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Dec. 6th, 2009
Current Activities
Dec. 6th, 2009 09:33 pm1. Practicing hiragana on squared paper - it looks like I am writing one long, drawn out "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ..." Somehow, it seems particularly appropriate tonight. I'm more used to hiragana than katakana - I really need to practice the latter a lot more.
( Charts behind this cut )
2. Watching Batman Begins on ITV1 (the one I call "The Home Of All That Is Tawdry And Vulgar In Britain"). The only time I've watched ITV all week. Previously, they had a Poirot episode, which I also watched - because there really wasn't anything else on.
3. Poring through a Japanese dictionary, looking at the words in hiragana and katakana. I really need to absorb the kana and kanji, as much as the (purely verbal) rōmaji. So I've found the ideal resource; an Oxford starter dictionary for students which gives no rōmaji translations - just pure kana and kanji.
I know that this level of learning is waay beneath me - it feels as if I've been put back 40 years to the class where I first learned cursive handwriting with a biro - but this is still probably the best way for me to learn this language.
( Charts behind this cut )
2. Watching Batman Begins on ITV1 (the one I call "The Home Of All That Is Tawdry And Vulgar In Britain"). The only time I've watched ITV all week. Previously, they had a Poirot episode, which I also watched - because there really wasn't anything else on.
3. Poring through a Japanese dictionary, looking at the words in hiragana and katakana. I really need to absorb the kana and kanji, as much as the (purely verbal) rōmaji. So I've found the ideal resource; an Oxford starter dictionary for students which gives no rōmaji translations - just pure kana and kanji.
I know that this level of learning is waay beneath me - it feels as if I've been put back 40 years to the class where I first learned cursive handwriting with a biro - but this is still probably the best way for me to learn this language.
Writer's Block: Book review
Dec. 6th, 2009 10:04 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
I'd make sure to stock the library with books that are way above the students' (and, I suspect, many teachers') supposed mental age, and happen to not mention this fact to the education board. With a few hints here and there to the students, let them go there and find these books for themselves, and feel that the library is a home of treasures and true wonders.
If only ... because, as the saying goes, one can lead a horse to culture but you cannot make it think.
Well, maybe I'd ban the Lemony Snicket / J K Rowling wannabe fantasies, and include Moorcock and Holdstock instead, because fantasies must be sources of wonder, not books that look like scripts that scream "Written For Movie (Insert CGI FX where indicated)."
I'd make sure to stock the library with books that are way above the students' (and, I suspect, many teachers') supposed mental age, and happen to not mention this fact to the education board. With a few hints here and there to the students, let them go there and find these books for themselves, and feel that the library is a home of treasures and true wonders.
If only ... because, as the saying goes, one can lead a horse to culture but you cannot make it think.
Well, maybe I'd ban the Lemony Snicket / J K Rowling wannabe fantasies, and include Moorcock and Holdstock instead, because fantasies must be sources of wonder, not books that look like scripts that scream "Written For Movie (Insert CGI FX where indicated)."