Comments on: That Righteous Feeling, Or: If You’re Not Feeling Naughty, You’re Doing It Wrong

By: Get in the Fun: Learn a Foreign Language | Samurai Mind Online

Get in the Fun: Learn a Foreign Language | Samurai Mind Online — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 01:04:51 +0000

[…] of the greatest pieces of advice I’ve gotten from All Japanese All the Time is to go for the guilty pleasures in the language that you want to […]

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 11:14:25 +0000

I’ve been thinking about this post a LOT in the past few days.

At the moment I’m having Midwestern-Protestant-upbringing-level guilt about doing Japanese. There’s no reason why I *should* be doing it. It isn’t going to earn me any more money or help me transition into a career I actually enjoy (well, not any time soon anyway) or become the self-employed musician I was *supposed* to be…and yet I can’t focus on those things because all I want to do is write to strangers on Twitter in a bastardised mix of English and awful Japanese. It’s almost getting to the point where it’s like, maybe I should give up this crazy Japanese thing and go back to being “normal”…only I can’t because it’s so much fun.

At least I can draw some small comfort from the fact that, apparently, because I feel guilty and tormented about it, at least I’m doing it “right”!

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:35:48 +0000

Today, I felt guilty because I was not studying Chinese (not repeating SRS-Cards) but chatting online with a friend. Then I realized that I was using QQ and we were actually chatting in Chinese 😀

By: Francesco @ The Language Habit

Francesco @ The Language Habit — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 08:46:55 +0000

Great article, just beautifully spot on!
Most language students (especially the ones I’ve met in Taiwan) have deeply engrained feelings of guilt in all their studying endeavors…which have been acquired mostly through “pressure-parenting” and terrible educational policies.
It’s time to shift their minds off the NEED to learn a foreign language exclusively for BUSINESS purposes, the “Learning this language will be a great asset in your portfolio, now go back to your boring books and don’t you ever think about enjoying them!”-mentality, and let them have all the L2 guilty pleasures they truly crave.

By: Japanese takes a lot of Energy « aboutluke

Japanese takes a lot of Energy « aboutluke — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 03:14:19 +0000

[…] also wanted to touch on last weeks post on Khatzumoto’s blog, AJATT. He talks about how you should feel like you’re cheating when your learning Japanese, since […]

By: All”s Fair in Love and Reading | Samurai Mind Online

All”s Fair in Love and Reading | Samurai Mind Online — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 09:28:44 +0000

[…] That Righteous Feeling, Or: If You’re Not Feeling Naughty, You’re Doing It Wrong) Here are some quick Samurai tips on how to be a reading ‘player’: […]

By: Love ‘Em Or Leave ‘Em: Fun with Benefits–Samurai Reading Strategy | Samurai Mind Online

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 22:58:09 +0000

[…] That’s why my new motto as far as books is concerned is “Love ‘Em or Leave Em: Fun with Benefits.” I haven’t abandoned the “difficult” goal of learning Japanese, but I am tacking and trying different methods. There is something to be said about working through a difficult text. (Insert thought here: _____________________________________) But what if fun books are the back door way to be able to access more difficult books in the future.? As Khatz says, “Fun gets done.” […]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:57:28 +0000

So…

You’re saying that whatever source material you’re using should be fun and interesting for you, it should meet what I think is the most important criteria: that if it were in your native language, you’d still want to read/listen to/watch it?

You’re saying it should be fun, in other words?

Shocker! 😉

Oh, and absolutely agreed.

Cheers,
Andrew

By: ahndoruuu

ahndoruuu — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:08:09 +0000

It’s just one way of approaching things. One that’s especially helpful for learning languages. Language learning: one of the only pursuits where watching porn, talk shows, and made-for-tv movies all day is the essence of productivity.

By: Jack Cotton-Brown

Jack Cotton-Brown — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:28:49 +0000

I got into this phase where I was watching/reading/playing with things in Japanese that were all awesome, and I did this thing where I completed the games/animes/mangas that I was enjoying. But then I ‘ran out’, so to speak, of stuff and so I acquired a bunch more stuff from a friend. I started going through some anime series that were now on my hard drive, and attempting to complete them from start to finish. I did the whole ‘try everything at least once’ thing, where even if the first episode of an anime wasn’t so captivating, I would push on through the series to see if it got better. The result was that I stopped watching it. I stopped everything. It just happened. I didn’t plan to stop, in fact, I planned to keep on going. But I subconsciously started prioritizing other things ahead of Japanese continuously, until before I knew it, a week had gone by and I hadn’t watched a single episode of the anime I was trying to finish.

I now understand the importance of channel surfing. I’m starting a new thing where I watch the first 3 episodes of an anime, and if I don’t like it, I delete it. I might just cut it back to the first episode if this doesn’t work. Or maybe just a quick flick through. I miss the days of watching Claymore during university exam’s and being so captivated I wasn’t able to study for my exams till I’d finished the entire series. Now THAT’s a guilty feeling haha.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:23:30 +0000

Feeling guilty about not doing things that make you feel guilty is doing it right, what with the feelings of guilt and all.

By: agentxjp

agentxjp — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:38:05 +0000

Is this philosophy supposed to apply to things outside of language learning?
For example there are plenty of books well-regarded books I have like Psycho Cybernetics that would give me plenty of society stars, and I wouldn’t mind reading them as it interests me, but I still wouldn’t feel guilty doing it either.
So while it wouldn’t make me feel guilty to do it, it would also be pretty fun, however this article kind of gives that impression that I should feel guilty if I’m not doing things that make me feel guilty.

By: Happy Feelings Bring Happy Learnings | Samurai Mind Online

Happy Feelings Bring Happy Learnings | Samurai Mind Online — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 04:22:35 +0000

[…] it up. AJATT has a hilarious post called, ‘That Righteous Feeling, Or: If You’re Not Feeling Naughty, You’re Doing It Wrong.̵… Khatzumoto basically argues that if you are reading a book in your target language out of duty or […]