khatzumoto

The Timebox Is Smarter Than You

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Suit up and fasten your seatbelt. Strap up and strap in. Because this post is gonna be one of those epically sucky ones. What’s that? They’re ALL epically sucky? Yeah, I hate you too lol. No, but seriously. This post is probably gonna suck (and be cryptic to boot) because I’m getting frustrated just writing…

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Your Childhood in Japanese!

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Wonders will never cease 😀 . It never even occurred to me that this might be dubbed, but one of me mates from Saitama sent me a link: It’s “Sesame Street” (and Elmo!) in Japanese! [(38) セサミストリ－ト：エルモズ・ワールド：キャッチボール（日本語吹き替え） – YouTube] goo.gl/YKrWbf

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The Wrong Ence, The Wrong T (Persistence Beats Intelligence; Tenacity Beats Talent)

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Learning (=getting used to) a language doesn’t take intelligence, only persistence. It’s not magic; it’s just maths. Certain quantities of certain inputs will inevitably produce certain outputs. It’s as straightforward as drinking and peeing. People who know a language aren’t “talented”, just tenacious. Eat those persistence flakes for breakfast so you can enjoy victory for…

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Don’t Be The Kaiser or the Fuhrer

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This entry is part 2 of 17 in the series The Art of War of Learning

This entry is part 2 of 17 in the series The Art of War of LearningThe original title of this post was “Don’t Be Germany”, but praising or insulting entire groups of people (as this post, frankly, does) never sat well with me. Too much individualism isn’t the problem, rather, the lack of it is.…

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On the Value of Learning How NOT to Do Things

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So, again, as with many things, Japanese has a specific word for it: 反面教師 (=はんめんきょうし=hanmen kyoushi). Literally, “reverse teacher”. Now, long ago, I read a Japanese nonfiction book that advised against the use of hanmen kyoushis. It argued that we were just as likely to imitate them as to contradict them. And, like a dutiful,…

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