Global Perception and You(part 4): The Worldly Curmudgeon

When you see the world through the eyes of a Worldly Curmudgeon, you’re letting everything this world has to offer come into you; all the joy, all the sorrow, all the pain, all the pleasure and all the points of view present in different ways of life. Each becomes worth equal consideration as they gain equal weight in our judgment, bringing our view full circle so we can see the complexity all of us are capable of the more we see how perception changes interpretation. How complex can people get? Let’s start with the people we meet in the city. 

Global Perception and You(part 3): The Issue Minded Prick

Have you ever met people who spit out stuff like this? ‘Bullfighting is Barbaric!’, ‘Our jobs are being shipped overseas!’, ‘The Gov’t spends as much on the military a day as they do on our libraries each year!’ and so on. Those are the people aware of the events driving cultures across the globe, and they’ve entered the teenage stage of subject study, people I refer to as ‘Issue Minded Pricks’. 

With Issue Minded Pricks, it’s not out of the ordinary for them to be seasoned students of both the language and culture. With more than a few years of study under their belt, they’ve had to establish what they wanna say, how they wanna say it and the process of keeping their skills sharp. They’ve seen beyond commonplace Japanese history and have learned things that would make your stomach do flips. These are what they refuse to be silent about, taking every viable chance to voice their stance. In fact, this has a strong presence within language studies due to the simple fact that every country has a deep history filled with bright times and dark days, Japan included.

Global Perception and You(Part 2): The Smart-Ass Phase

The Smart Ass phase is where we start getting cocky about our language skills, thinking that our knowledge will impress people, even when it’s limited to stuff like ‘I like turtles’. This happens because many instructional books and classes coddle their students and stick to a less harsh learning environment. Why would this be preferred when these skills will be subjected to the fast pace of reality? 

Well, let’s face facts: No one is expected to get it right the first time in anything, including how we speak a language; doing so will only lead to finely crushed aspirations. As kids we got encouraged to keep at it by being rewarded or praised for each little thing we did right building towards the end goal, like if someone wanted their kid to pack their own lunch, they’d reward the initiative, then packing good ingredients, then crafting, wrapping and arranging the meal in a bag or lunch pail, then when they consecutively repeat the act on their own. 

     This is known as Shaping, a process that builds us up to seek out skills and knowledge in anticipation of showing it off and getting this kind of validation; this carries over into our language studies the more we find out about cultural nuances, word puns and so on-for example, that the word 絶倫(ぜつりん) is much like the English word Professional, which can refer to both someone proficient at what they do and someone proficient in the sack. 

Global Perception and You: The 4 Initial Stages of Growth in Subject Study(Part 1)

When we’re young, dumb and full of gumption, we learn something solid by doing something stupid; can’t learn to walk without a few falls, after all. That’s the way we gain experience, and the stages of life we all go through to gain it-baby, kid, teen and adult-repeat themselves with everything we pick up, especially when we learn a new language. In fact, it’s the stuff we do during and after all the growing that shapes us down to the core and-much like growing up-can be as confusing as visiting L.A., N.Y.C. or Tokyo for the first time and getting plopped into the city chaos head first. I know if I had someone there to smack some sense into my young punk skull, I would’ve had a solid grasp of the language and culture a whole lot sooner, instead of the elitist, “Japan is superior!” attitude that followed me around. 

    Now, because things worth our time are seldom easy, learning Japanese likely won’t be for you, so I’d like to offer my own experiences to help you track where you are as a student of a language (though-as is the preface for all the more subjective things I’ll be writing about here-you probably won’t like what I have to say) We’ll start this at the stage all of us start on at the outset: the Baby stage-or Newbie, if you prefer.

Through the Open Window: A Manifesto for Approaching Language Study with an Open Mind

(Editor's Note: A Manifesto is 'a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer(Merriam-Webster)' which means what you're about to read is highly opinionated, more blunt in tone and likely to make you angry. Just a fair bit warning, since it's a bit long and you may not agree with what I'm about to say. And yes, I do expect you not to skimp, silly *laughs*)

The language we're raised with is shaped by grammar, colored by vocabulary & powered by culture, a word strongly tied to the stuffy and snooze-inducing aspects of our world-for example, the guy who turns his nose at those not into musicals or fine wines.

However, as culture can be manifested by a tea ceremony, so can it manifest through Causal Fridays & riding the bike trail to Border's with your friends every Saturday, all 3 a way of doing things cultivated through shared values & beliefs. When grammar, vocabulary & culture work in sync, our thoughts gain life & let us interact with the world how we want to, even if we've never seen it before.

You may be wondering how this relates to learning a language, and to that I say this: In understanding this you not only uncover the key to learning a language, but the key to learning it as your language.

Sowing the Seeds: Daily(or so) Drops of Info about Japan

One of the most important things I've learned about creating content for the online world is this: People(myself included) are given a torrent of new information every single day, and if you're not out there putting your best foot forward as often as you can, prepare to get lost in the tide. For me, this means giving people as constant a stream of valuable insight into the language and culture as I can without watering it down to match the standards everyone sets for their blog. With that, Sowing the Seeds was created, to help plant interesting new ideas about Japan and Japanese language while not bogging the pace down with getting longer form content just so. For your first taste of what's to come, here's an article interviewing Bilingual language teacher Kae Minami(from Japan Times). She discusses a good cross section of points about the country and it's language, including general pointers for those looking to pass their knowledge on(like myself), aspects of the language that make it unique-like the high level of context inherent in speaking it fluently-, and some advice for students/general life pointers. One of my favorites, and certainly full of info to help you on your way to building Your Japanese.

(special thanks to the article author, Judit Kawaguchi and the person who 1st tipped me off to it, Wendy Tokunaga)

Big Content Changes are a Comin'

Good to see you again! You may be wondering what big changes are coming, and to answer that, I would like to tell you a little bit about my experiences teaching Japanese and discovering what it means to teach well and with meaning. You know how they say nobody starts out perfect? That held very true for me when I first wrote my lessons up all those years, and didn't realize how patronizing and confusing they were until a few years and much more gained from my studies later. It hasn't been an easy road, and nothing worth while ever seems to be, but it taught me a lot about how to teach and presenting information in a manner easy to grasp. This is why you'll see some changes to the structure of the blog, such as lessons being categorized and little daily posts to shed some light on modern day Japanese culture. I'm certain they will help you strengthen your grasp on the language and culture, and perhaps show you a side of it you wanted to see more of, but didn't know it existed 'til now. Either way, stay tuned! You won't be disappointed, I assure you. In fact, here's a look at some of the subjects I'm doing research on for this overhaul:

Circle in the Square: Unstanding some of Japan's Inner-Cultural Workings

Sushi and Beyond: The Classic and Modern Flavors of Japanese Cuisine

A Divine Wind: The Japanese Role in Global Warfare

Everyday Magic: The Folklore and Fairytales of Japanese Culture

Wildstyle: An Introduction to Japan's Contemporary Culture

Naturythm: The History and Development of Japanese Entertainment

Slight of Hand: How to Speak Without Words

Across Oceans: Japan and it's Historical Intereactions with the World

Ordained by the Heavens: a Brief History of Feudal Japanese Society

Boys and Girls: Handling the Opposite Sex in Japan