For all you Perfume fans (a surprising number of blog readers are), here’s the latest song by Perfume: Magic of Love.
Similar to their video for Voice, it includes a lot of cool room-shifts and visual tricks. My daughter loves watching “Voice”, so I think she will enjoy this one as well. One reason I like Perfume is that I can show my daughter and not worry about showing anything naughty or inappropriate.
But I digress. Great song, and great video. Enjoy!
I’ve noticed an interesting thing while watching Japanese TV with my wife. We like to watch certain variety shows together (which are very common in Japan, unlike American TV). And sometimes, they have foreign guests. Either Hollywood actors, or famous foreign celebrities in Japan. Anyhow, I noticed that the foreign guests seems to have exaggerated expressions compared to Japanese guests. For example, if they’re happy, they really show it, or if they lose a competition they look disappointed.
Here in America, you wouldn’t notice it, because everyone is doing the same thing, but if you take an American like that and put him on Japanese TV, his expressions seem really animated.
Of course, people are the same everywhere. They feel joy and disappointment the same, but how they express it depends on culture. As I wrote many years ago though, when you’re in public in Japan, you’re kind of expected to be a little more reserved. Otherwise, it looks like you’re trying to draw attention to yourself: me, me, me! Or it just looks a bit sloppy (lack of self-discipline).
Recently, when I visit Japan or interact with my wife’s friends, I try to remind myself to “play it cool”. The key is to not be a robot, but just play it cool. Tone it down a little. You don’t need to be a high-fiving white guy1 all the time. 
To be honest though, I forget this little advice all the time. It’s still a work in progress. 
P.S. I’ve learned that this is true in Korean culture as well, but I can’t confirm this. Korea is also a Confucian culture, and so it’s helpful to remember to be polite, reserved and play it cool. At least in public. At home or when drinking with friends, people probably cut loose a lot more.
1 A Seattle comedy show I grew up with as a teenager. Very local, very Seattle.
Self-esteem and pride are two challenges in my life. Maybe other readers too. It’s frustrating because even though friends and family tell you that you are a good person, or smart, etc., you still don’t feel like it.
I was thinking about this recently, and I realized that low self-esteem, like arrogance, is a form of self-absorption. The Buddha even talked about it in some of the sutras. The most famous example is Soṇo Sutta (SN 22.49) where the Buddha says to Sona:
“Whatever recluses and Brahmans, Soṇa, hold views about the body, which is impermanent, unsatisfactory and subject to change, such as ‘I am better [than you],’ ‘I am equal [to you],’ or ‘I am worse [than you]‘ [likewise 'feeling,' 'perception,' 'mental formations,' 'consciousness'], what else are they but folk who do not see things as they really are?
“But, Soṇa, whatever recluses and Brahmans do not hold such views… What else are they but those who see things as they really are?”
The translation of this sutra is kind of hard to read, but it says that if you think you’re better than someone, equal to someone or worse than someone, you’re not seeing reality. If you don’t think like that, you are now seeing reality.
Why is this?
Because for all three, you’re obsessed with yourself. You become drunk with self-absorption. It’s a cycle too: you can become more and more obsessed with yourself until it consumes you.
After all these years, I still remember a classic scene from a old game called Starcraft: Brood War.1 In the final scene, the famous war hero Admiral DuGalle is defeated and must return to Earth. He killed his best friend, and failed to accomplish his mission to defeat the alien invaders. He sits alone in his room, listening to music, and finally kills himself after sending a message to his wife. Starts around 00:54 if you want to fast-forward.
The words that really strike me are:
Whatever you may hear about what has happened out here, know this: Alexei did not die gloriously in battle. I killed him; my pride killed him. And now my pride has consumed me as well.
Self-esteem problems and pride can be really dangerous if they get out of control.
But the Buddha’s words are like a medicine for this fever. He reminds us that none of it is real. Pride, self-esteem, etc, are all things we construct for ourselves, but have no foundation in reality.
As the Buddha said in the Maha-Rahulovada Sutta (MN 62, trans. by Ven. Thanissaro):
‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.’
We build up an image of ourselves in our mind, obsess about it, etc, but as the Buddha teaches, whatever image we have about ourselves, this is not who we are.
1 I used to play Starcraft a lot before my daughter was born. Once she was born though, the games were put away. Recently I started playing again, but with #2 coming, I will probably put them away again.
Something I was watching lately. This is by the famous philosopher Alan Watts, who helped popularize Buddhism (especially Zen) for Western audiences. In this show made in the 1960′s, he talks about the role of religion in traditional society using 2 examples: medieval Europe and ancient India. Then, he shows how both Jesus and the Buddha existed outside of society. Finally, he shows how Buddhism and Christianity have different views of the world, and time.
This is part 1:
This is part 2:
Since this was made in the 1960′s, smoking a cigarette was not unusual. ;p The “Japanese” calligraphy in the background also felt very 1960′s to me too.
Anyhow, Alan Watts is a very persuasive speaker, and this video makes a great deal of sense, especially the last five minutes. As Alan Watts explains, the purpose of Christianity is to bring order to the world, with God as the center, while in Buddhism the purpose is to see the order of the world as it exists and appreciate it. Christianity seeks to transform the world, Buddhism seeks to transform the mind.
Something to think about.
I’ve been following the website AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com (AJATT for short) for ideas and inspiration on learning Japanese and Korean. I also follow the site author, Khatzumoto, on Twitter as well.
AJATT has been really helpful in keeping me motivated and not giving up. Believe me, I’ve wanted to give up many times. Not because I don’t like Japanese and Korean, but because I feel really embarrassed sometimes, humiliated or frustrated at my lack of progress.
But when I read Khatzumoto’s advice on Twitter, I get inspired to keep trying, explore new methods, etc. I even keep a collection of “ajatt-isms” on my iPhone which I read every once in a while.1 The photo above is from my smartphone.
This post is a collection of (in my humble opinion), the best advice from Khatzumoto on Twitter. I hope it will inspire you to keep learning a foreign language too.
Ajattisms:
@ajatt: The trick is not to get good at Japanese but to get good at learning Japanese.
@ajatt: Chose anything but the null option. The null option is not an option.
@ajatt: The best way to not forget Japanese is to not not come into contact with it.
@ajatt: Having momentum beats being right. It’s easier to correct course than to get moving. #immersion #SRS
@ajatt: We give up way too easily on ourselves. You don’t suck, your method does. Fix or replace the method. You’re fine.
@ajatt: It is more important to know more Japanese at lunchtime than you did at breakfast…than it is to have a good plan.
@ajatt: Somewhere between “give up completely” and “do it all 100% perfectly” is the level where things actually get done. #immersion
@ajatt: Most dangerous AJATT tip ever: Imitating the way L2 speakers speak your L1 is a good way to improve your L2 pronunciation.
@ajatt: You’re not stupid; you’re not a bad person. The advice just didn’t quite work for you as presented.
@ajatt: First, you kinda get what you give. Then, you give more than you get. Finally, you get more than you give. #input #immersion #thedip #output
@ajatt: Push “play”. Volume up. Good. You’re done. #exposure
@ajatt: You can’t learn a language you’re not exposed to. #exposure #immersion
@ajatt: Whether or not you suck doesn’t matter. All that matters is your direction: are you headed towards or away from Sucksville?
@ajatt: Don’t read a book once carefully. Read it 10 times, 100 times, sloppily. #multipass #reading
@ajatt: You rarely try to eat food without cutting it up to fit that dainty little mouth of yours. So why do you try to do tasks without timeboxing?
@ajatt: Don’t try to improve your technique. Improve your practice (volume, depth, frequency). Your technique will improve on its own.
@ajatt: Don’t work on yourself. Work on your environment. Your environment will work on you. #exposure #immersion
@ajatt: Do NOT get it right the first time, or even the first 9999 times. Get it GOING the first time. Get it right later. #timeboxing
@ajatt: Be patient enough to wait for effects. Be too impatient to wait to start on causes.
@ajatt: You don’t suck. You’re just not ripe yet. Maybe you need to brown bag yourself #immersion
Enjoy and good luck fellow language-learners.
1 Khatzumoto, if you’re reading this, I am not a stalker, but I do enjoy learning language a lot.
It is now the month of Satsuki (皐月) in the traditional Japanese calendar and the weather in Seattle has been very comfortable lately,1 so I’ve been taking photos in the yard again. This is in my backyard, just outside the den, where I usually write the blog:
Somehow, it reminds of a poem from the Hyakunin Isshu poetry anthology:
君がため Kimi ga tame
春の野に出でて Haru no no ni idete
若菜つむ Wakana tsumu
わが衣手に Waga koromode ni
雪はふりつつ Yuki wa furitsutsu
Which Professor Mostow translates as:
For my lord’s sake
I went out into the fields of spring
to pick young greens
while on my robe-sleeves
the snow kept falling and falling.
Watching nature around the home is really interesting. My daughter thinks white dandelions are “wish flowers”. If you blow on them, they will make your wish come true.
P.S. In Japanese, dandelions are called tanpopo (タンポポ), in case you were wondering.
P.P.S. Other photos around the yard are here. The photo above was my favorite.
1 In the last few years, summers seemed colder and shorter, while winters were longer. This year seems pretty different. I’m looking forward to summer.
Hi all,
I’ve been concerned about my struggles to keep up the blog lately, when I finally figured out the problem: I have writer’s block. I have about 8 unfinished posts right now, but I can’t finish them for some reason. I open them up, look at them, realize I don’t know what to say, get distracted and do something else.
Then I read in Wikipedia:
Other blocks, especially the more serious kind, may be produced by adverse circumstances in a writer’s life or career: physical illness, depression, the end of a relationship, financial pressures, a sense of failure….It has been suggested that writer’s block is more than just a mentality. Under stress, a human brain will “shift control from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system”. The limbic system is associated with the instinctual processes, such as “fight or flight” response. Because the person is primarily thinking in instinctual (learned) behaviors, creative processes are hindered. The person is often unaware of the change, which may lead them to believe they are creatively “blocked”.
That makes a lot of sense to me. Well, I don’t know what a “limbic system” is, but I understand the rest.
The last few months have been pretty intense. Work has been very busy (more so than in the past), but also the family and I have been slowly preparing for the coming baby. Between the two, I just go to sleep a lot, or play Nintendo games.1
I think I’m stuck on “survival mode” right now. Language studies are getting neglected,2 I don’t read books much anymore, and don’t really keep up on projects much. I think I’m just trying to hang onto the train for now. In the meantime, I’m still writing, but the quality might suffer a bit.
Soon though, I might try to take a couple days off and get some rest though. I’ve been working a lot of hours lately, and I think I deserve a small break.
As always, thanks for reading.
1 Currently enjoying The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess…my daughter loves watching me play too.
2 I almost never study Korean or Latin anymore. I really want to, but the motivation is just gone for now.
This blog explores my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile among other things. I like to share information and help make the Internet a better place.
Thanks for reading.
