I fail words -- devilyoudont's Japanese & Esperanto log

[SGP]

I used to like to draw comics (hopefully will again some day). So the end result of this would be (1)A better website layout which will allow me to more easily add things like a gallery, a store, links to versions in other languages (2)A layout which also would allow me to update site content easier and, most relevant for this thread, (3) A few short comics becoming available in Esperanto for free.

If the following was about arts only, without any connection to language, I wouldn't ask it here.
But as for what I would like to mention right now, it does have that connection.

So... for some time, I have been thinking about starting a Visual Arts Counterpart of the Music Language Log. And by visual arts, I simply mean any type of arts that is being seen rather than being heard. (While I am not at all an Expert of Audible Arts, nor an Expert of Visual Arts, I still am involved in both of them, rather than music only.)

It would be about the connection between art and language, and how to express one's sayings non-verbally. I.e. by drawing, painting, and so on. It would be about art that (almost) everyone could enjoy looking at, i.e. not limited to any particular subset of the population (--> cultural differences/etc.).

Do you have any ideas that could be useful for the starting phase of a log like this? I.e. what I could write about, or what types of art I could take a closer look at for a start, like paintings of some landscapes, precisely drawn flowers, or anything else?

[devilyoudont]

A little anecdote: The first Computer Bug was, reportedly, a physical, non-metaphorical, biological one. I.e. an insect. A moth, to be more specific. It was found by a woman called Grace Hopper [yesss]. If what the German Wikipedia mentioned is true, the term itself has been used by engineers for a long time before that First Generation Computer even existed.

I never heard this before.

However, one should keep in mind that they are, somehow, dated. A non-official slogan, made up by one of the reviewers, is "Speak like a diplomat from 1961".

It's my hope that by continuing to listen to Spanish language podcasts, watch telenovelas, and read...speaking like a 1961 diplomat is not my ultimate fate But, I do think what you point out here is a problem of over reliance on any one resource. It's my hope to use one of these three grammar books to build a foundation, not an entire house.

Do you have any ideas that could be useful for the starting phase of a log like this? I.e. what I could write about, or what types of art I could take a closer look at for a start, like paintings of some landscapes, precisely drawn flowers, or anything else?

Mentally I kind of categorize visual art as separate and distinct from language. Of course, in the real world nothing is discrete from anything else.

Topics where written language and visual art deeply intersect may interest you:
--Comics
--Calligraphy
--Typography
--Graffiti
--Emoji
--Concrete Poetry
--Visual Poetry
--Asemic writing
--Calligraffiti
--ASCII art

Areas where sometimes visual arts include written language:
--Commercial art often incorporates written language, sometimes in very creative ways
--Religious art, especially in a strict "no graven images" scenario, sometimes results in very interesting images that make extensive use of written language.

You could also look at artists who try to represent sound in a visual medium. In some cases we might be talking about use of onomatopoeia in comics--this is an area where Japanese artists particularly have raised the bar. Or you may want to look at Synesthesia in Art.

In terms of subjects of paintings: this is a fairly difficult thing to recommend. I think it's generally easier to identify some works by an artist that you already like, and then either identify the movement that the artist was a part of, or identify the time and place where the artist lived. From there, you would discover works by the peers of the artist you like. After that, you would look into artists influenced specifically by your favorite artists, or artists that were an influence on your favorite artists.

More or less, just because you like an impressionist landscape, there's no guarantee that you will like a cubist landscape.

If you want to broaden your tastes beyond things similar to what you already know, there really is nothing better than just periodically going to touring exhibits at your local art museum, or carefully going thru their permanent collection if you have not already. Once you have identified works that you like, you would do the same as above, but with artists you identified from the museum.

I also really recommend looking for art that specifically depicts where you live, is by working artists where you live, or mural arts in your area. This may not tie into your other goals, but it can be a source of wonderful experiences, or change how you see places that are already familiar to you.

[eido]

You're so knowledgeable, @devilyoudont. Oh my goodness.

[devilyoudont]

You're so knowledgeable, @devilyoudont. Oh my goodness.

It's just that it's probably my main interest besides learning languages haha. And in a lot of causes, just knowing enough to go from a specific work that exemplifies something, and being able to google the relevant Wikipedia article (eg Book of the Sky -> Google -> ??? -> Asemic Writing

[devilyoudont]

Japanese:

Watching:
Netflix (Ja audio with Ja subs)
やれたかも委員会

Listening:
Podcasts (58 min)
-NHKラジオニュース
-News in Slow Japanese
-メリケン!サックリドラマ!
-朗読男女～５分で聞けるオリジナル物語

Gaming
Nintendo Switch (Approx 2.5 hrs)
-Let's Go Pikachu

SRS:
Reviewed 269 cards.

Esperanto:

Watching:
Youtube:
-Evildea

Listening:
Podcasts (25 min)
-Pola Retradio en Esperanto

Speaking:
-Recorded for Common Voice.

Writing:
-Chatting

Spanish:

Listening:
Podcasts (2hr 21 min)
-Cuentos para irse a dormir
-Duolingo Spanish Podcast
-Españolistos
-Spanishpodcast.net
-Podcastsinspanish.org

Gaming
Nintendo Switch (Approx 2 hrs)
-Zelda Breath of the Wild

Resolution update:
-I made the next fifty etymology cards for studying the form of kanji. This took me 3 hours and 15 minutes with a few 5 minute breaks. I believe I can streamline the process further, but 3hrs and 15min is already fast enough to justify the time spent.

Here is the (hopefully final) form of the cards:



-I have decided on FSI Basic Spanish for the time being. Ultimately, the deciding factor was that Assimil teaches European Spanish instead of Latin American Spanish. However, I have some concerns that FSI may be too boring for me, as Duolingo has been dreadfully boring for me in the past. If FSI is so boring I feel that I cannot finish the course, I will be switching to Assimil. I have a tentative goal of completing 1 unit a week. There are about 45ish units in the entire course, so this would again give me some wiggle room at the end of the year if I fall behind and need it.

Struggles:
-I did a purge of old podcasts. I don't always listen to things in a timely manner and at some point I have to accept that I won't ever get around to it. But this resulted in me only have 1 episode of 1 podcast available for this week. In the future, I think I will exclude Esperanto podcasts from such purges.
-So far the difficult part of my kanji study is keeping up with the "Context Cards"--In other words, the vocabulary cards I am cannibalizing from a frequency deck that teaches vocabulary thru full sentences. I wasn't able to keep up with them this week, but I am planning to dedicate more time towards them going forward. These cards are critical for me to learn the main readings of a given Kanji.
-Spent most of my Spanish study time looking at reviews of various courses and this might have been a waste of time.

Successes:
-Somewhat out of the blue I had a really high comprehension of a podcast news article about transgender bathrooms in Shinjuku. This wasn't a topic I have ever really prepared for, but some loans from English in critical places probably helped.

[SGP]

A little anecdote: The first Computer Bug was, reportedly, a physical, non-metaphorical, biological one. I.e. an insect. A moth, to be more specific. It was found by a woman called Grace Hopper [yesss]. If what the German Wikipedia mentioned is true, the term itself has been used by engineers for a long time before that First Generation Computer even existed.

I never heard this before.

You could be surprised how many anecdotes like that one (and related stories/etc.) could be told by a certain Slightly Geekoid Person. Although I "am not sure at all if you ever heard of him even a single time in the last few months, nor if you ever heard of him a single time in your whole life even". But he keeps referring to himself as a Scherzkeks from time to time. Literally: joke cookie. And he also likes to sometimes use a tool called Quotation Marks for the very purpose I already have used them in this very post.

Spoiler (although not required at all for devilyoudont, but maybe for some others):
Hint #1: There is no difference between "I" and "he". Hint #2: Even if it is rather obvious, how do you abbreviate "Slightly Geekoid Person"?

However, one should keep in mind that they are, somehow, dated. A non-official slogan, made up by one of the reviewers, is "Speak like a diplomat from 1961".

It's my hope that by continuing to listen to Spanish language podcasts, watch telenovelas, and read...speaking like a 1961 diplomat is not my ultimate fate But, I do think what you point out here is a problem of over reliance on any one resource. It's my hope to use one of these three grammar books to build a foundation, not an entire house.

Well, what I wrote was about the FSI courses only. But yes, relying on a single language learning resource could be a bit flawy. And I support that Simply Building a House Method. As we know, houses can be improved (furniture/etc.), expanded, or even changed.

Speaking of houses and their expansion, your current guest poster would also like to release another version variant of the previous Hänsel (Hansel) and Gretel Allegory. Couldn't call it Gingerbread House Allegory Version 2, because it doesn't replace the previous one. It isn't about the very same topic either. So I call it Gingerbread House Allegory Variant 2 instead.

Because of writing flow matters and being able to convey my very thoughts, the following two paragraphs are written in the variant of English I always speak (when verbally conversing in English), unless I have a really sufficient reason for not doing so:

If yuh wan fi mush up di wicked witch's chain (di one dat meh prevent yuh from mekin more Spanish progress den yuh like fi achieve rite now), dere be one addishonal ting yuh cyan do as well. Yuh coulda tell di witch, "Listen up missy, I just mite poke some more holes inna yuh 'ouse from di inside too. Dat one cyan 'appen any time soon, and yuh nah be expected fi realize what is going on even. Because mi I a be sneakin inna yuh 'ouse from di back door, and yuh cyant guard it all di time, so don't even bother tryin fi prevent mi from going in, because mi I a be stronger dan yuh. Da's di weh it is. Nuff said. So mi go so den".

Now dat allegory be 'bout someting related to di general attitude towards learnin Spanish. It be about being stronga dan di wicked witch's chain which translates as anyting dat prevent yuh from mekin enuff sufficient progress even if dere nah be any real and logical reason for it. Dat one be 'appenin to mi as well more dan just one time or two times only. And yes, di above nah be too specific. But dere be a reason for dat one. Because some tings cyan only be said in a general weh, den it be up to di particular persons fi apply it inna dem lives if it be useful to dem.

And as for what you mentioned about arts, while not every single suggestion would fit in my (planned and currently not yet existing) Art Language Log, there really were many valuable ones as well, so thank you for them.

[SGP]

Here is the (hopefully final) form of the cards:

Really loving these GFX.
Would you feel like breaking down these different colors a bit?

And as for the (planned) Language Arts Log we spoke about in some of the previous posts, currently preparing to launch it. But I already drew the first comic today (even if the log itself is meant to be especially about arts without too much text, just as Music Language is about instrumentals but not lyrics). It can be found in the Language Lab Log (direct link).

[devilyoudont]

Would you feel like breaking down these different colors a bit?

I found an addon that adds random color in order to indicate stroke order. I remember stuff better if I write it, so when I see the English keyword, I try writing the kanji with the correct stroke order.

Congrats on your first comic!

[SGP]

Would you feel like breaking down these different colors a bit?

I found an addon that adds random color in order to indicate stroke order.

All those addons... I don't claim having even the slightest overview on what is available. But I also don't try too hard (well, I currently don't even use any spaced repetition software other than a Plain Standard Word Processor maybe).

I remember stuff better if I write it, so when I see the English keyword, I try writing the kanji with the correct stroke order.

Do you remember things even if you write them down one or two times only?
By the way, I just might re-quote you anytime soon in another thread. Do you receive automatic "you have been quoted" notifications?

Congrats on your first comic!

Well, "thanks, I guess" . But I, personally, don't consider that comic a big deal, speaking of the Visual Arts part. Although it does have a Lingua Message. The drawing style is over-simplified (on purpose). And I feel more inclined towards any of these: calligraphy (not limited to foreign language alphabets), some patterns or ornaments maybe, and a few additional, various, types of visual arts.

[devilyoudont]

All those addons... I don't claim having even the slightest overview on what is available.

Anki is so popular that the userbase has created a tool for practically any function you can think of.

Do you remember things even if you write them down one or two times only?

No, it's more like ten times for something to stick (using spaced repetition, just writing something ten times in a row isn't enough either)

There are other benefits to learning to write. I mainly due it because it's "stickier" for me memory wise, but knowing how to write the kanji also makes using handwriting input more accurate, etc.

By the way, I just might re-quote you anytime soon in another thread. Do you receive automatic "you have been quoted" notifications?

I believe this is the case.