Fictitious Croissants

Looking At 2011 and 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:26:00 +0000

2011 was a great year for me, and I kept to most of my resolutions.

FITNESS AND EXERCISE

Runs:

- I kept to an almost consistent schedule for runs, and I did roads, trails and/or climbed hills almost every weekend. (Almost, except when I was sick or not at home or had other appointments/duties to cater to or just couldn't muster up the energy for it.)
- I finished my first half-marathon, which was excruciating but super fun as well.
- In total, I ran/walked/climbed approximately 200kms or so in 2011.
- I've lost about 6 kgs since I started.

Karate and boxing:

- I missed not too many of my Kyokushin karate classes, except for when I couldn't make it (e.g. transport problems, car problems, work overload), or if I just couldn't find the energy to attend a particular day's session (sleep/energy exhaustion, etc.)
- I finally took up boxing classes; this has done wonders for my upper-body flexibility and strength. (And by the way, boxing really complements Kyokushin karate.)

LANGUAGES

Japanese:

- I studied a lot of Japanese in 2011. Most of this consisted of reading and Anki repetitions: in fact, my Anki deck of Japanese sentences alone (which I almost haven't touched for the past few months, as I've been reading more than doing sentence reps lately) accounts for 91624 reps over its lifetime.
- Reps for my other Anki decks (CorePLUS, Japanese expressions, etc) -- stand at around 40000 reps.
- I finished one whole videogame (探偵神宮寺三郎) in full Japanese -- without any translation -- which, put in perspective, is quite an achievement, considering that two years ago I could barely read basic, much less complex, Japanese sentences. I've moved on to playing other Japanese games (like Snatcher, Policenauts) and I've also been going through some other interesting Japanese game scripts (e.g. Final Fantasy Tactics, 水滸伝, etc.)
- My Japanese vocabulary certainly extends beyond 10,000 words, probably hovering around the 15,000-20,000 range.
- I probably know close to 2,500 to 3,000 Chinese characters -- at least in the sense that I can read them, even if I sometimes forget how to write them.

French:

- I attempted studying French seriously in 2011. However, towards the middle and end of the year, my French studies began suffering, due to my own personal scheduling inconsistencies. But I really intend to remedy and work on my French in 2012.

Arabic:

- I've begun my Arabic language studies.
- I'm taking Arabic slower, as I'm trying to establish to base a somewhat respectable lexical base before working on anything else. (This is different compared to how I approached Japanese and French: for those I gave both vocabulary and grammar equal importance from the very beginning.)

STUDIES AND WORK

- I completed my legal training, and I'm now a fully qualified lawyer.
- I took up a postgraduate degree in finance, finished all 14 of my postgraduate papers in about 10 months, and am now finishing the final part of the required industry training. I've learned so much about economics (macro, micro) and finance and financial maths in the past few months.
- Learned lots and lots and lots of other new stuff this year too, and I'm still hoping to learn lots more!
- Learned some new productivity techniques: timeboxing, Pomodoro.

PERSONAL

- Met a lot of new people in 2011.
- Made a ton of new friends (and lost some old ones too, sadly).
- Got closer with and have become more acquainted with (formerly, somewhat estranged) relatives.

INTERESTS

Music and guitar in 2011

- I forced myself to learn a number of new musical pieces this year; Guthrie Govan, Joe Satriani, etc.
- Learned recording techniques -- VSTs, MIDI interfaces, mixing and EQ techniques, etc.
- I've signed up for proper jazz guitar classes, and I'm now training under an experienced master who's a former GIT and Berklee graduate (although that doesn't necessarily mean I'll go anywhere without hard work on my part :/ ).
- I've started studying music theory very seriously -- modes, modal progressions, chord theory, extensions, intervals, etc
- I learned to read music, and I can now do so, albeit with a degree of difficulty. (I can read pieces, but I definitely can't sightread them yet. Key-based finger positioning is still a very new concept for me.)

Art in 2011

- I finally decided to learn how to draw.
- I've bought a ton of pencils and sketchbooks; I even invested in a Wacom tablet, despite knowing that I wouldn't be able to use it well, if at all, yet. I've no interest in doing digital art or paintings -- I'd just like to learn to do realistic portraits, still lifes, and landscapes/scenery with pencils and values.
- My main aim for 2012 is to learn perspective, anatomy, and values (shading).

Books in 2011

- I got a Kindle 3 in March and an iPad around September last year; and that led me on a book-reading rampage, through which I've managed to finish some 16 fantasy/sci-fi books -- and I still have another 5 which I've begun reading, but haven't yet finished, and which I'm now reading simultaneously in rotation.
- I've amassed a collection of non-fiction books on science, finance and politics, which I'll also have to find some time to read in 2012.

BAD STUFF TO FIX

Reddit:

- I discovered Reddit only this year -- and have discovered that that place is best to be avoided at work, since it's a complete time sink.
- I once spent an entire weekend going through the posts, even skipping breakfast and lunch, just to read. It's spilling over into my office hours as well ("Oh, lunch is over... just 5 more minutes... OH CRAP I'VE BEEN ON REDDIT FOR AN HOUR ALREADY.")

Steam:

- I discovered Steam during 2011's Square Enix sale.
- I don't play videogames that much -- I'm grateful that Steam reports my hours to me clearly, so that I know when I stop, because I can't stand even the thought of a game telling me that I've sunk 600 hours into it. So unless it's a game that I absolutely love and must finish (e.g. Batman: Arkham Asylum, Portal 2) I try not to use Steam that much.
- Steam's sales are way too tempting, and can be so hard to resist even though you know you'll never find the time to play those games you've just bought -- it's only with sheer willpower that I'm able to achieve some degree of immunity to the sales, and I intend to continue resisting until I finish the games I already have (which will probably take years anyway).

Time management:

- I zone off a bit too much when doing work. I remedied this using the Pomodoro technique, but I've still some productivity kinks left to iron out.
- ManicTime is useful and scary and saddening, all at the same time. Therefore I intend to make better use of it this year.

2012's New Year Resolutions

So, all in all, the following are my specific resolutions (and which may expand therefrom) for the new year of 2012:

Japanese:

- Complete Anki's corePLUS series - with 49622 unseen cards, that averages to around 165.40 new cards per day. Oh my.
- Resume Japanese sentence decks -- clear 5000 due cards, and finish all new cards.
- Finish one whole Japanese novel.
- Work on my listening skill -- be able to dissect the majority of a 1-hour episode of colloquial/slangy Japanese
- Listen to all J-Pod pocasts.
- Listen to all available audiobooks.
- Work on my speaking skills.

French:

- Learn at least 10,000 new French words.
- Finish drilling through all unseen cards in my French grammar deck: 'The Ultimate French Verb - Review and Practice'.
- Finish French in Action at least once, and go through all of the relevant PDFs and transcripts.
- Get in at least 100 hours of FSI's French.
- Finish 2 French short stories, and 1 novel.

Arabic:

- Learn at least 7,000 Arabic words.
- Finish Wightwick/Gaafar's 'Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar'.
- Finish 2 short stories.

Fitness:

- Complete at least 300km in running for the whole year.
- Be able to run straight for 45 mins.
- Go up one belt for karate.
- Miss less karate and boxing classes.
- Work more on the mitts and bags.
- Lose another 10kgs.

Music:

- Memorize Frank Gambale's "Chopbuilder".
- Memorize 25 new 2-5-1 jazz licks.
- Learn 3 new jazz standards.
- Finish that jazz sightreading book (I can't remember its name now).
- Learn 2 new virtuosic guitar pieces. (Guthrie Govan, Alex Hutchings, or Eric Johnson, etc.)

Hobbies and personal:

- Begin saving and investing.
- Learn how to draw realistic portraits, and anatomy and perspectives.
- Finish Mass Effect, Bioshock, and Batman: Arkham City.
- Don't waste time as much (less Reddit, less Metafilter, less Slashdot, less Facebook).
- Establish a consistent schedule for learning new things -- languages, skills, etc.
- Read more Wikipedia, grok more stuff.
- One of my greatest temptations: salt. Eat less salt.

汗牛充棟 - "Sweating Oxen, Reaching Ridge-Beams"

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:08:00 +0000

Of books, which make oxen sweat, and which touch ceilings.

汗牛充棟

1. Literal translation: "Sweating ox, full ridgepole"
2. Idiomatic translation: "Sweating oxen, reaching ridge-beams"
3. Reading: かんぎゅう-じゅうとう (Kangyuu - jyuutou)

Source: 四字熟語辞典.

蔵書がきわめて多いことの形容。本が非常に多くて、牛車に積んで運ぶと牛も汗をかき、家の中に積み上げれば棟木にまで届いてしまう意から。

A figure of speech used to describe one's possession of an excessively large number of books.

The saying comes from the idea that the weight of such books, when loaded onto an oxcart, would cause the beast of burden to perspire; while its stacked height, when placed inside a house, would reach and touch its upper ridge beams (i.e. the ceiling).

(Note: Surprisingly, oxen, sheeps and goats can and do sweat.)

La Campagne Française

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:26:00 +0000

Herein lies descriptions of my attempt to conquer the French language.

La Stratégie

It's time that I begin my French studies in earnest. I will use this post to chart my progress with the French language. It should be rather exciting to see the details and patterns of language acquisition that emerge as I go about my studies; moreover what I note down will duly serve its duty to motivate (or reprimand) me should complacence or laziness start kicking in.

My current aims are as such:

1) By the end of September 2010:

a. Acquire a vocabulary of at least 3000 words (i.e. words that aren't merely English equivalents, like vaisselle, ouvrir, cheval, brouillard, feuilleter, etc);
b. Import all of the The Ultimate French Verb - Review and Practice's exercises and answers into Anki, and begin drilling through the various conjugation patterns.
c. Understand French verb conjugations (at least broadly).

2) By November 2010:

a. Complete both The Ultimate French Verb - Review and Practice and French Grammar Drills, and be in the self-correcting phrase with Advanced French Grammar;
b. Go through enough verb conjugation exercises to be able to conjugate most verbs with ease, if not in speech, then at least in writing.
c. Know all French words listed by Glossaria in Smart.fm, at least passively.

3) By December 2010:

a. Understand spoken French (i.e. formal and colloquial speech -- ultra-slang is for much, much later);
b. Shadow a number of texts;
c. Complete FSI French, French in Action, and Assimil (the 1940 "French Without Toil" series), and the podcast series.

4) By January 2011:

a. Acquire a good 'standard' Parisian accent;
b. Be able to write/type grammatically-correct sentences and short essays with 'relative' ease.

5) By the end of 2011:

a. Be 'fluent' enough to be able to enjoy literature and engage in substantive conversations that go beyond mere pleasantries.
b. Pass a recognized French proficiency test.
c. 'Reach' C1 (or at least B2) according to the CEFR levels.

I do realize that my aims aren't very modest, but bear with me on this one.

Still, hopefully, in one year's time I'll be able to look back at this post and laugh in amazement as to how insane I was to attempt all of the above and succeed. (Or, the alternate and highly plausible ending: I grimace at how I had failed so horribly and how pathetic I was to even consider the above accomplishments. )

I must mention this though: I know what I'm doing. (Well, somewhat.) I've been learning Japanese for a while now, and I'm guided by the successes and failures that I've endured through it. French may be something new to me, but many of the linguistic concepts it presents certainly aren't, and it's not as if I'm pushing a cart up the hill for the first time. (i.e. This time around, I've equipped my cart with a motor engine.)

La Chronologie

Note: Some of the following days are unfilled or empty, because I'm mostly likely focusing on Japanese that day. (Nevertheless I try to put at least an hour or so in French every day.)

September 5, 2010.
- Bought these four books: French Grammar Drills, The Ultimate French Verb - Review and Practice ("UFVRP"), Advanced French Grammar, and Collins-Robert French Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged. Will focus on completing UFVRP first.

September 6, 2010.
- Finished chapter 1 of UFVRP; learned sentence structures that use the present tense of regular verbs, and disjunctive pronouns.

September 7, 2010.
- Finished chapter 2 of UFVRP; learned about irregular verbs and negative sentences. Memorized words: mostly verbs.

September 8, 2010.
- Memorized words: climate, seasons, passing of time, and mostly verbs.

September 9, 2010.
- Memorized words: clothes and everyday items.
- Learned French numerals.

September 10, 2010.
- Finished chapter 3 of UFVRP; learned further about irregular verbs, sentence structures that combine verbs with infinitives, and how to form questions. Memorized words: the human anatomy, and basic adjectives.

September 11, 2010.
- Finished chapter 4 of UFVRP; learned about imperatives, and the somewhat difficult topic of sentence structures that utilize indirect objects, direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns, and object pronouns that go with imperatives.

September 12, 2010.
- Finished chapter 5 of UFVRP; learned about the passé composé, a form of past tense in the French language. Very challenging topic, because of the rule of making verbs agree with gender and number; had to flick back through the pages to re-read explanations, and had to redo the exercises just as many times. Also learned how the French passive voice works.
- Memorized words: mostly verbs.

September 13, 2010.
- Finished chapter 6-10 of UFVRP; learned about imperfect tenses (in comparison with the passé composé), reflexive verbs, double object pronouns, future and conditional (probable and contrary-to-fact) tenses, cleft sentences, future perfect and conditional perfect tenses, and subjunctives (what they are, and how they're used). Went through the grammar explanations in detail, but skimped on the exercises for now as I intend to scrutinize the exercises properly only once I've completed the book.
- Went online, read explanations on the various moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative, etc), and searched for verb conjugation exercises.

September 14, 2010.
- Finished reading all of The Ultimate French Verb - Review and Practice!
Finished chapter 11 and 12 of UFVRP; learned more about subjunctives, complex/compound sentences, present participles, infinitives and their various uses, and the literary tenses (passé simple, imperfect subjunctive, pluperfect subjunctive). I now have a fairly broad understanding of the French verb conjugation system, but I still have to do tons of grammar exercises and lexical drills before I truly understand what I've learned.
- Also ran google searches for grammar terminologies, so that I can better understand explanations of French and English grammar (respectively, and comparatively).
- Copied half of UFVRP's exercises (about a thousand or so sentences) into a spreadsheet; will copy the other half ASAP.

September 15, 2010.
- Copied one chapter of exercises from UFVRP into a spreadsheet.
- Learned how to tell time in French.

September 16, 2010.
- Copied all the remaining chapters of exercises from UFVRP into a spreadsheet. (The short appendix exercises will be copied tomorrow. Copying all these exercises really improved my touch typing skills in French.)
- Studied to the end of Part 2 of French Grammar Drills.

September 17, 2010.
- Completed copying all of The Ultimate French Verb - Review and Practice's exercises into a spreadsheet!
- UFVRP's exercises will be merged with my French deck in Anki, via a 5-fact model (i.e. 'Index', 'French Expression', 'Answer', 'Instructions', 'Notes'). For now I'd like to familiarize myself with identifying and producing conjugations, though much later I'll also make a reverse deck.
- Imported Chapter 1 of UFVRP exercises into Anki.

September 18, 2010.
- Imported Chapter 2-6 of UFVRP exercises into Anki. (Approximately 1,175 exercises.) Trying to get at least 2 or 3 more chapters worth of exercises into Anki by today. (Preferably, it'd be nicer if I could import all of the book's exercises by the night's end, but I've a function to attend.)

September 19, 2010.
- Finished importing all of The Ultimate French Verb - Review and Practice's exercises into Anki!
- Spent about 12 hours today (almost straight) at the PC, going through Excel, Notepad2, Anki and regular expressions, all at the same time. (God bless dual monitors.) I now have 2515 UFVRP cards, and I will begin drilling through the exercises starting from tomorrow.
- Listened to half of Unit 1 of FSI French Phonology. (About 10 minutes.)

September 20, 2010.
- Completed French Phonology: Chapter 1.
- Watched French in Action up to Episode 10.

September 21, 2010.
- Watched French in Action Episode 10.
- Completed French in Action audio, up to Episode 1.

September 22, 2010.
- Completed French in Action audio, up to half of Episode 2.

September 23, 2010.
- Anki reviews of UFVRP now up to Exercise G, Chapter 1.
- Completed French in Action audio, up to the end of Episode 2.
- Re-watched French in Action episodes 2-5. It surprised me how much I now understand, something like 90% of what was going on, without even having to translate inside my head. (I think the figure bumped up 95% once I did start translating.) Though the dialogues were going on at the natural speed of speech, it didn't feel as fast as it used to be.
- A quick note: I shadow almost everything I hear, and repeat to an almost sacrilegious extent until I arrive at (what I believe is) an exact copy of the shadowed voice, pronunciation and prosody-wise. Also, if the voice is too high-pitched (e.g. if a woman is speaking), I bring my voice down one octave lower while maintaining the relative pitch pattern of the speech.

September 24, 2010.
- Rewatched French in Action, episodes 7-10.
- Watched French in Action, episode 11.

September 25, 2010.
- Watched French in Action, episode 12.
- Completed French in Action audio, up to half of Episode 3.

September 26, 2010.
- Completed French in Action audio, Episode 3 and 4.

September 30, 2010.
- Completed French in Action, episode 13.

October 1, 2010.
- Completed French in Action, episode 14.

October 2 , 2010.
- Completed French in Action audio, episode 5. Listened to the early parts of episode 6 (and was completely floored by the fact that the audio lessons, and even the instructions, will be entirely in French from this episode onwards.)
- Planning to re-do episodes 1-5 of the FIA audio, but with the workbook this time around.
- Completed French in Action, episode 15.

October 4, 2010.
- Cleared pending UFVRP deck reviews.
- Completed French in Action, episode 16.
- Continued French in Action audio, episode 6.

October 5, 2010.
- Did several exercises in UFVRP through grammar drills.
- Watched French in Action, half of episode 17.

October 6-13, 2010.
- Taking a week off to settle my real-life workloads (study + work), and to focus on my Japanese studies. I need to clear up my pending Japanese deck first, then I plan to burn through a few thousand more cards, giving greater focus to listening and speaking -- easily possible thanks to my new iPod Touch.

January 22, 2011.
- What ought to have taken a few weeks took 3 months, but I'm back now, for good. I've gotten my work, my postgraduate studies and my Japanese studies all in line, so that I can now give proper focus to my French. I'm a bit rusty though, and to pick up from where I left would be rather difficult, so I'll instead wade my way back in with something simple first: vocabulary. I'll focus on amassing as much forgotten and new vocabulary as I can in the next few days, (about 2000-3000, both in terms of recognition and production), before I return to my normal grammar/reading/listening studies. After all, I still have to live up to my New Year's resolutions for this year!

July 8-15, 2011.
- Went through French in Action (FIA), textbooks 1-14.
- Started listening to FIA audiobooks.
- Rewatched several FIA videos, this time with increased comprehension due to having read the textbooks.
- Burned through the Anki decks, now learning French vocabulary at an accelerated (but comfortable) pace.
- Weekend plans: Read the FIA textbooks and watch its videos up to Lesson 26.

July 16-18, 2011.
- Went through French in Action (FIA), textbooks 15-17.
- Spent about two hours just for listening with FIA episode 16,
- Tons of new vocabulary via Anki.
- Couldn't go through with the previously-mentioned weekend plans; it was rather impossible, what with the other events that came up. Still planning to proceed with the textbooks as far as I can this week, however.

身から出た錆 - "Rust From the Body "

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:45:00 +0000

Of rusty swords and personal fault.

身から出た錆

Source: 語源由来辞典.

1. Literal translation: "The rust that comes from the body"
2. Idiomatic translation: "Rust from the body / As you sow, so shall you reap."
3. Reading: みからでたさび (Mi kara deta sabi)

「身」は刀の鞘に納まっている部分を指す「刀身」のことである。

刀の手入れを怠ると刀身から錆が出て、いざという時に使い物にならず、自分自身の命（身）を落とすことになる。

そこから、刀の身と自分自身の身をかけ、自分の犯した罪のために自分自身が苦しむことを「身から出た錆」と言うようになった。

また、刀身から出た錆は表面だけではなく、刀自体を腐らせてしまうので、その意味でも、取り返しがつかないことをしたという悔やみが込められた言葉である。

'Mi' (身) refers to the part of the sword sheathed within the scabbard (the sword blade).

When a man neglects his katana and fails in its upkeep, the sword will rust, which renders it useless. In dire times where the sword is most required, the man will thus lose his life (because of his own negligence and unpreparedness).

The proverb likens the sword's body to one's own, and this is how the proverb came to mean 'one's despairing over something that was his own fault to begin with'.

The proverb can also be extended to include nuances of condolence for (unfortunate) situations where there is no hope for recovery, from the idea that rust envelops the sword blade whole (and not just its surface).

雷 - "Cry of God"

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 06:45:00 +0000

Of thunder and gods who wear loincloths made from tiger skin.

雷

1. Literal translation: "God, sound"
2. Idiomatic translation: "Thunder (cry of god)"
3. Reading: かみなり・いかずち (Kaminari / ikazuchi)

Source: 語源由来辞典.

かみなりは、「神鳴り」が語源である。

鬼の姿で虎の皮のふんどしを締め、背負った太鼓を打ち鳴らす神は、現代では空想上のものとされているが、昔、かみなりは本当に神が鳴らすものと信じられていたためこの名がある。

「かみなり」は、中世以降にが広く使われるようになった語で、それ以前は「なるかみ」や「いかづち」が一般的であった。

The word "kaminari" ('thunder') originates from these two words: "god" and "sound".

To the modern man, the idea of a god who wears a loincloth made from tiger skin while beating a taiko drum on his back is a fantastical one. But in former days, thunder was believed to be such a god-created sound, and this is how the name "kaminari" came to be.

虎の皮の褌

Source: 大辞泉.

鬼や雷神などが、腰に着けているという虎の皮で作ったふんどし。

A loincloth made of tiger pelt, which demons, thunder gods and their kind wear around their waist.

Correspondences With Matt Treyvaud

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:22:00 +0000

Matt Treyvaud -- writer, translator and linguist -- of No-Sword, has been kind enough to answer several Japanese language-related inquiries I've put to him concerning kanji, Japanese literature, classical Japanese, and general language-learning hurdles.

Matt's advice/tips have been helpful to me, and I realize that they may also be of use and interest to other language learners, so I've decided to put them up here (with his permission).

Also, please note that I've done a bit of editing for coherency and readability. (That is, the following paragraphs do not reflect the order our correspondences actually went.)

Questions and answers

1. Early forays into language learning. Could you share some of your experiences from the time when you were still a beginner in Japanese? How did you cope with the difficult grammatical parts -- i.e. combined passives-causatives, usage of あげる・くれる・もらう(s), etc. What were your study methods? How did you go about solving those problems that did crop up? I'm having some difficulties with these aspects of Japanese myself, which explains the interest.

I started learning Japanese after I already had a degree in linguistics, and my approach was always very much based on that...

That, and I got the dictionaries of Japanese grammar (Makino/Tsutsui) as early as possible. They explain virtually everything you will run into, in English. (By the time you start encountering stuff that's not in them, you can (already) read Japanese reference books...)

Apart from that, I didn't really have any study methods... just lots of practice. And (by) always trying to think in Japanese, rather than translating it to/from English in my head. (By) using Japanese/Japanese dictionaries as early as possible, etc.

Really my main tip is this: never let yourself get complacent. Once you can read sentences, try to read manga. Once you can read manga, try reading short stories.. then novels.. then Classical Japanese...

2. Autodidactism versus classes. Are you entirely self-taught, or did you attend classes? (I believe that languages should be a personal effort primarily, but chiseled to perfection with the help of personal language tutors; i.e. I don't believe in language classes. I wonder if you share the same view.)

I had a fairly intensive Japanese class for a year. (Equivalent to one year of university education.) Then I came to Japan and practiced. I guess I am self-taught in that sense, although since I worked at a high school and was friends with one of the Japanese (国語) teachers, I would often ask him for help or to explain something that I had run across.

One thing I would warn you about being self-taught is pitch accent. It is not written down as you know. My accent is highly unusual because I did not make the effort to learn it along with new words.

3. Learning kanji. When you were learning Japanese, did you practice writing kanji to help you memorize those kanji beyond the scope of the 常用漢字 (especially the obscure ones, like Buddhism-related kanji), or did you just let the kanji sink in slowly, and only via reading?

For the first year kanji were part of (my) course, including the usual writing drills etc. I estimate that I learned about 100-200 over that period, starting with the usual easy ones (一、二、三、日、月、人、etc).

Since then, just reading. Honestly (it) doesn't take that long to sink in. Context is everything for me.

(Note: Read Matt's views on learning kanji.)

4. Reading appetite, and word-lists versus context-based vocabulary acquisition. I'm aware that you read a lot, but during those intermediate-advanced moments when progress didn't feel quite like the leaps-and-bounds of the beginner stage, how much did you actually read (so as to continue the process of absorbing many other words)? Complete books, or just short stories, or mangas, etc? Did you do word-lists and the sort, or were you more of a based-on-context sort of person?

I started out reading manga (and blogs), then short stories, then novels, then classics. Never did word-lists.

It's true that progress stops feeling so dramatic once you get good enough, but on the other hand, ideally what you are reading will itself be interesting enough. (For example I made a point of reading books not available in English -- untranslated stuff by Murakami Haruki, new books that had won the Akutagawa prize, etc. It was enjoyable to then be able to follow along with the literary conversation about these things.)

5. Early excursions into Japanese literature. I've been going through the following books -- Breaking into Japanese Literature, Exploring Japanese Literature and Read Real Japanese Fiction. All three, I find, are excellent, and they do help me wade through literature that were seemingly-impenetrable previously. I assume that such books were not available to you when you were first starting out, so how did you cope with Japanese literature then?

I think one of them was available, actually...

To be honest, I just did my best. I'm sure that I misunderstood at least 20% of the first novel I read. No big deal, it's only a novel. If I had a friend (native speaker) handy, I would ask them. Something (that's) really baffling I would save up and ask a different friend next time I saw them. Gradually, the number and type of patterns you have encountered grows, and you become more able to deal with new things by fitting them into the system.

6. Matt's opinion on Japanese language readers. Any opinions on the above books, and would they really be helpful in enabling one to read Japanese literature?

I haven't read any, but I do strongly believe that it is only by doing something that one can get better at that thing, so reading Japanese literature should make you better at reading (more) Japanese literature. I also don't see why it should hurt to have the English available too -- in fact it ought to help, as long as you are disciplined enough not to read it until you've tried the Japanese first. So I assume that those books are a good learning tool.

7. Handling difficult sentence patterns/structures. Putting aside constant dictionary references, how did you cope with the weirder sentence structures that didn't make sense at all (especially when there was no English translation at hand, which might have led to completely misunderstanding whole paragraphs)?

(E.g. from 藪の中: 「しかし娘はどうなりましたやら、婿のことはあきらめましても、これだけは心配でなりません」. Until I came by the English translation, the sentence meant nothing to me, especially because of the interposing of 婿 in between 娘 and 心配.)

The first thing I think is to keep in mind that "doesn't make sense" is a subjective judgment. This maybe isn't the case in a blog or something written by a non-native speaker, but in a printed work of fiction, you can be 99% certain that every sentence has been carefully honed to mean something -- at least one thing -- and something sensible that you should be able to determine from context too. If all else fails, seriously, break it down.

So I don't think I actually read 藪の中 until I was already fairly advanced, but the hints here would be:

- やら usually goes at the end of a sentence, so she is probably finishing a thought here.

- It makes no sense for her to both あきらめる and be 心配でなりません for the same thing, so the これだけ must be something other than the 婿.

- Similarly 婿のこと and これだけ both have a は, so the two clauses must be about different things.

So to break it down:

"But what can have happened to my daughter? I've given up hope for [the man who would become] my son-in-law, but this has me beside myself with worry."

At this point, it should become fairly clear that "this" is her daughter. And knowing this you can re-read the sentence to reanalyze it and making it less awkward.

Particularly in dialogue, you will often find that thoughts are half-finished, or seem to run into each other. But context should help. Of course at times the author will be obscure on purpose.

8. Classical Japanese. I haven't yet set out with classical Japanese, but I intend to, later. Aside from intellectual interest and the commercial possibilities of knowing classical Japanese, are there any advantages in being able to read it?

Also, are there people who still write in Classical Japanese? i.e. I don't think anyone writes in Middle English anymore -- unless there's some sadomasochistic pleasure to be derived from it -- but that's English; I don't know if it's the same case for the Japanese language.

No one still writes in classical Japanese as far as I know, but there are advantages.

- Some writing set in premodern times contains "pseudo-classical" Japanese -- adjectives ending in "-shi/-ki", "nari" or "soro" instead of "da", that sort of thing. If you know real classical Japanese, you will be better able to understand this.

- Writing from modern but prewar times is often heavily influenced by classical Japanese (before the genbun itchi movement). Sometimes it IS classical Japanese. Knowing only modern Japanese limits your reading to things published in the last 80 years or so, basically.

- If you know classical Japanese, you will understand grammatical fossils like "bekarazu" more deeply, not just as memorized oddities.

Basically the advantages are the same as learning earlier forms of English: you have more insight into the current form of the language (why it is how it is), and you can read works written in the earlier period or mimic the language of that period.

9. The translating experience. I read with interest the experiences of Professor Jay Rubin in translating The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (a quick excerpt can be found here, if you're interested) and I wonder, as a professional translator, if you would describe the translating experience the very same way?

Yes, very much so. Translating is the best way I know of really getting to know a text. If you have freedom with the source text, it's also an opportunity to superimpose your own ideas and experiment.

柿が赤くなると医者が青くなる - "As the Persimmons Redden, Doctors Turn a Darker Shade of Blue"

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:39:00 +0000

Of inverse relations between persimmons and doctors.

柿が赤くなると医者が青くなる

1. Literal translation: "If the persimmons become red, doctors become blue"
2. Idiomatic translation: "As the persimmons redden, doctors turn a darker shade of blue"
3. Reading: かきがあかくなるといしゃがあおくなる (Kaki ga akaku naru to isha ga aoku ni naru)

Source: 広辞苑.

柿が赤くなる秋は天候がよいので病気になる人が少なく、医者は商売にならずに青ざめる。秋の快適な気候をいう。

Reddening persimmons signify autumn, a season of good weather. As less people fall ill during such times, doctors lose business and thus turn a greater shade of 'blue'. This saying is used to describe the pleasantness of autumn weather.

柿が赤くなれば医者は青くなる

Source: ことわざ学習室.

このことわざは、特に柿だけではなく、秋頃は、みかんや、ゆずなども、実をつけて、色づき、食べ物が豊富で、過ごしやすくなるので、病人が少なくなるということのようで、秋の過ごしやすさを言っているようですが、たぶん、昔は、冷蔵庫などがなかった為、夏の間の熱い時期は、食べ物が腐りやすく、食中毒なども多かったためではないかとも考えられます。実際、これらの食べ物には、ビタミンＣが多く含まれているようです。また、「橙が赤くなれば医者の顔が青くなる（だいだいがあかくなればいしゃのかおがあおくなる）」とも言うようです。

This saying does not specifically refer to persimmon trees.

Orange trees, citrus trees and the like bear fruits and change colours in autumn; as bounty is plentiful, the season is easier to pass and fewer people become sick. This saying is used to describe autumnal tranquility.

The saying perhaps makes more sense once compared: refrigerators did not exist in times past, so foods were quick to rot during hot summers, causing many to suffer from food poisoning. It is noted that (autumn) foods are rich with Vitamin C.

An equivalent saying also exists: "When citruses turns red, doctors turn blue".

せかれてつのる恋の情 - "Love Laughs at Locksmiths"

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:37:00 +0000

Interestingly, "love laughs at locksmiths" was coined by Shakespeare.

This must explain why the line is so cryptic when taken out of context. (Its meaning completely eluded me until I found the original source text.)

せかれてつのる恋の情

1. Literal translation: "Feelings of love are aggravated when hindered"
2. Idiomatic translation: "Love laughs at locksmiths" (新和英大辞典第5版)
3. Reading: せからてつのるこいのじょう(Sekarete tsunoru koi no jou)

Source: ことわざ辞典.

愛し合う男女が、第三者からの妨害に遭った時、恋する気持ちはかえって強まり、会いたい思いが募るものである。

A man and woman in love shall only yearn and miss each other all the more fiercely when someone comes between them.

Love Laughs at Locksmiths

Source: "Venus and Adonis", by Shakespeare (1593).

"Were beauty under twenty locks kept fast,
Yet love breaks through and picks them all at last."

Lost Nuances in 'Ivan the Terrible'

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:31:00 +0000

Ivan IV of Russia, who is known to English speakers as 'Ivan the Terrible', is instead known to the Japanese as 'Ivan the Thunder Emperor' (イヴァン雷帝).

This amuses me.

To English speakers, 'Thunder Emperor' comes off as a hilarious-sounding nickname for a monarch, but with regards to connotation, that title is actually more accurate than just 'The Terrible'. (Semantics aside though, I still prefer 'Ivan the Terrible' over 'Ivan the Thunder Emperor', as the latter sounds horribly awkward.)

イヴァン雷帝

Source: Wikipedia.

... ロシア語の渾名「グロズーヌイ」 (Грозный) は「峻厳な、恐怖を与える、脅すような」といった意味の形容詞で、この単語自体に「雷」という意味はない。類語に「雷雨」ないし「ひどく厳格な人」という意味の名詞「グロザー」（гроза）があり、この単語との連関から「雷帝」と和訳された。英語ではたんに「恐ろしいイヴァン」（Ivan the Terrible）と訳しているが、これは「雷のような畏怖すべき威厳のあるさま」を表している原語のニュアンスを損なっている。

... The Russian epithet 'Grozny' is an adjective; the word means 'stern, terrifying, and menacing', but does not by itself refer to 'thunder'.

There is however a quasi-synonym called 'groza', a noun whose meaning ranges from "thunderstorm" to "a severely strict person". The Japanese translation of Ivan's nickname is derived from this relationship in meaning with 'groza', thus Ivan's nickname is rendered 'Thunder Emperor'. In English however, Ivan is simply referred to as 'Ivan the Terrible', but this translation loses the original nuance of 'groza', i.e. 'one whose dignified presence evokes awe and fear, like thunder'.

You Have Reason

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:03:00 +0000

When someone says something that you agree with, you affirm his statements, and respond with phrases like "oh, you're right" or "that's correct" (or more colloquially, phrases like "yup" and "mmm-hmm").

The French language however allows you to use a very particular turn of phrase to achieve the same effect:

"Vous avez raison."

Literally, this translates to:

"You have reason."

'Reason' is a fairly loaded word in the English language. English doesn't treat the word lightly, so its use in the above phrase baffles me a bit. (Honestly, the word 'reason' always leads me to mental images of French philosophers engaging in combative verbal discourse.)

I've been told that "vous avez raison" is a fairly common phrase in French, but I still can't quite imagine how a child would use it when dealing with other kids.

Note also that "vous avez raison" sounds equally stilted in Malay:

"Pendapat kamu munasabah dan berasaskan akal."

Regardless, I find the French phrase amusing and thought-provoking, and I admit that its archaic qualities do lend a certain charm to it.

海老 - "Old People of the Sea"

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:09:00 +0000

Of prawns and their likeness to grapes and the elderly.

海老

1. Literal translation: "Sea, old people"
2. Idiomatic translation: "Shrimp (Old people of the sea)"
3. Reading: えび (Ebi)

Source: Wikipedia.

和語の「えび」は、元々は葡萄のこと、あるいはその色のことを指す言葉であった。葡萄の色に似ていることから蝦・海老のことを「えび」と呼ぶようになった。現在でも「葡萄色」と書いて「えびいろ」とも読む。「海老」の字は、長い触角（ひげ）と曲がった腰を老人に見立てたものである。

The Japanese word, ebi, originally referred to grapes (and their colour). Shrimps came to be called ebi because of how they resembled the colour of grapes. Even now, dark, grape-like purplish-red colours are still read as "the colour of grapes (ebi)".

As for the use of the kanji characters 海 ('sea') and 老 ('old people'): shrimps are likened to old people because of their long beards (feelers) and curved backs.

Basic Kanji Learning (Construction) Principles

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:29:00 +0000

Chinese characters are lots of fun, and not really that difficult once you get used to them, but they're quite tedious to learn.

Jouyou kanji (常用漢字) will only take you so far; it certainly gives you basic literacy, but you won't be reading advanced literature with it. In fact, to be able to plow through anything as complex as novels, you'd actually need to know about 3000-3500 characters. (And we haven't yet taken into account other equally important variables such as reading speed, knowledge of idioms, an innate understanding of sentence patterns, familiarity with cultural references, et cetera.)

That being said, keep the following details in mind when you're trying to learn or understand kanji.

Kanji construction principles

The pronunciation, meaning, form and etymology of a word can be neatly packed inside a single Chinese character. (This cannot be done, and has no equivalent, in English.) To do all that packing, Chinese characters rely on the usage of 'radicals'.

Radicals are the fundamental building blocks of kanji. There are only 214 of them.

There may be tens of thousands of kanji (including Chinese characters that are not or no longer used in Japan), but they're always built from these 214 radicals, so it's imperative that you acquaint yourself with the radicals quickly. (Also, once you familiarize yourself with radicals and their usage, Chinese characters become less scary and start making a lot more sense. This is something you should keep in mind.)

Radicals appear in different positions (generally, top-bottom, left-right, or it may 'encase' other kanji), and may occasionally 'mutate' in appearance to fit certain positions. Understandably, some radicals occur more frequently than others.

A kanji can be represented along four lines; i.e. by:

1. Meaning.

Thus, the kanji for 'thumb' is a combination of the radicals 'finger' and 'mother', i.e. "mother of fingers":

拇

Similarly, the kanji for 'attractive' is a combination of the radicals 'woman' and 'angel' i.e. "a woman who is like an angel":

嬌

2. Phonetic representation.

Chinese characters of this type may mean completely different things, but are always pronounced in one way because of the use of a particular radical. In addition, some radicals are particularly 'strong'; if they appear, it almost always suggests a certain pronunciation:

巧・功・江

The above mean 'adroit', 'merits', and 'creek' respectively, but all are pronounced こう because of the existence of the '工' radical.

3. A combination of both meaning and phonetic representation.

4. Arbitrary/reasoned thought processes.

For historical reasons, it's sometimes almost impossible to determine how or why a kanji is pieced the way it is. The obvious explanation is semantics: certain combinations of radicals could intrinsically suggest different things to the ancients and different things to us. (For example, the English word 'staple' referred mainly to goods and markets in ye olde days, but to the modern man 'staple' strongly resonates with paper fasteners and surgical suture replacements.)

For these kinds of kanji, you'd need an etymological dictionary that explains the logic behind a kanji's choice of radicals.

Last notes

Basically if you're trying to figure out and remember a kanji, dissect and reassemble the radicals while keeping the above 4 principles in mind. Rotate through the principles and see which fits.

This will help you remember kanji readings and forms very, very quickly. (And then use Anki for reviews.) If the above principles don't work for you, resort to mnemonics.

百花繚乱 - "A Hundred Flowers Blossoming in Riotous Profusion"

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:51:00 +0000

1. Literal translation: "Hundred flowers, putting on, riot"
2. Idiomatic translation: "A hundred flowers blossoming in riotous profusion"
3. Reading: ひゃっか-りょうらん (Hyakka ryouran)

百花繚乱

Source: 新明解四字熟語辞典.

いろいろの花が咲き乱れること。転じて、秀でた人物が多く出て、すぐれた立派な業績が一時期にたくさん現れること。▽「百花」は種々の多くの花、いろいろな花の意。「繚乱」は花などがたくさん咲き乱れている様子。いろいろな花が、はなやかに美しく咲き乱れることから。

百花繚乱 refers to many flowers blossoming scatteredly. In brief, this saying refers to when many distinguished people appear and produce great accomplishments throughout a certain period.

"A hundred flowers" (百花) refers to the flowers that are many and various.

"Profusion" (繚乱) refers to the state of many flowers blooming, as derived from the beautiful but ephemeral sight of flowers blooming in unison.

豹変 - "A Panther's Change"

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:29:00 +0000

1. Literal translation: "Panther, change"
2. Idiomatic translation: "A panther's change"
3. Reading: ひょうへん (Hyouhen)

豹変

Source: 語源由来事典.

豹変

『易経（革卦）』の「君子豹変す、小人は面を革む（あらたむ）」に由来する。

これは、豹の毛は季節によって抜け替わり、斑紋が鮮やかになるように、徳のある君子は過ちを改めて善い方に移り変わるが、小人（徳のない人）は表面的に改めるだけで本質は変わらないといった意味である。

つまり、良い方向へ変化することを言ったものだが、現在では悪く変わる意味で用いられる。

豹変が悪い方に変化する意味となったのは、「小人は面を革む」までを含めたというよりも、「豹」という動物の恐ろしいイメージから連想させたものと思われる。

This word originates from the I Ching (The Book of Changes), one of the five ancient Chinese classics, and comes from the particular phrase: "The man of wisdom changes his spots like a panther, while the small man only hardens his face into leather."

The meaning is derived from the natural behaviour of panthers, who renew their spots during their seasonal shedding of coats: i.e. The man of wisdom and virtue will correct his mistakes, learn from them and better himself; however, the little man will change, but only superficially, while his core self remains the same.

This saying is used to describe a change for the better, but in present times has acquired pejorative connotations.

While this saying includes the original nuance ("the small man will only harden his face into leather"), its negative meaning is thought to have come from the association of the Chinese character for panther (豹) with the fearsome image possessed by its animal namesake.

Out of the Ashes

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:44:00 +0000

I've renamed this place as "Fictitious Croissants", because it's funny, makes absolutely no sense, and has a very pleasing prosodic appeal to it.

Also, it's time to move on. I've removed all items prior to "Fictitious Croissants".

I'll be writing mostly about languages from now on. (I'll probably go off on a tangent every once in a while, but I'll try to stick to languages.)

Contact

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 20:02:00 +0000

If you'd like to contact me, use this email address:

I'll try my best to reply to genuine emails, but please be specific, and please write properly.

Note: If you happen to be a fellow language learner, I'd be pleased if you could spin me a yarn about your own language-learning experience. And if you have questions or want some advice on language learning, I'd be happy to help out if I can.

About

noreply@blogger.com (Wan Zafran) — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 08:01:00 +0000

I'm 25 years old. I live in Malaysia.

I love to read. I read anything and everything I can get my hands on. I admire well-read people, and I hope to be just as well-read someday.

I enjoy playing music and studying languages in my spare time. I am currently learning Japanese and French; in the near future, I hope to pick up Arabic as well.

Also, just in case anyone's looking for it: the old site is no longer available.

About this site

I use "Fictitious Croissants" mainly for writing practice, and as a place where I can highlight certain linguistic/historical curiosities that fascinate me. By writing, reading and translating more, I hope to improve my understanding of languages, and while I'm at it, my linguistic abilities as well.

I offer, on my site, translations of etymological explanations (derived from various sources) and some original writings. Please note that I do not profit or make any money from my efforts.

Do let me know if you find my tips useful. Same goes if you've enjoyed the translations. (Also, if you're a fluent Japanese speaker/translator, please feel free to correct me if you come across anything wrong; I'm here to learn.)