Hmmm… You know, I never thought anyone would be interested in what my life is like in Japan. That is, until someone named Jim who shall remain nameless asked me like three times to write about it. Haha. It’s been just over a year since I moved here. It’s weird…this country has been a part…
Stephen Krashen on Reading
by khatzumoto
Krashen hits another nail on the head with this article.
Learning Like a Native どんだけ～
by khatzumoto
So, there’s this new word out in Japan: 「どんだけ～!!??」(dondake). Well, it’s new to non-fashionistas like me, but it dates back to at least 2-3 months ago among the trendy, which means that some consider it “old”. But I didn’t come here to discuss whether or not 「どんだけ～」is passé, I came here to share something even…
Chinese Project Notes 2: Went Monolingual
by khatzumoto
Today, July 20, 2007, I crossed the Rubicon and went fully monolingual in Chinese. I do sometimes look up a Japanese word to find Chinese example sentences for it. So I guess this, makes me a mix between Steps 3 and 4 as outlined in this post on how to make the transition. As far…
The Expert Mind
by khatzumoto
There’s an article written a while back in the Scientific American that discusses what makes someone an expert in something. I found a lot of parrallels with learning sentences (these are the small chunks/quanta that the article discusses) and spaced repetition. You shouldn’t be reading English ;), but do check it out for some quick…
Chinese Project Notes 1: On Shopping Trips and Sentence Sources
by khatzumoto
In the spirit of putting one’s money where one’s mouth is, Ihave set a $40-$50/month Chinese media budget, which allows for about 4-5 books or DVDs. So, today (July 18, 2007) I was learning sentences mined from an order confirmation notice I got from 博客來 (books.com.tw) where I had bought the stuff, and it struck…