+1 Challenge Weekly Updates #10/11

The goal of challenge I set myself was to speak Japanese comfortably. Now that I'm reaching the final hurdle, the stake (dancing to neko mimi switch) enters my mind ... in parallel with thoughts that it all depends on the criteria I use to measure success.

You see, when I set my goal, the criteria of "comfortable" related to how comfortably I speak my native language ... and when I use that to measure my success, sure, I'm still at some considerable distance from my ultimate aim ... fluency.

Myself and Kirsten at London Educational Games Meetup

Yet, this week, my friend and magical girl, Kirsten wrote an amazing blog post How not to learn a language) in which she compares how I've approached learning a language and the way languages are taught in school. I have had quite a few friends and acquaintances telling me that what I've managed to achieve is quite remarkable, in their opinion ... to which, I have to give a very Japanese response of waving my hand in denial to the compliment and saying,「いいえ、いいえ、けんきょなだ」( "No, no, I'm humble."). However, when I think about going to Japan next year, I'm at least confident that I will be equipped with the conversational skills to have a descent conversation. So, perhaps that's a more realistic measure of "comfortable" ... rather than the criteria being relative to how comfortable I am when speaking English, my success criteria should have been how comfortable I am speaking Japanese relative to how well I could hold a conversation in Japanese when the challenge began. Suddenly, I think, wow ... I really have come a long a way in a relatively short period of time.

My profession is an 'Innovation Technologist", I work in education and advise a University on how technologies can be used to enhance the students learning experience. I often feel like Tom Hank's character in the film, "Big" ... they give me technologies to play with or spend time observing how students are using them ... and then I reflect on my observations and report back to the University with my recommendations.

Last I went to Norway and observed both how children and adults learn a language.

In the video I made, you can see how much fun we all had PLAYING with language ... PLAY is massively important ... but as Jesse Schell (The Art of Game Design, 2008) would put it, "When play is enforced, it ceases to be play and becomes work".  Think of language learning as a game ... it is a game ... a wonderful game that affords the player the richest reward imaginable ... being able to unlock the cultural levels for you to play in.

Now, when you buy a computer game ... hands up who reads the instruction manuals from cover to cover? I speculate, that actually, if you're like me ... maybe you read just enough information to get started ... and then you dive into the game and usually, you don't last very long before you lose the game. What do you do? For me, my approach will usually be to have the manual sitting there at arms length, so I can read it whilst the game restarts ... or I might pause the game so I can figure out how I can avoid being killed the same way again and again. That doesn't mean I won't be killed the same way ... often I have to practice before I get the knack ... and once I've got the knack .... I've got the knack forever!

Here is a case study ... sitting at Club Ganbatte (the Japanese Meetup group I attend regularly in London) ... I was talking with a couple of people, one Japanese speaker, another English speaker ... the English speaker was telling us about his experiences of shopping around Christmas time ... and he used the phrase, "Window Shopping".  Now, I thought, "hmmm ... I wonder if that's lost in translation ... or I wonder if the Japanese person is thinking he's going shopping for windows ... maybe it's some a Christmas tradition us quirky Londoners uphold!?) ... so I tried out saying 「まどのかいものをわかりますか」(shopping of window do you undersand?) ... and the Japanese person said they knew what I was trying to say, but it didn't translate properly. Asking what a Japanese person would say if they were "window shopping", they said, 「みてだけ」 (only look) .... ah, excellent ... and how すばらしい (wonderful) is that going to be when I'm Japan ... I'm sure I will often be asked if I want to buy something and can't afford it ... or I'll be out and about with friends and they'll want to know if I want to go into the shop to buy something ... and shall now know I can perform my special move ...「いいえ、みてだけ」(no, just looking!).

When I reflect on the way I didn't learn French at school, I can certainly appreciate the way my French teacher strove to make the lessons engaging as much as she could. Ultimately though, I was more interested in drawing pictures of tie-fighters on the back of my exercise book. The elephant in the room was that I simply wasn't interested in learning French. We only had the option of learning French or German; not that I had a desire to learn any other language, however, when given the options of chicken or fish, I would ask if there was a vegetarian option? Back in the 1980's, the argument would have been that our school was fortunate to employ teachers capable of teaching French and German; it was logistically impossible to teach a range of languages. Recently, a friend was telling me that her daughter is learning Japanese at school ... I wonder if Japanese had been an option for me whether I would have taken it? I'm sure it would have appealed to me, but whether I would have made the effort to study is another matter.

What has changed the most for me is that I am learning Japanese through my own free will. I don't need to study at the same pace as anyone else, I don't need to follow the well thought of structure laid out in text books. Yes, there are virtues to studying to a curriculum, being part of a language learning herd etc ... but the internet affords us the freedom to personalize our learning experience. To begin with, my approach to learning Japanese wasn't efficient, wasn't consistent, wasn't even effective ... but it certainly was enchanting and magical. It was the equivalent of not reading the manual and diving into the game ... I wasn't speaking Japanese to anyone ... I was in "safe mode" where I could wander around and take delight at the scenery without the danger of having a conversation. I began to converse with Japanese people via Twitter ... short little hiragana tweets to Harajuku fashion designers, Vocaloid artists, musicians etc ... and the thrill of conversing with people who would have previously been less accessible to converse with ... that kept my motivation up for the first six months or so.  Then a friend introduced me to a retired Japanese teacher and I had my first proper experience at speaking Japanese ... apart from the most basic of introductions, I seem to remember being able to say,「ねこがすきです」(I like cats).

The retired Japanese teacher agreed to give me some Japanese lessons and I gladly accepted. I was a difficult student ... I wouldn't take the direct route from A to B ... it was frustrating for both of us, but I certainly learned some very useful grammatical structures that afforded me to go off and play with the Japanese language. I definitely needed a human tutor ... but at that time, I hadn't seriously considered using the Internet ... in hindsight, I was stupidly thinking, "I will use Skype when I'm ready to make conversation". Of course, nobody will ever be ready ... and waiting until you are ready is the barrier that prevents the majority of people from making progress in language learning.

Over the past eight months or so, I've been using Skype (both with a language partner ... now friend I made via Mixxr and tutors I've found on italki) and I've been using the applications Memrise and Anki. Just as importantly though, I've learned a lot from listening to many language hackers, polyglots and other language learners. I shall start a blog at some point just to focus on the compressing what I've learned from this marvelous group of people. Certainly, learning from Tim Ferriss accelerated my learning and then doing Benny Lewis', "Speak from Day 1" course afforded me a structure. Then, by participating in the +1 Challenge, I learned probably the most important lesson in language learning ... to keep at it even when life throws you a few curve balls along the way. I've also learned a lot from other participants on the +1 Challenge ... and they've been enormously encouraging. The friends I've made through meetup groups have also been fantastic.

People seem to have been impressed by my progress in learning Japanese. Whilst I know that I've steadily progressed and become more efficient in how I'm learning a language ... I haven't got it all figured out just yet. The first thing I'm going to do post +1 Challenge is reflect on what I've learned, what I want to tweak, what didn't work as well as I'd hoped. We are all different ... what works for one person may not necessarily work for another.

I would definitely recommend participating in the +1 Challenge to anyone ... it's not just an opportunity to progress in your target language ... it's an opportunity to tweak your language learning configuration ... become a better player in any game.  Best of all though, you can't sit there clinging on to the rock, planning your strategy, tooling yourself up etc. You have to let go of the rock. There is no other way. You have to play.

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #9

Over the last three weeks, in addition to learning Japanese, I've been completing my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificates and preparing to demonstrate my skills. Recently, I've been working on an introduction speech and an 'ice-breaker' activity. For the introduction, I initially wrote a script which I ran through with a friend called Ian. I then revised the script when I had a lesson with Satoko-san, and finally practiced with my language partner, Mikie-san. What was really awesome was Satoko-san recorded herself saying my speech, so I could listen to it over and over again. It's been a few days since I actually gave my introduction speech for real ... and for this update, I thought I'd try and re-create it ... I was better last week, but, I'm glad to say I hadn't forgotten any of it!




In addition to completing my TEFL course, I took a specialist certificate on "Teaching in Japan". This has been very beneficial as it's given me a greater understanding of Japanese culture. Saying that, I thought I'd learned a lot about Japanese culture through watching dramas; and for sure, I'd still say that I learned a lot of interesting stuff that way (even just simple things, like Japanese table manners), but what I learned on the course was the sort of stuff that is useful to know to spare me from putting my foot in it without knowing what I've done wrong. As with everything, I'm sure to make mistakes, but at least now I feel confident that I at least know I've made a mistake and continue to make new mistakes rather than repeating old ones.

Anyway, I had better crack on. I'm going to Norway for the weekend. In fact, I've just had a Japanese lesson on Skype and had great fun learning a couple of Norwegian phrases in Japanese ... as in, I pretended I was a Japanese student learning Norwegian.  In the same way that I've started learning to play guitar by watching tutorials in Japanese ... I have to admit that I struggle to stick at one particular thing at a time ... but in the first five or six weeks of this challenge, I made such good progress by keeping a regular routine going. Whilst I've recently been a bit all over the place, I've maintained my Japanese learning by doing stuff in Japanese rather than in English wherever I can.

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #8

It's Sunday and I have a stomach swarming with flutterbyes. I can't really talk about why or what this is about on any public timeline at the moment. What I can say that I'm preparing to give a speech in Japanese in front of an audience and it will be recorded on video. Amusingly, I would be nervous enough doing this presentation in English and in some respects, opting to do it in Japanese feels almost less worrying than doing it in English.

Anyway, my Japanese language learning is progressing. I've missed about three days of my scheduled language learning over the last week (things have been a bit frantic!) but then, I've increased the amount of Skype sessions I'm doing via italki.com. These are going really well and I'm trying out different tutors again. It's nice to have regular tutor's who have gained a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses, but I also like having a session once in a while with a tutor I've never tried out before. For some reason, a private joke referring to a John Cage (a.k.a. 'the biscuit') from Ally McBeal quote just sprang to mind.

OK, I had better sign off. I just thought I'd make a small written update as I'm wanting to let everyone know I'm still maintaining progress ... few bumps and unexpected turns from time to time, but it keeps everything interesting.

How to transcend those deeply dippy moments

When I was at school I attended a talk by a rather eccentric Englishman, the adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. During his talk he spoke about the days when he was walking to the South Pole and felt like giving up … only he kept going because he wasn’t going to let his companion beat him to his goal. Whenever I feel like giving up on something I’ve set out to achieve, I always think back to what he said whenever I feel tired and want to give up.

In 1997, I was in Arizona and I met another eccentric Englishman who needed help pushing his car … he conveniently neglected to inform me that what really meant was that he needed help to push his car out of an aeroplane 13,000ft over the Senoran Desert.  I remember thinking to myself, well that’s funny … I only got my skydiving licence yesterday and the first thing I find myself doing is getting involved in a stunt for making a television commercial. But that’s the thing … you see, whatever it is, simply by doing something, the chances of opportunities presenting themselves to you just increase … remember that … because even when you don’t think anything is happening … stuff is happening … it might be that you are just reconfiguring yourself … well, that has to happen in order for you to engage in an action that you would previously have disregarded.

I meet a lot of people who inspire me in skydiving … one of the earliest inspirations came from a man called Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld (author of “Above All Else”). He was part of a world champion team, Arizona Airspeed, who were training for the national championships whilst I was learning to skydive.  That team were, in terms of language learning, the only people who were completely fluent in the language of flight. But just like native speakers of any language you're trying to learn ... these are the people who don't have anything left to prove ... their smiles are genuine ... that seemed apparent to me when I was learning to fly ... these people really got it ... and that's not to say that other people learning to fly don't get it ... lots of people do ... but occasionally I encounter people in skydiving who don't get it at all ... just like in language learning when I encounter people who seem convinced that because it took them years to learn a language (inefficiently) ... that it's going to really annoy them if anyone else dare to suggest that they might be able to learn a language a lot quicker. You'll hear, "oh, but that's cheating ... as if you can cheat ... it is what it is". I can already speak Japanese ... am I fluent ... sometimes ... I'm fluent at saying introductions ... oh, that's not fluent you fool ... yes it is ... but I aspire to speak beyond basic introductions ... where do I aspire ... well ... that's all part of my plan ... and will I be able to achieve my plan ... well ... back to Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld.

 He gave a TED talk about how to overcome all the odds: 

It boils down to asking yourself two simple questions.

Question 1: “Is it possible that I can succeed?”

Question 2: “Am I prepared to do whatever it takes to make it happen?”

If I can honestly answer yes to both these questions; then I stand a pretty good chance of being successful.  I get dips … sure … I’ve had a couple since the +1 Challenge begun … I had a lesson which made me feel utterly daunted by speaking Japanese … I came away feeling as if I hadn’t got above the tree line and the summit of this language was a long long way up. I had a weekend where I ended up completely exhausted … and thought, “oh dear, what happened to all the fun I was having before … have I killed it?”

I don’t hope that I will be able to speak Japanese one day … hope is simply an optimistic form of doubt. I have no doubt that I will speak Japanese once I’ve put in the necessary work to speak it. Am I prepared to do whatever it takes … yes … that gets me through the minor dips easily … but what about the major ones, the ones where doubt comes knocking at the door … hmmm … that’s when I think about this phantom character named doubt … he’s the guy who tells me learning Japanese will take many years … he’s the guy who tells me that even when I can speak Japanese the Japanese people would prefer me to be speaking English with them … he’s the guy who says, “you don’t deserve to speak another language” … and I shun him … because I’m a human being and I don’t need his permission to earn the right to speak another language, I claim the right to speak another language … in the words of Russell Brand … “I’m taking that right”. Am I prepared to do whatever it takes … yes … is it possible … yes … and to put this character called doubt in his rightful place … I take a step back and see him in his true perspective … I see the fun I have speaking Japanese already … I imagine how much more fun it will be when I’m better acquainted with this language … I imagine the opportunities that can occur once we’ve become better friends (for example, the moment I helped a lost Japanese tourist in London … the look of bewilderment and delightful sound of “eeeeeeeeeh YOU SPEAK JAPANESE!!!!” when I gave this guy directions in Japanese) … and when I watch drama’s and can understand a little more than the previous time … that reminds me that I am making progress when I don’t feel like much progress is being made … and I think about the other +1 Challengers who have given me words of encouragement … and I think about other people who’ve taken an interest in my language learning … people seem to have noticed that I’ve got the bit between my teeth and am striving forward … and I think about my language partner who says I’ve inspired her to learn more English because I’m catching her up in regards it always being her who has had the greater language ability in the past … but yeah … most of all, I look ahead and think, “wow, I’ve already had some amazing experiences on this language learning journey already … but this journey is going to be whatever I make it … let’s not sit around staring at the same scenery … lets go further … lets go off-piste … lets go higher and deeper and wider and take this path and that path and perhaps do a little dance here … I don’t know … this works for me … where’s my map … oh yeah … the plan … it’s good … but let’s not be too ridged … as Lao Tsu said, “a good traveller has no fixed plan and is not intent on arriving”. Some people don’t get that message … they instantly see it as being, “let’s not have a plan or a goal” … they’ve misunderstood … it says nothing about not having plan or a goal … it says, “don’t fixate on the route … don’t forget to enjoy the scenery” … for this is what makes one a good traveller … and this is how I get out of the dips … I transcend them … they are merely lower contours that one experiences on route.

Is it possible for you to succeed … most definitely yes … are you prepared to do whatever it takes …  you decide … when you think about the glorious possibilities that speaking another language affords … it’s well worth it isn’t it?

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #6

Language Learning through the lens of children.

No video update this week ... I have a video but completely forgot to ask the other person involved for their approval to use it. So with that in mind, I looked at the video in question and thought, "OK, what was the most important lesson learned this week?" I've kept up with my plan to learn 50 new vocabulary words again ... but that's not it ... I've increased the amount of italki.com sessions and they've been awesome ... but, nope, that's not it either ... learning some useful grammar ... nope ... what is it then ... it's simple really ... remembering why I fell head over heals in love with learning Japanese in the first place ... because talking a foreign language is hilarious fun ... especially so in the very early stages.

As I've said before, I began learning Japanese completely by accident ... I learned katakana in order to be able to have fun with vocaloid software, yet the first time I googled images of downtown Tokyo and was able to identify an electronics shop sign saying ソニー (Sony) was an incredible moment for me. It's still a thrill when I watch a J-Doroma and can identify shop signs ... とふ (Tofu ... on Aya's family tofu shop in One Litre of Tears) ... ミツビシ (Mitsubishi - on the back of the mechanic's overalls in Mou Ichido Kimi ni Propose) ... each time I can read something that I wouldn't be able to read if I hadn't learned the kana, I get so much joy from knowing that if I hadn't acquired this skill, I'm getting just a little more insight into things than I would do if I hadn't bothered.

Anyway, I didn't begin learning by speaking from the very beginning. In hindsight, now that I've listened to Benny Lewis and other people with a great deal more experience at learning languages than myself. I really wish I had begun learning a language by speaking the language from the very start. But I didn't ... and I can't roll the clock back either ... but I can at least take what I've learned and apply to the next language I learn (I'm thinking Japanese sign language next time). So why didn't I interact with other people at the very beginning? ... it seems so obvious to me now, that it wasn't the fear of speaking to native speakers which put me off (my travels have at least taught me that the effort to attempt speaking the native language is pretty much always appreciated by the locals ... and often results in getting to experience something you might not have experienced otherwise) ... but I certainly feared being around other people learning language ... why?

Well, I've been thinking about that ... it's really surprised me on the +1 Challenge that everyone else has been so encouraging. That's not what my language learning experience was like at school ... my French teacher was battling with a group of 30 eleven year old boys who were forced to learn French or German against their will ... I think we mostly opted for French because we were interested in buying flick knives and cheap wine on the day trip to Boulogne (pronounced Ba-log-nya by everyone I ever met except the French teacher who spoke all poetically and Frenchylike). There wasn't the option to learn Japanese. I might well have learned Japanese at the age of 11 if it had been an option ... but who knows ... I was really into Star Wars and wasn't interested in much other than Star Wars back then!

Have you ever played an online game? I have ... I played Call of Duty on the PS3 online ... I didn't play for long though because everyone else online was either far more skilled than me or as I like to think, perhaps they just have better internet connections and can react faster than I could ... the point being ... I'd last about ten seconds max before someone would shoot me in the head ... and there's only so many times you can be bothered to play when you keep being shot the whole time. I played against the computer a bit more thinking I would skill up so that I could last longer playing against other people ... but nope, I still got shot in the head just as much as before ... so I didn't bother playing online.

The equivalent in language learning I suppose is when you meet other people learning the same target language and they discourage you about learning the language. It happened to me about six months ago at a Japanese event I attended ... I met a person who told that learning Japanese would take me many years. I thought to myself, "Well, I've been learning for about a year ... this person said they'd been learning for five years" so when a Japanese person came up and said something I couldn't understand. I sensed the joy of the person who had been telling me how learning Japanese takes years and years because, after all those years, he could understand something that I couldn't ... and boy did he seem to enjoy talking away in Japanese for next few minutes whilst I just looked on awkwardly wanting to throw in a 「猫がすきです」 (I like cats) or something to at least feel like I could say something Japanese and therefore have just as much right to be attending this Japanese event as anyone else. Anyway, as this guy carried on talking I started to sense that the Japanese person was feeling just as awkward as myself in a situation where this guy was banging on what I thought might have been Japanese ... but could have been Klingon for all I knew. Anyway, so when he finished, I seized my opportunity to say, 「猫がすきです」and the Japanese person became very interested in speaking to me. I then bought a beer, but instead of pronouncing "Asahi" as it should be pronounced, and how I usually would pronounce it correctly, the word just came out as "Arsey" ... everyone around me laughed and it became the source of much amusement for the rest of the night with people taking the piss out of the fact I couldn't even pronounce Asahi ... only then this Japanese person who'd taken an interest in my sophisticated conversational announcement regarding my liking of cats turned to the barman and asked for a bottle of "Arsey" and when we both had our bottles, we chinked our bottles with a 「乾杯」 (cheers) ... and I felt for just a moment like I really understood what was the most important thing in learning a language ... period ... just have fun ... whatever your level of ability is in a foreign language.

Anyway, why am I regaling this story. Well, as much as I could be using the time to be going hard at the Japanese study etc ... this morning I saw the picture that a friend of mine had posted on Facebook (the picture at the top of this post) and also the words his son spoke whilst talking about flashbangs, " you see us kids are so curious & imaginative I want to try out lots of things with these. You won't understand as an adult because all you adults do is talk nonsense and try to grow up, you miss the fun stuff".

Wise words I think you'll agree ... certainly answers one of the questions I've asked myself recently ... given that everyone on the +1 Challenge has been so encouraging ... why have I always avoided other language learners in the past ... I guess it's because, as my friends son said, "adults talk nonsense and try and grow up, you miss the fun stuff".

I got my TEFL certificate for "Teaching Younger Learners" this morning ... however, I feel more humbled at the fact, that if anything, it is children who teach us the important lessons ... we're just here as evidence that the more sophisticated we become with our methodologies, the less fun we make it for ourselves.

So my lesson this week ... play ... play ... play ... I do have a tendency to analyse everything a lot ... I think having a plan is very important ... certainly, without one, I just potter around learning Japanese and don't make anything like the progress I've made during this challenge. I've drifted into a period where I was exhausted a couple of weeks ago ... put myself back on course with just resting up a little and making sure everything I planned for the week would be fun ... and its been a good week. As I continue with the challenge, I hope my face is more like the one below (taken during a Skype lesson with an italki tutor) ... that's what it's all about.

 "Yes I do believe I might be having fun" - Bic Runga, Get Some Sleep

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #5

Another busy week with lots of Japanese learning happening. As you can see from my video update, I've recovered from a short period of exhaustion. I was doing too many things at the same time and not wanting to give any of them up. This said, it did force to me to evaluate things and further optimize the approach I'm taking on this language learning mission. I haven't changed that much in my approach, but although I'm strictly keeping to my original plan, I've added "shadowing" as an activity which I'd not tried before. I tried it with an italki tutor and although I wasn't very good at it, I noticed how much more focused I became on listening to every sound that was uttered and sat there with a big gloopy grin on my face at the end of the session as I realized, that yes ... its more than just helping me my pronunciation of Japanese, it's re-configuring the way I listen to Japanese. Now, maybe it will take me some time to be speaking Japanese all clickety-clackity (that's the technical term I've invented to describe what I don't have the English vocabulary to actually describe) ... but that's the main difference between what I hear and what comes tumbling out of my mouth. Additionally, doing the "shadowing" has given me a lot of confidence that, yes, with some more practice ... I shall indeed be clickety-clackity-drum-sounding-babbler-awayerer in Japanese ... and that's an important difference ... I suppose it's because I've spent many years speaking only in the violin tones of English ... and I learned Japanese without talking it for quite a long time ... and then when I began talking in Japanese, imperfect pronounciation hardly ever prevented me from being understood. However, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of speaking Japanese really well ... it's such a beautiful language. Yes, I shall continue to speak it with grammatically large boots for a while ... because when I become too conscientious of my pronunciation, fear of making mistakes creeps back into my mind ... and so, I think I decided that, yes, I shall aim to be a elegant verbal ballet dancer ... for that is my ultimate goal.

I also thought I'd get back into learning タイヨウのうた. I really love the song and the J-dorama it came from, but also found that it's been covered really well by natsubayashi on youtube:

 

Additionally, I decided that rather than learn to play the guitar from watching English tutorials, it was much more fun to learn to play the guitar in Japanese. So when I discovered that natsubayashi had created a tutorial teaching beginner's how to play this song, it soon became apparent that I don't actually have to understand that much Japanese to understand what he's communicating in his tutorial ... he's a great teacher in my opinion ... and I love the fact that he's teaching me Japanese without knowing it. I like to think that I'll search him out in Japan and say こんにちは なつばやし。あなたが僕ギタや日本語を教えました。ありがとうございます。

Anyway, I think that's all I'll write about in this blog update. It's been a while since I uploaded any of the materials that I've created over the last couple of weeks. I've made a few, but not shared them. I shall at some point ... but I'm hungry and want to go and make something to eat and then I'll be speaking with Mikie-san ... and then I think I'll have an early night because I've got an early morning italki session.

I'm on track as far as going through Tae Kim's grammar guide goes ... and I've apparently increased my vocabulary by about 350 words since the Challenge began and I've been noticing how much more frequently I'm hearing these words when I'm watching Japanese dorama these days. I'm addicted to a new series called "Miss Pilot" ... in the first episode I was amazed how much of the dialogue I could understand; they speak a lot of formal Japanese in this series because it's following a group of trainee pilots and they're often in formal situations. This said, I still haven't got a clue a lot of the time!

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #4

So the lesson of week 4 for me ... putting yourself into that state of exhaustion is definitely not good. This said, I've been keeping up with my Japanese language learning plan without much problem ... but last week was difficult to say no to social events etc ... and basically ... as much fun as it was, having an early night has to be done once in a while ... so this week ... hmmm ... sorry, but I'm washing my hair .... (oh, ok ... that doesn't take too long for me ... but you get my drift).

I'm actually not going to write too much tonight, as it's half-past ten now and I want to have an early night. I have created a whole load of resources and stuff as I've been studying the last week and a bit ... but will they find their way into this blog post ... erm ... not right now ... it's more important that I get my energy levels back up to where I like them .... superverykool. 

I will however write about the fantastic lesson from Monday 21st ... I had the most amazing time in and around a Tokyo convenience store ... although I was actually sitting in the comfort of my home in England. It was quite incredible really ... and the most fun I've ever had in Japanese to date. The tutor took me out via Skype video on his ipod touch ... so we did the lesson in the car park outside the convenience store ... which was just remarkable in itself. There I was with the occasional car, or random Japanese person passing by ... and oh my word ... really makes it easy to talk about stuff when there is so much of interest going on. 

Then for the last fifteen minutes of the lesson, we went inside the convenience store and when I could actually hold back from being somewhat like an excited puppy dog unleashed in a meadow of candyfloss flowers and flutterbyes ... I could take a moment to breathe and learn something new. That was the highlight of the week ... in fact, its certainly one of the highlights of my Japanese language learning journey thus far.

Anyway, like I say, I've kept up with my schedule ... keeping this blog updated should be easy, but I ended up doing lots of other things over the weekend and just got tired and didn't feel like I'd had a proper rest. But, you know what ... I'm still loving learning Japanese ... I'm still having a hoot with everything ... pooped as I sometimes get ... it's still fun. 

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #3

This week has been amazing. Following on from the last update, I began the week feeling slightly bruised by the difficult lesson I'd had. But, it wouldn't be a challenge if everything was effortless now would it! The fact is, having struggled to pronounce certain words, I remembered what the tutor and also a music teacher I'd had a lesson with had advised regarding doing vocal exercises to train my pronunciation towards speaking Japanese with flattened vowel sounds ... and promptly added doing this as part of my daily routine ... get up ... kettle on ... toast on ... a-i-u-e-o ... ka-ki-ku-ke-ko ... etc etc. I still had difficulty with the 'ra-ri-ru-re-ro' line ... but found an awesome video on youtube by a girl who explained everything in a way that just made sense to me ... and very quickly ... I managed to get the 'ra-ri-ru-re-ro' sounds coming out as ... well ... a lot nearer to how my brain had previously been suggesting to my mouth.

Miss Hanake ... I still need to practice more, but your advice has most definitely worked for me. The trick about using 春 はる）to get the mouth saying the "ro" sound was inspiring. My Japanese friends and tutors are all now smiling and giving me thumbs up when I go through the hiragana sounds at the start of my lessons. 

Then, I received news that Benny was inviting Japanese learners on the +1 Challenge to get involved with a fun little project singing English words in their Japanese katakana pronounciation. So with Brian and Benny getting this project underway ... I looked at my schedule ... gulped for a moment thinking ... I so want to do this ... but how ... well ... get up a bit earlier ... that's the answer ... eeek ... but I knew it was something I'd love to be involved with and so, I said, "count me in".  So the day came when I was waiting for the lyrics to arrive ... and I saw feedback from the tutor in regards the difficult lesson I had had.

Feedback from italki tutor

Bear in mind, that when I began the challenge, I felt very much that I'd acquired a reasonable amount of Japanese vocabulary, however, with only the most basic grasp of simple sentence patterns ... grammar if dare utter that dark mystery of a word ... well, I thought, "the key to me reaching my goal of speaking comfortably is going to be ... speaking a lot more Japanese ... and with a little more work on getting my head around the grammar, my creativity will be unleashed and I'll be having more interesting conversation". So, when I read that feedback ... I no longer felt so down about having to work harder on my pronunciation ... this feedback gave me a big fat motivational boost. Ten seconds later ... oh my ... now that I can already do a 'ra-ri-ru-re-ro' a lot better than I ever could before ... I remembered that I was going to be involved in the English Words in Japanese song ... it was as if it was all part of some master plan ... it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

I loved the way it all came together. The day when all the clips had to be sent in, I'd sent mine off and then had to deal with an unexpected emergency ... little did I know that the codec I'd used has failed big time ... and that whilst I was out of contact Benny had found my video had ... well no video!!! I was about half a mile from home when I saw the message on my iPhone ... eeek ... what time is it in Spain ... 7:03 ... OK ... I'll get home ... and how long will it take to render ... hmm ... HD video ... ancient MacBookPro held together with gaffer tape etc ... this could be cutting it fine ... so one of my lasting memories of this fabulous week was running home to get the video rendered in time.

The following day, I went to a Japanese meetup in London and had a great evening out ... one thing I remember speaking about in Japanese was "Black Adder" ... and I also remember saying that I'd learned another way of saying everyday (日々 ... hibi) and thus, a the first two lines of the Morrissey song, 'Everyday is like Sunday' might be sung as:

毎日は日曜日のようにです。
日々は無声とグレーです。

Then on Saturday, Benny shared the video with us ... and oh my word ... every single one of us had performed brilliantly ... every single one of us was an utter star ... and I realized, that my elation didn't stem from participating in this project as an individual ... it was all about feeling connected with the other people involved ... the other +1 challengers ... it's a beautiful thing ... and I wouldn't hesitate to get involved in another one ... even though my schedule is crazy ... I'd make time for it ... it's so worth it!

I shall end this weeks update post with the videos (the song and the bloopers). I've kept on track with my schedule ... but as yet, I haven't gone though the schedule ticking off what I've achieved etc ... I've been a little busy with studying and making my update video etc. But I'll post those later in the week ... an update of the update ... but this is the way I wanted to end this weeks update ...

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #2

So this week has been another successful stampede into unknown territories. As opposed to my initial approach to learning Japanese, which seemed to be treating the language like a precious porcelain doll, now I'm pretty much speaking Japanese like I'm driving the language without the recommended due care or attention for grammatical perfection, pronunciation and yep, even making up Japanese vocabulary words to slot into the missing gaps.

Of course, that's not to say that understanding the grammar, pronouncing words correctly or even using the right words isn't important ... it is important ... however, it's not AS important as speaking, playing, throwing it around to see what happens if I try to do something I haven't done before ... cast myself out of my comfort zone ... scare myself from time to time (the brain loves the occasional scare!) ... and that's what I need to be doing.

So rather than carefully navigating around these obstacles to my progress in language learning ... I'm just saying, "I'm learning new stuff ... and whenever I learn new stuff ... I want to try it out ... see what happens if I use it this way ... what happens if I disobey the rules I've just learned but don't yet fully appreciate or understand". Because what happens is this ... firstly, I have an absolutely fantastic time playing in the language ... secondly, I record my tutored sessions, so whilst I've got time to practice talking with a native speaker, it doesn't seem very efficient to spend that time going over and over the pronunciation of a word I'm finding difficult to understand ... neither does it doesn't seem efficient to spend the vast majority of speaking time breaking the spell of immersion by hopping out of the target language for an English explanation of something ...  so poo to delicately tippy-toe-ing around in this the language ... I shall go forth in my Ronald McDonald sized boots trampling all over the place and getting myself into a right old mess ... so that later on, in my free time, I can reflect on what happened, where I trod in the biggest proverbial dollops of language-dung ... clean myself up ... and have another go next time!

For anyone who's a fan of the series Red Dwarf ... I've imagined how Arnold Rimmer would approach learning a language ... and taken completely the opposite direction. Am I studying hard? ... heck yeah ... am I putting in the hours of practice? ... abso-flippin-lutely .... am I having a good time? ..... I'm having a ball!!! Will I be successful? ... well, watch this space ... but even though I'm still very far from my goal, I've gained momentum and I'm skiddlydiddlyling along, wheels spinning as I push my foot down on the accelerator ... and it certainly seems more probable that I'll get there than if I sat reading an instruction manual from cover to cover before getting into the vehicle. Again, I'm not saying don't read a manual ... I'm doing that ... Tae Kim's Grammar Guide for example ... it's an instruction manual ... and thus far, I'm finding it to be a pretty good one. But rather than just read it and blindly accept that I must know where the brake peddle is ... crashing is so much more dramatic ... hence ... off I go, crashing Japanese into metaphorical walls, hedges ... occasional fruit and vegetable stands ... you name it ... I'll crash into it ... and the faster I go, the more likely it is that I'll get airbourne ... and its at those moments ... when you're "in the language" ... yeah ... that's when the brain gets really turned on and starts doing the work for me ... the work that Arnold Rimmer and his kin would do by rote learning verb tables perhaps.

Have I learned any other languages this way ... well, I was going to say, "nope" ... I'm a monoglot ... but when I think about it ... this is how I learned to talk my native language. Does it work for learning a second language ... I don't know ... some folks would argue that I deserve a smacked bottom ... well, they'll have to catch me first .... but hey, I'll have much more experience in driving stolen vehicles won't I!?

Anyway, thank you to all the people supporting me along the way; the tutors, fellow +1 challengers, Mikie-san, friends and acquaintances that I meet along the way. You are all amazing people and inspire me greatly. Right, so on that note ... Update for Week 2 ... here are my weeks notes etc

WEEK 2:

Monday
TKG: 54 – 58
3.8 Particles used with verbsを andにJ
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J

Tuesday
TKG: 58 – 61
3.8 Particles used with verbsへJ andでJ
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese at large Japanese conversation meetup. J

Wednesday
TKG: 62 – 67
3.9 Transitive and Intransitive VerbsJ
3.10 Relative Clauses and Sentence OrderJ
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J

Thursday
TKG: 68 – 69
3.11 Noun-related Particles
Speak Japanese for 60 mins. J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese at Small Weekly Japanese Meetup. J

Friday
TKG: 70 – 73
3.11.3 The Vague Listing 「や」and 「とか」particles
[unplanned] http://japanese.about.com/od/grammarlessons/a/031101c.htm
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J

Saturday
Test Vocabulary J (87/100)
Speak Japanese for 60 mins. J

Sunday
Water vocabulary J
Make update  J
Review the grammar concepts learned.


Notes from this weeks study

the first example should be ' kanojo wa natsu no hana no youni desu'

+1 Challenge Weekly Update #1

We have lift-off ... the Kevin has cleared the tower and reports no major language learning malfunctions thus far. So, this week I've been uncharacteristically organized ... and whaddayaknow (that's a word I picked up in Australia by the way) ... having a plan, having the support and encouragement of my fellow +1 Challengers ... wow, what a difference it makes!

At the beginning of the challenge, I decided that seeing as I was being such a proper grown-up and being ever-so-organized, that I would make rough scribbleydoodle (that's not an Australian word btw) notes and then deconstruct and compress everything into neat little review cards that I can then review on my rest day (Sunday).  The plan for this week is shown below:

WEEK 1:

Monday
TKG: 36 – 40
3.3.4 The 「が」identifier particle J
3.4.2 The na-adjective J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J

Tuesday
TKG: 40 – 43
3.4.3 The i-adjective J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 30 mins. J


Wednesday
TKG:  43 – 47
3.5.1 Role of Verbs J
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese for 60 mins. J

Thursday
TKG: 47 – 50
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
Speak Japanese at Japanese Conversation Group. J  (although not with Japanese people).
3.6.1 Conjugating verbs into the negative

Friday
TKG: 50 – 53
Grow 10 new words on Memrise. J
3.7 Past Tense J

Saturday
Water Memrise and Anki J
Speak Japanese for 60 mins.J

Sunday
Write stories for each word that I can’t remember from the new 50. [tbc]
Learn 2^nd verse of Taiyou no Uta.   [tbc]
Make update J
Review the grammar concepts learned. J

END OF WEEK 1: 
50 New Words Grown,
3 Hours 100% Japanese Spoken  and quite a lot of Japaddling.
21 Pages of Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide Studied

Notes from this week's st

na-adjectives

i-adjectives

ru-verbs, u-verbs and negative congregation

past tense congregation

Saying "What that [coloured] thing?"

Vocabulary

Whilst I've been using memrise.com to learn new vocabulary words, I've also created an Anki deck specifically for this +1 Challenge. There are still a few vocabulary words that I trip up over, so for these words, I write a sentence using the word and then read the document back to myself a couple of times. If I still can't recall a word, then I create "mem" cards for the ones that I consider worth spending the time on ... I mean, amusingly, I've been using the CORE 1000 course in the Japanese language section of memrise ... and I could never remember the word for "pickle" (see I would write it ... but nope ... haven't got a clue) ... maybe "pickle" is the key to understanding Japanese ... I mean, yes, I often find myself in a pickle ... but is it really a word that I need to know ... I say, "no thankyou, I'll abstain from knowing the word pickle for the time being thank you very much". 

Anyway, this is the current list of vocabulary words (shown in romaji).

このじょこの女れらるはとてもきたないだ。  (kitanai)
パソコンおそいを使う。(tsukau)
みどりのものはなんですか。それはとかげです。 (tokage)
どこにいきますか。ほいくえんにいきます。(hoikuen)
かれはりんごをうる。(uru)
でんしゃはえきにでる。(deru)
犬はかばんにいれる。(ireru)
くだものはここにおく。(oku)
かのじょはかににくれる。(kureru)
あとひとつきにいきます。(hitotsuki)
もんだいはにほんごをならいますがこたえるはなんですか。 (kotaeru)
はじめにやさしくなかったをしました。(hajimeni)
今日は曇りをならました。 (naramasu)
あしたは果物のあまいをたべたい。(amai)
かのじょはかのじょのいぬをみせる。(misete)
いろがどう思いますか。あかいとあお とみどりときいろいと銀と金とむらさきとくろとしろです。(iro)

I haven't needed to make 'mem's for any vocabulary words this week (not that I'm a vocabulary sponge by any means ... just don't know which words are going to need the special ... er ... kick into long term memory). But this is the sort of thing I make for those words that just go into my head and then find their quickest route to exit my head ...

Other Videos

On the first day of the challenge, I recorded a video of myself talking to Mikie-san. She very kindly agreed to let me share the video on youtube. I think it will be great to reflect on where I started when I get to the end of this challenge. I also think it's great to show all the struggle and tarzan-speak ... Benny Lewis and Brian Kwong have recently both inspired me by sharing videos of the early stages of learning Japanese ... it was such a relief to see that I wasn't alone! 

The story begins ...

"Every great journey begins with a cup of tea" - Kevin Richardson.

... and so it was, dear heart, that I hath taken on the most mighty +1 Challenge and shall indeed duly set forth upon this most epic adventure when the sun rises upon the thirtieth day in the month of September in the year of our Lord twenty thirteen.

Here is my introduction video - this is the five minute version ... since I am severely afflicted by muppetitus (a condition which causes one to be a bit of a muppet through never reading instruction manuals etc etc) and must profess that I blabbered on for fifteen minutes on my first attempt at making an introduction video.



I shall be using this blog to document my language learning adventure, so dear reader, I hope to share the joys, the highs, the lows, the struggles, the tears and in all likelihood the occasional stroppy tantrum ... but ultimately, there is a firm belief within me that this quest shall lead me to salvation ... my goal ... speaking Japanese comfortably ... as opposed to my current ability which is somewhere between tarzanesque nihongo grunts and grammatically random miscongrugations.

There is a story by Richard Bach which describes a community of creatures who cling to the rocks at the bottom of a river; for clinging is their inner nature. However, one creature decides that clinging to the rock is terribly boring and tells the others that he shall let go. They declare that he is a fool and tell him that if he lets go of the rock, he shall be taken by the current and smashed into rocks and be killed. The creature considers their words, but the prospect of a dull life spent clinging to the rock does is outweighed by the prospect of letting go and seeing what adventures he might have. So he lets go.

Initially, as predicted by his peers, the creature is thrown around by the current and is bounced around getting battered and bruised. However, he is not killed ... and soon he finds that he is able to ride the current and avoid getting battered anymore. As his current riding skills grow, he passes above another community of rock clinging creatures ... they look up and declare, "one of us who flies ... he must be the Messiah!". However, our intrepid creature calls down to them, "I'm just like you, I'm not special and I have no flying gene ... I just let go of the rock ... and you can too!!!!".

So this is the story I used to tell myself when I was learning to fly. Now I'm learning a language, the same story applies.