Well, progress has slooooooooooowed due to fever and nose-blowing.
Smart.fm seemed like a pretty chill thing to do, except that they are buggy as shit right now (which is not meant to be as harsh as it sounds...just a set-phrase—I don't hate them!) and their interface is all new and bizarrely Twitter-like. Anyways, so I spend half of my time reporting bugs, but hopefully once they iron out it will become useful again. Anyways, I'm tempted to just make my own flashcards the old fashioned way. It's better for teaching yourself anyhow.
I am just very well aware how quickly those stacks grow, when you're trying to learn hundreds (thousands) of kanji.
But ok, yes, I could make my own digital cards.
Maybe it's time to give Anki a shot.
Waiiiiit, just kidding. "Reviewing the Kanji" also just did a site update. (PS - after seeing their url, how can you call them anything but 漢字コーヒー?)
This I like. You don't have make anything, you can just have them add it. It keeps track of where you are in the Heisig book and apparently there is a spot to ad your stories about kanji, but of course, mine will always go right here!
Sadly, no new kanji tonight. Too damned dead feeling. I'm going to bed. Of course, this is what I said almost an hour ago, but I felt like maybe updating this blog would be a good idea...
Night!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Personalize it (Heisig Super Alpha Turbo Remix)
So I've been through a hundred Heisig stories now, which is enough to know that some of these stories really work, many of these early ones I no longer need stories for (I will never forget them), but also that for some of them, I may have better ideas for my own stories. If this blog is not a place to put them, then what is it? :)
Companion: Together for two months!
Stomach: You can put all the rice you get (from the fields) in a month in your stomach—yum!
Stubborn: I'm gonna read every page from the beginning (Me regarding 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 4th grade XD)
Mediocre: With that big enclosue and little drip in the middle it just looks sort of half-assed doesn't it? lol
Texture: He kind of touches on it, but a month of wind can really change the texture of something.
Bull's eye: This one is a weird story, but I sort of like to think of it as ladling the white paint onto the bull's eye....
Fish guts: Are squiggly. The end.
Tool: Keep your eye on your tools (or you'll lose them)
True: Use a (magic) needle as a tool—look through the eye and you'll see what's true.
Bribe: He goes as far as possessed by shellfish, but "clams" (a type of shellfish) is slang for dollars, so that can help even more.
Tribute: Support someone's craft by paying (clams/dollars/shellfish) tribute.
Paragraph: I know it's bad, but I sort of think of the thing on the side as an indent. So its' like you're indenting the page to start the paragraph.
Blade: It's a sword with a slash through it, like a blade makes...
Seduce/beckoning: Honestly, this makes me think kuchisakeonna. With the sword (slashed) mouth, she's beckoning to little kids...
Shining: Seducing of the sun! You don't need to think of a shoeshine to think that seducing the sun makes things shine :)
Village: Can be simplified to just the fact that rice fields plus streets = village.
Place on the head/humble acceptance: He explains all this stuff about nails and heads, but doesn't just say, "I humbly accept the fact that you are correct -- you nailed it right on the head."
Complete: I just think it's hilarious that he manages to make a kid with no arms mean complete LOL That hilarity alone is enough to remember this by XD
Likeness: So dirty.
That's all for now. I have to go eat Mexican food with b-b-brown RICE!
Companion: Together for two months!
Stomach: You can put all the rice you get (from the fields) in a month in your stomach—yum!
Stubborn: I'm gonna read every page from the beginning (Me regarding 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 4th grade XD)
Mediocre: With that big enclosue and little drip in the middle it just looks sort of half-assed doesn't it? lol
Texture: He kind of touches on it, but a month of wind can really change the texture of something.
Bull's eye: This one is a weird story, but I sort of like to think of it as ladling the white paint onto the bull's eye....
Fish guts: Are squiggly. The end.
Tool: Keep your eye on your tools (or you'll lose them)
True: Use a (magic) needle as a tool—look through the eye and you'll see what's true.
Bribe: He goes as far as possessed by shellfish, but "clams" (a type of shellfish) is slang for dollars, so that can help even more.
Tribute: Support someone's craft by paying (clams/dollars/shellfish) tribute.
Paragraph: I know it's bad, but I sort of think of the thing on the side as an indent. So its' like you're indenting the page to start the paragraph.
Blade: It's a sword with a slash through it, like a blade makes...
Seduce/beckoning: Honestly, this makes me think kuchisakeonna. With the sword (slashed) mouth, she's beckoning to little kids...
Shining: Seducing of the sun! You don't need to think of a shoeshine to think that seducing the sun makes things shine :)
Village: Can be simplified to just the fact that rice fields plus streets = village.
Place on the head/humble acceptance: He explains all this stuff about nails and heads, but doesn't just say, "I humbly accept the fact that you are correct -- you nailed it right on the head."
Complete: I just think it's hilarious that he manages to make a kid with no arms mean complete LOL That hilarity alone is enough to remember this by XD
Likeness: So dirty.
That's all for now. I have to go eat Mexican food with b-b-brown RICE!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Revisiting Heisig OR Don't Knock It Till You Try It
Prompted one again by my new study buddy (Link in the sidebar, yo! It's swiftly becoming a vital one...) Victory Manual, I am taking a fresh look at Heisig.
Or that's what I was going to say except that I never really took a look at Heisig at all. I was aware of his method from the very beginning of studying Japanese because some people love him and some people hate him, but I had dismissed him out of hand because knowing the English meaning of the kanji seemed like a truly dangerous and destructive habit à la romaji. Hearing Alex's tale of a reformed skeptic caused me to think it over, though, and what I realized is...
"Something, anything." My mantra had been right there staring me in the face, but I didn't know it.
Language learning is all about exposure, right? So, actually introducing yourself to all the kanji with their core meanings is probably a BRILLIANT first step, because it puts them firmly into your head by using what you know already, building a great foundation on top of which you can later add word after word of vocab with what I assume now to be very little trouble.
Embarrassingly, I think had some misconceptions about the method that are now totally myth-busted. For instance, I had the idea that he WAS looking at the etymological history of the kanji, but in fact, the "stories" he tells about the characters really do make a lot more sense than that.
Incidentally, part of the reason this works, I think, is not even so much the stories as the way the stories force you to break the kanji down into easy to digest chunks. You know how when you are in a room with a lot of people speaking a language you aren't proficient in and your brain sort of gives up trying to understand? You might even start to get sleepy... It's the same thing with complicated kanji and this is something I have recognized for a long time but was not sure how to combat: when you're looking at a kanji with tons of strokes, you sort of see it without really understanding it, so even when you try to ascribe meaning you are glossing over the parts that you do actually need to remember in order to recognize it later. Forcing yourself to take the kanji apart by following to Heisig's mnemonics is, well, a huge breakthrough. I'm just sad that I am so late to the party. 24 years old...if only I could be 6.
The other thing I didn't know about Heisig's study course was the way it focuses on teaching writing. So it doesn't teach you the 100 "most useful" kanji first and it doesn't teach you them in the order that little kids learn them in Japanese schools—actually at first glance it appears to teach them in quite a confusing order, since it uses the same building blocks to make as many kanji as possible per lesson, which makes a lot of them easily confused. THAT IS, if you didn't have the stories to go along. I can't even think of mistaking "prosperous" for "risk" because I know that "risk" involves looking at the sun with your eyes and prosperity is sunny, so you get two suns.
The best thing, I think, is that I am extremely optimistic about learning kanji. 1,945 used to seem like a lot, and now it doesn't at all. That alone is priceless.
Or that's what I was going to say except that I never really took a look at Heisig at all. I was aware of his method from the very beginning of studying Japanese because some people love him and some people hate him, but I had dismissed him out of hand because knowing the English meaning of the kanji seemed like a truly dangerous and destructive habit à la romaji. Hearing Alex's tale of a reformed skeptic caused me to think it over, though, and what I realized is...
"Something, anything." My mantra had been right there staring me in the face, but I didn't know it.
Language learning is all about exposure, right? So, actually introducing yourself to all the kanji with their core meanings is probably a BRILLIANT first step, because it puts them firmly into your head by using what you know already, building a great foundation on top of which you can later add word after word of vocab with what I assume now to be very little trouble.
Embarrassingly, I think had some misconceptions about the method that are now totally myth-busted. For instance, I had the idea that he WAS looking at the etymological history of the kanji, but in fact, the "stories" he tells about the characters really do make a lot more sense than that.
Incidentally, part of the reason this works, I think, is not even so much the stories as the way the stories force you to break the kanji down into easy to digest chunks. You know how when you are in a room with a lot of people speaking a language you aren't proficient in and your brain sort of gives up trying to understand? You might even start to get sleepy... It's the same thing with complicated kanji and this is something I have recognized for a long time but was not sure how to combat: when you're looking at a kanji with tons of strokes, you sort of see it without really understanding it, so even when you try to ascribe meaning you are glossing over the parts that you do actually need to remember in order to recognize it later. Forcing yourself to take the kanji apart by following to Heisig's mnemonics is, well, a huge breakthrough. I'm just sad that I am so late to the party. 24 years old...if only I could be 6.
The other thing I didn't know about Heisig's study course was the way it focuses on teaching writing. So it doesn't teach you the 100 "most useful" kanji first and it doesn't teach you them in the order that little kids learn them in Japanese schools—actually at first glance it appears to teach them in quite a confusing order, since it uses the same building blocks to make as many kanji as possible per lesson, which makes a lot of them easily confused. THAT IS, if you didn't have the stories to go along. I can't even think of mistaking "prosperous" for "risk" because I know that "risk" involves looking at the sun with your eyes and prosperity is sunny, so you get two suns.
The best thing, I think, is that I am extremely optimistic about learning kanji. 1,945 used to seem like a lot, and now it doesn't at all. That alone is priceless.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Study consciously
http://www.victorymanual.com/study-slower-learn-faster/
This is my favorite post that I've read over there so far, mostly because as I commented, I keep thinking I need to start some diving strategies. Really thinking hard about what you're learning could be the key. (And it's also true that I wish I had all day every day to devote to this. Not gonna happen! ;p) but I do have long afternoons. Actually it just occurred to me that my schedule is almost school-like, except in high school I would wake UP at 6, not be at work by 6. Still, though, getting out at three gives me some open daylight that I need to start using to my advantage more.
For some reason I can't get the schedule vs. non-schedule thing down. I know that if I say everyday between 4 and 6 is Japanese time that I could attempt to do that, but...it seems unlikely that I would actually have every day between 4 and 6 free. That said, the way things are now, I seem to manage to WASTE all the time between 4 and 6 (or just not leave work ;p) soooooo, maybe I should try being hardcore and seeing what that gets me, if anything.
Honestly, I've found the most important thing is just to do something, anything. Anything is better than nothing. That sounds defeatist, but it's really empowering. I mean, it sounds sort of positive, but not positive enough, when really it is ultra positive because it means that the smallest thing can be useful and build you up.
For instance, today I reviewed some really easy kanji, but there were still words I didn't know. I wish I could remember them now, but that is why I will be reviewing them tomorrow, and maybe in a deeper way. There's always the question of how much time you should spend learning different words ("marbles" vs. "participation" vs. "paths between rice fields" whut), but like I said. SOMETHING ANYTHING.
I'm gonna get that on a t-shirt I think.
(You think I'm kidding.)
This is my favorite post that I've read over there so far, mostly because as I commented, I keep thinking I need to start some diving strategies. Really thinking hard about what you're learning could be the key. (And it's also true that I wish I had all day every day to devote to this. Not gonna happen! ;p) but I do have long afternoons. Actually it just occurred to me that my schedule is almost school-like, except in high school I would wake UP at 6, not be at work by 6. Still, though, getting out at three gives me some open daylight that I need to start using to my advantage more.
For some reason I can't get the schedule vs. non-schedule thing down. I know that if I say everyday between 4 and 6 is Japanese time that I could attempt to do that, but...it seems unlikely that I would actually have every day between 4 and 6 free. That said, the way things are now, I seem to manage to WASTE all the time between 4 and 6 (or just not leave work ;p) soooooo, maybe I should try being hardcore and seeing what that gets me, if anything.
Honestly, I've found the most important thing is just to do something, anything. Anything is better than nothing. That sounds defeatist, but it's really empowering. I mean, it sounds sort of positive, but not positive enough, when really it is ultra positive because it means that the smallest thing can be useful and build you up.
For instance, today I reviewed some really easy kanji, but there were still words I didn't know. I wish I could remember them now, but that is why I will be reviewing them tomorrow, and maybe in a deeper way. There's always the question of how much time you should spend learning different words ("marbles" vs. "participation" vs. "paths between rice fields" whut), but like I said. SOMETHING ANYTHING.
I'm gonna get that on a t-shirt I think.
(You think I'm kidding.)
The L2 Linguistics Bug Returns Feat. Victory Manual
I went to go see Matt Alt speak about yokai today at NEW PEOPLE and got really inspired to...well, study more. Everything inspires me to study more.
This blog, too, inspired me to study more and harder: http://www.victorymanual.com/
The guy who writes it, Alex, is a teacher in Korea, so he is dealing with L2 issues all the time, both his own and his students.
It's a little bitter-sweet to read such an awesome blog like this, because L2 linguistics and teaching were some of my main interests, which gradually morphed into translation/interpretation, which were more or less dismissed once the videogames journalism career materialized, which in turn was more or less abandoned for Twitter; I do a hell of a lot of not looking back for being the most nostalgic person I know.
I DO look back, though. I think I made this point already, but I COULD BE a translator on the side, the way I write right now. That thought is very exciting.
The fact of the matter is that I could be translating professionally right now. I could be doing a ton more in Japanese for work and the only reason I can't is that my Japanese is not there yet.
So what does this mean? Today it meant that I spent a while in Kinokuniya oogling everything from The Tale of the Heike (translated) to English textbooks for Japanese speakers (I was trying sort of hard to find a book about Japanese linguistics, but failed). I also spent a while reviewing. Actually, the first grader kanji review is very nearly completed. And I'm happy to say that it wasn't all review; I've been acquiring vocab for real, as well as a couple kanji that managed to slip by earlier.
Actually, in general, between conversing with the Japanese contract team at work and doing slap-dash review, I have been improving. I noticed the other night when I met a new conversation partner that I could actually put a few sentences together.
I'm still ridiculously nervous and shy in Japanese, just because I love it so much and want to do it right : /
But I did talk to him in Japanese a little bit and he seemed to understand me all right.
Other big news is that I get to attend the JP team meetings at work. At first this will involve me sitting in a corner quietly with a notepad trying as hard as I can to just understand, but I figure the more I go the more I will learn. More exposure can't be a bad thing.
This blog, too, inspired me to study more and harder: http://www.victorymanual.com/
The guy who writes it, Alex, is a teacher in Korea, so he is dealing with L2 issues all the time, both his own and his students.
It's a little bitter-sweet to read such an awesome blog like this, because L2 linguistics and teaching were some of my main interests, which gradually morphed into translation/interpretation, which were more or less dismissed once the videogames journalism career materialized, which in turn was more or less abandoned for Twitter; I do a hell of a lot of not looking back for being the most nostalgic person I know.
I DO look back, though. I think I made this point already, but I COULD BE a translator on the side, the way I write right now. That thought is very exciting.
The fact of the matter is that I could be translating professionally right now. I could be doing a ton more in Japanese for work and the only reason I can't is that my Japanese is not there yet.
So what does this mean? Today it meant that I spent a while in Kinokuniya oogling everything from The Tale of the Heike (translated) to English textbooks for Japanese speakers (I was trying sort of hard to find a book about Japanese linguistics, but failed). I also spent a while reviewing. Actually, the first grader kanji review is very nearly completed. And I'm happy to say that it wasn't all review; I've been acquiring vocab for real, as well as a couple kanji that managed to slip by earlier.
Actually, in general, between conversing with the Japanese contract team at work and doing slap-dash review, I have been improving. I noticed the other night when I met a new conversation partner that I could actually put a few sentences together.
I'm still ridiculously nervous and shy in Japanese, just because I love it so much and want to do it right : /
But I did talk to him in Japanese a little bit and he seemed to understand me all right.
Other big news is that I get to attend the JP team meetings at work. At first this will involve me sitting in a corner quietly with a notepad trying as hard as I can to just understand, but I figure the more I go the more I will learn. More exposure can't be a bad thing.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Translation: 風街 （ウィキペディア）
Obviously there is some danger in translating wikipedia articles, as they are liable to change, but honestly, it's probably the best resource out there that I know of right now to learn about HAPPY END. (And yeah, I'm gonna go back and edit the English into the post before this post, too.)
Anyways, this is an article about their concept of kazemachi. You could probably translate this as "breeze town" or "wind town," but I think that sounds horrible and cheesy, so I refuse to do that.* It's a super amazing concept that you could almost say is very similar to Hayao Miyazaki's sentiments when he designs the scenery for his movies. Basically, talking about nostalgia in my last actual translation post hit the nail on the head -- this band is all about nostalgia. I'm in love.
Anyways, here's what I came up with to translate what I found here (today, so apologies if it has changed):
Kazemachi(1)
Kazemachi is a concept established by the rock band HAPPY END. It depicts the Tokyo scenery lost since the Tokyo Olympics, with old fashioned imagination. They are presenting impressions of the Aoyama, Shibuya, Azabu, and surrounding areas from the era before Tokyo Tower was constructed. However, since "It's Summer" from the recording Kazemachi Romance is a depiction of Matsumoto's boyhood memories of summer vacation spent at the Ikahon hot springs (the home of his grandfather), it's not the case that they limited it to just purely Tokyo scenery.
The work of manga artist Shinji Nagashima had such a big influence on these atmospheres that at HAPPY END's first concert when they played "It's spring, c'mon!" Eiichi Ootaki announced, "This is a song dedicated to Mr. Shinji Nagashima."
It can be said that all of HAPPY END's work is connected to this idea of kazemachi. Especially in works such as their masterpiece, Kazemachi Romance, they sing in a deep, detailed way about the appearance of kazemachi.
(1) I'm not gonna do super detailed notes this time. Just to sum up the experience, though, I would say that the second line was definitely the hardest part to translate, and you can tell, since it's sort of janky. ものis not the most concrete concept, since it can be a person or a thing or pretty much whatever. (Also janky is the font in the post, for whatever reason...I've been having weird font size/type issues this whole time...) Anyhow, other than that...I apparently really need to track down some Shinji Nagashima manga.
*In a similar way you could call 風街ろまん, "Breeze Town Romance" which sounds similarly awful. PS - This has been edited ;p Way to go anyone who clicked on this and saw me totally misread the album title.
Translation: Working on 10/24/2009
This morning I was going to do laundry, but since some other early(ish) riser stole the machine as I was on my way to breakfast, I'm going to work on translating the はっぴいえんど wikipedia page.
I haven't decided if I want to post it section by section or just do the whole thing. It might depend on how far I can get today. Actually, wikipedia articles make for perfect weeknight practice material, since you can just do a section a night instead of going on forever.
That said it's not like that song was very long, but it took quite a while to do.
THAT said, it's a wikipedia article, not poetry.
We'll see. I'm gonna just get started.
EDIT: Wow, wait -- I found something else I need to translate first :) Pretty short, though, so it'll be up soon.
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