I'm willing to make a heck of a lot of sacrifices for the good of my studies. Since beginning my (serious) Japanese work, I've had to cut back significantly on leisure such as video games, but I really don't mind so much - then again, I could go on for pages about how unhappy I am with the current state of games and the game industry in general, but that's a topic for another blog.
Back to my point - I'm willing to make sacrifices. One thing I'm not willing to sacrifice, however, is my music. Nope, sorry. My music stays. There's absolutely no way I'm willing to sell, destroy, give away, hide, quarantine or otherwise remove any of my favorite, non-Japanese music that I listen to on a daily basis. Not happening.
Honestly, I think it's extremely impractical and illogical to go to such extremes as replacing your music for the sake of total immersion (don't even get me started on replacing friends), but there's certainly no rule etched into stone by the hand of Deus that commands one to do so, either. What works well for one may very well work for another, but I've learned what works for me and I'm adamant in my decision. If this means slightly slower learning of the language, then so be it, but quite frankly, I don't think my listening to a few songs in English are going to screw up anything.
But then, I'm a huge music nut, so perhaps others may not care as much. ಠ_ಠ
At any rate, progress has picked up a little, although things are still on the busy side. Kanji reps really aren't becoming any less mind numbing, but I'm really trying to push through since I still have about 400 untested cards in there... ugh. I don't think kanji reps will ever be fun, but they're quite necessary, so I just gotta get down to it.
Luckily, sentences are infinitely more fun, interesting and rewarding to review; thank the gods for that. I think that, generally, you really get a hell of a lot more out of reviewing sentences than the kanji, anyhow - but again, it's quite necessary to keep up on kanji, and I have no plans to stop anytime soon, have mercy on my soul.
The Key to Adaptability: How I Learned to be More Flexible in a Foreign
Country
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It’s not easy to adjust to a new culture. It isn’t always easy to get by in
the country where you are studying abroad either, but it is important that
you ...
2 years ago
5 comments:
You don't have to give up video games, just play them in Japanese. RPGs are especially good because they have a lot of text. It's hard at first, but you see the same words over and over and over again that you just kinda pick stuff up.
Hey, Thomas!
Trust me, I'm really itching to bust out some good ol' fashioned RPGs. I can hardly imagine a more rewarding experience than playing some of my old favorites in their original language and actually getting something out of it. I plan to do just that with Chrono Trigger in a few weeks.
Are you going to play the DS version of Chrono Trigger or the old Super Famicon one? I'm playing through Dragon Quest V for the DS right now. It was slow to start, but I've gotten faster with my dictionary lookups since then. Really good way to stay motivated and keep yourself in Japanese mode.
You know, I think I'll pick up the DS one. I've played through the original so many times that I'd probably have a more fresh experience with the new remake, er... port. Plus, I think it'd be easier to take notes and poke through JDIC without having an emulator window clog my monitor, eh?
I can imagine the dictionary process, though - back even before I began Heisig, I attempted to play through a game or two with the aid of a dictionary and managed to get maybe half a dozen dialogue boxes in before I gave up. Whoops. I'm far more well prepared this time around, so I'm excited.
I mostly use a denshi-jisho (Canon Wordtank) because I can take it with me and play in the car (when the wife is driving).
I don't know how different the new Chrono Trigger port is, but they probably added some new stuff in there, or else no one would buy it. Seems like a safe bet, although you have to fork money over for it whereas with an emulator you don't. But you can just knock it off as educational expenses. :)
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