Unpopular opinion: The Little Prince royally sucks

FRENCH
My goal isn’t to be fluent or to get good very quickly. I know how to learn a language while being inconsistent/sporadic in my efforts. I’ve had many half-baked attempts at learning french since 2015?? 2016?? I’m okay with it since there’s only so many hours in a day and I have a lot of stuff I want to do in English, Japanese, Korean and I have a life and I want to practice self-care and all that.

I think once I read 10 books in French I’ll feel more comfortable/intermediate but I have a life so I don’t have time so who knows when I’ll get there (I have zero interest reading french translations !) .  Plus I’m interested in Spanish so I may read 10 books in Spanish first. I’m torn but I have no time anyway! I’m leaning towards French because I love how French doesn’t drop the subject while Spanish like Korean ALWAYS DOES whenever possible which is a nightmare for language learners and it’s a no-biggie for native speakers of course! Plus learning Spanish while knowing English and French is easier than just knowing English right (If I do the French -> Spanish route) ?? I gotta make decisions.

I read the little prince in 2016? I had the English translation at hand to reference it so I understood it. Anyway, the Little Prince sucks. I have nothing against kids books but I have something against kids books that are poorly written. I have so many recommendations for interesting, well-written kids books in English for kids between the ages of 5-10. Why is this book being recommended so much? I am truly stumped.

Besides being an awful book it’s horrible for language learning
!

1) I hated it. Unfortunately I read it to the end instead of stopping!!

It is not because of unwarranted high expectations because I know it’s an extremely old, kids book. Actually, children’s book have STIFF COMPETITION…  I’ve read children’s books in English because I was once a child and this book really sucks compared to whatever I read as a child. There are so many wonderful children’s books out there and some are so good that even adults enjoy them. The little prince was unremarkable in every single way.

2) It’s random and illogical.
Those are pretty much the worst characteristics of sentences/word-choice for language learning. I don’t mind random if it’s executed well ie when it’s witty, funny, interesting, entertaining. For the little prince it is never any of those adjectives.

It felt like random for the sake random in the worst way possible. I never knew random could be this dull. The
sentences are not conducive to language learning. You could’ve told me ivrogne means thomeless/stripper/dancer/pedestrian/hula-hoop (it really means drunk) etc I would’ve believed you and also promptly forget the word and meaning because it’s arbitrary. I have to mention that I subscribe to STeve Kaufmann’s belief that you may need to encounter the word being used 20-30 times sometimes to have to it stick so I don’t have unrealistic expectations of coming across magical sentences left and right that make the word effortless and easy to remember on the first encounter. Even taking that into account, the sentences/story in Little Prince are not good for language learning.

I also hate alice in wonderland. I never knew how much the book sucked until I actually tried to read it. Holly from girls next door quoted from that book a lot and the quotes make the book seem much better than it actually is. It’s astounding how much a book can suck despite its popularity. Well there’s 50 shades of Gray but I never really tried to read-read it lol.

I listened to the audio using workaudiobook while reading so one thing I definitely learned is that petit prince is pronounced PETI PRAN in French. Or at least that’s what it sounds like to my American ears. I’m still working out the phonetics in French. Which reminds me I can’t pronounce petite prince because of the French R and I can’t pronounce cinq  (probably because I can’t hear it)

For good children’s books in English for people learning English I would recommend Roald Dahl of course and My Father’s Dragon.

i recommend the WHO Is SHE STORIES on lingq for anyone who is beginner. It’s fairly fun and entertaining while the little prince is dull as paint drying on the wall

On a positive note, I learned my lesson and gave up on The Stranger very quickly (maybe after 1 chapter). It was not drawing me in whatsoever. I don’t think I’d read it even if i was fluent in french or only knew french etc. When I read fiction in English that doesn’t click with me I usually just stop or skim like crazy or skip pages like crazy and I may or may not read the end just to get it out of my system. I gotta go with my gut feeling. It’s hard to find good fiction books in English because I’m very picky about writing style. I want to read something that feels enjoyable and effortless or not effortless but worth reading. I recommend the martian, perfume (german book translatd to english and the translation won an award. the translator is brilliant), you by caroline something, and octavia butler ( thanks Oprah).

On an even more positive note, I started reading Jamais Assez Maigre de Victoire Maçon Dauxerre in french with the english translation at-hand and no french audio. I’m confident I can read it to the end and pick up on whatever words/sentence structures that repeat a lot. I listen to korean/japanese music while reading it since it’s not that distracting.

The book isn’t amazing but it’s entertaining enough and useful for learning French. Coincidentally or not I am watching America’s Next Top Model haha. I make anki cards while reading book because I have a .txt of the French book but I don’t go crazy over it. I am very picky because I know words will repeat and I don’t want to spend too much time making anki cards. If I come across a sentence 2 words I don’t know I usually just choose one or none or if I come across a sentence with 5 words I don’t know (ie list of nouns) I choose one or none. I’ve been trying to hone-in on my decision making skills and I am very aware of natural SRS when you just read a lot! I use autohotkey and excel to collect the text and make cards so I try to keep it efficient. I have to use EXCEL because I can only tolerate cloze cards! Also I can easily make all the words bold/huge/etc  I can’t imagine clozing the whole word. I cloze 1 character usually. I cloze 2 characters if I think the word is easy and I should push myself. I execute that by sending the sentence to one of the 2 different .txt files using authotkey. I haven’t imported any of the cards yet. I think I’ll do it after I finish the book.

Here is an example:

Si elles deviennent gênantes , il suffit de leur jeter un sort pour *-{{c1::b}}rider -* leur magie .
*
If they become annoying , just cast a spell on them . to bind/ *-{{c2::re}}strain -* their magic .

in anki it looks like:

mediafire links for librecalc/excel codes:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/rm7f1165hbofeyh/french-cloze-codes.ods/file

http://www.mediafire.com/file/bdv7k1brfyti78v/french-cloze-codes-excel.xlsx/file

As I explained thoroughly in my posts about anki and Korean, anki is merely a tool and

passively reading sentences over and over doesn’t do shit for me unless it’s in the context of REAL LIFE or of reading an actual book if some sentence structure happens to repeat etc. Passively reading sentences in anki is especially unhelpful for remembering or learning words. Cloze facilitates active recall which is so much more useful than passively reading crap. Also like Korean I use very lax settings in anki so I push shit out far which lets me figure out which words are actually hard and which are actually easy.

__-=-=-=-=-

Also I use lingoes pop-up dictionary and DEEPL since I have the .txt of the French book in addition or in lieu of referencing the English translation. In hindsight, I’m very glad that I dragged my feet and didn’t accomplish much French learning in 2015/2016 because DEEPL’s pop-up translation windows program only became available this year or last year.  It’s an amazing tool! It’s superior to google translate for French, German, and a bunch of other languages.

In conclusion, I should have dropped little prince 3 paragraphs in, and the same with The Stranger. I cannot make myself like something and my gut tells me that it has nothing to do with my level of French. English is my native language but that doesn’t mean I love Charles Dickens or How to Kill a Mockingbird or whatever bullshit book that is supposedly amazing. You have to read stuff you actually like. there’s so many books out there and you don’t have to read a book that makes reading feel like a chore. It’s a cardinal rule of AJATT and it’s something I should always keep in my heart and mind.

I was going to blog about what a nightmare it was to read a Korean short story but I can’t find my draft. It’s a nightmare that never happens in Japanese, French, or English.

HAPPY READING!

 

as much as I hate the story, it doesn’t prevent from liking stuff that are inspired by it. So long as nobody forces me to read the original story, I’m aright

BUYING JAPANESE BOOKS FOR STUDYING JAPANESE

SO far I am at around 110 books? I know it’s more because i don’t register every book on dokusho meter because i don’t want to be associated with shitty books. and i’m excited to reach 200 and i certainly have a long list of shit i want to read so there’s no problem in that department. it’s just a matter of time. if 2015 and half of 2015 wasn’t so shitty i might’ve already reached 200 books and i am not exaggerating. it’s incredible what a difference changing jobs can make. BUT 2017 should be better for that reason alone.

I do not mean textbooks. and btw I don’t think Korean books can be bought on the cheap unless you go to book off in Korea, right? I have no interest in reading books in Korean anyway so it works out great for me but curious if you’re shit of luck if your target language is Korean.

I think tae Kim and RIKAI-CHAN and google is PLENTY. I never bought a Japanese grammar book and I KNOW my Japanese grammar. it is not necessary and I’m glad I never bothered! FREE FOR THE WIN. I mean books to enjoy reading whether it’s books with furigana ( I only have one book with furigana over all the kanji and that was because that was the only way that particular book was printed because the publisher wanted everyone to be able to read the story), light novel ( love slayers… not interested in loli moe gag shit that are plaguing and ruining anime nowadays), hard covers, bunko, manga, etc….

ANYWAYS 2 ways to buy books are in person and online. the option for in person is book off if you’re in south Korea or japan or NY or California… go to the site to find out more locations. There’s kurokuniya but it’s so expensive and you can find books people sold from kurokuniya (whatev it is called) kinokuni? to book-off. I went to kinikuniya and gasped and left lol. It’s only good for window shopping. for online there’s cdjapan and honto.jp?? and buying services but… I don’t want to pay for EMS shipping

here’s the list

CDJAPAN.NET

mercari – if you reside in the US. / EBAY

PHYSICAL BOOK STORES LIKE BOOK-OFF, KUROKUNIYA

HONTO.JP (EMS ONLY – EXPENSIVE)

AMAZON.CO.JP (only if the seller sends internationally. you find out by putting the stuff in your cart and checking it out but delivery is relatively fast… like a few days! )

TENSO (FORWARDING SERVICE which opens you up to all Japanese websites ie amazon)

cdjapan.net and my rationalization!

so I love book off in NYC because of the prices like the 1 dollar section. there have been books where they’ll be in both the 1 dollar section and the regular price section which ranges from 3-5 dollars or even more if it’s hard cover or immaculate condition (but honestly everything in the stores seems to be good condition for the most part) and so in that case I go for the 1 dollar one because there is no discernible difference between the 2 in quality. sometimes the 1 dollars are books are a little more busted or yellowed but usually they’re in good quality. BUT it’s far for me now like 2 hours so if take in the time it takes to travel there and the cost it costs to go there and the selection (it’s limited in that whatever’s there is there.) and blahblah cdjapan.net price isn’t that bad. CDjapan sells new books so they’re going to range from 4-6 dollars unless it’s new or hardcover etc. (then it can go up higher) and gives you options for the shipping so I go for the cheapest because there’s no rush!!! I don’t understand people’s obsession with expedited EMS shipping and all that. Like with any overseas transactions you gotta experiment and see what weight will give you the most bang for your buck with the shipping. What I love about CDJAPAN is that I can buy books that I can’t buy at bookoff there and they’re all new…. so I try my best to not buy anything I can buy at book off…. like popular stuff. Like I said in the beginning considering the circumstances the price that I pay at cdjapan isn’t that bad but you know in case I ever go to nyc I don’t want to buy something for 7 dollars if I can get it for 1 dollar or 3 dollars etc… like I said I’m not impatient. I can wait a year or years. Unfortunately cdjapn can only sell books that are print ( but even if it’s in print sometimes they don’t carry it… there’s one book I WANTD TO READ AND IT WAS SO WORTH IT but it was not on cdjapan and it is definitely not out of print because it’s not that old.. they can’t possibly carry every fikin’ book. btw that books is ZOO 2 by otsuchi … IHIGHLLY RECOMMEND zoo 1 btw. btw I found it book off 😃 curiosity satisfied but I think I liked zoo 1 more) … so I can’t buy any ZEPPAN books 😦 it’s not like I’m obsessed with obscure books. it so happens some books that I want to read are not in print anymore. I am keeping a list of those books in evernote and dokusoh meter and whatnot and hopefully once that list is long enough and I carefully assess if they’re worth reading or not based off amazing reviews etc. I may look into a buying service in japan so I can buy used versions of them. book-off is a hit or miss because you can find some treasures and other times I know what I want to buy and they don’t have it which can’t be helped because it’s a used book store. what I want is a Japanese library because I don’t like buying shit. for English I try to borrow everything from the library.

here’s the other rationalization. I don’t spend money on stuff I don’t need to. I realize a lot of the times there’s an option to not buy something. you don’t need to buy coffee from Starbucks or decorations or candles or febreeze ( candles and febreeze are bad for your health) or soda or perfume (why do people pay money to SMELL LIKE SHIT) or cigarettes. one of the things I thought of as a little girl was that I never want to become that 40/50 year old woman who douses herself in perfume everyday and upset everyone with her presence or in other words emit effluvium. I think overapplying perfume is one of the most embarrassing things ever. I am anti-perfume so I wish people do not use it or make it etc. It is toxic.) or fast food or snacks (I actually prefer to starve or fast depending on how you want to construe it since it takes many days to starve to death – thank you books about north Korea- if it’s not necessary for me to buy and eat crap. according to a very INTERESTING book about notrh Korea they knew from experience how many days if takes women and men to die from starvation and it takes longer for women. it’s so scary and CREEPY that they have this knowledge from the wealth of anecdotal experience… why do that to your OWN PEOPLE over the dumbest shit). there are some shit they sell in cvs’s etc. that I do not understand why they bother producing it and why people bother buying it… stuff like frivolous Christmas decorations and whatnot especially plastic crap that’s bad for your health. and it’s always the people who make minimum wage + too many children who spend on that stuff… WHY??? (well they’re not very smart so it’s not surprising. but seriously if you’re a teen mom what do you want your daughter to become a teen mom? of course not. I think if my mom was a teen mom I would think she’s a dumb shit and hope I’m smarter than her and I only say harsh things like this because i’ve met impudent teen parents) but anyways I think a lot of the stuff that are sold and bought are so unnecessary and impart negative consequences on the environment and people around you etc. anyways it is one of my rationalization as to why I think it’s not so bad that I’m spending on money on Japanese books… I can’t borrow japanes books because I live in the usa and my only option it to buy and I go the cheapest route by choosing the slowest shipping and i’ve used my cdjapan points to save money and… reading is GOOD for your mind. It makes sense spending money on this vs other shit.

In case this puts someone’s mind at ease I am happy to report that my “haul” from cdjapan went swimmingly and all my crap was in mint condition as it should since they’re all new 😀 I think it averaged out to 6 or 7 dollars per book including the cost of shipping. I cant make myself spend 11 dollars on a book. it’s too much!! i’ll wait the few years lol (usually works for popular books… when I go to book-off). I am happy to report that cdjapan is worth it and I don’t feel like I’m spending a fortune on books. they’re new and it’s convenient because they’re sent to my door and I get to choose the shipping method and I get points for my birthday blahblahlh.

AMAZON.CO.JP

OMG I cannot believe I never looked into this. the shipping is only 10 dollars!!! well for whatever I ordered it was 10 dollars so it was totally worth it. I always assumed that the shipping cost would be obscene so I never looked into amazon.co.jp since I live in the USA. This is a route that is absolutely worth taking if you are buying a large set of books like the whole set of a manga series or a book series, etc. Otherwise you’re spending 10 dollars shipping per book. BTW not all sellers sell internationally. for the books I wanted to order only one seller would ship it to the USA so I am lucky :D. The downside to amazon.co.jp is that it’s only worth buying bulk so it’s not a good idea to order bulk of something you have NEVER read with the assumption that you’ll like it regardless of all the 5 star reviews on some site. sometimes the reason reading isn’t enjoyable in Japanese is because the book sucks rather than your shitty Japanese abilities. saying. There are some amazing books I’m compatible with that makes reading the Japanese language so PLEASANT AND FUN AND EFORTLESS AND THERE ARE SOME awful authors that are so frivolous and awful and it doesn’t take THAT many pages to figure that out. Now I haven’t read the full series so I cannot completely say my purchase was worth the money but I had read a few volumes so based on that it’s likely I’ll like the rest. EDIT: I ‘m almost done reading it was worth it.

ANOTHER option is TENSO which is a forwarding service. what you’d do is order books from online and have it sent to an address in japan then have them send them to you. I think I want to try it one day once I have a long enough list because I believe only EMS is available and that is HELLA expensive. there are some books I am dying to read that aren’t available through the other channels.

Lastly I need to include some deodorizing tips for old books whether they’re from Book-off or amazon or whatever other reason. I’ve researched my fairshare oN THE INTERNET. here’s the info without the BS

MERCARI/ EBAY

2 options if you live in america. on mercari search any of the following to find the listings: 小説　 japanese book 日本語　にほんご  本 文庫  単行本 漫画 マンガ

you could also search the author or book title in japanese but it’s like a shot in the dark…. unless it’s popular. if the shipping is too expensive ask the seller to use usps media mail for the shipping option. you can also use the site to sell books you finished reading! very easy to do if you read konmari’s book. mercari stuff usually comes people’s houses so i recommend asking the seller if it’s a smoke pet free home. even if the house is smoke/pet free the books will probably smell so if you’re like me it’ll be months until you read them but it’s quite all right since i have huge piles of physical books and ebooks that are waiting to be read.

i recommend bundling and sending an offer on the app provided the shipping option is set correctly on the listing. you send the offer by putting in all the books you want from the one seller in your cart then sending them the offer. you can send them any offer ! i recommend lowballing as much as possible like 5 books for 10 dollars or 5 dollars. at the end of the day people just want to get rid of their shit and japanese books in japanese are not in high demand on an american app.

if the bundle option does not work or the shipping price increases really high message the seller directly to negotiate.

EBAY – to price check the mercari listing. you could also price check with amazon.co.jp. useful for stuff that comes in a series like manga.

DE-ODORIZING TIPS

BAKING SODA – get a big plastic tub, pour baking soda in it, put in some kind of mesh or grid like thing in the plastic tub so you can put the books in the tub without them touching the baking soda but still get exposed to the baking soda via the air. I’d say give it a few days or a weeeek or a month or two. REPEAT as needed.. do not throw away the baking soda. save it to clean stuff like your bathtub or to stain treat your white shirts with the nasty, unsightly yellow stains. mix HYDROGEN peroxide and dish soap to get a super useful paste to clean ANYTHING.

also there’s kitty litter and activated carbon. be careful with activated carbon. i put them on coffee filters and sometimes i tie it up and sometimes i don’t. i use all 3 lol.

NEWSPAPER- put newspapers between the pages. It’s not necessary to do every page (maybe if the book is THAT bad). I’d say every 10-20 pages. give it a few days, a week. REPEAT as needed.

FREEZER + NEWSPAPER – place book in a ziplock bag then put it in the freezer. I say employ the newspaper method on top of it for good measure in case there’s moisture so that the book is not subjected to the full brunt of the it.. Leave in for 3 days. the freezer has to do with mold I think…

NEWSPAPER – by it self.

AIR IT OUT – I’d say you’d have to it leave it for many hours to notice a difference. Of course the book has to be open with the pages exposed to the air/wind to make a difference. It’s tricky because you want air/wind but you don’t want the sun on the book. don’t forget about uva rays. they are omnipresent. so I don’t recommend leaving them out for more than a few hours in shade.

SUN – sun is good and bad… you gotta think of the pros vs cons with the sun depending on the condition of your book. Sun kills germs and helps rid any excess moisture in the book which may make a difference. if you leave your book in direct sunlight for too long you’ll damage the book. the pages will turn darker and if you leave it in the sun long enough it will smell like the sun (which smells awful in my opinion). I think it’s unnecessary unless your book has serious smells/issues. I read somewhere it takes 6 minutes for the sun to kill whatever germs it is capable of killing.

VACCUM – sometimes the smell is dust rather than the book being old. i vacuum the books carefully with the appropriate attachment. sometimes the book is old so it will smell even if you vacuum it. vacuum has 2 u’s

TIME – I’ve been shocked how i’ve gotten stinky books to smell like nothing from using the above methods which ultimately take time.

there are way too many fun books to read. do not waste time hauling textbooks. the fact that you’re hauling textbooks is very telling that you seem to be wasting money and you’ll NEVER BECOME FLUENT

IMPROVING ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN A PRACTICAL AND SMART WAY ✿

I came with a marvelous idea for using anki to improve my english vocabulary. I didn’t a lot of books when I was in school and I regret it because I had time and reading is so good for you. Because I’m so aware and critical of my english abilities from spending a majority of my time in Japanese I’ve been proactive with English. If I come across a word that’s unknown to me I look it up whether it’s from the internet or books. I’ve been using my iphone’s merriam webster application for that. It allows me to star words and browse “history” where it shows all the words I looked up (it’s pretty long so I don’t know if it keeps all of it or up to a certain extent. I never bothered scrolling all the way down that). It bothered me that this application doesn’t have an export feature where you can export all the words you starred or looked up so that you’d have a very relevant and possibly familiar vocabulary list (some of the words are SO rare or specific with the definition i really doubt i’ll come across it again). I finally had an epiphany on how to use it to expand my english vocabulary EFFECTIVELY. One of my reasons I was discouraged from using anki to learn english vocabulary was that I didn’t want to add every english word that I don’t know that I come across because it gets inefficient because some of these words may not be worth putting in my deck bcause it’s too common (and I didn’t realize yet somehow since I spend most of my time in japnaese) or it’s too rare (as in useless but you know knowledge is power. perhaps not but for my purposes I would like to learn the most USEFUL frequent difficult english words that I dont’ know). For Japanese i pretty much do this where i put almost all words i don’t know in my deck or i put in que to add to my deck (que has been collecting a lot of dust). I can’t do this to myself for english because it’s my NATIVE LANGUAGE. My motivation for proactively learning english words is so that I can enjoy what I read more easily (for some things there’s words that come up that i don’t know and then when i look it up i think it’s so useful but somehow i don’t know it and i couldn’t have guessed the meanign, decrease word look-up, keep up with poeple my age (I’ve read those stories of people who were completely fluent and articulate and then went to a foreign country and could not speak fluently anymore after a few years because they have no one to talk to… and i’m sure because they don’t come into contact with their native language their vocabulary grown as much as other people their age in their home country), and so i dont’ look like a fool lol. I also like being productive and achieving things. I want to grow. I can’t imagine a year or 2 years passing and have nothing to show for myself. I’m talking about those people that play games on ipad and facebook all day when they could be accomplishing real shit like learning languages, reading books. ALSO I HAD concerns about the reading method for learning words. I recently had several instances where I saw the “unknown” word in the sentence and realized it’s actually familiar and that I’ve looked it up in the past (more than once or twice sometimes) and I had this new context in this sentence and I could not for the love of god remember the definition even vaguely. all i could remember is that the word doesn’t sound like what it means and I remember looking it up multiple times before and I remember feeling satisfied withthe definition in the sense thta after havingread the definition I thought the choice of the word was perfect. I know people say you’ll pick it up from context and seeing it multiple times but here i am looking at a word i ‘ve seen in context at least 2 times in the past and looked up 2 times in the past and it’s staring at me and it’s familiar but the DEFINITION does not come to me. i read the definition again and it’s as if i’ve never read it lol or i go oh yeah it DOES NOT sound like what it means. some words they don’t sound like what they mean at all or even opposite. sometimes the word sounds harsh or soft or something so i have something to go on to have it be memorable. so anyways this happened to be several times with several words and it made me think wow so much wasted effort.

anyways the EPIPHANY. maybe it’s not superb enough to call it an epiphany but in case someone else finds it helpful i wanted to share.

I found the perfect way to achieve my goals while addressing my concerns. the solution is use anki and use the MCD format where you blank out a part of the word or definition or both and then put what goes in the blank on the back of the card

EXAMPLE ( i KNOW THIS WORD, don’t worry. i learned it years ago)

FRONT: MELANCHOLY
depres____ of spirits : DEJECTION

===========================

BACK: sion

I can do whatever format i want to do on the front depending on the word. for example i might put the sentence on the front as well. but the format always HAS to include the DEFINITION on the front otherwise it’s pointless. it fixes the problem i juts mentioend above about wasting effort where i can only remember the word vaguely but cannot recall the definition whatsoever despite multiple look-ups in the psat. It’s up to me how i’ll tailor the format for a certain word.

the second rule is that the word that I put in my anki deck has to be “useful” or “easy to remembeR” (sounds like what it means etc). I either come across a word that satisfies one of those criteria and keep it in mind or write it down and then add it later or scroll through my m-w history and starred words (like I have to be strict with adding the useful and easy to remember words. there’s so many words there so i feel like I want to know all these so i’m smarter but clearly it’s counter-intuitive to add all those words unless they all happen to fit my criteria. some of them SO OBSCURE). It’s such a relief that my countless look-ups aren’t completely for nil. one way to satisfy the criteria of “useful” is multiple look-ups with the word or familiarity with the word only and none with the definition like I mentioned before. I’ll give you one of those words. it was AUSTERE. here’s the long entry on m-w

1 a : stern and cold in appearance or manner b : SOMBER, GRAVE
2 : morally strict : ASCETIC
3 : markedly simple or unadorned
4 : giving little or no scope for pleasure
5 of a wine : having the flavor of acid or tannin predominant over fruit flavors usually indicating a capacity for aging
synonyms see SEVERE

btw for the card i used concise dictionary. both of these dictionaries are on lingoes (google and download if interested in an internet free dictionary though i’ sure everyone is connected 24/7 nowadays) for me.

to me austere sounds like something FANCY, chic or something that has to do with trees or nature. so every time i looked it up the definition did not match what it sounds like to me so the disparity stood out to me but I could never remember the definition. with this card format i can remember it somewhat effortlessly. i have to put in the effort of anki but at least the format isn’t painful and USELESS like front; word, back: definition. that’s the worst format for me personally lol.. i know that’s the DEFAULT if not the ONLY format for index cards for those kids in high school that are like helpless sheep that follow all the bs of shitty study methods. nonetheless that’s just my opinion so feel free to disregard it! I’m very excited to see how this will work out and I will update on it if it explodes in my face somehow.

===

MY NEXT ENTRY will be on learnig korean and something I watched recently on korean. Sometimes I don’t have that spark or interest with watching shows but once in a while I get really excited about watching a show and i actually enjoyed watching almost every minute of the show. those are the best when you have your craving, you “digest it” and it’s just as good as you anticipated it to be if not better. what happened was i didn’t feel like watching even though i downloaded a shitton load of japanese tv and i have so many bookmarks to youtube videos, more japanese tv shows, korean shows , and i hvae my american shows on the streaming etc…. then i found about an episode of a korean show and i thought i HAVE TO watch it so i tracked down the file and got it and watched it. it satiated me lol. I also added a bunch of words to my deck but my comprehension good nonetheless 🙂

Improving one’s English vocabulary

I was thinking about the standards i hold myself up for with japanese with the goal of understand 95%~ of the text that i’m reading on websites. of course if it’s of no interest to me i’m not going to waste my time googling that to find out what it means or what it is (sometimes it’s just something i just wouldn’t know because i’m not japanese and i haven’t lived in japan or whatever). Then I was thinking hey i haven’t reached this goal with english with the 95%~ comprehension for websites (well you could argue, not knowing or being unsure of the meaning of a couple adjectives/verbs/nouns doesn’t necessarily kill the comprehension… depends how important it is to the whole picture). It really is dependent on what i’m reading in english even if it’s a blog if it’s well-written they’ll be complex grammar where i’ll have to read the sentence again or they’ll be words I don’t know.  Some people are just good writers and they just use words i don’t know. Whether it’s blog entries or news articles, if it’s fairly well-written then i will come across words i do not know.  I’m not gonna start reading the new york times or whatever other boring ass newspaper to improve my vocabulary. that’s torture. I don’t do that for japanese and i’m not gonna do that for english. But I found a good way to learn vocabulary.

BTW you should know that firefox has awesome plug-ins/add-ons for looking up words and for saving text to file while you’re reading the internet. i downloaded dictionary.com and if you double click it tells you the meaning (I like merriam webster better but fast and efficient is KICKASS).  the sucky part is if you click on the audio thing for the audio bit it’ll take a while so i will actually hear the prnounciation faster by going to m-w and looking up the word than waiting for the add-on to fetch the audio.  I think with english especially hearing the word is useful and sometimes it’s spelled really weird or it’s ambiguous with the pronounciation. even if they have that gibberish to tell you how to pronounce it, it’s just a lot more clear with the audio. i’m checking out other add-ons so it’s more easy to collect/mine the stuff like with rikai-sama if you press S it saves the SENTENCE, DEFINITION, into a notepad file!!! like how awesome is that. so i’m seeing if any of the plug-ins are as kickass as that on firefox.

SO ANYWAYS the most important part is the SOURCE of the sentence/sparagraphs that you leran the vocabulary from. it has to be not too difficult/ridiculous/useless/archaic/etc and at the same time it has to hold your interest… otherwise why the hell would the context help you remember if you don’t give a shit about the actual thing you’re reading ie crappy newspapers.  It’s like AJATT  it has to be something you enjoy.

So this is what I found really useful/helpful and i think it could be applicable to other people … well bear with me. i hope somebody gets something out of what i wrote.

I find mad men really useful for learning vocabulary.  i look up words they use in the show and what i always always do starting since some season of mad men is I read  other people’s thoughts and analysis of the episode. ONE is because the show mad men is just very sophisticated like the dialogue is just not straight forward sometimes i miss out or i misinterpret????? TWO it’s just a well-done and there’s a lot of shit going on (If you don’t think so, you need to venture out into the INTERNET.  THREE even if i were to re-watch it, i wouldn’t get as much out of it compared to just reading somebody else’s thoughts about it. other people just better at getting stuff out of that show.  FOUR lots of mad men fans do it. FIVE it makes me want to watch more actively for the next episode like i want to notice stuff as much as the other peeps. SIX mad men fans are smart/educated (some of them are probably old right? like they were actually alive in the 60s lol) . some stuff i’ve seen written by mad men fans are just so well-written with the sentence/paragraph I have to re-read or the big words I don’t know. SEVEN it’s season 6, i forget stuff lol…. like i said this show’s well-done with the continuity and all that. i’ll literally watch an episode there’s some character and i have no idea who it is ( I couldn’t figure it out just from watching the ep because i like said mad men is never relaly that explicit and clear) or i forgot who it was (they showed up in some other season) and then i have to refresh myself lol.  I watch it once a year when it airs so….

Even though they’re using big words I care and I know what they’re talking about (the thing they’re describing) because I watched the episode. It’s sort of a game too like they’ll describe the character as some word I don’t know and I’ve seen the episode so I’ll be like oh   i think that’s a fancy word for __ and then i can see if i’m right. but usually now a days i have no imagination so i don’t even guess lol. The reason it works so well for me is because it’s so well-written and i really care about what the person writes about. it’s just the perfect environment for learning the vocab.

Now I don’t know what to do with the vocabulary. I saved the sentences with the definition on a notepad which i later transfer to EVERNOTE (kickass progrma, highly reocmmended thank you tofugu though their entries of late are complete shit , very lazy for the most part) . I looked at the sentences i collected they really are a pleasure to read lol… like no wonder i looked it up. I’ve always looked up words when i read particularly well-written stimulating blog entries or news articles or whateve rbut i never collected them. but i feel like collecting is helpful because the context is just so compatible with me. like i realy really give a shit!  I don’t know about adding the sentences to anki or anything like that. I do that with japanese and i don’t want to do that with english. english is my native language even if my vocab is low compared to people who read many more books that i have. I do want to improve my vocabulary like anyone else (who has a brain). if you don’t know the awesomeness/benefits of reading and vocabulary on YOUR LIFE, then you need to read up on that. I was literally tortured by people who do not read much/possess much vocabulary which was evident in their vapidly empty annoying blithering conversations. check out my lang-8 for that, you gotta be my friend to read it though!

so I found an awesome source to TAP to get the words that i do not know that i want to know. who wants to learn from a list from sat or act or gre or whatever…. half the crap just seems useless becaues you never heard of it. it relaly is like AJATT you gotta find something that’s enjoyable.  I do have a desire to improve my vocabulary and i’ve found the right medium. I’m not sure if this works with other shows…  mad men is just so SPECIAL AND well-done and there really is a lot to talk about plus some shows why would you care enough to read about other people’s thoguhts lol ie gossip girl/anything on cw for that matter. of course that show would attract fans who are good at writing and intelligent lol.  I’m also reading books too btw it’s just hard because I want to read japanese books too lol.

Basically I encourage looking up words while reading the internet since there are some awesome tools. there’s no reason not to. it’s 2013 bitch!  I checked out chrome, chrome has awesome addons/extensions too… the dictionary for that fetches the audio instantaneously!! so perhaps that’s a perk that can’t go ignored. hearing the word is really helpful to remembering it so that the next time you come across it, they’ll be a higher chance of having some feeling of familiarity.

here’s a copy paste of the stuff just so yo know what i mean… more clearly. if you haven’t seen mad men season 6 up to episode 4 there might be SPOILERS… i hope most people will see what i pasted and go i don’t know those words eitther lol. that’s what i’m thinking but i’ve been neglecting english for the past 4 years? loll with the japanese. I don’t want my english to turn to  crap or stop growing but at the same time iwant to also learn french a lot… not to fluency of course (that’s very very high goal) because first of all i haven’t even discovered what thing about france interests me.. the reason i mention french because it’s romance language and they’re based on latin so french itself would be helpful with expanding my english vocabulary but i’m curious as to how helpful learning french is vs. reading more in english with improving english vocabulary. because for korean if you don’t know hanja you can forget about expanding your vocabulary because it’s mostly (well  ALOT OF) 2 syllable words that all sound the same lol… the difference are so who gives a shit arbitrary unless you know what to look out for with hanja. i’m curious if it’s as helpful as hanja was for korean/japanese. but then again if i think of it as how helpful is korean for advanced japanese vocabulary (advanced? wtf is that lol.  I guess any and all words a fluent japanese speaker would know – that would encompass words that are based on kango, not based on kango) i don’t think it’s really helpful because they’re 2 different languages and they’re both based on kanji/hanja/chinese characters so not really…. not really for korean/japanese. yo know i read somewhere!!! it was on a language forum and they were talking about languages they’d forgotttten. someone said i forgot my damn german because all the common/daily convresation words are really similar to english and all the more advanced/difficult/beyond daily conversation words  are not similar to english THEN for french all the daily/conversation stuff was not similar to english but all the advanced words are similar to english… so they were saying german was more easily forgotten? unless they said it the other way around. so maybe learning french will be helpful  provided it is the way i wrote it.

EXAMPLES

A self-proclaimed “rooster,” he shows Dick how a cock behaves, taking what he wants from women — both money and pleasure — without compunction.
+   a feeling of deep regret (usually for some misdeed)
After blithely saying that they’re both good company that he enjoys,
+  in a joyous manner

t was evident that Pete’s a whiner not a fighter, using aggrieved complaining to get what he thinks he deserves — and to deflect blame for his bad behavior.
+ aggrieve
v.
1. infringe on the rights of
+++ 2. cause to feel sorrow

patrician  [pə’trɪʃn]
n.
1. a person of refined upbringing and manners
2. a member of the aristocracy

let Ted Chaough know that Heinz ketchup (“the Coca-Cola of condiments”) was pursuing potential suitors, and what was thought of as a clandestine tryst
++ adj.  conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods

it was something of a softball episode for the nascent director to undertake
+ the event of being born

and his sycophantic task of picking Pete up some toilet paper.
++
attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery
2. attempting

The fight between Peggy’s conscience and ambition wasn’t her only duel this week, there was also a pocket of resistance to quell from her male copywriting staff.
++
quell  [kwel]
v.
1. suppress or crush completely
2. overcome or allay

One line in particular of Trudy’s was a pithy summation of her lot, and strongly reminiscent of season three Betty,
++
adj.  concise and full of meaning

), Megan awkwardly tries to simply placate Don, walking on eggshells and cooking him a fancy chicken dinner (which came first, we wonder).
++ cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of

But the real meat of the premiere (for me) is Don and Arnold Rosen. Don’s eagerness for Rosen’s approval has the tenor of a teenage crush.
++ Tenor: atmosphere, appearance, similarity to.

But Don, like Pete, is still stuck in the old model of infidelity, in which deception was de rigueur, even – or especially — when your spouse was knowing and   – or especially — when your spouse was knowing and agreeable (as Trudy was with Pete)
++ : prescribed or required by fashion, etiquette, or custom : proper

litigant
(law) a party to a lawsuit; someone involved in litigation

litigation  [‚lɪtɪ’geɪʃn]
n.  a legal proceeding in a court; a judicial contest to determine and enforce legal rights

palimony
palimony
n.  support paid by one half of an unmarried partnership after the relationship ends

A court-martial (plural courts-martial, as “martial” is postpositive) is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.

paleolithic  [‚peɪlɪəʊ’lɪθɪk /‚pæl-]
n.  second part of the Stone Age beginning about 750,00 to 500,000 years BC and lasting until the end of the last ice age about 8,500 years BC
adj.  of or relating to the second period of the Stone Age (following the eolithic)

assignation  [よs?g’ne??n]
n.
1. a secret rendezvous (especially between lovers)
2. the act of distributing by allotting or apportioning; distribution according to a plan

The season kick off is heavily preoccupied with death. It’s roughly two hours of Don and Roger looking, for different reasons, into the yawning maw of death and wondering what the whole point of their lives is.
maw = mouth
informal terms for the mouth

Here in paradise they look like the future, and this woman with her decrepit hairdo worships

foundling  [‘faʊndlɪŋ]
n.  a child who has been abandoned and whose parents are unknown

What has many times in the past been cited as a program about change came out screaming that it is more likely about similarity, repetition and the ephemeral nature of human life.
ephemeral  [-rəl]
n.  anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form
adj.  lasting a very short time

has ideologues arguing over gay marriage and austerity while people are starving and dying, and a public that has lost all hope for a better future.
_++ n.  the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)

Only when we are back in the bitter cold of New York do we see that despite their beauty, their ruddy success, Don and Megan lack contemporary hair
++ adj.
1. inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life
2. of a color at the end of the color spectrum (next to orange); resembling the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies

She admires Joan as an intrepid groundbreaker who has conquered the big city and a male-dominated profession.
++= adj.  invulnerable to fear or intimidation

In that, they’re contrasted with the passivity and acquiescence of women like Sylvia,
++ v.  to agree or express agreement
acui-es (letter s)

t’s not entirely accurate to say that Joan is the distaff Don Draper—i
++ adj.  characteristic of or peculiar to a woman
++ the sphere of work by women

Mad Men nights of drunken revelry, involving making out with strange young men and visiting hippie haunts—disappearing into other guises in other words, flexing whatever privilege they have, be it glamor, money,

++ bar

Musings about Japanese

I thought of this like a month ago or months ago.. the use of seru. saseru etc etc.

I was thinking they never say naraseru. I realized the reason is thatTHey just use suru ie

おかしくさせる
病人にさせる

also I realized for

論法 you pronounce it as pou like you pronounce the ha in ronpa as pa.
論破

So I knew ronpa first from honma dekka when yoshida from black mayonnaise used that word. so it’s just really helpful having a deck where  i just test readings and then if i notice patterns it makes it that much easier to remember.  and i don’t know where esle i would come across the word ronpa. I’ve only heard it on honma dekka from yoshida. it’s a fair game word it’s just so far i’ve only heard it on that one instance.

another thing on honma dekka is that epic epic epic blog fight lol. I was so sad becasue I watched that episode like months after that happened. I was just clueless about it. I loled when kadokura called sawaguchi as the noukakgaku no hito (the brain science person)  on his blog even though there’s no point doing that since there’s only one noukagaku hito on honma dekka. 　It got even more exciting because kadokura came back to honma dekka after quitting as a jinsei soudan guest~

http://blog.livedoor.jp/dqnplus/archives/1598274.html

I remember when I first studied japaneses I didn’t qutie grasp the concept of learning a language like how it makes most sense to learn japanese in a japanese thinking way (ie tae kim) or that learning common stuff is first and foremost. for example one of the reasons I can remember/recall/use japanese grammar that isn’t common is because when I encountered it for the first time I’d never seen it before so just from that THAT grammar point stood out to me and I have some amount of inference that’s it not commonly used from my daily immersion (which is enjoyable BTW). Like for example if you had a list of grammar crap listed in abc order in japanese abc order with common and not so common mixed in and you tried to learn it or memorize it…. I persoanlly find that really inefficient. learning the common stuff makes it so muchhhhhh smooother. so anyways the whole point is … I looked up english words/phrases that I found interesting and wanted to know how to say it in japaense and the thing is they are 2 different languages so what may be common in english may not be in japanese and it’s just a translation via edwict or whatever that is called and maybe there’s a translation that is better than that but at the time i just used that.

so ONE of the words that I really wanted to know was 紆余曲折     うよきょくせつ        turns and twists; ups and downs; meandering; complications;

at that point I understood a bunch of common stuff but there’s still stuff going over my head and i was bored with the common japanese and so I wanted to learn some interesting words. the problem is this word isn’t used that much so it’s like even if i learned it I will most likely not hear it nor read it or come across it. it’s a fair game word. it is used it’s just not as frequently as some other words. So after I learned this word… I did not see it. I felt sad cause it’s like oh but this word is fun somebody use it please! instaed  of saying the same shit over and over again. but anyways it just didn’t happen… I Was exposed to drama and anime and talk/variety shows. BUt finally 3 years later I finally came across a usage of this word and it was on some talk/variety show and also in a book … so I Was happy that somebody used this awesome word lol. But the thing with words is it’s used when it’s the perfect situation and in the two instances i mentioned the use of the that word was perfect/exquisite. My goal with japanese is fluency so me learning this word is no loss to me even if i never came across it till years later. (thoguh there is a small possibility that i heard the word but i didn’t notice/recognize it). but anyways learn common crap first