The Kuji Khronicles - JA, PT

[kujichagulia]

I'm starting to get back into a regular language-learning routine. This morning on the train, I finished up the fourth fable in the DW radionovela Fábulas africanas. It was quite interesting, about a hyena and the trouble he gets into for trying to trick another animal. I'm really liking these fables, moreso than the futebol radionovela I was working through before.

I'm also reading through the second chapter of シルバー・ブラスト. I'm noticing that either the story is getting somewhat simpler and to the point compared with the first chapter, or my reading ability in Japanese is improving slightly. Probably the former.

Oh, and last Sunday, I visited an American friend of mine who lives on the other side of Osaka. I go up there probably once or twice a year to visit him and his family, but this was the first time I brought my wife along. I usually don't talk with my friend's wife - just small talk here and there - but, perhaps because my wife was there, she was more talkative this time. My friend's wife, who is Japanese, can speak English, but for some reason preferred to speak Japanese to my Japanese wife and I. (My wife's English is superb, but perhaps she was shy about using it in front of my American friend, so she stayed in Japanese mode the whole time.) Anyway, my friend's wife and I are both high school teachers, and eventually the conversation moved to topics concerning school. She started to speak to me more than she did to my wife, but she continued to speak Japanese, and so did I. I found that I could understand a good 80% or so of her Japanese; it helped that she spoke standard Japanese instead of the Osaka dialect. I was pretty happy with that. Occasionally I wouldn't know how to say something in Japanese, and so I said it in English and she said the Japanese equivalent, so I was able to get some studying done as well. It was fun.

[kujichagulia]

Well, that didn't last long...

It looks like we will be cancelling the trip to Portugal in October.

From Japan, it costs more to go to Portugal than it does to go to some other destinations in Europe, but my wife and I decided to go to Portugal this year because we found a cheap package deal that included the flight and a hotel. The reason the package was cheap is because the travel agency decides the airline as well as the hotel. Anyway, we found out that we would fly on either Emirates Airlines or Turkish Airlines, and... and I think you can see where I'm going with this. With the recent terrorist attack on Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, my wife doesn't want to fly Turkish Airlines anymore - especially since we would have to transfer at that airport - and frankly, I'm worried about it as well. We would be okay with flying on Emirates, but the problem is that the travel agency will not inform us which airline we will fly on until a week before departure, while we can only get a full refund up until one month before departure. So we are going to cancel the trip now. The only other option right now to go to Portugal is to pay normal prices, and I can't convince my wife to do that when there are other, less expensive destinations in Europe that she wants to go to.

Of course, we haven't yet contacted the travel agency to cancel the trip, so there's still hope, right?

Nah, we're 99% for sure going to cancel. I'll just have to wait some more.

Japanese

On the language learning front, I'm still plodding through シルバー・ブラスト, Chapter 2. The book is still in the description phase, as the main character Revi has met what seems to be his main antagonist, a woman that knows details about his past that nobody should know. There is a lot of description and a whirlwind of unknown adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs and other such things. I stopped reading after 10 minutes last night and decided to search for any recommendations for Japanese books with an easier-to-read writing style. Surprisingly, Haruki Murakami's name kept coming up. People in Japan have told me that Murakami's books are too difficult for me, so I never considered them before. However, the people on the Internet who are learning Japanese say that his books are good for people at an intermediate level. I find that dichotomy to be interesting. Perhaps the Japanese people just thought my Japanese level was not high enough to read Murakami (or perhaps, any book that natives themselves would read). Anyway, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to pick a Murakami book, download a sample to my Kindle app and read through that to judge the level for myself. I chose a book called やがて哀しき外国語. I've only read the first two (Kindle) pages, but there seem to be considerably less unknown words per page in やがて哀しき外国語 than there are in シルバー・ブラスト. I could easily understand what was going on in the first two pages! Considering that the first few pages of a book are usually difficult, this is an amazing thing for me. I'll read through the sample, then decide if I want to buy the book after finishing (or giving up on) シルバー・ブラスト.

Portuguese

A while back in this log I mentioned an Angolan telenovela that I found through the TV Brasil website called Windeck. I watched the first episode but never did go to the second one. It's probably not an ideal TV series to start with because it has Angolan Portuguese, but the show intrigues me because ever since beginning Portuguese, I've developed an interest in the Lusophone countries in Africa. However, the show is beyond my Portuguese level. My primary concern was that if I started watching the show, I would hardly know what was going on at the beginning, and even if I got better and understood a lot by the end of the series, I wouldn't know a lot about what happened before and how the characters developed. Now I realize that I shouldn't worry too much about that. If I really wanted to, I could go back and watch the first episodes again (this time armed with better listening comprehension). So I'm thinking about how to set a regular time to sit in front of the computer (or with my iPad) and watch Windeck.

I posted a link to the first episode of Windeck earlier in this log, but here it is again in case you are interested.

[kujichagulia]

Hey, look... consecutive days of posts in my log! This is what happens when work starts to slow down, as it usually does in July. School has been quite busy lately! I tell you... I'm going to enjoy the next few weeks, because once the students come back for class in late August, it's going to be hectic.

Japanese

I read more シルバー・ブラスト on the train this morning. I have a nice routine going where I read シルバー・ブラスト during my 22-minute train commute to work every day.

I'm finding it harder to enjoy reading シルバー・ブラスト lately, especially since I know that I have Murakami's やがて哀しき外国語 waiting for me when I finish, and that book is likely going to be easier to read because of Murakami's writing style. I keep wanting to put シルバー・ブラスト aside and just start reading やがて哀しき外国語. However, I'm determined to finish シルバー・ブラスト. I need to learn to finish things. I just need to put my head down and keep going; it will be worth it.

I never mention this because it's not something I consciously do to "study" Japanese, but I watched the local morning news show for an hour. I do that every single day - including the weekend - with my wife. I'm finding that I can understand more and more of what is going on without asking my wife (who usually doesn't answer me anyway, so that's good). Now I know which celebrities are dating, which are having affairs and which are getting knocked up and have to get married. You know... useful information.

Portuguese

Unfortunately the only things I did yesterday in Portuguese were watch a few minutes of Bom Dia Portugal on the RTP website, listen to Band News FM out of São Paulo while doing chores, re-watch the first 10 minutes of the Windeck episode I embedded in my last post, and input some new cards into Anki. I hope to read a little more of the fifth fábula africana today.

[kujichagulia]

More of the same. For Japanese, I finished Chapter 2 of シルバーブラスト(Silver Blast) yesterday and started on Chapter 3 in the morning. I go to work 30 minutes later on Thursdays and I take an express train then, so the commute is shorter, and I didn't get much reading done. But hey... 10 minutes is fine. I'm a bit confused about the story now. The main character, Revi, is a smuggler of illegal goods and packages from planet to planet in the future. In Chapter 2, he meets what he thinks is another client, Marsha, and they have a long conversation in which she shows that she knows a lot of supposedly secret things about Revi's past. She knows that Revi was some sort of soldier in the past. The conversation was long, Marsha was speaking in a roundabout way, and the narration was full of elaborate description, so it was very hard for me to follow. Now, all of a sudden, in Chapter 3, Revi, Marsha and two other dudes are flying to another planet on some sort of mission. Huh? This is what the guy (or gal) that wrote this Reddit post meant when he (or she) said that, at first, reading "may feel like watching a muted movie - understanding what is happening without always understanding why." But he (or she) also said it gets better, so I'm keeping the faith.

Other than シルバーブラスト、I just watched the morning news, did some Anki reviews and wrote in my Japanese journal.

For Portuguese, I finished the fifth fábula africana. I had a bit of time at work, so I just went ahead and finished it. I didn't have a chance to listen to the audio, though; I will try to do that today before starting the sixth one. At home, I watched another 30 minutes of the first Windeck episode. It's really hard to understand what is going on, but it looks interesting, so I'm hoping that will carry me through. I also wrote in my Portuguese journal.

[iguanamon]

Good to see you back at it again, Kuji. What a shame about cancelling Portugal . Of course, I am a bit of a contrarian about things like not flying into a city that has been recently hit by an attack. What are the odds that that particular airport will be hit again. And if you don't leave the secured area, you're probably going to be fine. Still, I understand about not wanting to take a risk, however slight a risk that may be, it's still a risk. Maybe you can talk your wife into going to Macau someday.

A series is good for learnng. Images give context to the language you're hearing. Have you finished DLI yet? I didn't start my first novela until I had finished it and had gone through a few of the radionovelas already. (I hope you like the African Fables. The overacting on the voices can be annoying at times.) Plus, I had been speaking three times a week with my tutor, listening to the news everyday and I already spoke Spanish to a high level. YMMV. If I were going to start a series in your situation, I'd probably go with a dubbed US series to start, like Futurama, for example. In this way, you've got subtitles in Portuguese and English/Japanese to help you understand.

I am really impressed with how well your Japanese is coming along. Your hard work is paying off!

Até mais

[kujichagulia]

@iguanamon - Hey there! I'm usually with you as far as going to a place that has been hit by terrorism. The odds of it happening again so soon are usually low, but in this case there have been so many attacks in Istanbul this year that it gives me reason to have second thoughts. It feels different from that time I went to the Maldives a week after a bomb went off in the city center, or when we went to Bali. If it were just me, I would go ahead and fly there, but that's not to say that I would be extremely worried and cautious.

Macau would be nice! I've always wanted to go there, as well as Hong Kong. I may go by myself sometime, since it's close by. I'm owed a trip, since my wife went to Germany on her own last year.

I have not yet finished DLI. I've finished the first four volumes, but I haven't started on Volume 5 yet. Right now I'm doing a rotation where I'm working through a volume of DLI, then working through a collection of Deutsche Welle radionovelas. The plan was to finish Fábulas Africanas, then start on DLI Volume 5. However, now I'm wondering if I should just push through DLI (only four volumes left, right? ), then work through some radionovelas afterwards - there are a few more of them I want to try. I am enjoying the African fables a lot; I like them more than I liked the futebol radionovela. But yeah, there is overacting, though, especially with the animal characters.

The Futurama idea sounds good. I'll search and see where I can find some episodes and subtitles/dubs. I've never watched it in English, though.

Obrigado! Até logo!

[iguanamon]

...I have not yet finished DLI. I've finished the first four volumes, but I haven't started on Volume 5 yet. Right now I'm doing a rotation where I'm working through a volume of DLI, then working through a collection of Deutsche Welle radionovelas. The plan was to finish Fábulas Africanas, then start on DLI Volume 5. However, now I'm wondering if I should just push through DLI (only four volumes left, right? ), then work through some radionovelas afterwards - there are a few more of them I want to try. I am enjoying the African fables a lot; I like them more than I liked the futebol radionovela. But yeah, there is overacting, though, especially with the animal characters. ...

Good to see you going through Fábulas Africanas- only five more to go. Definitely finish the DLI course. Volumes 5 through 8 are the meat of this course and a multi-track approach in itself. A lesson a week with 10 lessons per volume = 40 weeks/10 months. I f you could do six lessons a month, then it would take 6.5 months. There's no need to push but I would try to get it done. Doing DLI will tie everything together for you and put you on track to get the most out of learning with native material.

[kujichagulia]

Good to see you going through Fábulas Africanas- only five more to go. Definitely finish the DLI course. Volumes 5 through 8 are the meat of this course and a multi-track approach in itself. A lesson a week with 10 lessons per volume = 40 weeks/10 months. I f you could do six lessons a month, then it would take 6.5 months. There's no need to push but I would try to get it done. Doing DLI will tie everything together for you and put you on track to get the most out of learning with native material.

After thinking about it, I'm going to go ahead and finish up Fábulas Africanas. (And by the way, now that I'm not so concerned with trying to understand absolutely everything, I'm going at a quicker pace than I ever did with the Futebol em África radionovela!) I think I can get that done within the next couple of weeks, especially with shorter class schedules and with the summer holidays starting in mid-July at the school where I work. Then after that, I'm going to push through the DLI course and get it done, man! 10 months is definitely doable, although I'm going to be generous and give myself twelve. I can probably get a lot of DLI done in July and August, but I'll be swamped with work and what not in the fall, so yeah, it might take a year. Again, thank you for your advice!

* * * * * *
Thursday was a busy day, so I didn't get a lot done yesterday. I did start on Chapter 3 of シルバーブラスト, but it was only a few pages. I also listened to the audio for the fifth fábula, Cássio e Calú. I didn't get to start the sixth one, Amadu, until this morning, right before posting this. I did Anki reviews throughout the day as well. That was all. Well, of course there was the morning news that I watch every day, and I also had a few short conversations with people in Japanese.

[kujichagulia]

OK, I have good news and bad news.

First, the good news... ladies and gentlemen, the Portugal trip is back on! YES! We came across another sale to Portugal, this time via KLM. We have to pay a little more than the previous package, and this one is for airline tickets only - we'll have to get our own hotel - but this was something my wife and I could both agree on. We couldn't be happier. We were trying to think of where else to go, but we had had our minds set on Portugal and were already planning on what sights to see and what to do. So it's good that we were able to salvage the Portugal trip.

Now for the bad news... I didn't do any of the language activities I wanted to do over the weekend. Now, this is nothing new; doing a lot of language activities on the weekend has always been a problem for me. There is nothing I would like more to do on the weekend than sit at home and do a bunch of stuff in my target languages for hours and hours. However, I'm lucky if I get even 15 minutes of language time over the weekend. I'm somewhat of a homebody, but my wife is the complete opposite. She can't be at home for long; she has to get out and do stuff away from home: shopping, driving trips, shopping, restaurants, shopping - you name it. And of course, all of that is fine, but she wants to do all of that with me. And then when we are actually at home, she wants to either do a lot of house cleaning, or watch a bunch of movies or TV shows, usually in English - again, with me. And woe is me if I try to escape.

On the one hand, I'm glad that she still wants to spend time with me after nearly nine years of marriage and 15 years of being together. On the other hand, it's not so good for my L2s.

Well, let me rephrase that. It's not good for my Portuguese. It's fine for my Japanese. I hear and read a lot of Japanese when I'm out. Yesterday, we drove to a neighboring prefecture with my mother-in-law and ate lunch at a restaurant in the countryside, and all of our conversations were in Japanese. I was even able to complain about problems I've been having at work to my mother-in-law, who gave me advice on how to wax them fools. So my Japanese was fine. But with all of the going out and then the loads of household chores to do, I can't really sit down with a text and read, etc.

So, over the weekend my Portuguese studies were limited to some Anki reviews while waiting for my wife to make decisions at the store, listening to Brazilian radio in my headphones while cleaning, and reading a couple of tweets before bed.

Now, I said it's bad news, but perhaps I need to look at this differently. That's just my reality; I can't do hours of stuff on the weekend like some people on this forum, so I need to be more creative. I might not be doing what I want to do, but listening to radio in Portuguese, like I did on Saturday while cleaning, is a nice thing to do. Maybe I can't sit down and read a lot like I can on weekdays, but certainly there are other things I can do to get some Portuguese time on the weekends. I think having a different outlook will do wonders for me.

[kujichagulia]

I finished Fábulas africanas today. In order to finish the series so fast, I had to cut back on my Japanese reading time. It wasn't a big deal, though, because I'm going through a really boring and difficult chunk of シルバーブラスト。 I really don't like the writer's writing style. It's getting harder for me to will myself through it.

Anyway, with the radionovela done, I will focus on finishing DLI. I still have four of the eight volumes left to do (a volume has ten lessons each). As stated in my earlier exchange with iguanamon in this log, it'll likely take a year, but that's fine.

I often think about how far I want to take my Portuguese. I'm currently aiming for basic fluency... but what exactly does that mean? Does it mean I can read a book comfortably? I suppose that's B2; it'll take a lot of work to even get to that point, but that's probably the minimum I should aim for. Short-term, at least, I want to learn enough to get by in Portugal in October using only Portuguese. A lofty goal, yes, but it gives me something to shoot for.