Learning a New Language

This year I had long discussions with my school. I refused to go to English classes since I had certified a C2 during the Cambridge Proficiency Exam I passed in 2023. I found that there is a better use of my time than to attend English classes. I suggested that I am willing to do another language class instead. After some back and forth they agreed.

I was torn between comfort and novelty. I decided on the latter. The language I chose was Japanese. I have never been too much of an anime/manga person, but the culture sparked my interest based on things I have read and seen online.

I might have been overlooking the fact that I would have to learn to read a new alphabet. With Roman languages, it is easier for me, I speak French and have learned some Spanish and Italian. If you speak one then you'll have some clue of the structure of others. You can somewhat guess stuff. That is not the case for any Asian languages.

It is fun starting from zero though. You can feel the learning curve. Especially the suck in the beginning. At the time of writing this, I am preparing a test for tomorrow on Hiragana, one of many Japanese alphabets. It is hard. When there are multiple choices then I can get a little over half of my guesses correct. When there are not I struggle a lot. I find it especially challenging to create patterns to learn. You know the stuff that makes it easiest to learn..

I have found some patterns but not nearly enough yet. For example, ほ corresponds to "ho" and is very similar to は which corresponds to "ha". There is also "ma" – ま, it is like a "ho" without the first bar and the two bars on the second letter moved down a notch.

Either way, it is fun! Not looking forward to the test but we shall be all right! With that, I challenge You to learn something new this week. Embrace the suck!

This Week's Suggestions:

🎶 "Shoreditch" by Vrdnyn featuring Eljé:

I randomly found this song on a Spotify radio. It has a melodic and mellow UK garage beat. This is perfectly layered with Eljé's vocals which just bring the whole thing together in a way that I can simply not put into words. Have a spin!

またね ("ma-ta-na") – See you later!