tangleweeds garden path log

[Rotasu]

The erasable highlighters are from Japan, made by Pilot, and the erasable line of pens is named "Frixion". The Frixion line includes erasable writing pens, markers for drawing, as well as the pastel and fluorescent highlighters that I like. Here's links to what I have
http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Frixion-Fluorescent-Erasable-Highlighter/dp/B003B63J1C/
http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Highlighter-Frixion-Light-SFL-60SL-6CS/dp/B00F6N56F0/
Unfortunately I don't know where besides Amazon to get them, none of the office supply chains around here nor the university bookstore carry them.

I got mine from jetpens.com :3 go over 25 and you get free shipping lol

Ops I mean I got the erasable PENS from there XD. Idk about highlights

EDIT: nvm they are there http://www.jetpens.com/Erasable-Highlighters/ct/3196

[Melaleuca]

Wow! I might have to start buying stationary from amazon afterall.

[tangleweeds]

EDIT: nvm they are there http://www.jetpens.com/Erasable-Highlighters/ct/3196

Cool, they have replacements for individual colors! Depending on the color scheme I choose, certain colors run out faster than others, which is annoying when one can only get them in a full set..

In other news, I didn't plan on taking three days off this week, but I ended up huddled under a blanket on the couch, with the worst PMS depression I've had ages (and I've always suffered evil PMS). Yesterday it gradually wore off, and today I was back at the library for the first time since four days ago,. It felt really good to be back there, and to be getting back on track again.

One of the people who organized the Irish language workshop I attended last year has started a novice level Irish conversation group in town. I missed it today, being in the library instead, but it's inspired me to resume my Irish studies. Today I listened to Buntús Cainte chapters 1 -10 (they're short chapters). There was a bit I had to check with the book to understand, but I had retained a fair amount of it.

[tangleweeds]

My back has been killing me, and obviously the weight of the books I've been carrying to the library can't be helping. But I always read and work from several books at once, since I have the attention span of a chihuahua (unless I get totally sucked into what I'm doing, which is nice but doesn't always happen). So I've started making copies of short textbook chapters as I find them, like from the English companion volume to みんなの日本語, where the majority of the content is in the Japanese language textbook.This also lets me enlarge the pages a bit, which helps distinguish kanji with post-middle-aged eyes.

It also lets me mark up the pages with impunity, with multi-hue highlighting and summaries in the margins, which is pretty much my method of studying grammar. Speaking of which, I've also decided to review Japanese grammar by using Practice Makes Perfect's Basic Japanese as a coloring book for highlighters too. Maybe I should dig out that recent thread about how to study grammar, and share my crazy method -- coloring is "in" these days, right?

A while back I'd copied a few chapters of Learning Irish simply to enlarge (and decorate), but that now makes them convenient to carry too. Buntús Cainte is a small and lightweight book also. I love these books because they don't start out with the standard meet and greet stuff. However, meeting and greeting would be the majority of what we'll be doing at the conversation group I mentioned in my last post. Wasn't there was a thread a while back about how short term linguistic goals can deflect one from one's long term plan? That describes the ambivalence I feel about this. If I want to study meeting and greeting, Colloquial Irish and Gaeilge gan Stró would be better textbooks to focus on. But they annoy my by providing insufficient grammar.

I also figured out today that part of what's making my shoulder so angry has been practicing writing my kana. I write with a heavy hand unless I'm consciously remembering to do so (only briefly, alas). So I'm going to switch my writing practice back from pencil back to fude pen, where any pressure at all is too much.

[Snow]

Maybe I should dig out that recent thread about how to study grammar, and share my crazy method -- coloring is "in" these days, right?

Please do! Where is this thread?

[tangleweeds]

Maybe I should dig out that recent thread about how to study grammar, and share my crazy method -- coloring is "in" these days, right?

Please do! Where is this thread?

Here it is: Efficient grammar learning. But I don't know if my method is so much efficient as "effective for me, YMMV." If I'm actually going to do that, though, I need to take a couple of photos to show what my books end up looking like.

[Melaleuca]

The erasable highlighters are from Japan, made by Pilot, and the erasable line of pens is named "Frixion". The Frixion line includes erasable writing pens, markers for drawing, as well as the pastel and fluorescent highlighters that I like. Here's links to what I have
http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Frixion-Flu ... 003B63J1C/
http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Highlighter ... 00F6N56F0/
Unfortunately I don't know where besides Amazon to get them, none of the office supply chains around here nor the university bookstore carry them.

I tried to order the highlighters yesterday on amazon - they don't ship them to Australia.
Then went to my local office works store to get some copying done - they sell them(!) - individually or in packs of 4, but all 6 fluro colours are sold. I got a couple to try out.


edit: typo

[tangleweeds]

Then went to my local office works store to get some copying done - they sell them(!) - individually or in packs of 4, but all 6 fluro colours are sold. I got a couple to try out.

Score! Are they labeled in Japanese, or do yours have the new labeling for English speaking countries?

Yesterday was an interesting study day for me, as my phone battery got drained so I lacked audio to study with at the library. It turned out to be surprisingly frustrating. I brought sufficient materials that didn't require listening, but found I need more significant shifts in study modality to keep my mind fresh. I ended up like a cranky toddler, outright rejecting various "toys" I'd brought, including the fude pen. Today I still feel burnt out, and unsure whether I want to go to the library at all this evening.

Since I haven't been studying, I took some pictures. This is what a the pages of a course book looks like after I've studied it (in this case, Teach Yourself's Complete Irish). First I read it, to get an clear overview, then the second stage is selective color-coded highlighting. The third step is to condense the important points as notes in the margins. The last time I was enrolled in classes, I utilized this method of "total textbook destruction" to maintain a 4.0 GPA, so it works for me at least.


And here are two new books that arrived today:


The Eleanor Harz Jorden was bought on a whim, as an Amazon seller had an immaculate copy for only a few dollars, and I thought it might share vocabulary with JSL. It turns out to be a nice thick book full of lots of simple Japanese text to practice reading. Score! And I'm excited, as I've had to wait a couple of weeks for Let's Learn Kanji to arrive from the Book Depository. Only my brain is such a crispy critter today that it's hard focus for any length of time on my new toys.

[galaxyrocker]

Please let me know how Reading Japanese is. I looked at the preview and it seemed very interesting, but I admit I'm worried about it being out of date once I saw the publication date.

[tangleweeds]

Please let me know how Reading Japanese is. I looked at the preview and it seemed very interesting, but I admit I'm worried about it being out of date once I saw the publication date.

I suspect that to be an entirely reasonable concern -- I'm hoping for some handy cold war terminology myself. On the bright side, it's almost 15 years newer than the two volumes of her "Beginning Japanese", which I considered (also cheap used) but decided against because they date back to the early 1960's, making them almost as old as I am. Even Japanese: The Spoken Language (1986) dates back about 30 years by now.

Fortunately my Japanese consultant is my brother, who's lived there for almost 25 years. Given the nature of fraternal love, he'd have no qualms about laughing at correcting me when I'm say/write anything peculiar.