So, I decided to become fluent in Japanese. I’ve always been fascinated by languages, and one of my dreams is to be able to learn as many as I can. This is probably because I was born and raised in a place were we have two official languages: Spanish and English. Being constantly surrounded by English language TV, music, magazines, and many other things helped me to learn the language. In school, I leanred the grammar. Then, when I moved to NY, I finally was forced into having conversations which I barely did back home.

But it’s not enough. I want to learn other languages. If it were up to me I’d go to school and learn as many as I could, no joke. But, years ago, even before I moved here, I was introduced to Japanese anime by a friend. I did not like it and brushed it aside. Later on, the same friend showed me more anime, and this time I did like it. After watching an entire series, I didn’t really watch anymore. I just wasn’t a fan. Anyway, I started getting into anime once again recently, and also manga. This made me want to understand Japanese. I also got into Japanese rock music. There is a lot of good music, good anime and manga, oh, and even TV dramas! Of course that’s not all there is to Japanese culture. But what I really want is to be able to read a magazine, a book, watch an anime, and understand it all perfectly without the need for translation into English. It’s such an expressive and passionate language, I want to learn!

Of course for serious learning one can not rely on anime (that would be ridiculous). I did my research, and I found many resources. There is school, books, software, websites, all kinds of resources. These are the ones I am using at the moment.

• All Japanese, All The Time. http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/ a friend introduced me to this awesome blog. Khatzumoto has his own method for learning Japanese, and although it may be too extreme for many of us, we can always learn something valuable from this language warrior. I read up a lot in his blog, and gathered the information that would be useful to me.
• Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1: A complete course on how not to forget the meaning and writing of Japanese Characters by James W. Heisig. This book has many good reviews and recommendations as a great method to learn and remember the Kanji. I just started with it, but so far, so good! I got my copy from amazon.
• Byki. This system has desktop software, a community, and the basic software is FREE. And it’s not just some crappy free trial, it’s actually pretty good. It uses common phrases, basic words, everything that you need to know. It’s not boring at all. It gives you real pronunciation, images, and you can take tests, record yourself to compare with a native speaker, get new lists of words from other users, etc…There are many things you can do with Byki. I started off with the free version but I liked it so much that I bought the Deluxe (it was on sale for $40).
• Music. I remember that one of the things which helped me learn English faster and to pronounce more accurately was listening to music. I’d crank up the volume in my room and sing along with my favorite Rock and Metal bands that of course sang in the English language. So I’m repeating this method now with Japanese. I have a few favorite bands right now like, L’arc~en~Ciel, D’espairsRay, Versailles to mention just a few. I try to look at their lyrics as well, even if it’s Romaji (a system of Romanized spelling used to transliterate Japanese). I also listen to Japanese radio, even if it’s just news.
• TV. I don’t watch much of it to begin with, but I’ve reduced my amount of English language TV as much as possible. Instead, I watch anime, or Jdorama (Japanese TV dramas). I still use the subtitles in English but hope to stop using them soon. So my Netflix queue is usually full of anime these days. Unfortunately they don’t have Jdoramas in Netflix yet, so I have to buy them or find them online on streaming websites. One really good website I go to constantly to watch anime is crunchyroll.com. They are getting a lot of great new anime that are legally streamed in their website. Plus, since it has a great forum, I can find out about other good ones to watch, and even for TV dramas.
• Reviewing the Kanji. This website is a wonderful tool to use as a supplement to Remembering the Kanji, mentioned above. Once I get through a chapter on my book, I go online and review the Kanji learned. This way I will reinforce it. The website was created for this exact purpose so it works perfectly with the book. It also motivates me to keep learning.

So those are my current tools. It’s not easy to learn a new language, but the more you immerse yourself into it the more you learn. I can not have a conversation in Japanese as of yet, but each day I understand a little more. I’ve even started to think in Japanese a little bit, and that’s a good sign to me. Now what would be even more helpful is a friend who is fluent in Japanese. I guess I have to work on that…

またね。

Everyone likes to start new things at the beginning of the year. These are known as Resolutions.

The first definition I found for this word was: A firm decision to do or not to do something. Ok, that seems quite clear to me. But from what I hear and see, most people start the year with tons of resolutions, which are then forgotten or given up on, very easily.

I don’t do resolutions. I believe in something called The Law of Attraction. It is very simple. You attract what you think of, what you focus your thoughts on constantly, whatever things you think of with emotion/feeling. You know how when a day starts off badly, it seems like things just go downhill from there? That’s you doing it. One thing goes wrong for you, then you get upset, sometimes start arguing in your mind about how “these things happen always at the worst time”, and from there it starts building up inside you. And very soon, another thing goes wrong and you say…what do you say? “THIS DAY JUST GETS WORSE EVERY SECOND”, “WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS”, “IT’S ALWAYS ONE THING AFTER THE OTHER“. Do any of those sound familiar? It’s all you, it’s your own doing. Attracting like a magnet, your negative thoughts, together with the feelings of frustration, anger, and your focus on whatever negative thing happened to you at the beginning of the day, plus any others that may be coming back into your memories from past frustrations, make up a huge spiral. And before you know it, it really is ONE THING AFTER THE OTHER. And again, it’s all your own doing. Nope, no one did this to you, there is no one punishing  you, no outside forces are against you. Read the rest of this entry »

Time is an illusion. One that we learn about early in life, and it is enforced on us quickly and heavily. Things move, change, we see it and associate one with another. But do we really understand?

For those of us who understand that there is no time, and that this is but one life amongst many others, and that death is nothing but another step into the next one, things are a bit different. It is all one line, going on and on, and the point of it all is to enjoy it.

Worrying about simple things, becoming upset and frustrated about mundane situations or people, these things that are so difficult to avoid for many, are amongst many of the pointless activities in which we focus this precious life. When you think about it, can you see how pointless and idiotic it is?

It is sad how so many people spend day after day missing out on so much, ignoring so much, pushing aside so much. And instead they choose to spend all their energy into things that will never give them the happiness, enjoyment and satisfaction that their souls are really craving.

Fear, shame, worry…..controlling us, holding us back, taking everything from us.

Say what you really want to say, do what you really want to do, think what you really want to think. Everything is constantly moving, evolving, changing. Live.
Really…..what are you waiting for?

~L