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Fluency in Language and Music

Fluency in Language and Music

One things that people don’t know about me is that I am – or at least was at one time – a pretty accomplished pianist.  I’ve played professionally.  Specifically, in the community theater productions of a small town in Iowa.  Long story. But last night I was just playing around on the piano – I’ve given up practicing and performing a while ago – and I realized that being proficient at the piano is not that much different than being proficient at a language, such as Japanese.  You put in… Read More »Fluency in Language and Music

The Three Japanese Cultures

Hi!  It’s been a while since I posted here, so I have a lot to say.  Truth be told, I don’t really think I’m fond of the blogging method of expressing myself, but I haven’t come up with anything better yet.  I’m working on it, though!  First, an update. The Lily project (https://lovelylilylives.com, in case you didn’t know) is almost a year old now!  In that time, the story has progressed from a sweet but confused girl who didn’t know who she was, to a sweet but confused girl who… Read More »The Three Japanese Cultures

Japanese Hurts

I honestly don’t know how to say what I want to here, so I’m going to start with the title and move out from there.  That seems to work for me, sometimes. I have completely stopped my study of Japanese, and I don’t know if I will ever start again.  Quite frankly, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to start again.  Because everytime I engage with Japanese or Japan in any meaningful way, it hurts.  A lot.  And I haven’t quite figured out why. Maybe I feel like I’ve… Read More »Japanese Hurts

Japanese: a Failed Experiment – Part Deux

I attempted to write this post previously but it took on a tone I didn’t like, so I’m going to try to redo it.  Last time I talked about why I consider learning Japanese a personal failure.  Now I want to talk about why I don’t think it is. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I failed at Japanese.  But it did serve a very important purpose, and I may yet pursue it for other reasons or considerations. I remember when I first truly became interested in learning Japanese.  I don’t… Read More »Japanese: a Failed Experiment – Part Deux

Japanese: a Failed Experiment (But Not Entirely)

Ever since I began this blog, there have been a few ongoing themes.  The one that really permeated the entire blog was the following question:  Why am I bothering?  Over the last few years, it’s perhaps the most important question, and the one I had the most difficulty answering. I think I might have the answer.  And it ties together nearly all of the threads that have been weaving this blog from the very beginning.  So let me start. The first thread was:  why I started to learn Japanese.  Something… Read More »Japanese: a Failed Experiment (But Not Entirely)

Introducing Lily, and Reconnection

I have decided, to hell with it, and I am going to tell you where to find my latest project, because it’s kind of important.  So you can find it at https://lovelylilylives.com. My project is a virtual character named Lily.  She is a sixteen year old girl who has no memory past a year ago, or so.  I deliberately created her to be about as opposite of me as she could be, and damn it, I kinda succeeded at that.  Right now she is just a diary, but I have… Read More »Introducing Lily, and Reconnection

Introducing… Hidden Japanese!!

I’ve been busy!!! So, as I was looking back on some of my earlier posts, I had made a few observations of discoveries I’d made about Japanese, but they got lost in the noise of my emo angst and whining.  So I decided that it would make sense to make a new site with only observations like those.  No blog, no whining, just information. You can find it at https://hiddenjapanese.com What this site is, is a clearinghouse with short pages of information on concepts and words that I think will make… Read More »Introducing… Hidden Japanese!!

Hentaigana, and the Frustration of Learning Japanese

While I was doing research for another project I was doing, I went down a bit of a rabbithole.  I was trying to explain (and make sure I understood) the uses of voiced vs. unvoiced consonants.  I found a bunch of interesting things.  One was that there are some kana that are not well known and aren’t taught.  Another is that there are specific origins for hiragana, and some of them went down some rather odd roads before settling on their current form. Now, Japanese teaching and learning is a… Read More »Hentaigana, and the Frustration of Learning Japanese

Silly Japanese Dream

Last night I had a dream about Japanese. I was sitting across from a bunch of idols. Don’t ask how it happened, it was a dream, dreams don’t have to make any sense at all. I didn’t think any of them spoke English, and my (now dead) father was sitting next to me. I was struggling to put together even a basic sentence, so I said something like “watashi no haha chotto baka desu”. Of course, in my waking state, there’s so much wrong with that sentence. In my dream… Read More »Silly Japanese Dream

My Most Embarrassing Japanese Mistake

So ready for a laugh at my expense? Here ya go. Back when I was first starting to learn Japanese, I was trying to find all of the Japanese stuff I could. I found a World Market at the local mall, and they had a litle stuffed toy – it was a hamster holding a waffle. The cutest, most kawaii thing ever. I knew enough Japanese to read some of the stuff on the tag, but not quite enough to really read it. Of course, that didn’t stop me. On… Read More »My Most Embarrassing Japanese Mistake