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Pamela’s Japanese Journey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| PamelaJoy Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3902 days ago 3 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 4 01 February 2014 at 11:03pm | IP Logged |
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Another member, kraemder, has encouraged me to start a language learning log. I hadn't thought of doing
this before, but decided it would help me not only stay on track, but would help me focus my endeavors. I love languages. This is a statement I'm sure everyone here can make, but it's still true. At the age of 18 I joined the Army because my family could not afford to send me to college. Because my father was in the Air Force he knew about DLI, the Defense Language Institute, and suggested I pick a job that used languages. I scored high on the DLAB, the Defense Language Aptitude Battery. Actually I only missed one question. Because I joined in 1985 I was assigned Korean. Anyone scoring high back then got Korean because they were sure Kim Il Sung of N Korea would try something during the 1988 Olympics. Actually nothing happened and I attended the Olympics every day! I was stationed in Korea for 2 years. I had also taken French in junior high and high school and Spanish in high school. I wanted to take Latin, but it was only offered one period a day and it conflicted with another class. That was it for languages offered at my high school. After the Army I attended college. I obtained degrees in anthropology and linguistics. During college I took Chinese, Tohono O'Odham and Hopi. After this I got a teaching certificate. At the same time I also got a Masters in Bilingual Mulicultural Education and received an ESL certificate. I taught elementary school and always got the ESL students in whatever grade I was teaching. I loved teaching, especially when I moved to 5th grade. I had found my calling. Other teachers were terrified of getting non-English speakers. I loved it no matter if I had experience in their language or not. But then life through me a monkey wrench. I had become ill toward the end of the school year in 2000. I thought it was a UTI, urinary tract infection, but it did not go away. Finally a trip to the urologist showed I had interstitial cystitis. It's actually a fairly common disease in it's milder form. I had a bad case, but not a terrible one. After a procedure and a series of treatments over the summer I started the school year just fine except I went to the bathroom slightly more than normal. Then three years later the disease returned this time with a vengeance. I had the procedure again, no effect. I had the series of treatments again, no effect. I just got worse. I tried every medication possible, no effect. Finally I had to make a horrible decision, or rather my body made it for me. I had to stop teaching and go on disability. I was now going to the bathroom upwards of 100 times a day. The pain was excruciating. I never knew when the pain would strike so badly that I would fall to the floor in front of my students. So I stopped teaching. The hope was that a year of rest would cause me to go into remission once again. Unfortunately a combination of a car accident (on my birthday) and a general lack of progress dashed those hopes. I did the year long pity party where I laid around watching TV all day long. Then I practically became addicted to the computer, in particular virtual realities like Second Life and World of Warcraft. Finally it became clear that not only would I never teach again, but I would not be able to do any work. The disease just kept getting worse. I had to give up driving. I now take 1000 mg of morphine a day plus other meds. I'm still in pain, but any more morphine and I won't be able to function. I'm pretty much a shut-in. I had to do something or my brain was going to turn to mush. I actually found out there is a limit to how many hours in a day I can read. I had always dreamed of being able to read all I wanted, but now I knew I needed something else. My husband had introduced me to anime when we got Netflix. I then turned to manga. I had gotten a PS3, Xbox 360, a PSP and a Nintendo to help pass the time and had become interested in Japanese games. I decided to start studying Japanese. I have always been fascinated with Asian languages and culture. I knew Japanese was considered particularly difficult for English speakers to learn. After being on the Internet so much after becoming disabled I knew there were a plethora of resources for learning Japanese. I made a commitment to study Japanese. I now study anywhere from 2-6+ hours a day. The TV stays off during the day. It will always hurt to not be able to teach, but at least I now have a goal. There is now purpose to my days. Due to my health and finances I may never be able to travel to Japan, though I hope I can before my disease progresses to a point where travel is impossible. But I can bring a great deal of Japan to me through novels and movies and dramas. I know not much of this first post is about language study, but I wanted to lay out what had brought me to the study of Japanese. If I were still teaching I would have almost certainly been to Japan, Hong Kong, back to Korea etc. by now. However due to the time teaching takes up I would have only taught myself tourist lingo. I am trying to make the best of a bad situation. When I really get into studying the fact that I'm sick, in pain, tired etc. fades to the back of my mind. I'm sorry if this post is a downer. I promise that the focus of my next post will be the study of Japanese. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5126 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 2 of 4 03 February 2014 at 1:19am | IP Logged |
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I'm glad to see you post here. And I had no idea you got sucked into Warcraft also. At least you only wasted one year of your life on that thing. I think I wasted five or maybe six... I don't really want to know. I'm glad I quit Warcraft and took up Japanese instead. I think you're reading a book in Japanese with a JOI tutor? How is that going?
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4196 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 3 of 4 03 February 2014 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
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I absolutely adore the Japanese film industry, which has a really rich and wonderful history. So there certainly won't be any shortage of great media to watch. I only hope I'm able to get around to learning the language myself one day. Best of luck with your studies!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| PamelaJoy Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3902 days ago 3 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Korean Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 4 03 February 2014 at 10:28am | IP Logged |
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The novel is going great. We are reading Tsuki no Kage, Kage no Umi (Shadow of the Moon, Sea of
Shadow) by Fuyumi Ono. It's the first of the 12 Kingdoms books. There was also an anime done. I'm only on the 3rd page, but I imagine once I get some vocabulary under my belt it will speed up. Yanaka-sensei waited until our second session with the novel to tell me it is considered to be difficult even by the Japanese. But I'm still excited. I have a great guide in Yanaka-sensei so I haven't lost confidence. Yeah I only lost one year to WoW, but I lost over two to Second Life. Even after being out almost 4 years the urge to go back is strong. The social aspect is pretty powerful for someone like me. In there I'm not "the sick person" I'm strong, healthy and gorgeous (I am pretty proud of the avatar I created) I can run, fly, dance do anything. There are times at 3 a.m. When I'm in pain and lonely that the pull to go in is strong. I even rationalize by thinking I'll practice my Japanese. But so far I've resisted. I've never done illegal drugs, I easily stopped drinking heavily after the Army and had no problem stopping altogether when my disease got bad. But SL showed me the power of addiction. For a while I was inside more than 16 hours a day. Then when I left SL I went straight to WoW! Again the social aspect of the Guild was powerful. I would get on in the morning "just for an hour or two" then the next thing I know I hear the garage door going up and it's after 5:00 and my husband is home. I would think, "I've done absolutely nothing productive today" finally I gave all my stuff and gold away and cancelled my account. I have an acquaintance at my doctor' suffice who keeps asking me to come back to WoW and join his Guild. I keep declining nicely by telling him I have to study. Maybe I'll never do anything"productive" with my Japanese, but at least I am proud when I say I am studying Japanese. I can't say the same about SL and WoW. "I spent 5 hours today studying" sure sounds a lot better to me than "I spent 5 hours today in Second Life" For some reason I have no problem with individual offline video games. Two hours is about the max I can spend playing one. I've never felt guilty about the time I spend playing. When I am playing a Japanese game I even consider it's form of studying if nothing else for all the dictionary skills! I imagine I'm always going to be tempted to return to SL and might even give in every now and then. At least with WoW the fact that I would have to start paying again stops me. But I am on a roll with studying Japanese. It has become a habit, albeit a good one. A day without at least 2 hours of studying seems wrong. On days that I have to spend on doctor appointments I at leat have my iPad and iPhone with me to study with, usually vocabulary review. I totally understand why people spend so much time in online games. As long as it doesn't control them it's a fine way to spend some time. But I knew an awful lot of people who spent a lot of time in game. When I knew they had young children I would wonder how much time they spent with them. Probably the teacher in me becoming concerned for the children. BTW for anyone reading this who is into online gaming I am not condemning you. Each person must decide for themselves how much time spent in one is just right. That number is going to be different for each person given their situation. For myself I came to realize that just like the alcoholic that can't have just one drink, I could not just spend X hours at a time in game. I would say " I am only playing for x hours" only to have 3 or 4 times that goal pass before I stopped. Well I'm glad I not only kicked the habit, but managed to replace it with what I consider a healthy one. Next post will be what I do and have done to learn Japanese. Thank you to everyone who is reading this log. I'm already amazed and encouraged by the number who have read so far. I appreciate it. Pamela 1 person has voted this message useful |
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