It’s morning at Laura’s house. I am not yet as mentally excited as I will soon be, but adrenaline is already racing uncalled for through my body. I slept poorly, but not in a miserable way. I woke up early, at 8:30, and decided to finish Rosetta Stone. I worked through the morning, pausing only for brief walks around the house (the adrenaline, remember), a cookie, and a glass of milk. I checked on Laura once or twice, as she was sleeping so long and soundly that I worried about her a bit. Yesterday I had stomach aches, and I was worried she might have them now. But she was fine. I kept working on Rosetta Stone.
When Laura woke up, I organized my suitcase, double checked that I had my important documents, my gifts for Mayumi and Mitsuki, and index cards – things I worry about forgetting. I charged my iPod and put it away. I also erased some files from my computer to free up room (I have to get my external hard drive working properly when I return), and emptied all of my memory cards onto the computer. I’m going to Japan with 18 gb of memory. Yikes.
I’m proud of how lightly we packed
And I keep learning Japanese, right up until the last minute:
Shatsu wa yogorete imasu – the shirt is dirty
Doushite te o aratte imasu ka – why are you washing your hands
Yogorete imasu kara aratte imasu –I am washing because they are dirty.
Ryourishite imasu kara daidokoro ni imasu – He is in the kitchen because he is cooking
Doushite okaasan wa inu o aratte imasu ka – why is mom washing the dog
Nodo ga kawaite imasu kara mizu o nonde imasu – I am drinking water because I am thirsty.
Otoko no hito wa ha o migaite imasu – the man is brushing his teeth
Onna no ko tachi wa kami o tokashite imasu – the girls are brushing their hair
Watashi wa hirugohan no mae ni te o araimasu – I wash my hands before lunch
Watashi wa asagohan no ato ni ha o migakimasu. – I brush my teeth after breakfast
Neko wa makkura no ue ni arimasu – The cat is on top of the pillow.
Pinku no moufu wa kirei desu – the pink blanket is pretty
Kirei desu kara – because they are clean
Otoko no ko wa ima de nete imasu – the boy is sleeping in the living room
Hana o nanbon kate imasu ka? – how many flowers are you buying?
Karera wa sekken de te o aratte imasu – they are washing their hands with soap
Kanojo wa sangurasu o irimasu – she needs sunglasses
Utte imasu – is selling
Kaimono o shite imasu – to be shopping
Kowareta terebi – broken tv
Ga hoshii desu – wants
Megane – glasses
Hoshiku arimasen – does not want
Watashi wa atarashii terebi ga irimasu – I need a new tv
Doushite atarashii terebi ga irimasuka – why do you need a new tv?
Watashi no furui terebi wa kowarete imasu kara – because my old tv is broken.
Doko de keeke o kaimasuka? – where do you buy cake?
Kowareta terebi – broken tv
Supaa wa hashi no chikaku ni arimasu – the supermarket is of the vicinity of the bridge
Kusuriya – pharmacy
Sumimasen, kusuriya wa doko desu ka? – excuse me, where is the pharmacy
Watashi wa hon ga hoshii desu – I want to buy a book
Suki dewa arimasen – doesn’t like
Tenisu o shite imasu – playing tennis
Kono onna no ko wa tenisu no suru no ga suki dewa arimasen – this girl doesn’t like to play tennis
Kanojo wa hon o yomu no ga suki desu – she likes to read books
Nani o suru no ga suki desu ka? – what do you like to do?
Onnanoko wa otousan yori ookii keeki o motte imasu – The girl has a bigger cake than her father
Onnanoko wa okaasan yori takusan no orenji o motte imasu – the girl has more oranges than her mother.
Onna no hito wa musukosan hodo takusan no juusu o motte imasen – the woman does not have as much juice than her son.
Dochira no doobutsu ga ookii desu ka – which animal is big
Kochira no doubutsu ga ookii desu – this animal is big
Dochira no kudamono ga akai desu ka – which fruit is red
Kochira no kudamono ga akai desu – this fruit is red
Ookii shatsu ga chairo desu – the big shirt is brown
Watashi wa koohii yori ocha no hou ga suki desu – I like tea better than coffee
Watashi wa sakkaa yori tenisu no hou ga suki desu – I like tennis better than coffee.
Watashi wa juusu yori gyuunyuu no hou ga suki desu. – I like milk better than juice.
Dochira no kutsu ga suki desu ka – which shoes do you like?
Watashi wa midori no kutsu yori aoi kutsu no hou ga suki desu – I like the green shoes better than the blue shoes.
Eiga no chiketto wa kyuu pondo desu – the movie ticket is 9 pounds.
Ninjin wa ikura desu ka? – How much are the carrots?
Boushi wa kooto yori yasui desu – the hat is cheaper than the coat
Haratte imasu – is using
Haraimasu - use
Omoi – heavy
Karui – light
Hayai – fast
Osoi – slow
My books are heavy – watashi no hon wa omoi desu
His books are heavier – kare no hon wa motto omoi desu
This camera is small – kono kamera wa chiisai desu.
This camera is smaller – Kono kamera was motto chiisai desu.
This camera is the smallest – kono kamera ga ichiban chiisai desu.
Toshi o totta – elderly
Osanai – very young, child
Motto takusan - more
Ichiban takusan – the most
Osara wa arimasuka – do you have plates
Kinzoku to kami to ki no osara ga arimasu – we have metal, paper, and wooden plates.
Dono osara ga irimasuka – which plate do you need
Watashi no kazoku wa kyoo koen de hirugohan o tabemasu kara, karui osara ga irimasu – because my family is eating in the park today, I need light plates.
Ki no osara wa kinzoku no osara yori karui desu ga, kami no osara ga ichiban karui desu. – although wooden plates are lighter than metal plates, paper plates are lightest.
Sukunai – less
Chigau – different
Onaji – the same
Onaji iro – the same colour
Chigau iro – different colored
Ookisa – size
Onaji ookisa – same size
Chigau ookisa – different size
Ookisugimasu – too big
Chiisasugimasu – too small
Choudo ii desu – the right size
Coudo ii desu ka? – does it fit, is it the right size?
Subete – all
Suwatte imasu – to frown
Kodomotachi wa minna suwatte imasu – all the children are frowning
Kodomotachi wa minna suwatte imasen – none of the children are frowning.
Nanbonka – some
Nanbonka no hana wa purasuchikku desu – some of the flowers are plastic.
Hana wa subete kami desu – all of the flowers are paper.
Watashitachi no shatsu wa subete onaji desu ga, subete chigau iro desu – our shirts are all the same size, but they are all different colors.
Ichiban - best
July 14, 2009
July 13, 2009
Japan Awaits
I am sitting at the public library in Clinton Missouri. I have blog posts to write, but no time to write them. I have used up almost all my internet time emailing Liisa (a quick, short, dirty email, nothing like the one I want to write, the one she deserves) and printing things I need for Japan - 200 pages worth. We bought a travel guide, but I guess I just wanted a second opinion. We have articles on how to behave in Ryokan, how to use a Japanese toilet, the various Japanese fast food restaurants, transportation in and out of Mutsu, Kanazawa, Ise... and dozens of every kind of reservation imaginable.
I am excited and nervous. I wonder, ten years from now, how it will feel to be on the edge of a big trip. I'm sure I will be more comfortable with it, for both better and worse. For now it's just so big that it seems impossible and frightening and I wonder what I am doing. At the same time I know it will be fine and work out and if bits of it don't that will only make the story better.
I've had to spend about 100$ on last minute purchases - really nice disposable razors, some new socks, these print outs (at 10 cents a page), some new eyeliner, etc. Not included are the presents for our lovely hostesses, and the backpack I may buy tomorrow. I've managed to pack surprisingly lightly... we'll see how that works out.
I finished Turning Japanese, and am about halfway through with the annotations. I'd love to finish those before Japan, since Japan will change everything about my reaction. But it's not going to happen. :)
Rosetta Stone is going well. I am almost finished with Level 1, I dare to let myself believe I may finish it in time.
I can say:
I am smelling the water – watashi wa mizu no noio o kaide imasu.
I am tasting the sushi – watashi wa sushi no ajime o shite imasu.
My fingers are on top of the table – watashi no yubi wa teeburu no ue ni arimasu.
My friends are outside – watashi no tomodachi wa sotto de imasu.
These are my guests – kochira wa watashi no okyusan desu.
Welcome to Japan – Nihon e yokoso.
This sock smells bad – kono kutsushita wa kusai desu.
This rice is delicious – kono gohan wa oishii desu.
The woman is walking with her husband – onna no hito wa shujin to aruite imasu.
The woman and her husband are walking – onna no hito to shujin wa aruite imasu.
Who are you eating breakfast with? – dare to asagohan o tabete imasuka.
My hands are on the ground - Watashi no te wa kusa no ue ni arimasu.
What are you doing? – nani o shite imasuka.
Where do you live? – doko ni sunde imasu.
Where do you work? – doko de hataraite imasuka.
Today is Sunday, but I am working – kyoo wa nichiyoobi desu ga, watashi wa hataraite imasu.
Today is Saturday. I am running in the park with my friend – kyoo wa dooyoobi desu. Watashi wa tomodachi to koen de hashitte imasu.
The boy is visiting his grandma’s house – otoko no ko wa obaasan no ie ni kite imasu.
This is a Chinese animal, but it doesn’t speak Chinese. – kore wa chuugoku no doobutsu desu. demo chuugokugo o hanashimasen.
Excuse me, do you speak Japanese? – sumimasen, nihongo o hanashimasuka.
She is teaching girls Arabic – Kanojo wa onna no kotachi ni arabiago o oshiete imasu.
I speak English, but I am studying Japanese – eigo o hanashimasu ga, nihongo o benkyoo shimasu.
Watashitachi wa nyuuyooku ni sunde imasu ga, ryoushin wa eigo o hanashimasen – we live in New York, but my parents don’t speak English.
Ima, nanji desu ka – what time is it now?
Who is your teacher? – Sensei wa dare desu ka.
Nani o oshiete imasu ka – what are you teaching?
Otoko no hito wa tomodachi o okoshimasu. – the man is waking up his friend.
Onna no ko wa okimasu – the girl is waking up.
Watashi wa shatsu o aratte imasu – I am washing the shirt
Kare wa kao o aratte imasu – he is washing his face
Watashi wa kami o aratte imasu – I am washing my hair
Shatsu wa kawaite imasu – the shirts are dry
I want to write about the summer, about how I relaxed in some ways but not others, how that really goes for all the time. Mental, emotional, physical exertion... they come in waves.
I want to write about cooking for my family, about understanding something of Como Agua Para Chocolate.
I want to write about the way you don't see the important things in your life coming, that you are never normal, your life is never colorless, it just takes time to develop in your memory and understanding, like a polaroid.
Except, perhaps, for travel.
I want to write about going home to Missouri, if only for a short time, smelling deep summer on the wind and seeing lightening bugs light up the trees all around me.
I've written something about my feelings for Missouri, for America, but I want to write more. I want to write about the security of one's own land, one's own culture.
I want to write a bit about staying with Laura, about Minasan no Keeku.
I want to write one last post about Rosetta Stone, how much I underestimated it, how the words are bursting from me, how surprised I am to love the lack of English, how it really does seem to work despite my skepticism, how I am afraid it is spoiling me.
But for now, Japan awaits.
I am excited and nervous. I wonder, ten years from now, how it will feel to be on the edge of a big trip. I'm sure I will be more comfortable with it, for both better and worse. For now it's just so big that it seems impossible and frightening and I wonder what I am doing. At the same time I know it will be fine and work out and if bits of it don't that will only make the story better.
I've had to spend about 100$ on last minute purchases - really nice disposable razors, some new socks, these print outs (at 10 cents a page), some new eyeliner, etc. Not included are the presents for our lovely hostesses, and the backpack I may buy tomorrow. I've managed to pack surprisingly lightly... we'll see how that works out.
I finished Turning Japanese, and am about halfway through with the annotations. I'd love to finish those before Japan, since Japan will change everything about my reaction. But it's not going to happen. :)
Rosetta Stone is going well. I am almost finished with Level 1, I dare to let myself believe I may finish it in time.
I can say:
I am smelling the water – watashi wa mizu no noio o kaide imasu.
I am tasting the sushi – watashi wa sushi no ajime o shite imasu.
My fingers are on top of the table – watashi no yubi wa teeburu no ue ni arimasu.
My friends are outside – watashi no tomodachi wa sotto de imasu.
These are my guests – kochira wa watashi no okyusan desu.
Welcome to Japan – Nihon e yokoso.
This sock smells bad – kono kutsushita wa kusai desu.
This rice is delicious – kono gohan wa oishii desu.
The woman is walking with her husband – onna no hito wa shujin to aruite imasu.
The woman and her husband are walking – onna no hito to shujin wa aruite imasu.
Who are you eating breakfast with? – dare to asagohan o tabete imasuka.
My hands are on the ground - Watashi no te wa kusa no ue ni arimasu.
What are you doing? – nani o shite imasuka.
Where do you live? – doko ni sunde imasu.
Where do you work? – doko de hataraite imasuka.
Today is Sunday, but I am working – kyoo wa nichiyoobi desu ga, watashi wa hataraite imasu.
Today is Saturday. I am running in the park with my friend – kyoo wa dooyoobi desu. Watashi wa tomodachi to koen de hashitte imasu.
The boy is visiting his grandma’s house – otoko no ko wa obaasan no ie ni kite imasu.
This is a Chinese animal, but it doesn’t speak Chinese. – kore wa chuugoku no doobutsu desu. demo chuugokugo o hanashimasen.
Excuse me, do you speak Japanese? – sumimasen, nihongo o hanashimasuka.
She is teaching girls Arabic – Kanojo wa onna no kotachi ni arabiago o oshiete imasu.
I speak English, but I am studying Japanese – eigo o hanashimasu ga, nihongo o benkyoo shimasu.
Watashitachi wa nyuuyooku ni sunde imasu ga, ryoushin wa eigo o hanashimasen – we live in New York, but my parents don’t speak English.
Ima, nanji desu ka – what time is it now?
Who is your teacher? – Sensei wa dare desu ka.
Nani o oshiete imasu ka – what are you teaching?
Otoko no hito wa tomodachi o okoshimasu. – the man is waking up his friend.
Onna no ko wa okimasu – the girl is waking up.
Watashi wa shatsu o aratte imasu – I am washing the shirt
Kare wa kao o aratte imasu – he is washing his face
Watashi wa kami o aratte imasu – I am washing my hair
Shatsu wa kawaite imasu – the shirts are dry
I want to write about the summer, about how I relaxed in some ways but not others, how that really goes for all the time. Mental, emotional, physical exertion... they come in waves.
I want to write about cooking for my family, about understanding something of Como Agua Para Chocolate.
I want to write about the way you don't see the important things in your life coming, that you are never normal, your life is never colorless, it just takes time to develop in your memory and understanding, like a polaroid.
Except, perhaps, for travel.
I want to write about going home to Missouri, if only for a short time, smelling deep summer on the wind and seeing lightening bugs light up the trees all around me.
I've written something about my feelings for Missouri, for America, but I want to write more. I want to write about the security of one's own land, one's own culture.
I want to write a bit about staying with Laura, about Minasan no Keeku.
I want to write one last post about Rosetta Stone, how much I underestimated it, how the words are bursting from me, how surprised I am to love the lack of English, how it really does seem to work despite my skepticism, how I am afraid it is spoiling me.
But for now, Japan awaits.
July 10, 2009
Last Night in Florida
I'm leaving tomorrow and I don't know how I feel about it. I'll miss Tidbit and I'll miss my family during good times. :) Like tonight, when we went out to eat and to the Dali museum, and there was a lot of laughter and knowing each other well in a good way. At the same time I'm ready to be back on my own, and I'm incredibly excited about Japan, and even about hanging out with Laura in Clinton. :D I'm thinking now that I have about 10 minutes of packing left, and I'd love to finish reading Turning Japanese tonight, although I really should save it for the plane, and I have to get up at 6 so I can shower and leave and get to the Tampa airport on time. But I'm in the living room, having just saved the pictures from the memory cards that will stay here onto my computer, and the green lights that Kris and Kai have in the sea beside their dock are swarming with fish, as always, their shape looking suspiciously like Koi. And in case you were wondering, the light of the full moon on the water really is like liquid silver.
July 09, 2009
Almost There...
Tomorrow is my last day here in Florida. On Saturday I'm off to Laura's house back home in Missouri, and next Wednesday we leave bright and early for Japan.
Laura has received all of the things I had mailed to her for the trip, including the crucial rental phone, we have all of our hotel reservations, I have my hair cut and my nails painted, and today I bought little Florida presents for Laura and Tabi and hostess gifts for Mayumi and Mitsuki. It's getting very close now. 90% of the stuff I need to pack s in a big pile along with my suitcases, but I need to get up early tomorrow to /actually/ pack them up, since tomorrow we will have family time until late.
I'm filling myself full of food I'm not going to have for a while. In this case - sugary American cereal, the somewhat-rare-in-Japan tomato, and slice and bake chocolate chip cookies, straight out of the oven, with a tall, full glass of Gyu-nyu: Milk.
Laura has received all of the things I had mailed to her for the trip, including the crucial rental phone, we have all of our hotel reservations, I have my hair cut and my nails painted, and today I bought little Florida presents for Laura and Tabi and hostess gifts for Mayumi and Mitsuki. It's getting very close now. 90% of the stuff I need to pack s in a big pile along with my suitcases, but I need to get up early tomorrow to /actually/ pack them up, since tomorrow we will have family time until late.
I'm filling myself full of food I'm not going to have for a while. In this case - sugary American cereal, the somewhat-rare-in-Japan tomato, and slice and bake chocolate chip cookies, straight out of the oven, with a tall, full glass of Gyu-nyu: Milk.
July 08, 2009
Clothes and Make-Up
On my own initiative I went to Forever 21.com today and found myself actually wanting and considering paying for some very cute tops. I didn't, because I'm about to go to Japan and I need to save my money for that, but I was considering it.
I've actually suddenly got a lot of cute clothes. I've purchased about 40 tops this summer - a whole new wardrobe - and I can't get over the unfamiliar feeling of being proud of the different shirts in my closet and looking forward to wearing them. It's bizarre, I tell you.
I also got my hair cut really short, and it's very easy to take care of and curls a bit and looks nice. Now I'm thinking about a pedicure and buying new make up??
I don't think I'm really becoming more materialistic on the inside-inside, but hmm...
I've actually suddenly got a lot of cute clothes. I've purchased about 40 tops this summer - a whole new wardrobe - and I can't get over the unfamiliar feeling of being proud of the different shirts in my closet and looking forward to wearing them. It's bizarre, I tell you.
I also got my hair cut really short, and it's very easy to take care of and curls a bit and looks nice. Now I'm thinking about a pedicure and buying new make up??
I don't think I'm really becoming more materialistic on the inside-inside, but hmm...
Floridians
We had a neighborhood crab party last night. I rarely eat that much of anything, and I've only had crab before a handful of times, so it was fun and delicious to break open leg after leg, drag out the sweet, tender meat, soak it in butter and gobble it up. I've already grown quite fond of most of the people there - it's an interesting neighborhood. There's Debbie, who's as good as gold, a delightfully crazy older lady from England who screams about pussies as if she's oblivious to the modern, American secondary meaning of the phrase, Sal, a man, who is very sweet but does have women tattooed all over his legs, etc, etc. :D I love the diversity.
------------------------------------
This morning I went to Seascribes - the writing group at the nearby library. It was my fourth Wednesday to go there, and my last for a while, since I'm leaving on Saturday. There were ten there this time, which is far and away the biggest group I've seen there so far.
There is an older lady who writes about her adventures sailing around the world,
A woman, one of the club's founders, who writes memoir-esque vignettes,
A woman, I think another founder? who is working on a novel about intersecting lives,
and A man, sort of the leader, who had a book published about his memories and is working on another.
- These are the ones that I've seen a few times, who I have gotten to know fairly well. There are also...
Two ninth grade girls who write fantasy, one writing about modern world, semi-plausible disasters at the moment, the other about angels (who can hate and have mental breakdowns)
An Indian woman who has lived all over the world, has just returned form a trip to Peru, and is writing a story (a mystery?) set in the Netherlands, where she used to live.
A woman, new to the group, who came today and is writing a book about creative writing for children, as well as some romance novels - she has a lot of nonfiction articles published already.
A woman who is apparently a regular in the summers, a New Yorker who is currently writing her own memoirs.
It's a diverse group, if you look past the ages (aside from the two ninth grade girls and I, they are all 60+... erm, 50+ at least - It's Florida, after all!)
People here just seem more free, more unique, more interesting than in West County. I never realized how conformist the community there was until I came here.
------------------------------------
This morning I went to Seascribes - the writing group at the nearby library. It was my fourth Wednesday to go there, and my last for a while, since I'm leaving on Saturday. There were ten there this time, which is far and away the biggest group I've seen there so far.
There is an older lady who writes about her adventures sailing around the world,
A woman, one of the club's founders, who writes memoir-esque vignettes,
A woman, I think another founder? who is working on a novel about intersecting lives,
and A man, sort of the leader, who had a book published about his memories and is working on another.
- These are the ones that I've seen a few times, who I have gotten to know fairly well. There are also...
Two ninth grade girls who write fantasy, one writing about modern world, semi-plausible disasters at the moment, the other about angels (who can hate and have mental breakdowns)
An Indian woman who has lived all over the world, has just returned form a trip to Peru, and is writing a story (a mystery?) set in the Netherlands, where she used to live.
A woman, new to the group, who came today and is writing a book about creative writing for children, as well as some romance novels - she has a lot of nonfiction articles published already.
A woman who is apparently a regular in the summers, a New Yorker who is currently writing her own memoirs.
It's a diverse group, if you look past the ages (aside from the two ninth grade girls and I, they are all 60+... erm, 50+ at least - It's Florida, after all!)
People here just seem more free, more unique, more interesting than in West County. I never realized how conformist the community there was until I came here.
July 07, 2009
Unhappy Families
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in a different way."
- Anna Karenina
- Anna Karenina
July 06, 2009
The Mountain of Terror
One of the places on our itenerary (and yes we'll be there for the festival):
Osore-zan
It is said that the spirits of the dead gather at the shores of the pale green lake in the center of the desolate mountains known collectively as Osore-zan, or Mount Terror. Osore-zan is at the northernmost part of the northernmost prefecture on Honshu, the main island of Japan, and if you go to this place with its barren landscape and volcanic steam, you will immediately see why it is thought to be the edge of the living world. Children's toys, pinwheels, flower offerings and statues of the Jizo bodhisattva decorate the shores of the lake. They have been left by people who come to console the souls of the dead, especially children, who are said to be stranded here in this netherworld waiting for a chance to cross the Japanese River Styx. If you visit during the July festival of the local Osore-zan Bodaiji Temple, you will see female mediums called Itako passing on messages from the dead.
July 05, 2009
私の犬は茶色です。
私の名まえはミランダです。十九歳です。学生です。アメリカ人です。
My name is Miranda. I am 19 years old. I am a student. I am American.
I didn't memorize it. I actually know how to say it. And I know how to write it, too, except for the Kanji for year, 歳. It's not much but I'm fiercely proud of it. :D
I can say/write other things too, like:
私の犬は茶色です。
My dog is brown.
犬は外で走っています。
The dog is running outside.
And, most recently,
むすめさんは朝ごはんの後に読みます。
（My） daughter reads after breakfast.
And even,
むすめさんは朝ご飯の後に読みますが昼ご飯の後に読みません。
（My） daughter reads after breakfast but not after lunch.
That last takes me enough time to think about and construct that I'm not sure I could say it spontaneously, but I can understand it if it's said slowly, and write it... and practice makes perfect, right? :P
I can even make some sentences based on words and grammar from Rosetta Stone, although with a language as foreign as Japanese one can never be certain, or even half-certain, that a conjecture is actually the way something is expressed. For example:
私の家族に母と父と妹います。
I am sure this is wrong, but I like to think that it would be at least understood for "In my family there is (my) father, (my) mother, and (my) little sister."
My name is Miranda. I am 19 years old. I am a student. I am American.
I didn't memorize it. I actually know how to say it. And I know how to write it, too, except for the Kanji for year, 歳. It's not much but I'm fiercely proud of it. :D
I can say/write other things too, like:
私の犬は茶色です。
My dog is brown.
犬は外で走っています。
The dog is running outside.
And, most recently,
むすめさんは朝ごはんの後に読みます。
（My） daughter reads after breakfast.
And even,
むすめさんは朝ご飯の後に読みますが昼ご飯の後に読みません。
（My） daughter reads after breakfast but not after lunch.
That last takes me enough time to think about and construct that I'm not sure I could say it spontaneously, but I can understand it if it's said slowly, and write it... and practice makes perfect, right? :P
I can even make some sentences based on words and grammar from Rosetta Stone, although with a language as foreign as Japanese one can never be certain, or even half-certain, that a conjecture is actually the way something is expressed. For example:
私の家族に母と父と妹います。
I am sure this is wrong, but I like to think that it would be at least understood for "In my family there is (my) father, (my) mother, and (my) little sister."
With One Week to Go
On Saturday I'm leaving for Kansas City, where Laura and I are going to hang out for a few days, having a bit of fun and making our last preparations for Japan. We're leaving for Japan on the 15th - it's coming up rapidly.
I've been busy with family matters, (and, yesterday, the fourth of July :)) but I've still been doing a bit each day and getting closer to being ready. With all the hotel reservations finally confirmed, most of the rail journeys at least generally planned, my phone on it's way, and my railpasses and passport in hand, the most crucial thing remaining is to pack. I'm planning to get my room tidy tonight, and perhaps even come up with a packing list, so that it will be easier.
I'm planning to pack light, with ideally just my smaller red suitcase and a backpack (probably my dad's big one, which I've uncovered in the move). Still, I haven't decided what I'll do for the way to Kansas City - I may well check the big red suitcase with clothes and stuff I'll want at Mizzou but don't need in Japan, and carry on the little red suitcase and the backpack. It's a lot to carry on, but I've done it before. If I can't fit everything into the small suitcase and the backpack with room to spare, I'll bring the big suitcase instead, but wouldn't it be nice if I could carry everything easily, and even avoid checking luggage? Maybe unrealistic, but I can still dream at this point. I also might plan to mail at least one package home (or to Laura's house) with souvenirs or something of that nature, but it's fairly expensive, so we'll see.
I've also been reading a lot. I'm halfway through Japanese Inn, which is probably not the most densely edifying work I could be reading, but hey, I got it at one of the used bookstores around here and it's a nice look at Japan over a long period of history. I may not finish it before I leave, and I'm not particularly worried about it. I do, however, want to finish Turning Japanese. I only wish that it was more up to date - it was written in the 80s - but I still feel as though it's a fascinating look at Japanese culture from a very unique perspective, and, completely apart from my trip, a fascinating work of introspection. I have a lot to say about this book as well, and I'd like to write a blog post about it - perhaps one before, and one after, my trip to Japan.
I've also read more about the sites we'll be going to, and tourism in Japan in general, on Wikitravel. They have a lot of good information on rail connections, restaurants, etc, and I'll probably print 30-40 pages of it to have with me in leiu of or in addition to a traditional guidebook for the trip. This page in particular, though long, is at turns useful, fascinating, or both.
Our itenerary is pretty much finalised at this point, with only three days (out of 21) that are uncertain and probably will be until they arrive. We'll be hovering fairly near Osaka during that time, so good possibilities are Kobe, the valleys around Hiroshima, or more Osaka. The only site that we're missing, would be reasonable to do, and I care at all about is Mount Fuji. I don't really need to spend a day or two climbing it, but it would be nice to go somewhere that at least has a good view of it. We may well do that with the last of our fuzzy days, as we head back towards Tokyo.
Looking at Japan's Top 3 made me quite proud of our itenerary. I really think we've struck a fairly good balance. We can't do everything in Japan, or even the highlights of Japan, in three weeks - which is a good thing! I have a feeling that I'll be back if I ever get the chance, and that's before I've even stepped fut in the country. Still, out of most of the Top 3 lists, we've done 1 - not bad for a first trip.
Amoung the Three Views, we are seeing Miyajima.
Amoung the Three Castles, we are seeing Himeji.
Amoung the Three Famous Gardens, we are doing Kenrokuen.
Amoung the Three Sacred Mountains, we are doing Mount Osore and Mount Koya.
Amoung the Three Big Buddhas, we are doing Todaiji and Kotokuin.
Amoung the Three Holy Places of Oshu, we are doing Mount Osore.
Amoung the Three Great Inari Shrines, we are doing Fushimi Inari.
Amoung the Three Great Tenjin Shrings, we are doing Kitano Tenmangu.
---------------
Amoung the Three Famous Mountains, we may be doing Mount Fuji.
We won't be there for any of the Three Great Festivals.
We're missing the Three Hot Springs.
We're missing the Three Great Night Views.
Amoung the Three Hidden Regions, we are approaching Shirakawa-Go, but not making it there.
We're missing the Three China Towns.
I also checked out "Off the Beaten Track in Japan" - areas that aren't so well known to tourists. I wouldn't expect that we'd make it to any of these on our first whirlwind tour of Japan, but actually both Shimokita Peninsula and Mount Koya make the list.
What I think I'll find is that I regret not having more time to spend on the Shimokita peninsula. I heard about it late enough in the game that I was incredibly lucky to be able to work it in at all, and we're only going to have one full day there - I could spend two weeks.
I took a break a few lessons from finishing Unit 2 of Rosetta Stone Japanese and today I got back on it. As I started Unit 3 I realized that the difficulty has made a pretty steep jump. Still, things are going fairly smoothly. I got out one of my old Japanese textbooks yesterday and wonder if Rosetta Stone is spoiling me - I had a hard time focusing on black text and forcing myself to copy sentences into my notebook. On the other hand, I've never been too impressed by that particular textbook, so maybe it has nothing to do with Rosetta Stone.
Here is a screenshot showing my progress. We're definitely into sentences now, and I can introduce myself or someone else, and ask enough questions to have a 2 minute smalltalk section on a train. Unfortunately that's probably not going to happen, and I'm kind of getting anxious to learn hotel and train related words. But if nothing else Laura and I can cram that at her house before we leave and on the plane ride over.
Things are looking good!
I've been busy with family matters, (and, yesterday, the fourth of July :)) but I've still been doing a bit each day and getting closer to being ready. With all the hotel reservations finally confirmed, most of the rail journeys at least generally planned, my phone on it's way, and my railpasses and passport in hand, the most crucial thing remaining is to pack. I'm planning to get my room tidy tonight, and perhaps even come up with a packing list, so that it will be easier.
I'm planning to pack light, with ideally just my smaller red suitcase and a backpack (probably my dad's big one, which I've uncovered in the move). Still, I haven't decided what I'll do for the way to Kansas City - I may well check the big red suitcase with clothes and stuff I'll want at Mizzou but don't need in Japan, and carry on the little red suitcase and the backpack. It's a lot to carry on, but I've done it before. If I can't fit everything into the small suitcase and the backpack with room to spare, I'll bring the big suitcase instead, but wouldn't it be nice if I could carry everything easily, and even avoid checking luggage? Maybe unrealistic, but I can still dream at this point. I also might plan to mail at least one package home (or to Laura's house) with souvenirs or something of that nature, but it's fairly expensive, so we'll see.
I've also been reading a lot. I'm halfway through Japanese Inn, which is probably not the most densely edifying work I could be reading, but hey, I got it at one of the used bookstores around here and it's a nice look at Japan over a long period of history. I may not finish it before I leave, and I'm not particularly worried about it. I do, however, want to finish Turning Japanese. I only wish that it was more up to date - it was written in the 80s - but I still feel as though it's a fascinating look at Japanese culture from a very unique perspective, and, completely apart from my trip, a fascinating work of introspection. I have a lot to say about this book as well, and I'd like to write a blog post about it - perhaps one before, and one after, my trip to Japan.
I've also read more about the sites we'll be going to, and tourism in Japan in general, on Wikitravel. They have a lot of good information on rail connections, restaurants, etc, and I'll probably print 30-40 pages of it to have with me in leiu of or in addition to a traditional guidebook for the trip. This page in particular, though long, is at turns useful, fascinating, or both.
Our itenerary is pretty much finalised at this point, with only three days (out of 21) that are uncertain and probably will be until they arrive. We'll be hovering fairly near Osaka during that time, so good possibilities are Kobe, the valleys around Hiroshima, or more Osaka. The only site that we're missing, would be reasonable to do, and I care at all about is Mount Fuji. I don't really need to spend a day or two climbing it, but it would be nice to go somewhere that at least has a good view of it. We may well do that with the last of our fuzzy days, as we head back towards Tokyo.
Looking at Japan's Top 3 made me quite proud of our itenerary. I really think we've struck a fairly good balance. We can't do everything in Japan, or even the highlights of Japan, in three weeks - which is a good thing! I have a feeling that I'll be back if I ever get the chance, and that's before I've even stepped fut in the country. Still, out of most of the Top 3 lists, we've done 1 - not bad for a first trip.
Amoung the Three Views, we are seeing Miyajima.
Amoung the Three Castles, we are seeing Himeji.
Amoung the Three Famous Gardens, we are doing Kenrokuen.
Amoung the Three Sacred Mountains, we are doing Mount Osore and Mount Koya.
Amoung the Three Big Buddhas, we are doing Todaiji and Kotokuin.
Amoung the Three Holy Places of Oshu, we are doing Mount Osore.
Amoung the Three Great Inari Shrines, we are doing Fushimi Inari.
Amoung the Three Great Tenjin Shrings, we are doing Kitano Tenmangu.
---------------
Amoung the Three Famous Mountains, we may be doing Mount Fuji.
We won't be there for any of the Three Great Festivals.
We're missing the Three Hot Springs.
We're missing the Three Great Night Views.
Amoung the Three Hidden Regions, we are approaching Shirakawa-Go, but not making it there.
We're missing the Three China Towns.
I also checked out "Off the Beaten Track in Japan" - areas that aren't so well known to tourists. I wouldn't expect that we'd make it to any of these on our first whirlwind tour of Japan, but actually both Shimokita Peninsula and Mount Koya make the list.
What I think I'll find is that I regret not having more time to spend on the Shimokita peninsula. I heard about it late enough in the game that I was incredibly lucky to be able to work it in at all, and we're only going to have one full day there - I could spend two weeks.
I took a break a few lessons from finishing Unit 2 of Rosetta Stone Japanese and today I got back on it. As I started Unit 3 I realized that the difficulty has made a pretty steep jump. Still, things are going fairly smoothly. I got out one of my old Japanese textbooks yesterday and wonder if Rosetta Stone is spoiling me - I had a hard time focusing on black text and forcing myself to copy sentences into my notebook. On the other hand, I've never been too impressed by that particular textbook, so maybe it has nothing to do with Rosetta Stone.
Here is a screenshot showing my progress. We're definitely into sentences now, and I can introduce myself or someone else, and ask enough questions to have a 2 minute smalltalk section on a train. Unfortunately that's probably not going to happen, and I'm kind of getting anxious to learn hotel and train related words. But if nothing else Laura and I can cram that at her house before we leave and on the plane ride over.
Things are looking good!
My Beach
I Googled my beach so I could show it off. :)
This picture came up first...
Erm, lil' awkward. Such a spot may exist in the general area (perhaps within a half hour's drive?), but it's definitely not /Redington/ beach. I would have found it. Now I'm quite curious, it looks gorgeous! All those rocks - we don't have those.
This one claims to be in North Redington, which I haven't extensively explored, so I can't rule it out. It looks a lot more like my beach, with the right lack-of-rocks and sea oat combination. But my beach has more distance between the water and the sea oats, and of course, has more people on it.
Okay Google, I give up. The reason I was Googling to start with is that for some reason I haven't taken hardly any pictures of the beach that we walk to every night, other than the sunset itself. Here's one my sister took, with me in it. It should do for now - I'm planning a post with lots of Florida Pictures later.
This picture came up first...
Erm, lil' awkward. Such a spot may exist in the general area (perhaps within a half hour's drive?), but it's definitely not /Redington/ beach. I would have found it. Now I'm quite curious, it looks gorgeous! All those rocks - we don't have those.This one claims to be in North Redington, which I haven't extensively explored, so I can't rule it out. It looks a lot more like my beach, with the right lack-of-rocks and sea oat combination. But my beach has more distance between the water and the sea oats, and of course, has more people on it.
Okay Google, I give up. The reason I was Googling to start with is that for some reason I haven't taken hardly any pictures of the beach that we walk to every night, other than the sunset itself. Here's one my sister took, with me in it. It should do for now - I'm planning a post with lots of Florida Pictures later.
Homesick
It rarely happens to me that I wake up in the night, unsure of my surroundings. But it's happened here, in the darkest hours of the night, when I'm woken by rain on tile roofs and the swishing of palms on my windowpane. I stretch, am surprised by the cool metal of the home gym as my arm hits the weight machine, which comes right up to the edge of my mattress. I don't know where I expected to find myself - at home on Burgundy Lane, or back in Laws.
Laws, Mizzou, last year, is an awkward memory for me. There are moments, especially in the waking day, arguing with my family, that it's hard to believe I ever went away, and lived for a year alone, with a bunch of loveable and crazy foreigners (and even crazier Americans) in the huge concrete monstrosity of Laws hall. Mayumi, Mitsuki, Ben, Clint, Mimi, Laurence, Tomomi... Timur, Santi, Pat and Maria... even Laura, Tabi, and Jorge to a lesser extent - is it really possible that we met, lived together for a long year, and then, now, it is over? And Mayumi, having been my roommate, that is the strangest.
When I wake up at night I don't wonder about having lived there - the whole environment is absolutely present in my mind, less as a memory than as a reality. Without my eyes, I could climb out of my bed, make my way out of my room, and to the bathroom, or perhaps down the stairs. I might even get as far as Dobbs.
But no, I am here in Florida. And that's strange indeed. My family is here and all of my things. The furniture and paintings that surrounded me throughout my childhood have been transplanted to a new climate, almost a new nation. It feels like a crossover fanfiction or something, strange.
I am vaguely aware that this is one of those magical places people leave their own homes and spend loads and loads of money to come to and go to the beach rain or shine and take pictures and bring home memories. And that's strange. I've never lived in such a place before, and I always thought that if I did I should appreciate it a bit more. But the beach isn't really my scene, at least not yet.
When I walk on the beach I feel old. I feel like walking slowly and watching clouds and sunsets and seagulls and thinking about my life, maybe even writing about it. Except that I haven't hardly lived my life. It is a peaceful place - no place for me now. I am not ready for peace.
Being transplanted has had another effect on me - one that raises questions and may have long term implications. Or it may mean nothing. I am homesick for Missouri. It happens a little bit with silly things, like longing to hear "Dierbergs" and "Schnucks" instead of "Winn Dixie". And it happens more with bigger things, like Winter.
I miss it for myself, a bit. I watched a few minutes of Greys Anatomy and Meridith walked outside in a coat, the whole world grey and her breath coming out in a mist, and I felt it in my chest. I am so grateful that I am going back to Missouri in the fall - I'm not sure I could manage without the winter. Go ahead and tell me it makes no sense, I already know it.
But it gets more complex than a longing for snow - I was playing Rosetta Stone, and some of the pictures show late fall, and early winter... and in no exotic way whatsoever, but perhaps a little girl in a little coat, smiling shyly and standing in front of a suburban street with bare trees and pale grass behind, the last few leaves of fall dancing on the lawn. That street could be in my old neighborhood, that coat could come from Wal Mart or Target, that child could be my own -
I understand suddenly, this want to have your children grow up in the same way you did. It gives me a certain feeling to imagine my children growing up in colourful warm parkas, playing with scattered leaves, feeling their cheeks and ears and nose turn bright red in the cold, going door to door on halloween, going off to the woods because they know thick winter clothing makes the thorns more bearable, cracking frozen puddles with their feet, watching sleet hit the windows as they snuggle under blankets indoors...
A lot of images go through my mind. I don't require my future children to experience each and every one of them, but each one of them makes me smile and think of them. Not that we need be in Missouri - almost all of these things could happen, for example, in New England, and most of them (swapping out Wal Mart and giving up Halloween) could happen in Scandinavia (if I went far enough north I would lose the leaves, and they won't be exactly the same anywhere else).
Just some thoughts and feelings, is all. And even if I were to move off to some exotic land, there's nothing saying that I might not be able to take my kids home for a year or two for them to understand America. I am planning on shipping or accompanying them back to the states for a month most summers anyway. Still, it's imperfect - there's a difference between having Trick or Treated, and growing up doing it every year, from being carried by mommy dressed up as a pumpkin to being a little witch whose daddy follows her around holding pounds of candy to going to high school costume parties dressed as a... bunny?
And I've avoided mentioning deep winter and Christmas and New Years altogether! I've avoiding thinking about them, if you want to know the truth. If leaves falling and winter coats make me so lonesome, what will the thought of Christmas without snow or Santa do to me? :P But I'm sure I'll give it all due thought before I make any of that sort of life decision.
And one can't have everything. Even people who never leave their own small town grumble about "when I was your age", and I know my children won't have Pokemon or Pottermania as part of their childhood. So, I dunno. :)
I'm just thinking onto paper.
Laws, Mizzou, last year, is an awkward memory for me. There are moments, especially in the waking day, arguing with my family, that it's hard to believe I ever went away, and lived for a year alone, with a bunch of loveable and crazy foreigners (and even crazier Americans) in the huge concrete monstrosity of Laws hall. Mayumi, Mitsuki, Ben, Clint, Mimi, Laurence, Tomomi... Timur, Santi, Pat and Maria... even Laura, Tabi, and Jorge to a lesser extent - is it really possible that we met, lived together for a long year, and then, now, it is over? And Mayumi, having been my roommate, that is the strangest.
When I wake up at night I don't wonder about having lived there - the whole environment is absolutely present in my mind, less as a memory than as a reality. Without my eyes, I could climb out of my bed, make my way out of my room, and to the bathroom, or perhaps down the stairs. I might even get as far as Dobbs.
But no, I am here in Florida. And that's strange indeed. My family is here and all of my things. The furniture and paintings that surrounded me throughout my childhood have been transplanted to a new climate, almost a new nation. It feels like a crossover fanfiction or something, strange.
I am vaguely aware that this is one of those magical places people leave their own homes and spend loads and loads of money to come to and go to the beach rain or shine and take pictures and bring home memories. And that's strange. I've never lived in such a place before, and I always thought that if I did I should appreciate it a bit more. But the beach isn't really my scene, at least not yet.
When I walk on the beach I feel old. I feel like walking slowly and watching clouds and sunsets and seagulls and thinking about my life, maybe even writing about it. Except that I haven't hardly lived my life. It is a peaceful place - no place for me now. I am not ready for peace.
Being transplanted has had another effect on me - one that raises questions and may have long term implications. Or it may mean nothing. I am homesick for Missouri. It happens a little bit with silly things, like longing to hear "Dierbergs" and "Schnucks" instead of "Winn Dixie". And it happens more with bigger things, like Winter.
I miss it for myself, a bit. I watched a few minutes of Greys Anatomy and Meridith walked outside in a coat, the whole world grey and her breath coming out in a mist, and I felt it in my chest. I am so grateful that I am going back to Missouri in the fall - I'm not sure I could manage without the winter. Go ahead and tell me it makes no sense, I already know it.
But it gets more complex than a longing for snow - I was playing Rosetta Stone, and some of the pictures show late fall, and early winter... and in no exotic way whatsoever, but perhaps a little girl in a little coat, smiling shyly and standing in front of a suburban street with bare trees and pale grass behind, the last few leaves of fall dancing on the lawn. That street could be in my old neighborhood, that coat could come from Wal Mart or Target, that child could be my own -
I understand suddenly, this want to have your children grow up in the same way you did. It gives me a certain feeling to imagine my children growing up in colourful warm parkas, playing with scattered leaves, feeling their cheeks and ears and nose turn bright red in the cold, going door to door on halloween, going off to the woods because they know thick winter clothing makes the thorns more bearable, cracking frozen puddles with their feet, watching sleet hit the windows as they snuggle under blankets indoors...
A lot of images go through my mind. I don't require my future children to experience each and every one of them, but each one of them makes me smile and think of them. Not that we need be in Missouri - almost all of these things could happen, for example, in New England, and most of them (swapping out Wal Mart and giving up Halloween) could happen in Scandinavia (if I went far enough north I would lose the leaves, and they won't be exactly the same anywhere else).
Just some thoughts and feelings, is all. And even if I were to move off to some exotic land, there's nothing saying that I might not be able to take my kids home for a year or two for them to understand America. I am planning on shipping or accompanying them back to the states for a month most summers anyway. Still, it's imperfect - there's a difference between having Trick or Treated, and growing up doing it every year, from being carried by mommy dressed up as a pumpkin to being a little witch whose daddy follows her around holding pounds of candy to going to high school costume parties dressed as a... bunny?
And I've avoided mentioning deep winter and Christmas and New Years altogether! I've avoiding thinking about them, if you want to know the truth. If leaves falling and winter coats make me so lonesome, what will the thought of Christmas without snow or Santa do to me? :P But I'm sure I'll give it all due thought before I make any of that sort of life decision.
And one can't have everything. Even people who never leave their own small town grumble about "when I was your age", and I know my children won't have Pokemon or Pottermania as part of their childhood. So, I dunno. :)
I'm just thinking onto paper.
June 30, 2009
An Outburst of Organic Life
"By forces seemingly antagonistic and destructive Nature accomplishes her beneficent designs - now a flood of fire, now a flood of ice, now a flood of water; and again in the fullness of time an outburst of organic life.”
- John Muir
- John Muir
Alligator Man
Melissa and I took a walk, making all lefts so that we came to the sea wall across the bay from our own house. When the tide is high it's fun to walk along the concrete edge, seeing the water lap against the side and, here and there, where the old wall is beginning to crumble, swirl into the land and fill tiny rushing pools.
Melissa won't stop talking about Alligator Man. Debbie has told her that there is a man with a pet alligator in the neighborhood - he lives in the tall grey house, she said, with an alligator mailbox. It was a bit further than Tidbit and I usually walked, but we agreed to help her investigate. So it was a left at the end of the seawall, and then a long street, and then left again into a little cul-de-sac.
The tall grey house had no Alligator mailbox. Or so we thought at first - a second glance revealed that it was green, with a slight attempt at scaly texturing, and when seen from straight on, the unmistakable tail of a gator on the back of it. It was like finding a giant red X on the ground. We looked at each other, and then slowly at the house, as if we would hear the Alligator roar and gnash it's teeth from the side of the road.
Rediculous, of course. But there was an enclosure there, where someone else might have a screen porch. It didn't look big enough for a gator, or strong enough to hold one. But then again, there was the mailbox to consider, and why would Debbie lie to us? We didn't want to be creepers, so we walked on.
"After all," I said. "Just because there is an alligator on the mailbox and an enclosure in the front yard doesn't mean he has an alligator. After all, here's a mailbox with a giant seahorse on it, does that mean they have a giant seahorse in their front yard?"
We turned and looked at this house, in a mockery of searching for a giant seahorse. And I kid you not - they had a giant aquarium in the side of their house, just visible from the road. This was all getting to be a bit too weird. We circled the cul-de-sac in mock hysterics, Mel screaming, "Look here, palm trees on the mail box... and palm trees in the yard!!"
We came back around to Alligator Man's house. Still no gators, but there was a very large grey dog there, who was free and roaming around a bit too much for our liking. We had Tidbit to think of, after all. I picked her up and I think she knew better than to make any noises. We tried to make our retreat as quickly and quietly as possible. We were almost to the corner when a man on a large and loud motorcycle came around and towards us. Moving out of the way we saw him stop at Alligator Man's house and talk to the dog.
We thought we were saved. And then we heard the man calling the dog, and revving up his motorcycle again.
"He's going to run with the dog!"
"No, surely not!"
But just the same, we were on a narrow street with no sidewalks and no public areas, just the long (and lengthening) avenue of houses before the right turn back to the seawall and safety. We heard the motorcycle behind us, the man calling the dog again. We ran.
Melissa was in flip flops and I in sandles, and carrying 16 pounds of Dachshund besides. We were halfway there when the man on the motorcycle turned the corner. I was still thinking to myself, 'surely not'. Melissa, who without Tidbit had a bit more mobility, risked a quick look back.
"The dog is following!" she confirmed. We ran as though the man was leading a team of gators on our tails. The motorcycle grew louder and louder in our ears, deafening. We reached the seawall with seconds to spare, through ourselves to the right and onto the public grass, and the motorcycle raced by, the grey dog running alongside it at top speed.
I was a bit high on Rosetta Stone, and Japanese words came tumbling out of my mouth at that.
"Inu wa hashitte imasu," I whispered.
Breathing hard, we watched in amazement as the two sped to the end of the seawall, then rushed back at us, and again. We clung to the concrete edge by the sea once more, working our way back home.
I do believe that was Alligator Man. And I do believe that he is capable of owning an Alligator.
Tidbit and I won't be going past the seawall for a while.
Melissa won't stop talking about Alligator Man. Debbie has told her that there is a man with a pet alligator in the neighborhood - he lives in the tall grey house, she said, with an alligator mailbox. It was a bit further than Tidbit and I usually walked, but we agreed to help her investigate. So it was a left at the end of the seawall, and then a long street, and then left again into a little cul-de-sac.
The tall grey house had no Alligator mailbox. Or so we thought at first - a second glance revealed that it was green, with a slight attempt at scaly texturing, and when seen from straight on, the unmistakable tail of a gator on the back of it. It was like finding a giant red X on the ground. We looked at each other, and then slowly at the house, as if we would hear the Alligator roar and gnash it's teeth from the side of the road.
Rediculous, of course. But there was an enclosure there, where someone else might have a screen porch. It didn't look big enough for a gator, or strong enough to hold one. But then again, there was the mailbox to consider, and why would Debbie lie to us? We didn't want to be creepers, so we walked on.
"After all," I said. "Just because there is an alligator on the mailbox and an enclosure in the front yard doesn't mean he has an alligator. After all, here's a mailbox with a giant seahorse on it, does that mean they have a giant seahorse in their front yard?"
We turned and looked at this house, in a mockery of searching for a giant seahorse. And I kid you not - they had a giant aquarium in the side of their house, just visible from the road. This was all getting to be a bit too weird. We circled the cul-de-sac in mock hysterics, Mel screaming, "Look here, palm trees on the mail box... and palm trees in the yard!!"
We came back around to Alligator Man's house. Still no gators, but there was a very large grey dog there, who was free and roaming around a bit too much for our liking. We had Tidbit to think of, after all. I picked her up and I think she knew better than to make any noises. We tried to make our retreat as quickly and quietly as possible. We were almost to the corner when a man on a large and loud motorcycle came around and towards us. Moving out of the way we saw him stop at Alligator Man's house and talk to the dog.
We thought we were saved. And then we heard the man calling the dog, and revving up his motorcycle again.
"He's going to run with the dog!"
"No, surely not!"
But just the same, we were on a narrow street with no sidewalks and no public areas, just the long (and lengthening) avenue of houses before the right turn back to the seawall and safety. We heard the motorcycle behind us, the man calling the dog again. We ran.
Melissa was in flip flops and I in sandles, and carrying 16 pounds of Dachshund besides. We were halfway there when the man on the motorcycle turned the corner. I was still thinking to myself, 'surely not'. Melissa, who without Tidbit had a bit more mobility, risked a quick look back.
"The dog is following!" she confirmed. We ran as though the man was leading a team of gators on our tails. The motorcycle grew louder and louder in our ears, deafening. We reached the seawall with seconds to spare, through ourselves to the right and onto the public grass, and the motorcycle raced by, the grey dog running alongside it at top speed.
I was a bit high on Rosetta Stone, and Japanese words came tumbling out of my mouth at that.
"Inu wa hashitte imasu," I whispered.
Breathing hard, we watched in amazement as the two sped to the end of the seawall, then rushed back at us, and again. We clung to the concrete edge by the sea once more, working our way back home.
I do believe that was Alligator Man. And I do believe that he is capable of owning an Alligator.
Tidbit and I won't be going past the seawall for a while.
Japanese Update
I've been playing Rosetta Stone pretty much nonstop. I'm still pleased with it for the most part, although I'm starting to wish I had done all this while I still had Mayumi around to practice with! It's a bit depressing to do it all on the computer. Still, I'll be in Japan in just a few short weeks. The frantic pace I've been moving at reminds me of a quote from the trailer of Memoirs of a Geisha - "What takes years to learn, you must learn in weeks." XD That's an exaggeration, of course. I knew random bits and pieces of Japanese before, which is definitely helping. And despite the fact that I've read that each level of Rosetta Stone should take a year to cover, I'm having a hard time believing that's true. Even assuming that you only did one of the exercises a day, you should finish in a few months.
In these three or so days, I have almost finished Unit 2 of Level 1, and here are some of the things I can say:
(About half of these are word for word from the exercises, the other half I made up, but using only words and grammar from Rosetta Stone)
What colour is your hair?
My hair is brown.
Is that your father?
No, that is my grandfather.
Is that your older sister?
No, that is my younger sister.
Nice to meet you.
What is your name?
My name is Miranda.
How many cups are there?
There are 8 cups.
Where is the ball?
The ball is under the bridge.
Where are the plates?
Two plates are on the table, two plates are in the kitchen.
My brother is watching t.v. in the living room.
My mother is cooking in the kitchen.
My children are playing in the park.
Her horse is running.
My friends’ cat is watching my fish.
What do you have?
I have a pen.
What are you eating?
I am eating rice and egg, and I am drinking juice.
I love my dog.
He loves his mother.
Our son is walking and our daughter is running.
The man is kissing his wife.
Where is the newspaper?
The newspaper is in the bathroom, on top of the sink.
Where are the sandwiches?
The sandwiches are in the kitchen, on top of the table.
How many apples are there?
There are five apples.
How many flowers do you have?
I have six flowers.
The girl and her mother are eating rice.
My mother and her friends are reading books.
I can write a lot of these as well, but I admit that I am not really studying the Kanji involved. I could already read the syllabaries, though I believe I am getting to a point where I might know them /from/ Rosetta Stone, but the Kanji aren't taught much, and not knowing the stroke order and whatnot I have contented myself with recognizing them in context, but being unable to produce them myself.
The speaking sections are getting on my nerves. They want me to speak very loudly, they almost never catch the last word that I say (sometimes I have to add nonsense syllables to the end of the phrase so that they catch it), and sometimes I can't figure out for the life of me what's wrong with my pronunciation. It is much stricter for single, long, words, than it is for sentences too. I sometimes disable them, but I do think it helps my learning to say things outloud, and if I disable them it takes away the nice space and reminder to do so. I wish they included an option where they prompt you to try your pronunciation, but pass you whenever you utter roughly the right amount of syllables. I don't need them to help me sound like a native - I'd just like to have a chance to repeat after them.
In these three or so days, I have almost finished Unit 2 of Level 1, and here are some of the things I can say:
(About half of these are word for word from the exercises, the other half I made up, but using only words and grammar from Rosetta Stone)
What colour is your hair?
My hair is brown.
Is that your father?
No, that is my grandfather.
Is that your older sister?
No, that is my younger sister.
Nice to meet you.
What is your name?
My name is Miranda.
How many cups are there?
There are 8 cups.
Where is the ball?
The ball is under the bridge.
Where are the plates?
Two plates are on the table, two plates are in the kitchen.
My brother is watching t.v. in the living room.
My mother is cooking in the kitchen.
My children are playing in the park.
Her horse is running.
My friends’ cat is watching my fish.
What do you have?
I have a pen.
What are you eating?
I am eating rice and egg, and I am drinking juice.
I love my dog.
He loves his mother.
Our son is walking and our daughter is running.
The man is kissing his wife.
Where is the newspaper?
The newspaper is in the bathroom, on top of the sink.
Where are the sandwiches?
The sandwiches are in the kitchen, on top of the table.
How many apples are there?
There are five apples.
How many flowers do you have?
I have six flowers.
The girl and her mother are eating rice.
My mother and her friends are reading books.
I can write a lot of these as well, but I admit that I am not really studying the Kanji involved. I could already read the syllabaries, though I believe I am getting to a point where I might know them /from/ Rosetta Stone, but the Kanji aren't taught much, and not knowing the stroke order and whatnot I have contented myself with recognizing them in context, but being unable to produce them myself.
The speaking sections are getting on my nerves. They want me to speak very loudly, they almost never catch the last word that I say (sometimes I have to add nonsense syllables to the end of the phrase so that they catch it), and sometimes I can't figure out for the life of me what's wrong with my pronunciation. It is much stricter for single, long, words, than it is for sentences too. I sometimes disable them, but I do think it helps my learning to say things outloud, and if I disable them it takes away the nice space and reminder to do so. I wish they included an option where they prompt you to try your pronunciation, but pass you whenever you utter roughly the right amount of syllables. I don't need them to help me sound like a native - I'd just like to have a chance to repeat after them.
June 29, 2009
Rosetta Stone Version 3
My review of Rosetta Stone 2 wasn't very positive. I thought it was a reasonably well designed program, yes, but nowhere near worth the hype or the price tag. Now I have tried out Rosetta Stone 3, and I feel quite differently about it. While it still follows the somewhat controversial total immersion method (no English), I would liken the experience of Rosetta Stone 2 to being dropped into a foreign country and trying to figure things out, albeit with ideal context clues. Rosetta Stone 3 is like being dropped into the same situation, but with a native speaker, who, although they don't speak any English, is trying to help you and teach you the language. No, the program doesn't actually use role-playing like that, but that's sort of how it feels. In Rosetta Stone 2, you were on your own. In Rosetta Stone 3, the software is teaching you.
In addition, Version 3 teaches the written language, and is much better at testing pronunciation (although it's still a computer program... so... :() and tasks other than listening comprehension. The variety of exercises is much better.
Above: This exercise teaches you to spell using the Japanese syllabary, Hiragana.
While there is still no cultural content to speak of, Version 3 at least seems to acknowledge that languages are different. While so far I have only tried the Japanese version, many aspects of it seem tailored to teaching Japanese, as opposed to any language (and by that we mean, ideal for Germanic/Romance languages, less good for others).
Above: This exercise, which asks you to differentiate between the three writing systems used in Japanese, is clearly unique to the Japanese Version.
One area in which this differentiation between languages has actually regressed from Version 2 -3 is in the pictures. Version 2 had at least two different photo sets for Asian and Western languages, so most of the pictures in the Japanese version were taken in Japan. In Version 3, Japanese pictures are enough of a minority that I suspect they use the same photos for all languages. Still, I can't bring myself to complain much about this. While there is only one set of pictures, they are much nicer than in Version 2. The quality is high enough that you never find yourself wondering whether a character is a boy or a girl, and the variety is impressive. At times, Version 2 looked like it was creatively picking pictures from stock photos to represent the words - Version 3 very obviously planned and took many of the pictures expressly for the purpose of teaching the language.
Above: Version 2 might have contented itself with showing bigger and smaller flowers in stock-like photographs. The magnifying glass over the 'small flowers' and the girl standing behind the 'big flowers' makes it obvious that Version 3 took each picture precisely for it's function in the software.
Above: Version 2 showed different colours of cars. Version 3 shows close ups so tight that you know they're talking about the colour itself.
The user can also moderate the difficulty to a greater extent than in Version 2. You can determine how strictly your pronunciation is graded, and you can pick between using Romanji (Japanese spelled with our alphabet: much easier, but less authentic), Hiragana, Kanji, and Kanji with Furigana. Including Kanji with Furigana was a nice thought on the part of the designers, but in actuality it makes everything so small that it's not worth bothering with.
Above: In this exercise, you can read the Kanji, or click on the green speaker icon to hear how the sentence is sounded out, depending on whether you want to learn to read the language, or just understand it.
In conclusion, I find Rosetta Stone 3 to be a very well made computer based language learning program - perhaps approaching the best such a program can possibly be. Version 3 addresses many of the shortcomings of Version 2, making it worthy of the hype and the price tag. However, the fact that it is a computer program, and that it follows the 'total immersion' learning philosophy, means it is still quite a challenge for those who, without any linguistic background, would learn a language using ONLY Rosetta Stone software. Ideally, users would have a teacher, or a dictionary and a grammar book, as supplements.
In addition, Version 3 teaches the written language, and is much better at testing pronunciation (although it's still a computer program... so... :() and tasks other than listening comprehension. The variety of exercises is much better.
Above: This exercise teaches you to spell using the Japanese syllabary, Hiragana.While there is still no cultural content to speak of, Version 3 at least seems to acknowledge that languages are different. While so far I have only tried the Japanese version, many aspects of it seem tailored to teaching Japanese, as opposed to any language (and by that we mean, ideal for Germanic/Romance languages, less good for others).
Above: This exercise, which asks you to differentiate between the three writing systems used in Japanese, is clearly unique to the Japanese Version.
One area in which this differentiation between languages has actually regressed from Version 2 -3 is in the pictures. Version 2 had at least two different photo sets for Asian and Western languages, so most of the pictures in the Japanese version were taken in Japan. In Version 3, Japanese pictures are enough of a minority that I suspect they use the same photos for all languages. Still, I can't bring myself to complain much about this. While there is only one set of pictures, they are much nicer than in Version 2. The quality is high enough that you never find yourself wondering whether a character is a boy or a girl, and the variety is impressive. At times, Version 2 looked like it was creatively picking pictures from stock photos to represent the words - Version 3 very obviously planned and took many of the pictures expressly for the purpose of teaching the language.
Above: Version 2 might have contented itself with showing bigger and smaller flowers in stock-like photographs. The magnifying glass over the 'small flowers' and the girl standing behind the 'big flowers' makes it obvious that Version 3 took each picture precisely for it's function in the software.
Above: Version 2 showed different colours of cars. Version 3 shows close ups so tight that you know they're talking about the colour itself.
The user can also moderate the difficulty to a greater extent than in Version 2. You can determine how strictly your pronunciation is graded, and you can pick between using Romanji (Japanese spelled with our alphabet: much easier, but less authentic), Hiragana, Kanji, and Kanji with Furigana. Including Kanji with Furigana was a nice thought on the part of the designers, but in actuality it makes everything so small that it's not worth bothering with.
Above: In this exercise, you can read the Kanji, or click on the green speaker icon to hear how the sentence is sounded out, depending on whether you want to learn to read the language, or just understand it.In conclusion, I find Rosetta Stone 3 to be a very well made computer based language learning program - perhaps approaching the best such a program can possibly be. Version 3 addresses many of the shortcomings of Version 2, making it worthy of the hype and the price tag. However, the fact that it is a computer program, and that it follows the 'total immersion' learning philosophy, means it is still quite a challenge for those who, without any linguistic background, would learn a language using ONLY Rosetta Stone software. Ideally, users would have a teacher, or a dictionary and a grammar book, as supplements.
June 28, 2009
The Florida State Fairgrounds
It had been on the calendar for months. We were going to the Florida State Fair Grounds to see Trace Atkins and Toby Keith.... mostly Trace Atkins. We've lived on our island for almost a month now and had unbelievable weather. We've had rain twice - hard rain with wind, too - but short lasting, and this during the worst season in Florida. It seems the winds around here blow storms inland, or out to sea - they miss the island. But we went into the interior for the concert, far enough that the palms thinned and turned into trees draped in Spanish moss. And as we sat on the highway, stuck in Tampa traffic, the skies darkened and it began to rain.
We had planned to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner first, but it seemed as though the rest of the concertgoers had the same idea. The parking garage nearby was full - absolutely full. We went up five stories of wet dripping concrete only to find every spot full and dozens of cars circling. Madness. We cut out losses and headed to Steak and Shake. Twice during dinner the power went out and we heard the generators buzz as it flickered back on. But the worst was when it came time to pay. They sent me to the register with the money, and I waited. And waited. The rest of the family joined me and we waited. No one came to help us. There was a crowd of employers there who stared at us blankly.
"Can we pay?" my dad asked, again and again.
One woman just kept staring at us with an absolutely blank expression, shaking her head slowly. My dad was ready to just walk out, but my mom was sure we'd be arrested. So I reached into my purse, found exact change, and laid it out on the counter. Then we left. What that was all about, we had no earthly idea.
The sight of the fairgrounds looked like it had been taken out of some horror movie. Everything was grey-blue and threatening, wet with rivulets of running rainwater and lit up by flashes of lightening. Here and there revelers waved the Confederate Flag proudly over impromptu wet shirt contests and tailgating parties.
We parked the car and started the long walk, through marshy, swampy areas. We were in sandles, my sister in high heels, and the mud and water came up over our feet with almost every step. We dodged the deep puddles, but even the shallow ones put sand under our toes and set frothy foam coming up out of the soles of my mom's sandles. And she kept muttering about snakes and gators. Gators was rediculous, unimaginable in the crowded parking lot, even with the wilder areas surrounding it. Snakes seemed unlikely as well, but at least possible. I kept telling her that there wouldn't be any snakes there, it would be a snakes' worst nightmare, etc.
There were cowboy boots and hats and American flags everywhere. Women hard before their time. The ubiquitous beer belly. The smell of cigarettes. Harsh voices. All excited. This was a big night. We got our tickets, walked a little further. We had reserved seats, so we were part of the half of the audience with a tarp over their heads to keep the rain off.
Trace was good. He was a huge man, just as described. My mom kept shrieking that he was an absolute monster. He's about 6'6'' and filling every inch with muscle, anyway. The screens sometimes showed him from the pack, a profile, topped with that big cowboy hat. He looked almost rediculous, like a giant shuddering snowman as he moved to the beat. It was just the angle, though. Straight on, he was the picture of masculinity - traditional, arrogant, muscle-bound masculinity.
The young boys in the row in front of us were rather interested in my sister and I. I sat on the far end from them, so my sister got the worst of it. Between Trace and Toby, the older one came over to sit by me and started flirting rather shamelessly with me. I replied only when absolutely necessary to be polite. I felt a bit sorry for him, after all. It's not as if he knew. He told me he was 15, and I sort of gave a smile and a laugh, and thought I'd finally end it.
"I'm nineteen," I told him.
Well, he was surprised, and seemed to acknowledge at first that he was way out of his league, but then he pressed on at a slightly different angle, admitting that he could at least brag to his friends about 'impressing' a college girl or something like that. He didn't know. Didn't know that the youngest boy I'd ever kissed was six years older than this boy was, that all I kept thinking was, "Boys and Men, Boys and Men." And it was a little bit too bad. We had a few things in common, and he was cute enough. If only he had been five years older. ;)
Toby Keith came on. He's who the rest of the crowd had been waiting for, and they exploded. Out came the American Flags. The show started with a Ford Commercial on the big screen, admittedly an absolutely hilarious one. I looked for it on Youtube but I couldn't find it. :( It was called, "America's Toughest", and was a contest between different fake celebrities, and Toby Keith. The rappers tried to meet every challenge with cursewords and shooting, the pop group was made up of absolute pansies, there was a new age woodwind player who tried to chant and magick his way to victory, and best of all a heavy metal group who tried to be scary and ended up just looking stupid and rediculous in the hot sun, with their high heels breaking as they tried to run, and failing utterly to lift weights or do anything other than scream and hiss. And then Toby Keith, confident, smiling mockingly at the other contestants, easily winning each contest singlehandedly and by a huge margin, as teams of sexy blonde midwestern girls cheered him on. It truly was amusing.
Then he sang a few songs. It was just hard to care much about him after Trace, so we packed up after the third or fourth song and thought we'd head on out before the herds followed us and filled the concert grounds with traffic again. We waved goodbye to the flirting high schoolers, went down to the concession stand area, and my sister bought a shirt.
Then we ventured back onto the grounds, the swampy, swollen parking areas. We walked and walked. My sister couldn't decide whether it was more painful to walk with or without her high heels on, my mom was still petrified of snakes. Slowly it became apparent that we didn't know where we had parked.
Abandoned ticket counters, mossy trees, groups of latrines... each one began to look the same as those we had passed a thousand times. Were we going in circles? It was eerie to be walking around in the rain and flashing lightening, with water up to our ankles, our sandles soaked and slimy, through the rows and rows of shiny parked cars, all alone. We searched together. We split up. We shouted at each other from reasonable distances when we had gone a while without seeing the others. Each time we shouted, the other group responded hopefully, thinking we'd found the car. We hadn't.
Finally mom and sis parked themselves by a group of latrines and a tree labled "H" and my dad and I set off again, just the two of us. My dad kept clicking the alarm button on his keys to no avail. The fear that we would continue searching until the herd poured out, all found their cars and drove off, leaving only our G35, grew in us and suddenly felt very real. We found a G35, but it had Florida plates. We kept looking. Finally I found it, gave a screech... we all assembled and piled in, my sister and I wet and exhausted in the tiny back seat, pulling off wet shoes and revealing slimy dirty feet that were beginning to itch mightily. We tried to sleep on the long drive back.
We had planned to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner first, but it seemed as though the rest of the concertgoers had the same idea. The parking garage nearby was full - absolutely full. We went up five stories of wet dripping concrete only to find every spot full and dozens of cars circling. Madness. We cut out losses and headed to Steak and Shake. Twice during dinner the power went out and we heard the generators buzz as it flickered back on. But the worst was when it came time to pay. They sent me to the register with the money, and I waited. And waited. The rest of the family joined me and we waited. No one came to help us. There was a crowd of employers there who stared at us blankly.
"Can we pay?" my dad asked, again and again.
One woman just kept staring at us with an absolutely blank expression, shaking her head slowly. My dad was ready to just walk out, but my mom was sure we'd be arrested. So I reached into my purse, found exact change, and laid it out on the counter. Then we left. What that was all about, we had no earthly idea.
The sight of the fairgrounds looked like it had been taken out of some horror movie. Everything was grey-blue and threatening, wet with rivulets of running rainwater and lit up by flashes of lightening. Here and there revelers waved the Confederate Flag proudly over impromptu wet shirt contests and tailgating parties.
We parked the car and started the long walk, through marshy, swampy areas. We were in sandles, my sister in high heels, and the mud and water came up over our feet with almost every step. We dodged the deep puddles, but even the shallow ones put sand under our toes and set frothy foam coming up out of the soles of my mom's sandles. And she kept muttering about snakes and gators. Gators was rediculous, unimaginable in the crowded parking lot, even with the wilder areas surrounding it. Snakes seemed unlikely as well, but at least possible. I kept telling her that there wouldn't be any snakes there, it would be a snakes' worst nightmare, etc.
There were cowboy boots and hats and American flags everywhere. Women hard before their time. The ubiquitous beer belly. The smell of cigarettes. Harsh voices. All excited. This was a big night. We got our tickets, walked a little further. We had reserved seats, so we were part of the half of the audience with a tarp over their heads to keep the rain off.
Trace was good. He was a huge man, just as described. My mom kept shrieking that he was an absolute monster. He's about 6'6'' and filling every inch with muscle, anyway. The screens sometimes showed him from the pack, a profile, topped with that big cowboy hat. He looked almost rediculous, like a giant shuddering snowman as he moved to the beat. It was just the angle, though. Straight on, he was the picture of masculinity - traditional, arrogant, muscle-bound masculinity.
The young boys in the row in front of us were rather interested in my sister and I. I sat on the far end from them, so my sister got the worst of it. Between Trace and Toby, the older one came over to sit by me and started flirting rather shamelessly with me. I replied only when absolutely necessary to be polite. I felt a bit sorry for him, after all. It's not as if he knew. He told me he was 15, and I sort of gave a smile and a laugh, and thought I'd finally end it.
"I'm nineteen," I told him.
Well, he was surprised, and seemed to acknowledge at first that he was way out of his league, but then he pressed on at a slightly different angle, admitting that he could at least brag to his friends about 'impressing' a college girl or something like that. He didn't know. Didn't know that the youngest boy I'd ever kissed was six years older than this boy was, that all I kept thinking was, "Boys and Men, Boys and Men." And it was a little bit too bad. We had a few things in common, and he was cute enough. If only he had been five years older. ;)
Toby Keith came on. He's who the rest of the crowd had been waiting for, and they exploded. Out came the American Flags. The show started with a Ford Commercial on the big screen, admittedly an absolutely hilarious one. I looked for it on Youtube but I couldn't find it. :( It was called, "America's Toughest", and was a contest between different fake celebrities, and Toby Keith. The rappers tried to meet every challenge with cursewords and shooting, the pop group was made up of absolute pansies, there was a new age woodwind player who tried to chant and magick his way to victory, and best of all a heavy metal group who tried to be scary and ended up just looking stupid and rediculous in the hot sun, with their high heels breaking as they tried to run, and failing utterly to lift weights or do anything other than scream and hiss. And then Toby Keith, confident, smiling mockingly at the other contestants, easily winning each contest singlehandedly and by a huge margin, as teams of sexy blonde midwestern girls cheered him on. It truly was amusing.
Then he sang a few songs. It was just hard to care much about him after Trace, so we packed up after the third or fourth song and thought we'd head on out before the herds followed us and filled the concert grounds with traffic again. We waved goodbye to the flirting high schoolers, went down to the concession stand area, and my sister bought a shirt.
Then we ventured back onto the grounds, the swampy, swollen parking areas. We walked and walked. My sister couldn't decide whether it was more painful to walk with or without her high heels on, my mom was still petrified of snakes. Slowly it became apparent that we didn't know where we had parked.
Abandoned ticket counters, mossy trees, groups of latrines... each one began to look the same as those we had passed a thousand times. Were we going in circles? It was eerie to be walking around in the rain and flashing lightening, with water up to our ankles, our sandles soaked and slimy, through the rows and rows of shiny parked cars, all alone. We searched together. We split up. We shouted at each other from reasonable distances when we had gone a while without seeing the others. Each time we shouted, the other group responded hopefully, thinking we'd found the car. We hadn't.
Finally mom and sis parked themselves by a group of latrines and a tree labled "H" and my dad and I set off again, just the two of us. My dad kept clicking the alarm button on his keys to no avail. The fear that we would continue searching until the herd poured out, all found their cars and drove off, leaving only our G35, grew in us and suddenly felt very real. We found a G35, but it had Florida plates. We kept looking. Finally I found it, gave a screech... we all assembled and piled in, my sister and I wet and exhausted in the tiny back seat, pulling off wet shoes and revealing slimy dirty feet that were beginning to itch mightily. We tried to sleep on the long drive back.
Heat Waves
BBC informs me that the U.K. is about to be hit with a heatwave. My grandfather, who never curses, says that it's 'hot as hell' back in Cape, and our old neighbors in St. Louis say that there's a heat warning and they're supposed to stay inside as much as possible. A Finnish friend says it's 30 degrees in the shade - the Faroese are having trouble coping with 20. And where am I during all of this?
That's right. Florida.
That's right. Florida.
June 27, 2009
Ludicrous
Not worrying, for once, about millipedes or coral snakes, I cross the weeds in a rush.
A minute ago I was riding high, flawless, simple and shining with the sweat that covered my arms, legs, forehead, not quite blinding me. The breeze was cool and I waved to everyone I passed. There was a cool, easy serenity to the moment. Old anime songs drifted through my mind, filled the air with youthful gladness. Until I heard words I don't want to hear, and you know why.
You know why it's more than a sad story, happened to somebody else.
Despite the heat I feel chilled, seek the refuge of the hot concrete of the seawall, which has been baking in the sun all day. For a moment I am shaken, remembering five years ago, remembering concrete on my skin before, in winter, when the earth was cold, and the heat which emanated from my own body seemed immense.
The tide is unnaturally high this week, and the waves hitting the seawall almost reach my bare arm, hanging partly over the edge. With each wave I feel - sad, desperate, sick, mournful, worried, nostalgic, alone. I don't weep, I don't throw up, although I almost want to. No easy release. I can't purge myself of this.
I can see the light of the sunset on the water, all shades of cotton candy. The surface looks strange, like something you see in Final Fantasy. Boats rock. It's unreal, too simple, too clean, clear cut. It seems ludicrous, considering the rest of the world. I close my eyes, I can't look at it.
It helps a little when the wind comes, tearing the glassy surface into something like human skin.
A minute ago I was riding high, flawless, simple and shining with the sweat that covered my arms, legs, forehead, not quite blinding me. The breeze was cool and I waved to everyone I passed. There was a cool, easy serenity to the moment. Old anime songs drifted through my mind, filled the air with youthful gladness. Until I heard words I don't want to hear, and you know why.
You know why it's more than a sad story, happened to somebody else.
Despite the heat I feel chilled, seek the refuge of the hot concrete of the seawall, which has been baking in the sun all day. For a moment I am shaken, remembering five years ago, remembering concrete on my skin before, in winter, when the earth was cold, and the heat which emanated from my own body seemed immense.
The tide is unnaturally high this week, and the waves hitting the seawall almost reach my bare arm, hanging partly over the edge. With each wave I feel - sad, desperate, sick, mournful, worried, nostalgic, alone. I don't weep, I don't throw up, although I almost want to. No easy release. I can't purge myself of this.
I can see the light of the sunset on the water, all shades of cotton candy. The surface looks strange, like something you see in Final Fantasy. Boats rock. It's unreal, too simple, too clean, clear cut. It seems ludicrous, considering the rest of the world. I close my eyes, I can't look at it.
It helps a little when the wind comes, tearing the glassy surface into something like human skin.
June 25, 2009
More About Rosetta Stone
I read the Wikipedia article on Rosetta Stone today and found a lot of interesting things. First of all, because it is so successful and expensive, I had assumed that most (consumers and experts alike) approved of the software. I was surprised to see that there is a great variety of opinions on it's efficacy, in particular one scalding review by a user of the Russian version, and a much better review by a user of the German version. Both of them reviewed older versions, so some of the issues may have been corrected, but what the Russian reviewer had said went fairly well with what I have mentioned about the Japanese program. He wrote that the program introduced many complex cases early on, in the section on prepositions, which would overwhelm a beginning learner, that the words were clearly too centered on what was important in English, and that the pictures didn't fit well with Russian subjects. The German reviewer was much kinder - perhaps because German isn't as grammatically distant from English? This might indicate that Rosetta Stone is quite good for Germanic languages, or perhaps even Romance languages as well, and not as good for languages that aren't as closely related to English.
Apparently the same phrases, in the same order, are used for every language except for Latin. At least they had the sense to realize that learners of a dead language have different needs than those of a living language! Another interesting quote from Wikipedia: "He called the company regarding the picture sets, and was told that four are in use, one for Western languages, another for Asian, and two sets unique to Swahili and Latin."
Finally, this quote sounds a lot like what I began to mention in my last post, about adults learning languages as adults: "In 2008, author Tim Ferriss, who is fluent in multiple languages, reviewed Rosetta Stone. He said that it was faster to learn languages as an adult instead of a child and the aim toward learning as a child did not lead to producing the best results."
Since I have the software, I have continued and will continue to use the Japanese program for the time being. I enjoy the challenge of learning from context, and it's good to have the listening practice. However, I'm not sure I can recommend the software wholeheartedly to the average learner, especially for more exotic languages.
Before I completely write it off, however, I would like to sometime try out Version 3, which according to Wikipedia has a somewhat different approach.
"Instruction takes the form of four units per language level. Each unit is then subdivided into four core lessons. Each core lesson is approximately 30 minutes followed by sublessons. Sublessons take the form of Pronunciation, Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Reviews. At the end of each unit is a Milestone, which reviews the material covered in that unit in an interactive activity."
http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/demo
You can try out a bit of Version 3 here. It's no accident that they chose the first lesson of Swedish - Swedish is probably one of the easiest languages they offer, and I think the method probably works best earlier on in the process. But it does look nice, and it teaches you a bit more than Version 2, which is a lot of trial and error.
This is a screen shot from my progress so far in the Japanese Version 2 program. It says aloud, "Is the pink car new? No, it is not new.", and displays it either in Kanji/Hiragana, Hiragana, or normal English letters. For this screenshot, I set it to display in English characters.
Japanese is very different from English - you can't translate word for word. Word for word, the translation would be something like, "Pink colour of car (subject) new is (question)? No, that (subject) new(not) (subject) not-is!" It's somewhat of a challenge to figure these things out from the program alone.
Apparently the same phrases, in the same order, are used for every language except for Latin. At least they had the sense to realize that learners of a dead language have different needs than those of a living language! Another interesting quote from Wikipedia: "He called the company regarding the picture sets, and was told that four are in use, one for Western languages, another for Asian, and two sets unique to Swahili and Latin."
Finally, this quote sounds a lot like what I began to mention in my last post, about adults learning languages as adults: "In 2008, author Tim Ferriss, who is fluent in multiple languages, reviewed Rosetta Stone. He said that it was faster to learn languages as an adult instead of a child and the aim toward learning as a child did not lead to producing the best results."
Since I have the software, I have continued and will continue to use the Japanese program for the time being. I enjoy the challenge of learning from context, and it's good to have the listening practice. However, I'm not sure I can recommend the software wholeheartedly to the average learner, especially for more exotic languages.
Before I completely write it off, however, I would like to sometime try out Version 3, which according to Wikipedia has a somewhat different approach.
"Instruction takes the form of four units per language level. Each unit is then subdivided into four core lessons. Each core lesson is approximately 30 minutes followed by sublessons. Sublessons take the form of Pronunciation, Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Reviews. At the end of each unit is a Milestone, which reviews the material covered in that unit in an interactive activity."
http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/demo
You can try out a bit of Version 3 here. It's no accident that they chose the first lesson of Swedish - Swedish is probably one of the easiest languages they offer, and I think the method probably works best earlier on in the process. But it does look nice, and it teaches you a bit more than Version 2, which is a lot of trial and error.
This is a screen shot from my progress so far in the Japanese Version 2 program. It says aloud, "Is the pink car new? No, it is not new.", and displays it either in Kanji/Hiragana, Hiragana, or normal English letters. For this screenshot, I set it to display in English characters.
Japanese is very different from English - you can't translate word for word. Word for word, the translation would be something like, "Pink colour of car (subject) new is (question)? No, that (subject) new(not) (subject) not-is!" It's somewhat of a challenge to figure these things out from the program alone.
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