Fall is here!
Summer has ended. The leaves haven't started turning but the days aren't as warm. We had a hurricane blow through the Atlantic and it dumped a bunch of rain on us. Rain is usually the sign of the end of summer and cooling of temperatures. I love summer and warm temperatures, but am looking forward to fall and cozy winters with hot chocolate and the crisp outdoors.
Sea Monkey Update
So my three adult sea monkeys had died and I had assumed that all was lost. I had read that eggs often will hatch later on if you let water evaporate and then add it in again. I had started letting the water evaporate in hopes of this. But today when I looked into the jar, I saw baby sea monkey dots swimming around! There were quite a few of them! I guess this goes to show you that nature is pretty resilient. I'm psyched that they didn't all die forever.
Japanese Update
Am up to exactly 220 kanji now as of this writing. I think I may actually end up getting the iTouch soon to make studying more efficient. I'm planning on handbinding some books to sell on Etsy to fund it, and just for fun too.
Studying the kanji has made me realize how logical Japanese is (and Chinese as well). Whereas English is really just a buffet/bastardization of several languages which often has no rhyme or reason-- much like our measuring system-- the characters' meaning is illustrated in how they are written! Some are almost philosophical. For example, "fond" uses the characters for "woman" and "child." And "bribe" is made of the characters for "money" (shellfish/clams) and "possess." It's like a cultural, philosophical, and history lesson-- just from looking at the characters. Pretty neat.
Listening is a big part of the AJATT method, and I've filled my iPod with Japanese podcasts. I've also started watching a few... Japanese dramas!! I've never seen any Asian dramas before, aside from some Korean music videos (*incredibly* dramatic) and My Sassy Girl (Korean movie). The dramas were good, and I am picking up a few words and phrases here and there. I also ripped the audio from the movie My Neighbor Totoro and put it on the iPod. Yes, this is slightly non-legit, but it's not exactly available to buy.
I'm wondering when I will be able to actually read some Japanese and understand it. I guess it's all in picking up words. I've put my Mac into Japanese and that has been interesting. Some programs are only in English, like Photoshop and others. But some programs, like Preview, Chrome, iTunes, and of course Finder, are now in Japanese. I am relying a lot on remembering the positioning of controls, but when I was trying to convert the Totoro audio from *.wav to *.aac that took quite a few tries.
I think I respect people who have learned a second language a lot more now.
Sea Monkey Update
So my three adult sea monkeys had died and I had assumed that all was lost. I had read that eggs often will hatch later on if you let water evaporate and then add it in again. I had started letting the water evaporate in hopes of this. But today when I looked into the jar, I saw baby sea monkey dots swimming around! There were quite a few of them! I guess this goes to show you that nature is pretty resilient. I'm psyched that they didn't all die forever.
Japanese Update
Am up to exactly 220 kanji now as of this writing. I think I may actually end up getting the iTouch soon to make studying more efficient. I'm planning on handbinding some books to sell on Etsy to fund it, and just for fun too.
Studying the kanji has made me realize how logical Japanese is (and Chinese as well). Whereas English is really just a buffet/bastardization of several languages which often has no rhyme or reason-- much like our measuring system-- the characters' meaning is illustrated in how they are written! Some are almost philosophical. For example, "fond" uses the characters for "woman" and "child." And "bribe" is made of the characters for "money" (shellfish/clams) and "possess." It's like a cultural, philosophical, and history lesson-- just from looking at the characters. Pretty neat.
Listening is a big part of the AJATT method, and I've filled my iPod with Japanese podcasts. I've also started watching a few... Japanese dramas!! I've never seen any Asian dramas before, aside from some Korean music videos (*incredibly* dramatic) and My Sassy Girl (Korean movie). The dramas were good, and I am picking up a few words and phrases here and there. I also ripped the audio from the movie My Neighbor Totoro and put it on the iPod. Yes, this is slightly non-legit, but it's not exactly available to buy.
I'm wondering when I will be able to actually read some Japanese and understand it. I guess it's all in picking up words. I've put my Mac into Japanese and that has been interesting. Some programs are only in English, like Photoshop and others. But some programs, like Preview, Chrome, iTunes, and of course Finder, are now in Japanese. I am relying a lot on remembering the positioning of controls, but when I was trying to convert the Totoro audio from *.wav to *.aac that took quite a few tries.
I think I respect people who have learned a second language a lot more now.
