No, I'm not the first person to talk about this, but I got a question from a friend and the answer became so long I thought I'd just post it here. If I could find the AJATT post that explains it exactly as I need, I'd have just linked to it, but well, this happened.
Q: I would imagine that most of what you are learning there can only be obtained through actual experience there?
A: Well, that's arguable. Language is not a mass of knowledge, it is a skill. Skills need to be practiced to be learned. But you don't necessarily need to travel to practice a language.
Somewhat random related article by a wise and funny man on the subject: http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/critical-frequency-a-brand-new-way-of-looking-at-language-exposure Eh, it's kind of a side point but it gets at the point of how you just need to get the practice in.
Most of my exposure is to teachers and class materials, which are basically dumbed down for us. I got to the point I could understand class, but I still couldn't understand my conversation partners without constantly digging through my dictionary. I only see them for 1-1.5 hours a week, and I don't know anyone else, but an American, a Lithuanian, an Australian, and some Koreans. And I don't even see them that much. So I marathoned Azumanga Daioh (no subs) for at least a solid week. Every moment I was in my room it was playing, even when I slept (just in case). The next week, I understood more of what the *real* people were saying. I understood more of everything. So I kept doing this. I'm noticing it's my vocabulary that's lacking, not my listening. So I'm working on that. I'm reading the translation of Eragon. Slowly, and without understanding everything, much like a child who just sounds out all the words in a book without really knowing what they mean. But you figure it out from context and from what you know, and you put it together. And I'm studying flashcards. I made too many at first, and I still haven't gotten throught them all. I wasn't doing them for a while because there were a lot I just hated, so I started deleting, and now I can do my daily repititions of my main deck in around half an hour to 45 minutes. And it doesn't feel like a chore.
So, yeah, the main reason I've been getting better has been constantly watching/listening to anime and flashcarding interesting sentences and reading (despite lack of actual, competent literacy).
And it's definitely working. Sometimes it does help to slow down and use google and a dictionary to translate stuff, because you do learn from that, but it's slow and bothersome and boring as all hell. By just reading I learn the meanings and real usage of a word intuitively. My conversation partner always says, "sorosoro I have to go." I've never looked it up, but I can tell you it means something like "before long".
Actually, here's the guy who inspired this, talkng about it himself, and DOING it during the interview and just refusing to stop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J34i9lr94pI It's noisy and split into a few parts, but it can save you some reading, because he tries to explain it all in this interview. Just do what he says and know that Michael Jordan failed more than anyone else in the NBA.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Cool Shit I've Done with Linux 1
Whenever someone's computer crashes, I can barely contain the "If it had been Linux!" fits. Fact is, Linux allows you to do any number of things to protect yourself from software failures, hardware failures, and user error. I guess I'll start by explaining some of that first.
The first and simplest thing you can do to prepare for Windows breaking (aside from backing up) is to keep a linux live disc around. Maybe just download an Ubuntu install CD and never actually install it. If Windows breaks, you can use it to sift through the rubble before rebuilding. Just because you deleted Win32 doesn't mean anything's happened to your vids, pics, and docs.
Onto techniques for if you're actually using Linux...
Partitioning! One of the coolest fucking things. Basically the act of splitting your hard drive into sections and saying, "This is for this, and this is for this." Software sees these partitions as completely separate drives. Now, the basic idea to protect your shit from a broken operating system, is to put your /home directory on it's own partition. Gets kind of complicated...
Unix systems use a filesystem heirarchy standard that basically dictates how the system should be arranged. You have the top directory, called / (pronounced root). This is basically C: on windows. Everything goes in here. Under /, there is a directory called home, which contains the various users' home folders. All your personal shit goes in there, including most configuration files for programs, and usually media, etc. So, /home/user is just about the same as C:\\Users\user (or whatever it is).
So, what you want to do is put the usual contents of / (or C:)on one partition and the contents of /home (or C:\\Users) on another, so that when the OS breaks, you can just reinstall to the same partition, and all the users' stuff is completely untouched. All you have to do is recreate the users with the same names (probably just your own).
This is usually given as an option at install. In the widely used Debian installer simply tell it where you want your partitions, how big you want them, and what you want them to be used for. This is also how you get a system with multiple operating systems. You just make sure it will NOT format the partitions that have the data you want to keep.
When making partitions, I'd say allot 10GB for / at the beginning of the disk (or empty space thereon), and something like twice your ram in a swap partition at the end of the disk, then fill in what's left between with the /home. Don't worry, the options are there and will make sense when you're looking at it. The swap partition is used when your RAM is full, and that size is some general rule of thumb I read, but I honestly don't think I've ever filled my 2GB of RAM.
There! That's the basic scheme! Separate / and /home partitions.
Now! I find the /home partition tends to get quite cluttered with configuration files, and it can be frustrating when some fucked up setting has caused you to reinstall in desparation, but which still persists because it's in some config file in your home directory. So, from here on, I plan on just keeping my /home directory in the same partition as my / directory and using the majority of the disk as a large storage partition.
I think I'll just use my own example for this part.
Currently, on my laptop I have a fairly simple partition scheme. I have a 10GB Ubuntu partition, a 5GB Arch partition, a large chunk that is the Ubuntu /home directory, but which I'm working on changing to storage. (No Ubuntu link, cuz their site and documentation are shit!)
To change that into a storage partition, I simply put the entire Arch install on one partition. The home folder contains nothing but config files, a couple screenshots I happened to take, and a directory for temporarily keeping files for things I build to install using the tools and systems of Arch linux (dun worry about that).
Mountpoints! These are basically the second key component to my little scheme here. Mountpoints are just directories where storage devices are mounted in order to be accessible to your OS. I can't explain everything behind it but that's what it do. To learn how to actually do this, look up a tutorial. I'm just going to explain what you can do and why it's so freakin' cool!
So basically, I edit the right files in the right way to make the system mount the large storage partition on my internal drive to the mount point /home/username/internal. Now, whenever I turn my computer on and boot Arch linux, I can just go to /home/username/internal and see what's there. Usually the default is to start in your home folder, so all I have to do is click or type my way into internal and get what I want. It's super convenient.
The typical way of mounting things like external USB drives is to put the mount point in the /media directory, but it's an internal disk, it will always be there, and I'm the only user, so this is a thousand times more convenient. I also did this with my large external drive. Though it uses a USB connection, I hardly move any of my computer stuff here in the dorm. So for that and the same reasons as above, I just mount it to a mount point in my home directory at boot.
So, using this scheme, I have the entire operating system in one partition of my hard drive. Within it is my home folder, which is tiny, but which contains what are essentially "links" to larger partitions. They're not there, they just lead there, but as far as user experience goes, they might as well be there.
In addition to convenience, if you combine something like this with occasional or scheduled backups of your most important config files (or stuff like chat logs and your firefox profile) to one of the other drives (physically separate is safest), if the OS breaks, all your shit is safe.
Oh, and a note on / partition size. My Ubuntu is 10GB, and I've installed a bunch of crap, both of the largest desktop environments, and I think I barely take up half of it. The Arch is a little more cramped at 5BG containing the home directory as well. I wish I'd made it 10GB. But I plan to reinstall the Ubuntu sometime and free the large partition from it's dedication as a /home, so I may be shifting everything around...
The first and simplest thing you can do to prepare for Windows breaking (aside from backing up) is to keep a linux live disc around. Maybe just download an Ubuntu install CD and never actually install it. If Windows breaks, you can use it to sift through the rubble before rebuilding. Just because you deleted Win32 doesn't mean anything's happened to your vids, pics, and docs.
Onto techniques for if you're actually using Linux...
Partitioning! One of the coolest fucking things. Basically the act of splitting your hard drive into sections and saying, "This is for this, and this is for this." Software sees these partitions as completely separate drives. Now, the basic idea to protect your shit from a broken operating system, is to put your /home directory on it's own partition. Gets kind of complicated...
Unix systems use a filesystem heirarchy standard that basically dictates how the system should be arranged. You have the top directory, called / (pronounced root). This is basically C: on windows. Everything goes in here. Under /, there is a directory called home, which contains the various users' home folders. All your personal shit goes in there, including most configuration files for programs, and usually media, etc. So, /home/user is just about the same as C:\\Users\user (or whatever it is).
So, what you want to do is put the usual contents of / (or C:)on one partition and the contents of /home (or C:\\Users) on another, so that when the OS breaks, you can just reinstall to the same partition, and all the users' stuff is completely untouched. All you have to do is recreate the users with the same names (probably just your own).
This is usually given as an option at install. In the widely used Debian installer simply tell it where you want your partitions, how big you want them, and what you want them to be used for. This is also how you get a system with multiple operating systems. You just make sure it will NOT format the partitions that have the data you want to keep.
When making partitions, I'd say allot 10GB for / at the beginning of the disk (or empty space thereon), and something like twice your ram in a swap partition at the end of the disk, then fill in what's left between with the /home. Don't worry, the options are there and will make sense when you're looking at it. The swap partition is used when your RAM is full, and that size is some general rule of thumb I read, but I honestly don't think I've ever filled my 2GB of RAM.
There! That's the basic scheme! Separate / and /home partitions.
Now! I find the /home partition tends to get quite cluttered with configuration files, and it can be frustrating when some fucked up setting has caused you to reinstall in desparation, but which still persists because it's in some config file in your home directory. So, from here on, I plan on just keeping my /home directory in the same partition as my / directory and using the majority of the disk as a large storage partition.
I think I'll just use my own example for this part.
Currently, on my laptop I have a fairly simple partition scheme. I have a 10GB Ubuntu partition, a 5GB Arch partition, a large chunk that is the Ubuntu /home directory, but which I'm working on changing to storage. (No Ubuntu link, cuz their site and documentation are shit!)
To change that into a storage partition, I simply put the entire Arch install on one partition. The home folder contains nothing but config files, a couple screenshots I happened to take, and a directory for temporarily keeping files for things I build to install using the tools and systems of Arch linux (dun worry about that).
Mountpoints! These are basically the second key component to my little scheme here. Mountpoints are just directories where storage devices are mounted in order to be accessible to your OS. I can't explain everything behind it but that's what it do. To learn how to actually do this, look up a tutorial. I'm just going to explain what you can do and why it's so freakin' cool!
So basically, I edit the right files in the right way to make the system mount the large storage partition on my internal drive to the mount point /home/username/internal. Now, whenever I turn my computer on and boot Arch linux, I can just go to /home/username/internal and see what's there. Usually the default is to start in your home folder, so all I have to do is click or type my way into internal and get what I want. It's super convenient.
The typical way of mounting things like external USB drives is to put the mount point in the /media directory, but it's an internal disk, it will always be there, and I'm the only user, so this is a thousand times more convenient. I also did this with my large external drive. Though it uses a USB connection, I hardly move any of my computer stuff here in the dorm. So for that and the same reasons as above, I just mount it to a mount point in my home directory at boot.
So, using this scheme, I have the entire operating system in one partition of my hard drive. Within it is my home folder, which is tiny, but which contains what are essentially "links" to larger partitions. They're not there, they just lead there, but as far as user experience goes, they might as well be there.
In addition to convenience, if you combine something like this with occasional or scheduled backups of your most important config files (or stuff like chat logs and your firefox profile) to one of the other drives (physically separate is safest), if the OS breaks, all your shit is safe.
Oh, and a note on / partition size. My Ubuntu is 10GB, and I've installed a bunch of crap, both of the largest desktop environments, and I think I barely take up half of it. The Arch is a little more cramped at 5BG containing the home directory as well. I wish I'd made it 10GB. But I plan to reinstall the Ubuntu sometime and free the large partition from it's dedication as a /home, so I may be shifting everything around...
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Results
It kind of freaks me out that I understand almost 90% of what I hear when I pay attention to the movies I watch.
I refer specifically Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Admittedly, the're not particularly advanced titles, but not exactly Totoro-simple either. Actually, I've also enjoyed this sort of comprehension of the Matrix and The Matrix: Reloaded. And Shaun of the Dead, and Resident Evil (called Biohazard here). I think the dubs are easy to understand because everything that's said is coming initially from an English oral's head (like mine!). But it all helps, because it's real Japanese.
I've been doing the AJATT sort of method as much as I can. I've been using Anki on my ipod, and sort of just comfortably reading the odd comic here and there (weekly One Piece ftw). I bought some books. I tried translating every word I didn't completely understand in Eragon and spent about 5 days on as many pages. Then I just went ahead and read the first chapter and I can understand quite a bit just from context. It used to bug the hell out of me when I couldn't sound out the unknown word, but I just sort of put a "ng" sound or "that" in it's place or use the English for what I think it is when I get to one I don't know or can't say. I've started avoiding dictionaries this week. I can, however, understand Japanese dictionary entries (used when something seems important and I just can't figure it out), so there's no longer any need for me to use a J-E dictionary (but when I do, I use Jisho.org).
I think this all adds up to one thing: I understand Japanese. Not all Japanese, not all the time, but a lot of it. I'm now learning from context, from kanji, and from the symbols that kanji are made of. Of course I get English input from definitions given in class, and my SRS cards (of which I still have around 150 I added and haven't gotten to yet. 大変だよ) and of course that helps, but the amazing fact is that I just don't need it.
I understand Japanese. It has reached critical mass, and the reaction will now continue without further external input.
So, when learning a language, you really do want to just jump in and go! asap. You don't understand shit at first, but your brain figures it out. More about this at AJATT (and wherever he links).
Oh, and most of this has little to do with the fact that I live in Japan now. I don't really know anyone with whom I can hang out after class, so I spent most of my time in my room, watching homework, doing movies, and (lately) reading. Oh, anime too, but I can only loop what I have nonstop for so many weeks... I'm too cheap to actually pay for anything and torrents are blocked on University internet....(FUCK)
You know how kids will watch the same movie over and over and over like 3 times a day for a week? That's basically the idea. I didn't know it as a child, but I was practicing and rehearsing English. Memorizing sentece models and mannerisms...
Oh, important part! Focus on what you do understand, and get over what you don't, and before long, you'll be surprised to find you undrstand that too.
Wheee!
I refer specifically Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Admittedly, the're not particularly advanced titles, but not exactly Totoro-simple either. Actually, I've also enjoyed this sort of comprehension of the Matrix and The Matrix: Reloaded. And Shaun of the Dead, and Resident Evil (called Biohazard here). I think the dubs are easy to understand because everything that's said is coming initially from an English oral's head (like mine!). But it all helps, because it's real Japanese.
I've been doing the AJATT sort of method as much as I can. I've been using Anki on my ipod, and sort of just comfortably reading the odd comic here and there (weekly One Piece ftw). I bought some books. I tried translating every word I didn't completely understand in Eragon and spent about 5 days on as many pages. Then I just went ahead and read the first chapter and I can understand quite a bit just from context. It used to bug the hell out of me when I couldn't sound out the unknown word, but I just sort of put a "ng" sound or "that" in it's place or use the English for what I think it is when I get to one I don't know or can't say. I've started avoiding dictionaries this week. I can, however, understand Japanese dictionary entries (used when something seems important and I just can't figure it out), so there's no longer any need for me to use a J-E dictionary (but when I do, I use Jisho.org).
I think this all adds up to one thing: I understand Japanese. Not all Japanese, not all the time, but a lot of it. I'm now learning from context, from kanji, and from the symbols that kanji are made of. Of course I get English input from definitions given in class, and my SRS cards (of which I still have around 150 I added and haven't gotten to yet. 大変だよ) and of course that helps, but the amazing fact is that I just don't need it.
I understand Japanese. It has reached critical mass, and the reaction will now continue without further external input.
So, when learning a language, you really do want to just jump in and go! asap. You don't understand shit at first, but your brain figures it out. More about this at AJATT (and wherever he links).
Oh, and most of this has little to do with the fact that I live in Japan now. I don't really know anyone with whom I can hang out after class, so I spent most of my time in my room, watching homework, doing movies, and (lately) reading. Oh, anime too, but I can only loop what I have nonstop for so many weeks... I'm too cheap to actually pay for anything and torrents are blocked on University internet....(FUCK)
You know how kids will watch the same movie over and over and over like 3 times a day for a week? That's basically the idea. I didn't know it as a child, but I was practicing and rehearsing English. Memorizing sentece models and mannerisms...
Oh, important part! Focus on what you do understand, and get over what you don't, and before long, you'll be surprised to find you undrstand that too.
Wheee!
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Book
I bought Eragon from Amazon.jp. It is used, was reported as in fair condition, and cost 1円, and 250円 shipping. It is the most beautiful book I've ever owned. No, it's not leather-bound, but it's nicer than if it had been.
Despite expecting a worn paperback, I recieved a well cared for hardcover. The paper cover has only a little wear on the edges. The cover art appears to be identical to the original as published in 2003, but Saphira's scales are lined with a shiny blue foil. Actually, what was most eye-catching at first was the silver band around the lower part of the book, but that was just a paper ad saying how well the book sold, etc. I also noticed the book had an attached cloth bookmark of shiny silver. Opening the book, the prologue (which takes place at night) pages are negatives of the normal pages, every one of which has a mountain range bordering the bottom. I looked for the glossary (of all the made up words) that is in the back of the English version and couldn't find it. I later discover that the inside of the dust jacket, while protecting a plain, but smart smooth, blue cover, has a map of Alagaesia printed on it's inside, with the glossary arranged around it on the inner flaps. The map (black printed on blue) has the route taken in the book marked in white.
All these pretty, and nifty features, as well as being in better condition them most books that pass through my possession, for the price of about two and a half American dollars is pretty fucking awesome. I'm psyched, and I can feel my grades dropping already. Sadly, this book is too nice for what I originally intended for it: to be a learning book I could write in. So, I shall just have to keep a paper reference sheet with the damn thing. As a bookmark perhaps. Gonna figure that out as I go.
Oh, and did I mention I paid for it at 711? Yeah, you can do that in Japan. Pay for online goods with cash at convenience stores. I could have even had it delivered there if I wanted.
Despite expecting a worn paperback, I recieved a well cared for hardcover. The paper cover has only a little wear on the edges. The cover art appears to be identical to the original as published in 2003, but Saphira's scales are lined with a shiny blue foil. Actually, what was most eye-catching at first was the silver band around the lower part of the book, but that was just a paper ad saying how well the book sold, etc. I also noticed the book had an attached cloth bookmark of shiny silver. Opening the book, the prologue (which takes place at night) pages are negatives of the normal pages, every one of which has a mountain range bordering the bottom. I looked for the glossary (of all the made up words) that is in the back of the English version and couldn't find it. I later discover that the inside of the dust jacket, while protecting a plain, but smart smooth, blue cover, has a map of Alagaesia printed on it's inside, with the glossary arranged around it on the inner flaps. The map (black printed on blue) has the route taken in the book marked in white.
All these pretty, and nifty features, as well as being in better condition them most books that pass through my possession, for the price of about two and a half American dollars is pretty fucking awesome. I'm psyched, and I can feel my grades dropping already. Sadly, this book is too nice for what I originally intended for it: to be a learning book I could write in. So, I shall just have to keep a paper reference sheet with the damn thing. As a bookmark perhaps. Gonna figure that out as I go.
Oh, and did I mention I paid for it at 711? Yeah, you can do that in Japan. Pay for online goods with cash at convenience stores. I could have even had it delivered there if I wanted.
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