Excluding finishing writing my post for that lesson.)
I will minimize the window after posting that night's entry.
I will use the bathroom as is already ritual, and then turn off the lights and go to sleep, again, as is ritual already.
As a ritual, once it is set in my daily habits, it will not take willpower, or determination to do, and I will be able to better apply those where they are more needed throughout the day. It is worth mentioning now, that it has been scientifically proven that every person has a limited pool of willpower each day (sort of a mental stamina, similar to how there is a physical boundary to your physical strength where you simply can not do any more in a given time and need to rest.) and that everyone has a similar amount of this willpower. Those who get more done are not stronger, but they have learned how to conserve this willpower, not using it for as many tasks by setting these tasks to be rituals. To quote the text: "It is not 'I will do', but 'I do.' Not 'When I get home, I will study' but 'When I get home, I study.' Similar to how some take off their shoes every time they enter the door to a house, it will become an action that needs no will to do." Tomorrow I will make the playlist that I use when studying Japanese. See what I did there? ; )
The next section discussed not talking about my goals. This leads me to ask my readers: Please feel free to comment, but please don't mention my progress, or anything at all pertaining my work towards my goals, no matter how proud or impressed you become (or really any reaction you have to my progress at all). Comments should pertain exclusively to my writing, or personal things I mention to explain thought processes or the overall story of this journey.
The last section of tonight's lessons pertained directly to this blog. It has asked me to keep a log of my learning, my progress, any notes I feel I need, what have you. This blog is to be my "learning log" and as such, not all the posts will be particularly interesting, but may simply be notes of what I did in a night, such as making flash cards (which I will type out in chart form on here for added repetition/practice), or what characters I need to work on, or words and the like that give me trouble and need more practice on. In short, this is a complete journal detailing everything that happens during my ritual of study at night.
Thanks to those still reading for bearing with me!
~Dragon
Monday, October 15, 2012
Potholes and speed bumps.
This post is an extra post this week, as I continue to work through the pre-activities towards actually learning something about Japanese in this online textbook. This next short section is excuses I may have for not putting in the work, and reasons I think I will fail. I have been tasked with writing them down, and explaining why they should not hold me back.
Excuse the first: I have not the time. It is true, my schedule is very full lately, and I am in a number of difficult courses here at MCLA at the moment. This, however, is no excuse. I WANT this. I want it bad. It is tied to not one, not two, but THREE things that are important to me.
Reason the first: I want to respect and honor the gods. They know I've had a good life, tough at times, but overall a good life. They've been kind to me. It is up to me to live up to this kindness. It is why I strive to brighten at least one soul's life every single day. It is why I honor and respect them every day. While the gods in Japan may not be the particular gods watching over me, they damn well deserve proper respect and honor regardless. I am working towards a profession that hopefully will help not one person a day, but many, and for much longer. I am (or at least try to be) kind and friendly, a proper gentleman to all. I hold doors no matter who you are. I try to remember to say my pleases and thank-yous. ALL of my apologies are heart felt and sincere. I hope I have positively impacted someone's life today and every day.
Reason the second: I am travelling to Japan in the spring. Most people in the United States seem to arrogantly demand that when in the U.S. everyone speak English, and then make no effort to extend the same courtesy when in other countries. I need to at least attempt to extend this courtesy to the Japanese during my stay there. I know that due to their school systems the great majority of them has a reasonable understanding of the English language in addition to their native Japanese, but that is ABSOLUTELY ZERO excuse. Accents and natural, fluent, quick speaking are inherent barriers even when speaking the same language. In their ancient and proud country, I will show them this courtesy while being a humble guest within their borders.
Reason the third: I dream of one day living there. The language barrier is one of the larger, if not the largest obstacle to this dream. If I can learn this language, I am that much closer to accomplishing a longtime dream of mine, and all too rarely these days to people even seem to work towards such dreams. This is not just about the language, but also about the personal growth and the journey that will result from this undertaking. Even just in these two short hours since beginning I have revisited a lot of memories, some of them quite painful, some of them quite joyful, and I have learned more of myself than I have in a good while. If that is not reason enough on its own to keep going then I don't know how I will get through this even with the other two reasons.
Excuse the second: I will quit one day. This happens to the majority of goals that I set myself. My gods damned depression rears its head, or I otherwise lose heart, lose will, and give up the journey, slinking back to the cavern of my solitary mind to hide in the darkness from that which challenges me, or otherwise attempts to pull me from my comfort zone and change me for better or for worse. This is no excuse I am happy to accept, but it has forced its way upon me one time too many. I will NOT let it BEAT me AGAIN. If the last reason to the previous excuse hasn't outlined it enough, I don't just want to learn Japanese from this. I want to learn the satisfaction of accomplishing a real goal, a worthwhile goal, a difficult one. As my mother said to me, (and mom, if you're reading this I love you, and I don't know if you realize how heartfelt this comment to me was, and how much it means to me,) "You're strong, son. You've got endurance, you've got a lot of endurance. You don't give up. You keep going to the end." I don't remember if this was exactly what was said, but it's what I remember (I also removed my name, because this *is* the internet. if you know me, it belongs in place of son). Mom, you have no idea how much I push through every day. I was suicidal for a very brief time when I was younger, but I looked at my self and said "No. This is usually said to be the cowards way out," when contemplating suicide the one and only time I did (I never even got to the planning stage, I merely considered it for what it was, a way out of the pain and weariness of life), "I think it's quite a courageous way to go, knowing how many people you would hurt, devastate, and destroy with that simple action of wishing for it all to end." The thought of hurting you, mum, and my other family and friends, that is what kept me going. I couldn't bear the thought of causing that much pain to you, or anyone else who knew and cared for me. So I raised my face to the sky, as tear-stained as it was underneath my skin, and said "I will go on, if not for me, for those who love me." Oh how I have not given up. I will keep going till the end. It is this endurance which gets me through life, a week at a time, and it is this endurance I will now attempt to turn against the pain which caused it in the very first place. I am truly happier than I have ever been in my life this year, and I am making progress in almost all aspects of my life, but I still fail when setting long term goals. I am strong. I have endurance. I will not give up. I will see this goal through to the end. I will keep going. With time, I will succeed. Every other time, I have run out of strength for something other than just getting through the day and keeping what I consider the necessities going. I then fall into a depression made all the deeper by knowing that I then failed at another goal in life. I AM FED UP WITH THAT. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.
Those are the major excuses I can think of, and I'm sure more will pop up as this journey goes onward, and I will deal with them appropriately when they arise. That is, I will quash them like the vile, unimportant and unwanted insects that they are! I will do this damnit!
~Dragon
Excuse the first: I have not the time. It is true, my schedule is very full lately, and I am in a number of difficult courses here at MCLA at the moment. This, however, is no excuse. I WANT this. I want it bad. It is tied to not one, not two, but THREE things that are important to me.
Reason the first: I want to respect and honor the gods. They know I've had a good life, tough at times, but overall a good life. They've been kind to me. It is up to me to live up to this kindness. It is why I strive to brighten at least one soul's life every single day. It is why I honor and respect them every day. While the gods in Japan may not be the particular gods watching over me, they damn well deserve proper respect and honor regardless. I am working towards a profession that hopefully will help not one person a day, but many, and for much longer. I am (or at least try to be) kind and friendly, a proper gentleman to all. I hold doors no matter who you are. I try to remember to say my pleases and thank-yous. ALL of my apologies are heart felt and sincere. I hope I have positively impacted someone's life today and every day.
Reason the second: I am travelling to Japan in the spring. Most people in the United States seem to arrogantly demand that when in the U.S. everyone speak English, and then make no effort to extend the same courtesy when in other countries. I need to at least attempt to extend this courtesy to the Japanese during my stay there. I know that due to their school systems the great majority of them has a reasonable understanding of the English language in addition to their native Japanese, but that is ABSOLUTELY ZERO excuse. Accents and natural, fluent, quick speaking are inherent barriers even when speaking the same language. In their ancient and proud country, I will show them this courtesy while being a humble guest within their borders.
Reason the third: I dream of one day living there. The language barrier is one of the larger, if not the largest obstacle to this dream. If I can learn this language, I am that much closer to accomplishing a longtime dream of mine, and all too rarely these days to people even seem to work towards such dreams. This is not just about the language, but also about the personal growth and the journey that will result from this undertaking. Even just in these two short hours since beginning I have revisited a lot of memories, some of them quite painful, some of them quite joyful, and I have learned more of myself than I have in a good while. If that is not reason enough on its own to keep going then I don't know how I will get through this even with the other two reasons.
Excuse the second: I will quit one day. This happens to the majority of goals that I set myself. My gods damned depression rears its head, or I otherwise lose heart, lose will, and give up the journey, slinking back to the cavern of my solitary mind to hide in the darkness from that which challenges me, or otherwise attempts to pull me from my comfort zone and change me for better or for worse. This is no excuse I am happy to accept, but it has forced its way upon me one time too many. I will NOT let it BEAT me AGAIN. If the last reason to the previous excuse hasn't outlined it enough, I don't just want to learn Japanese from this. I want to learn the satisfaction of accomplishing a real goal, a worthwhile goal, a difficult one. As my mother said to me, (and mom, if you're reading this I love you, and I don't know if you realize how heartfelt this comment to me was, and how much it means to me,) "You're strong, son. You've got endurance, you've got a lot of endurance. You don't give up. You keep going to the end." I don't remember if this was exactly what was said, but it's what I remember (I also removed my name, because this *is* the internet. if you know me, it belongs in place of son). Mom, you have no idea how much I push through every day. I was suicidal for a very brief time when I was younger, but I looked at my self and said "No. This is usually said to be the cowards way out," when contemplating suicide the one and only time I did (I never even got to the planning stage, I merely considered it for what it was, a way out of the pain and weariness of life), "I think it's quite a courageous way to go, knowing how many people you would hurt, devastate, and destroy with that simple action of wishing for it all to end." The thought of hurting you, mum, and my other family and friends, that is what kept me going. I couldn't bear the thought of causing that much pain to you, or anyone else who knew and cared for me. So I raised my face to the sky, as tear-stained as it was underneath my skin, and said "I will go on, if not for me, for those who love me." Oh how I have not given up. I will keep going till the end. It is this endurance which gets me through life, a week at a time, and it is this endurance I will now attempt to turn against the pain which caused it in the very first place. I am truly happier than I have ever been in my life this year, and I am making progress in almost all aspects of my life, but I still fail when setting long term goals. I am strong. I have endurance. I will not give up. I will see this goal through to the end. I will keep going. With time, I will succeed. Every other time, I have run out of strength for something other than just getting through the day and keeping what I consider the necessities going. I then fall into a depression made all the deeper by knowing that I then failed at another goal in life. I AM FED UP WITH THAT. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.
Those are the major excuses I can think of, and I'm sure more will pop up as this journey goes onward, and I will deal with them appropriately when they arise. That is, I will quash them like the vile, unimportant and unwanted insects that they are! I will do this damnit!
~Dragon
The beginning of the long road
This night I begin an extraordinary journey, one of growth, and learning. It has been a long time in the making, but has finally had the appropriate catalyst to incite its beginning.
First thing's first: Update schedule: I hereby pledge to update this Blog at least once a week, to track my progress in my mighty quest.
Second: This tale shall be a bit of a narrative/diary/journal for me as well, partly to make sure I am staying on task, and partly to get me writing in the creative manner once in a while again, and with regularity. Follow if you feel it will interest you, leave off if you do not.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get started with this tale, shall we?
I suppose I should start this tale from the very beginning, shouldn't I? Well, this will take some mental digging. I suppose it began way back in middle school, perhaps earlier. History class (or as it was known in those days, "Social studies." Imagine me saying this with disdainful sarcasm.) was my first exposure I suppose. No! Wait. There was one earlier exposure. When I was young, I do not remember how young, my mother rented and showed my brother a film that, at that age, gave me a couple nightmares, but due to it's continuous mental re-examining, grew and festered in my mind, its themes resonating with my soul for years to come, and having re-watched it for the first time a few years ago, and many times since, I have fallen quite deeply in love with it. This film was Princess Mononoke, written and directed by the master Hayao Miyazaki, and produced by his Studio Ghibli. I will not provide a synopsis of the film here, as if you have not seen it, I firmly believe that you should, and barring that, this is the internet. You can find a synopsis yourself. However, what is relevant, is that it introduced me to Japanese culture and beliefs for the first time. My second exposure that I can recall was another of Miyazaki's movies Spirited away, which I first saw in 6th grade, preceding a unit on Japanese history and culture in my history class. It was then that I became consciously aware of this love and resonance to their culture.
I have since discovered that the best description of my religion also comes from them, as I had known I identified as a buddhist, but I knew that was not all, as it offers no explanation for the spirits and gods which I believe in. Just this past spring however, I saw a presentation on Shintoism at the MCLA (Mass College of Liberal Arts) Undergraduate Research Conference, and that sparked several very late nights of personal research, followed by the immensely satisfying feeling of knowing how to accurately describe one's beliefs after so long a time of not having a suitable explanation. It was then that I knew very deeply that I was a Shinto Buddhist, with a couple slight personal belief twists to account for my belief of afterlife other than reincarnation, which I do also believe in. I fervently wish to pray at a Shinto shrine, in the original language of the religion. Is it required by the religion? No, they merely dictate that one respect and honor the gods in whatever way they feel appropriate. I feel I have not duly respected a god if praying at their shrine unless I have given them the simple courtesy of speaking in their native tongue.
Senior year of High school, 4 short/long years ago (I have a conflicting, paradoxical feeling of "It's only been 4 years!? It feels much longer than that!" at the same time as "4 years already!? It feels like I've only just graduated!!") I, on a whim, went with some new friends, and a couple old friends to Anime club. It barely wet my appetite for anime and manga, I would not fall truly in love with these amazing and versatile art forms for almost a year. I was introduced to one of my favorite anime series the summer after Graduation by my now ex girlfriend. I am blessed to have been pointed to it, but cursed that the first season brings back a lot of painfully bittersweet memories. This series was when I first fell in love with Anime, and is called Spice and Wolf. Again, find your own damn synopsis, or better yet, go watch a few episodes, it is on Hulu. I then devoured several more anime before the summer ended and vowed to go to anime club in college and make some friends in it. Looking back, a majority of my friends on campus are from anime club, as well as a majority of my good experiences here at MCLA.
Not long after joining the anime club, people showed me where to read manga online. (manga is to anime as the analogous cartoons are to comic books in american culture. (though a very poor likening, I'll explain why personally if you would like to know)) I then swiftly learned to enjoy this art form just as much, and sometimes more than anime, though both have very special places in my heart. This lead to my first urge to learn to speak and read Japanese. I want to enjoy these works of art as they were written, not after the myriad of imperfections and changes involved in translation, both of language, and cultural jokes. Even just seeing the difference between subtitled anime and anime that has had an English track dubbed onto it can be shocking, and that is between two translations to the same language! I can only imagine how different they both are from the true, original Japanese. I owe it to the amazingly talented artists that produce these to read them and watch them as they were intended and made to be. But there is one more reason behind my will to learn this complex and deep language.
I have wanted for some time to live in Japan. I know it is a pipe dream and recognize that it will likely not happen, and may not even be possible. But I want to try, and taking this step makes me feel I am that one step closer to this dream, and is that not an admirable goal? Whether or not I can ever accomplish it, I may at least work towards it! I still hope and pray that I may, even just for a short time, live in this noble and ancient society built upon honor and respect.
This brings me to the catalyst. The will has been explained, and now the fire that kicked this dragon into motion. I will be going to Japan next spring. Words can not adequately describe my immense joy and excitement at this prospect. One of my good friends then discovered a website dedicated to helping and providing self-learners a good method to learn Japanese, both spoken, and written. I thank him greatly for this, and will be following in his mighty footsteps along this path, at least for the start. I am excited to learn enough to both enjoy the art I have loved for several long years now in its original format, and to be able to pray with what I deem appropriate respect to any of the many shrines we will be visiting on the travel course I am now a part of.
This website, in its first chapter asks for a couple goals and reasons why its user wants to learn Japanese to keep them motivated upon their journey. I hope this post is an adequate answer to these questions!
~Dragon
First thing's first: Update schedule: I hereby pledge to update this Blog at least once a week, to track my progress in my mighty quest.
Second: This tale shall be a bit of a narrative/diary/journal for me as well, partly to make sure I am staying on task, and partly to get me writing in the creative manner once in a while again, and with regularity. Follow if you feel it will interest you, leave off if you do not.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get started with this tale, shall we?
I suppose I should start this tale from the very beginning, shouldn't I? Well, this will take some mental digging. I suppose it began way back in middle school, perhaps earlier. History class (or as it was known in those days, "Social studies." Imagine me saying this with disdainful sarcasm.) was my first exposure I suppose. No! Wait. There was one earlier exposure. When I was young, I do not remember how young, my mother rented and showed my brother a film that, at that age, gave me a couple nightmares, but due to it's continuous mental re-examining, grew and festered in my mind, its themes resonating with my soul for years to come, and having re-watched it for the first time a few years ago, and many times since, I have fallen quite deeply in love with it. This film was Princess Mononoke, written and directed by the master Hayao Miyazaki, and produced by his Studio Ghibli. I will not provide a synopsis of the film here, as if you have not seen it, I firmly believe that you should, and barring that, this is the internet. You can find a synopsis yourself. However, what is relevant, is that it introduced me to Japanese culture and beliefs for the first time. My second exposure that I can recall was another of Miyazaki's movies Spirited away, which I first saw in 6th grade, preceding a unit on Japanese history and culture in my history class. It was then that I became consciously aware of this love and resonance to their culture.
I have since discovered that the best description of my religion also comes from them, as I had known I identified as a buddhist, but I knew that was not all, as it offers no explanation for the spirits and gods which I believe in. Just this past spring however, I saw a presentation on Shintoism at the MCLA (Mass College of Liberal Arts) Undergraduate Research Conference, and that sparked several very late nights of personal research, followed by the immensely satisfying feeling of knowing how to accurately describe one's beliefs after so long a time of not having a suitable explanation. It was then that I knew very deeply that I was a Shinto Buddhist, with a couple slight personal belief twists to account for my belief of afterlife other than reincarnation, which I do also believe in. I fervently wish to pray at a Shinto shrine, in the original language of the religion. Is it required by the religion? No, they merely dictate that one respect and honor the gods in whatever way they feel appropriate. I feel I have not duly respected a god if praying at their shrine unless I have given them the simple courtesy of speaking in their native tongue.
Senior year of High school, 4 short/long years ago (I have a conflicting, paradoxical feeling of "It's only been 4 years!? It feels much longer than that!" at the same time as "4 years already!? It feels like I've only just graduated!!") I, on a whim, went with some new friends, and a couple old friends to Anime club. It barely wet my appetite for anime and manga, I would not fall truly in love with these amazing and versatile art forms for almost a year. I was introduced to one of my favorite anime series the summer after Graduation by my now ex girlfriend. I am blessed to have been pointed to it, but cursed that the first season brings back a lot of painfully bittersweet memories. This series was when I first fell in love with Anime, and is called Spice and Wolf. Again, find your own damn synopsis, or better yet, go watch a few episodes, it is on Hulu. I then devoured several more anime before the summer ended and vowed to go to anime club in college and make some friends in it. Looking back, a majority of my friends on campus are from anime club, as well as a majority of my good experiences here at MCLA.
Not long after joining the anime club, people showed me where to read manga online. (manga is to anime as the analogous cartoons are to comic books in american culture. (though a very poor likening, I'll explain why personally if you would like to know)) I then swiftly learned to enjoy this art form just as much, and sometimes more than anime, though both have very special places in my heart. This lead to my first urge to learn to speak and read Japanese. I want to enjoy these works of art as they were written, not after the myriad of imperfections and changes involved in translation, both of language, and cultural jokes. Even just seeing the difference between subtitled anime and anime that has had an English track dubbed onto it can be shocking, and that is between two translations to the same language! I can only imagine how different they both are from the true, original Japanese. I owe it to the amazingly talented artists that produce these to read them and watch them as they were intended and made to be. But there is one more reason behind my will to learn this complex and deep language.
I have wanted for some time to live in Japan. I know it is a pipe dream and recognize that it will likely not happen, and may not even be possible. But I want to try, and taking this step makes me feel I am that one step closer to this dream, and is that not an admirable goal? Whether or not I can ever accomplish it, I may at least work towards it! I still hope and pray that I may, even just for a short time, live in this noble and ancient society built upon honor and respect.
This brings me to the catalyst. The will has been explained, and now the fire that kicked this dragon into motion. I will be going to Japan next spring. Words can not adequately describe my immense joy and excitement at this prospect. One of my good friends then discovered a website dedicated to helping and providing self-learners a good method to learn Japanese, both spoken, and written. I thank him greatly for this, and will be following in his mighty footsteps along this path, at least for the start. I am excited to learn enough to both enjoy the art I have loved for several long years now in its original format, and to be able to pray with what I deem appropriate respect to any of the many shrines we will be visiting on the travel course I am now a part of.
This website, in its first chapter asks for a couple goals and reasons why its user wants to learn Japanese to keep them motivated upon their journey. I hope this post is an adequate answer to these questions!
~Dragon
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