PS: I like your site.

I applied the Heisig method to http://www.zhongwen.com, so I had to made up a lot of my own keyword names.

I currently use the village idiot order, as all of my learning material use it. Blargh
But I don’t want to use the Heisig method, since I developed my own method to recognize components and memorize them.

“1. Bad Company”

This one was interesting - I read recently on the BBC website (quoting an American scientific study) that researchers have recently concluded in that study that by far the most important reason that otherwise very talented/intelligent people do not fulfill their potential is the influence of (a less talented/intelligent/ambitious) peer group. Sadly, in spite of a bit of a dig on the BBC webiste (news.bbc.co.uk), I can’t find the story now, but interesting nonetheless.

So, lesson to us all - don’t hang out with losers - that’s people who want to endlessly debate the pros and cons of the various bl**dy useless conventional methods of learning Japanese in this case…

Mark

My boyfriend’s dad has been living in Japan for the last 15 years or so and barely speaks a lick of Japanese, but he’s married to a Japanese woman so he doesn’t have very many problems. He’s totally fluent at ordering beer, though, as that’s the one thing his wife won’t do for him

I especially sympathise with point 4 - my girlfriend is Japanese and, although I wouldn’t say she is condescending, she certainly feels there is a limit to what I can learn in Japanese and also the time period.

She tells me that it is very unlikely that I will be able to speak until AT LEAST 5 YEARS! What?!

It is not nice, but I guess the solution is just to ignore this (albeit unintentional) negativity!

It is also very funny to hear the constant negativity directed towards Heisig from a native speaker - I mean it took her YEARS to learn kanji and she is still very down on this method - I suppose it is too unconvetional “you don’t need to learn that character…blah..blah…..”

Anyway, this just makes me want to try even harder as now I have even more of a point to prove and, like you say, at least I’m moving towards my goal rather than just sitting around thinking about it.

Anyway, thanks for the ongoing inspiration.

Mark

This is a great post (as usual). Of course this is primarily a language learning blog, but I like your posts about the cultural stuff as well. It’s nice to read about Japan from the viewpoint of someone who actually made an effort to integrate and learn the language, not just from arrogant, I-wish-I-were-back-home English teachers (no offense to any English teachers reading this, I’m one myself!) or anthropologists who have to make whacked out theories about the country to impress their academic peers and sell a few books.

I think number 1 (as well as 4 and 5) is the reason why the myth of going to a country to learn the language is…well…a myth. My biggest regret is not properly studying Korean before coming to Korea.

And number 2….man….I don’t know how people are OK with living like that. When I had to rely on my friends for the simplest tasks, it was painfully humiliating.

ah, sorry this message is running a bit long. Just wanted to say I hope to see more of these culture posts along with the language learning stuff. It’s good to have that little cultural “touch” to make your language very fluent, and hard to find good ways of achieving that touch.