“You wouldn’t expect to get a driver’s license by reciting the rules for building a car; it’s equally absurd to expect people to demonstrate that they know a language by reciting its rules. You prove that you know how to drive a car by driving; you prove that you know how to use the language…

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The phrase “but also” is the enemy of all achievement. Anybody who tells you: “Do X but also do Y” has literally told you nothing. Because he hasn’t helped you make a decision (remember, in terms of its Latin etymology, to decide is to cut (decision/incision) and to kill (decide/homicide) — so decision always involves negation, subtraction);…

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Next time someone tells you that X “isn’t a real innovation” and “only made Y more convenient” or “only popularized Y”, I want you to punch them — and their small children — in the throat. Don’t punch their older children — they may be strong enough to fight back and then you’ve got a…

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If you know the AJATT origin story well, then you’ll know that I once took an actual Japanese class. It was a newspaper reading class. One time I showed the instructor, a lovely older gentleman, a website that automatically puts furigana on Kanji. Nearing retirement, he was visibly crestfallen, and somewhat sadly remarked that students…

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So last night I literally had a dream (whoa, slow down dere, Khatz, yer blowin’ my mind!). In this dream, I was sketching in a hallway, because I’m always an artistic genius in my dreams, when two people from Southern China walked past me and were very rude, and I was mildly pissed off. Later,…

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