tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1649941641006990632024-03-14T05:41:55.609-04:00The Yellow ExperimentMayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-22074545134221585652009-03-21T19:30:00.003-04:002009-03-21T21:41:12.559-04:00An obversation? A wish... ?I noticed something when I was watching anime earlier today - the sounds were much clearer than before. By that I mean that if you told me to write down (in kana) everything I heard, I would feel very confident doing so about 95-98% of the time. <br /><br />At first I figured it was because I just had better sound quality - I was watching the DVDs on a laptop that's less than 2 months old. But just now I went on youtube on my usual computer (which is a few years old) and started listening to J-pop, and the effect was the same. Obviously music doesn't have the same rhythm as regular spoken language, but even so...<br /><br />There's a part of me that won't believe this; I'm half-convinced that I'm imagining this or something. As I write this, I am <b>104 hours into the experiment.</b> That might sound like a lot, but remember how I said that babies/toddlers take 8-11 thousand hours to pick up their first language? Even if we assume that I (at the age of 18) am "smarter" than a newborn baby, it still strikes me as being too early into the experiment for visible results. If I had had to guess how long it would've taken for something like this to happen, I would've guesstimated a thousand hours.<br /><br />Either my imagination has rum amok, or I've really underestimated my own ability to pick up/get used to foreign languages.Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-81022978898551250652009-03-21T11:01:00.002-04:002009-03-21T11:42:14.307-04:00わたしたちの教科書 (Our Textbook)This is a recommendation/review of a drama. I wouldn't normally do this; most of the stuff I watch is well-known enough anyway, and is usually aimed at a specific demographic. But I'm doing this for わたしたちの教科書 (Our Textbook); allow me to explain why.<br /><br /><br /><b>Title</b>: <a href="http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%8F%E3%81%9F%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AE%E6%95%99%E7%A7%91%E6%9B%B8">わたしたちの教科書</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watashitachi_no_Ky%C5%8Dkasho">Our Textbook</a>)<br /><b>Starring</b>: 菅野 美穂(かんの みほ), 伊藤淳史(いとう あつし), 風吹ジュン (ふぶき ジュン), 志田 未来 (しだ みらい)<br /><b>Genre</b>: school, mystery, law<br /><b>Maya's Rating</b> (Scale of 0-10): 9.5<br /><br /><br />I'll be honest: I haven't really seen that many Asian dramas to date. In fact, this one is only the 3rd drama that I've watched from start to finish. But even if you look aside the fact that this one was infinitely better than the other's I've watched, you're still left with the fact that わたしたちの教科書 was, just one its own, phenomenal. <br /><br />The story is about a young woman, Tamako Tsumiki (積木 珠子), who is a lawyer and works in her fiancé's firm; she is good-looking, intelligent, and has a promising future. But (this is going to sound cheesy, but hang on) her life changes when she starts to get involved in a case about a middle-school student who fell out of a window. Getting information out of a new teacher at the school (Kouhei Kaji - 加地 耕平) and getting involved in the some of the school's private matters, her life, and life of those at the school, are drastically changed.<br /><br />Sounds cheesy, right? At best, it might sound mediocre - that was I thought, until I actually started watching this drama. Where do I even begin? ... OK, the show had its cheesy moments. But overall, it was an emotional roller coaster. At least half of the episodes (=guesstimate pulled out of the air) had dramatic plot twists that were quite unexpected. The acting was amazing, and pulled the viewer right in - it felt like I was literally a part of the show, somehow. <br /><br />I stopped watching TV when I was in 6th grade; it wasn't because I was too busy (what could a 12 year old kid be busy with?). It was because, frankly, most of the stuff on TV, in any country, is crap. The animes/dramas I watch nowadays are fine, IMO, otherwise I wouldn't watch them; but they're nothing special. I wouldn't watch half of them if they were in English. わたしたちの教科書 is one of those rare exceptions - I watched 4 episodes of it in a single day because I couldn't stand NOT to know what was going to happen next. <br /><br />Another thing about this drama that sets it apart from other anime/dramas is that it's not aimed at any one particular demographic. Except for toddlers perhaps, I think almost anyone could watch this show and enjoy it. It didn't strike me as explicitly feminine or explicitly masculine or whatever. It was just explicitly human.<br /><br />I'm not sure to what extent this drama was popular in Japan, but I can say one thing about its popularity: it is massively, massively, MASSIVELY underrated. I see absolutely no reason why mediocre dramas like 1リットルの涙 (1 Litre of Tears) should be famous all across Asia, while amazing and emotionally profound dramas like this one should do so-so on the market. I suppose it's a matter of marketing, of course, but... it's not really fair. <br /><br />If you're learning Japanese (and even if you're not!), I highly recommend this drama. A subtitled version is available on www.onlinedrama.net; just type in "our textbook" in the search engine. You won't regret it =)Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-29538934956345078782009-03-08T15:48:00.004-04:002009-03-08T16:24:23.310-04:00The Back Horn (ザ・バックホーン)This is my second post with a music recommendation (scroll down for the first one).<br /><br />The Back Horn is a rock/indie band from Tokyo. They've been around since 1998, but their major stuff has only been from 2001 onwards. There's not much else I can say about this band, other than the fact that I think they're under-rated.<br /><br /><br />A few of their songs that I like are:<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ryGMSJxww">Namida Ga Koboretara</a></b> - One of their "heavier", more energetic sounds. <br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62dc6ME6Bjs&feature=related">Mafuyu no Hikari</a></b> - Youtube doesn't have the official music video for this song, but anyway...<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMQ72dVVXi8&feature=related">Koe</a></b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap7nNPiXCEw">Yaiba</a></b> - Another one of their more energetic songs, albeit with less screaming then the 1st one :)<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXweYdNYJXY&feature=related">Cobalt Blue</a></b> - yes, this is the actual music video for the song. <br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFMeG_tRHEo&feature=related">Kiseki</a></b>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-40446516393660915562009-03-08T15:23:00.004-04:002009-03-08T15:51:31.965-04:00YUISo, I remember promising to recommend music ("post up links to songs") in a <a href="http://yellowexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/02/no-im-not-dead-some-updates.html">previous post</a>... and I do intend to keep my promise. So here's my first fulfilment of that promise :)<br /><br />One Japanese singer that I like is YUI. Only 21 years old, she was raised fatherless and wanted to be a singer from a young age. After a mental breakdown in high school due to stress, she decided to drop out of high school for good to persue a career in music. She writes her own songs/lyrics, and her songs tend to be pop-rockish.<br /><br />More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yui_(singer)<br /><br /><br />Now for some actual song recommendations... she's written quite a lot of stuff, actually. These are just a few of my favourites. Click on the song titles to be redirected to the corresponding youtube videos.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXu865NNT8">Summer Song</a></b> - about summertime (duh). It has a light-hearted feel to it that I like.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE1qaeODxU0&feature=related">LIFE</a></b> - I believe this was the opening theme of an anime, but I can't remember which one off the top of my head. I like the beat.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hHx179SMSQ&feature=related">Umbrella</a></b> - I have no idea what this song is about (I'm not ashamed to admit it - my Japanese sucks), but I do like this song. It flows well.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4bkmspQhms">Rolling Star</a></b> - One of her more energetic songs.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-741DpNV-8&feature=related">Jam</a></b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Md-MigSF0">Daydreamer</a></b> - I couldn't find the official music video for this, so I'm putting this up instead. Sorry about that. It's still the same music, though.<br /><br /><br />Like I said before, YUI has tons of songs, so this list is by no means exhaustive :)Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-51414480553164340102009-02-28T08:20:00.004-05:002009-03-08T16:26:26.807-04:00Progress Report 28-02-09, & Some LinksFinally, some updates:<br /><br /><ul><br /><li>I've watched all of "14才の母"</li><br /><li>I've watched half of each of DN Angel and Fruits Basket</li><br /><li>I've watched ~22 episodes of Ranma 1/2</li><br /><li>I've watched several episodes each of Claymore, Chobits, MKR, and Fushigi Yuugi</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><br />Now for some of those links I promised:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuHdnTL7l8A">This</a> is a TV Tokyo clip on "different" street styles. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uXdslSikB4">This</a> is a TV clip about a half-Japanese, half-American (white) girl who lives in Yokohama. <br /><br />Last but not least, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gy9N9JD-sU&feature=PlayList&p=B996073824E4C5BC&index=0&playnext=1">this</a> is the first video in what appears to be a movie/documentary about Buddhism. I haven't watched/listened to the other parts yet, but it looks interesting.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Total number of hours spent under the Yellow Experiment thus far</b> (including youtube videos and such): <b>63.75</b>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-36763380425456924222009-02-27T10:27:00.004-05:002009-02-27T10:44:27.521-05:00No, I'm not dead... (& some updates)I have to start off by apologizing for my somewhat long absence. Things have been a little crazy lately, but no, I'm not dead, nor have I given up on this experiment. I'm pretty serious about learning Japanese.<br /><br />That said, I've slightly "updated" how I want to conduct the experiment from this point on. It's based on the article I posted/quote in my previous post. Basically, the more you listen to a language = the more you get used to the sounds = the easier it is to pick up new words, right?<br /><br />For those who kind of know how the school system works here, you'll know that semester 2 started recently, which is the main reason why I've been away for a while. It's also the reason why lately, I just don't have the time to watch 2-4 hours of anime/drama every day... I'm still watching some, obviously; it's the essence of my experiment and anyway, I enjoy it (even if I don't understand much). But since I rarely have the time to watch more than an hour a day, and since there are many parts of my day that are basically wasted (especially at school), I've decided to kind of borrow an idea from <a href="http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about">AJATT</a>.<br /><br />To make a long story short, I'm going to find tons of Japanese audio (songs, anime/drama scenes ripped from DVDs, random youtube vids) and put them on my mp3 player, and then listen to them during moments that would otherwise be wasted. Seeing as I can also listen to them while doing other things, I can easily add several hours of listening to Japanese into each day. <br /><br />The cool part of this, from the point of view of you guys reading this, is that I'm sometimes going to be posting youtube vids and links to songs on this blog... I know a number of the people following this blog are learning Japanese themselves, so I'm hoping that these links will be of some help to you guys as well.<br /><br />Last but not least, I'm hoping to eventually write some reviews of animes/dramas that I watch... not all of them, but at least those that I really like. Obviously everyone's tastes are different, but hopefully it'll at least be helpful to some people.<br /><br />Thoughts? Questions? I'd love to get input/other opinions on this, so leave a comment if you have something to say :)Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-11265893822083924872009-02-10T02:19:00.004-05:002009-02-10T02:26:50.151-05:00Wanna learn a language? Just listen to itThis is a bit later than I had originally promised, but anyway, here it is at last:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/about/newspubs/news/ViewNews.aspx?id=2455&newslabel=hn">http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/about/newspubs/news/ViewNews.aspx?id=2455&newslabel=hn</a><br /><br /><br /><blockquote><b>Dr Sulzberger has found that the best way to learn a language is through frequent exposure to its sound patterns—even if you haven't a clue what it all means.</b><br /><br />"However crazy it might sound, just listening to the language, even though you don't understand it, is critical. A lot of language teachers may not accept that," he says. <br /><br />"<b>Our ability to learn new words is directly related to how often we have been exposed to the particular combinations of the sounds which make up the words</b>. If you want to learn Spanish, for example, frequently listening to a Spanish language radio station on the internet will dramatically boost your ability to pick up the language and learn new words." <br /><br />Dr Sulzberger's research challenges existing language learning theory. <b>His main hypothesis is that simply listening to a new language sets up the structures in the brain required to learn the words. <br /><br />"Neural tissue required to learn and understand a new language will develop automatically from simple exposure to the language—which is how babies learn their first language," Dr Sulzberger says.</b><br /><br />He was prompted to undertake the research after spending seven years teaching Russian to New Zealand students and observing drop-out patterns. <br /><br />"I was very conscious of the huge difficulties students have when they tackle another language, especially at the beginning. Many drop out because they feel they are not making progress." <br /><br />Dr Sulzberger says he was interested in what makes it so difficult to learn foreign words when we are constantly learning new ones in our native language. He found the answer in the way the brain develops neural structures when hearing new combinations of sounds. <br /><br /><b>"When we are trying to learn new foreign words we are faced with sounds for which we may have absolutely no neural representation. A student trying to learn a foreign language may have few pre-existing neural structures to build on in order to remember the words."</b> <br /><br />Dr Sulzberger looked for ways people could develop these structures to make the learning process easier. His finding was simple: extensive exposure to the language, something made easier by globalisation and new technology. <br /><br />"It is easier to learn languages these days because they are so accessible now. You can go home and watch the news in French on the internet." <br /><br />He says people trying to learn a foreign language in their home country are at a disadvantage compared to those who travel to another country and immerse themselves in its sounds and culture. For the same reason, he says, we need to rethink the way languages are taught. <br /><br />"Teachers should recognise the importance of extensive aural exposure to a language. One hour a day of studying French text in a classroom is not enough—but an extra hour listening to it on the iPod would make a huge difference," Dr Sulzberger says. <br /><br /><b>"Language is a skill, it's not like learning a fact. If you want to be a weight lifter, you've got to develop the muscle - you can't learn weightlifting from a book. To learn a language you have to grow the appropriate brain tissue, and you do this by lots of listening—songs and movies are great!"</b></blockquote><br /><br /><br />:)Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-49429719495542882102009-02-01T02:38:00.005-05:002009-02-02T05:07:49.838-05:00Kobu - Words you didn't pay attention to, coming back to youSo, today while watching Ranma 1/2, something interesting (unexpected) happened. <br /><br />I picked up a new word ("kobu") - which isn't new or interesting in and of itself; I pick up words all the time. But, the thing is, today was <b>not</b> the first time I had heard that word... I heard it yesterday or the day before that, and today was the second time. But when I heard it the first time, it slipped right by me - I heard it, but I made nothing of it at the time; it was sound without meaning at that point, along with most of what I hear at this point in the experiment. <br /><br />Today when I heard it, the context made the meaning clear - it would roughly translate as 'swelling' or 'bruise'. What struck me as interesting was that, had I not heard the word repeated today in a context that illustrated its meaning today, I would not have remembered hearing the word. Indeed, up to the point where I heard it, I had no particular recollection of hearing it. But now that I a) re-heard it and b) understand what it means, I both remember hearing it before and better understand what was being said that first time that I heard (but did not understand) the word.<br /><br />I just thought this was kinda cool, because a lot of what I'm listening to nowadays is sound without meaning, and more often than not words rush by me without appearing to leave any trace of either meaning or recollection... it now seems that the last part isn't true; in addition to everything else that listening does for me (allow me to pick up new words, show me how those words are used in context, etc), it also allows me to build up some kind of store of Japanese sound inventory that I'm not even aware of and that comes back to me when it's needed. Of course, this is all pure theory, but until my experience (or that of another person's) proves otherwise, I think I might be right.<br /><br /><br /><b>P.S.</b> There's an article about language learning that I read recently that talks about something related to what I just said and seems to confirm my thoughts... I'm not going to post or discuss it now because it's late and I'm tired, but do expect to see it up within the next few days.Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-38527732339773601912009-01-28T21:07:00.002-05:002009-01-28T21:18:15.203-05:0028-01-09 Progress ReportSome updates on my progress:<br /><ul><br /><li>I've finished CCS... all of it.</li><br /><li>I've started DN Angel.</li><br /><li>I watched 2 episodes of a drama called Code Blue but stopped watching because I was bored (I really didn't understand much of what was going on).</li><br /><li>I watched the first episode of Ranmna 1/2.</li><br /><li>I will most likely continue with DN Angel and Ranma, and I might start MKR or even Tsubasa Chronicle. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14_Sai_no_Haha">There's a drama I've had my eye on for a while now as well</a>.</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><b>Total number of hours spent under the Yellow Experiment thus far: 33.5</b><br /><br />The above is a rough estimate.<br /><br />BTW, I have a long list of animes/dramas I want to watch, but new recommendations are still always welcome. :)Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-56023133720661146362009-01-27T02:56:00.008-05:002009-01-28T21:18:51.432-05:00Babies/Children and LanguageSince my experiment essentially revolves around language acquisition baby-style (haha, that sounds silly :) ), I feel that it might be relevant to talk about that precise topic. Interestingly enough, if you've ever heard anyone talking about babies and language (or even babies and learning/knowledge in general), you might've heard some pretty contradictory things. <br /><br />On the one hand, many people seem to be under the (perhaps erroneous) impression that babies are 'stupid' - that they forget everything immediately, cannot learn, cannot think abstractly, etc. There are several flaws with this belief; I can't go into details on every one of them (as I'm not an expert in child psychology/neuroscience), but I can offer my opinion. The fact that babies do not seem to have a long-term memory (how many of us remembering being a one-year-old?) may be linked to the fact that they have not (yet) acquired language. Consider the following <a href="http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/9/4/6/6/p94665_index.html">quote</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>...language and memory... seem to be linked in important ways. Several studies (e.g., Rose, Feldman, Wallace, & Cohen, 1991) have demonstrated that memory is related to verbal ability... preliminary results provide support for the idea that the emergence of language is linked to the development of memory.</blockquote><br /><br />i.e., <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_Hypothesis">since our language defines our understanding and perception of the world around us</a>, a lack of language makes it considerably harder to remember things precisely. So to say that babies lack intelligence would be both inaccurate and unfair; it's the equivalent of blaming a plant for not growing when it was never watered. Without the right 'tools', certain things can't happen. Ditto for language and memory.<br /><br />The reason why all of this is worth mentioning is because there is one more thing that is often said about babies (in relation to language/learning), which is extremely contradictory to the first one. It is often said that babies have some kind of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_period_hypothesis">language advantage</a>" - only babies can learn languages properly. Adults (or teens) can't do it - we have bad hearing, our brains are fried, we're too white/black/yellow/rich/poor/American/Canadian/OCD/ADD/etc to ever get anything done right. <br /><br />Something smells fishy here. One minute babies have 0 memory or reasoning skills, the next minute they're the ones with intelligence and it's us adults who are stupid? Well, which one is it? It can't be both. I think a logical approach to the question would be best:<br /><br />At what age do children generally start speaking fluenty? 3, 4 years of age? If the average baby/toddler spends a total of ~12 hours a day sleeping, that leaves up to 12 hours a day that they are awake and receptive to the sounds of their mother tongue (for simplicity's sake, let us assume that said baby is being raised monolingual). Of course, in practice, I doubt very much that any baby actually hears their language being spoken every single second that they are awake; it would be nigh on impossible for any parent to talk that much without ever taking a break. But even if a baby spends anywhere from 4-8 hours a day listening to their language directly, that would mean that <b>by their 4th birthday, they will have spent 5840 - 11 680 hours listening to their language.</b><br /><br />4 hours x 365 = 1460 x 4 years = 5840<br /><br />8 hours x 365 = 2920 x 4 years = 11 680<br /><br />You'd be kidding yourself if you said that this is an insignificant amount of time, and yet, <a href="http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html">some people in the language-learning community</a> will tell you that you can "learn" a language in 300 hours... I don't know who these people think they're kidding, but the morale of the story is, <b>you can't.</b> Especially when anyone who's ever studied a foreign language before will know that 300 hours is literally just scratching the surface; you can't put in that little effort and then, upon seeing your lack of results, vear off into pseudo-scientific theories about babies having magical superpowers.<br /><br />Babies are neither the epitome of human intellectual capabilities nor the epitome of human stupidity; they're normal people (intellectually-wise) who happen to have acquiring their language for a very, very long time. And you were honestly thinking that half an hour of grammar excercises a day for a year or two would get you somewhere? Please.<br /><br />For anyone interested in more on the topic: <a href="http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/cute-girls-mathematics-language">Cute Girls, Mathematics, & Language</a>Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-77454231570239338262009-01-17T03:50:00.004-05:002009-01-17T03:53:34.603-05:0017-01-09 Progress ReportJust wanted to mention that I am now officially half-way through the anime series 'Card Captor Sakura.' I have another 35 episodes + 1 movie left, so I'll probably be done in just over a week or so.<br /><br /><b>Total number of hours spent under the Yellow Experiment thus far: 16.4</b><br /><br />After I'm done with CCS, I'll probably watch either DN Angel or Magic Knight Rayearth... I might even watch both at the same time, just for the sake of variation.Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-74132553157784884552009-01-13T23:54:00.011-05:002009-01-14T09:04:58.056-05:00Sentaku & Mama - Context Defining MeaningOne of the useful things about having a compulsive habit of browsing random Wikipedia articles is that it need not be done in English :) Recently while browsing the site in French I came across an article called <a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_du_langage">Acquisition du langage</a> (Language acquisition) that had the following to say:<br /><br /><blockquote>[Le] premier mot a plus de signification pour l'enfant qu'il n'en a pour l'adulte, c'est pourquoi on le qualifie de mot-phrase car il ne renvoie pas seulement à un objet, mais à une action ou une situation.<br /><br />Exemple : « Maman » peut signifier « elle arrive », « cet objet lui appartient » ou « c'est sa voix que j'entends ».</blockquote><br /><br />In translation:<br /><br /><blockquote>[The] first word has more meaning for a child than it does for an adult, which is why it is qualified as a 'phrase-word,' as it does not only address an object but an action or a situation.<br /><br />For example: 'Mommy' can mean 'she is coming,' 'this object belongs to her,' or 'I can hear her voice.'</blockquote><br /><br />This struck me as interesting because it resonated with something that I've experienced thus far, early on in my "Yellow Experiment." Nowadays, I'm watching an anime series called Card Captor Sakura... it's quite childish, but it's cute, and it gives me the advantage of working in a context I'm already familiar with. In one of the episodes early on, after two of the characters (Sakura and Kero) do a bunch of chores and Kero puts up some laundry to dry, a Clow Card (fantasy beast thing... long story) messes up the house, including the laundry. Upon noticing this, Kero cries out "wai no sentaku~!" ("my 'sentaku'!").<br /><br />Now, sentaku could have meant several things. Washing, laundry... even clothing; spoken Japanese is very vague. Then I heard the same word again several episodes later in a context where the characters were talking about chores, so I could safely rule out that sentaku means either laundry or washing, but probably not 'clothing' (it may mean BOTH washing and laundry - Japanese words tend to have vaguer, wider definitions than their English counterparts).<br /><br />What's interesting about this whole sentaku thing, and how it relates to the 'mommy' thing from the French wikipedia article, is that it really goes to show how (multiple) <b>context(s) are needed for an acquirer of a language to fully comprehend a concept (word).</b> If you've ever thought about the definition of a word, or flipped through a dictionary, you might have noticed that many words have unusually specific definitions - how is it that every native speaker of a language, even a very widespread one like English, is able to have a very specific connotation/definition attached to each and every single word?<br /><br />It seems, based on my 'sentaku' deal and from the French wiki article, that it is context (more than one) that teaches us narrow, specific definitions of words. In the case of the baby, their entire vocabulary consists of only a few words - they haven't been exposed to their first language enough (yet) to be able to have specific definitions/connotations for each word. So 'mama/mommy' covers a wide range of meanings because with the baby's barely existent grasp of language, expressing themselves more concisely is impossible. Likewise with me and sentaku... it took (is taking) me several context to narrow down the word. Until context has narrowed it down for me as much as it has for a native Japanese speaker, the connotation behind 'sentaku' is more vague in my mind than it is in the mind of a Japanese person.<br /><br />I'm not sure where exactly I intended to go with this... I just thought it was a cool observation. Btw, if you know what sentaku means concretely, <b>please do not leave a comment telling me</b>. Honestly, I don't care. Context will teach me whatever's left to be taught of this word/concept.Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-164994164100699063.post-78560443744588540262009-01-13T15:44:00.002-05:002009-01-13T23:53:29.703-05:00The Yellow Experiment - Intro & RationaleHey there! :)<br /><br />Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Maya. I'm 17 years old (going on 18!), and I'm about the same as everyone else; I like watching movies, procrastinating, and eating ;)<br /><br />I also enjoy learning about foreign languages and cultures. I come from what you can call a multi-lingual background; I was raised with English and Russian (although English has become my stronger language, as it's the language in which I've been educated). Throughout the years I have also learned French to fluency and learned enough Spanish to be able to understand it quite well. Last but not least, I have been fascinated by Japanese culture (Shinto, geisha, chopsticks, kanji, etc) since around the age of 10. I began "learning" the Japanese language at the age of 12, however, there have been two problems:<br /><br />Firstly, my methods have not been very good ones. I've wasted too much time trying to analyze the language grammatically and sticking to romaji (Japanese words sounded out with English letters), while ignoring kanji (characters/ideographs imported to Japan from China - the backbone of the Japanese language). Not enough time was spent interacting with the real language via anime, doramas, J-pop, manga, etc.<br /><br />Secondly, my learning has been extremely fragmented. I have made very long (several-year-long) pauses various times to study French, Spanish, and to flirt with various other languages (German, Hebrew). This means that even when I was studying the language (again, with innefficient methods), a lot of time was wasted reviewing things that I had already learned.<br /><br />Recently, I decided to take up the language again, because anything worth starting is worth finishing, and because Japan still fascinates me just as much as it did way back when :) But what was I to do? I sucked (still do suck) at Japanese and a part of me knew that this was due to crappy learning methods, but it didn't occur to me how to fix the problem. Until AJATT came along and saved me.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/all-japanese-all-the-time-ajatt-how-to-learn-japanese-on-your-own-having-fun-and-to-fluency%22%20">AJATT</a> is a website/blog written by a certain Khatzumoto - a young man who, at the age of 23, well past the age of alleged <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Period_Hypothesis">linguistic prime</a>, learned Japanese to full fluency without ever taking any classes or learning any grammar. How did he do it? By exposing himself to the language for thousands of hours - movies, music, books, you name it. Immersion, in short - I knew this guy was at least partially right in his rationale because his method in learning Japanese was almost identical to how I learned French (yet somehow it never occured to me to do what I did in French with Japanese? maybe I'm just slow :) ).<br /><br />Whence, the Yellow Experiment. This experiment is based on my experiences in learning French combined with advice and reasoning from AJATT. The details are described below:<br /><br /><ul><br /><li>Everyday I am going to watch 2-5 hours of anime, dorama, random Japanese TV - anything that's in Japanese and has a context.</li><br /><li>I am not going to write anything down. Everything will be learned orally and kept in my head.</li><br /><li>I am not going to learn any grammar.</li><br /><li>I am only going to use a monolingual (Japanese-Japanese) dictionary, and even then only occasionally.</li><br /><li>I am not going to repeat or re-watch anything, unless I find a series that I love so much that I feel the need to re-watch it.</li><br /><li>No subtitles ;) that would be cheating.</li><br /></ul><br /><br />What, you might ask, is the point of all of this? <b>To "figure out" the Japanese language the natural way - the same way that babies do it.</b> With this experiment I am hoping to prove that teens/adults are capable of "figuring out" language just like children - that children do not have any special, magical abilities that are lost as they grow older. My goal is to eventually be able to speak Japanese so well that it is 100% indistinguishable from the Japanese of a native speaker who has lived in Japan their entire life.<br /><br />Currently, I understand about a third of spoken Japanese - so I am not starting entirely from scratch. But no one can deny that I still have a long way to go... long enough to learn and observe many things about the process of language acquisition. This blog will keep track of my thoughts, experiences, and findings as I go along.<br /><br />Wish me luck :)Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122618805213060258noreply@blogger.com8