Timeboxing for Fun and For Profit
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: General, Japanese, JLPT, Korean, Language Leave a comment »As I mentioned in my last post, I am great a devising projects, and terrible at follow through. This includes blogging, language studies (Japanese and Korean), Buddhist practice (e.g. nembutsu, meditation, etc), among many other things. The problem is always the same: at the end of the day, I never feel like I have enough time to finish things, so I inevitably sacrifice all or some of my projects and get frustrated. I am a real type-A personality sometimes. ;-p
But then recently, I read on AJATT’s website a simple concept called timeboxing. AJATT didn’t invent this, it’s a well-known subject, but AJATT is very effective at bringing such useful bits of advice to a broader audience.
The idea, as I understand it, works like so: if you have an activity you want to do, it’s better to do it in small units of time, even daily. The amount of time you put into it depends on the activity, but it should short enough that you’re practically guaranteed to have time for it. Having a timer helps too.
For example, for my Anki flashcards, which I do on my iPhone using AnkiMobile, I set a timebox for both Japanese and Korean decks to be 5 minutes. Five minutes is short, and may not cover all cards due, but I can definitely spare 5 minutes for each deck. Anki is nice enough to warn me that the time is up too so I don’t forget.
As AJATT writes in another article, smaller blocks of time “invite action” rather than procrastination. If I did 20-minutes blocks of time on Anki, I could accomplish more per block, but I am also more likely to hesitate and procrastinate, rather than do something. The point of all this is to just keep doing something routinely, rather than not doing it at all.
So, I also started trying this for Buddhist practice too. Being perfectionist, I spend more time worrying about what is the right practice, whether I am doing it enough, or is it working, etc., than actually doing it. So, I decided to time-box this as well. I “boxed” my Buddhist practice to just reciting the nembutsu 10 times a day. If I stick within my time-box daily, this takes about 30 seconds a day. Pretty easy.
You can do this with exercise too. I started experimenting with exercising for 1 minute a day. One minute may seem like much, but that’s still more than I did all last week. I found 1 minute of push-ups and sit-ups was still a good workout, and I am less likely to procrastinate over a 1 minute task, than a 30 minute task.
So easy, a caveman can do it!
But sometimes 5 minutes is not enough. For example, blogging a post on average takes me 1-2 hours (like I said, I am a perfectionist), so here 5 minutes is simply too little. Instead, I can time-box to something smaller like 20-30 minutes, and simply finish the next day rather than spending hours and not getting other things done. ;p
But for longer blocks it helps to subdivide them into smaller tasks and timeboxes. Timeboxes within timeboxes in other words. I’m doing that right now with this blog post. ;-p
Or, for my Korean studies, I listen to podcasts that take about 10-15 minutes on average. I also need a little time at the end to put new vocabulary into Anki. So here, the timebox might be 20 minutes, but I can divide that into 15 minutes for listening and 5 for inputting new vocab.
I am still working out the details of particular timeboxes, but having projects and hobbies put into smaller, more manageable chunks of time has helped immensely already. I feel like I am getting a lot more done, and not so flustered like before. To my surprise, I feel satisfied just getting even a little bit done a day, rather than doing it in big, big chunks that took too long.
Amazing what 5 minutes can do for one’s life. 
You Reap What You Sow
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Japanese, Korean, KPop, Language, Music, Religion Leave a comment »I wasn’t planning on posting this at first, but I really liked this one KPop video by a lesser-known artist by Red Roc. It’s dark and intense, features the awesome T.O.P. from Big Bang, and has a surprise ending:
If you notice at the end, the girl in the photos is someone different. Truly, you reap what you sow. Speaking of which, there is a yojijukugo in Japanese, 自業自得 (jigō jitoku) that means the same thing, and in Korean they have the phrase 자업자득 (saeob sadeug) which seems equivalent. It’s likely both phrases are derived from the same Chinese source, though I am speculating.
Anyhow, I’ve known people in real life who have have been in mutually destructive relationships like this (minus the baseball bat). It’s really sad to watch because it also hurts those around them too. And in the end it doesn’t bring any satisfaction; it just makes the wounds bleed worse and longer to heal.
P.S. Credit goes to Eat Your Kimchi for finding this song.
Buddhism: Try To Suck Less
Posted: February 7, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Japanese, Jodo Shu, Language, Religion | Tags: Nirvana Day 5 Comments »
The title for this blog post was inspired by some excellent advice from AJATT on learning a foreign language, and not giving up. Early in January he posted a couple bits of advice on Twitter:1
Keep learning and you’ll eventually stop sucking. Stop learning and you’ll suck forever.
And later:
We all know you suck. We know you live in Sucksville. That’s fine. You were born there. Just inch your way out.
The point of these bits of advice is the same: don’t be complacent and don’t fool yourself. When studying Japanese, or any language, it’s easy to believe that after studying a while your skills improve. But then, you speak with native speakers, and you still make terrible mistakes and sound really stupid. It’s happened to me time and time again. 
So, AJATT’s advice is simple: just admit you suck. Once you do that, your mission is to keep trying and “inch your way out”. Eventually, you’ll suck less. This is brutal advice, but very true if you stop to think about it.
I thought of this because the Buddhist holiday of Nirvana Day is approaching a week from now.2 And to me, AJATT’s advice is true in a Buddhist context too.
Recently, while reading someone’s blog post about the issue of race and Buddhism in America, I was surprised by how many people attacked the blog poster, but also reiterated that they were Buddhists for a number of years. And yet, to anyone reading their posts, it would seem painfully obvious that they weren’t acting very “Buddhist” at that moment. But this really illustrates how the mind can fool itself. Ego is not something you can consciously perceive, but it drives a lot of what we do, think or believe. We fool ourselves all the time, and often don’t even know we do it.
People can lull themselves easily into believing their good, or they’re right, even when it’s painfully obvious to others around them that they are not. People who practice Buddhism for a long time can still easily fall prey to anger if someone wounds their ego just right. I know this painful lesson too well.
On the subject of Nirvana Day, the final words of the Buddha to his disciples, according to the Pali Canon, are thus:
“Now, then, monks, I exhort you: All fabrications are subject to decay. Bring about completion by being heedful.“
The Buddha didn’t say “you can stop halfway” or “just give it your best shot”.3 He urged his disciples to tread carefully from start to finish, even when they’ve advanced a long way on the path. Unless all three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance are completely uprooted, then you are not done. It is said that Maitreya Bodhisattva, a Bodhisattva of the 10th degree and the next Buddha to come, still pays homage to all the Buddhas in the sutras because even he realizes that he is not done, and that he still suffers from delusion, however small.
So, the point of AJATT’s advice (and this post) isn’t to hate yourself, but don’t allow yourself to get self-satisfied no matter who you are. Confucius, the great sage of China, was relentless in his efforts to improve himself even at an old age. As quoted in the Analects:
[2:18] Zizhang was studying to get an upgrade in his civil service rank. [Advising him about self-improvement,] Confucius said, “Listen widely to remove your doubts and be careful when speaking about the rest and your mistakes will be few. See much and get rid of what is dangerous and be careful in acting on the rest and your causes for regret will be few. Speaking without fault, acting without causing regret: ‘upgrading’ consists in this.”
and:
[14:24] Confucius said: “The ancient scholars studied for their own improvement. Modern scholars study to impress others.”
The key is to always strive for improvement, and be wary of faults.
As Jokei, the famous 13th century Hosso scholar-monk wrote of himself:
If I desire to enter the vast and great entrance to the mind, my natures is not equal to the task.
If I want to practice just a little bit of cultivation, my mind is difficult to rely on.
Thus even great Buddhists of the past still found much fault with themselves. And Honen wrote as well:
If indeed, it were by my own power that I attained it [birth in the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha], there might be some excuse for my pride. But whenever pride arises within the heart, it shows positively that we are in the wrong, both in our faith and practice, and are utterly out of harmony with the Vow of Amida Buddha, and neither He nor any of the Buddhas will extend us their protection. Yes, indeed beware!”
So, to me, it seems better to just just approach the Buddhist Path with the attitude that you suck and that Buddhist practice is to help you suck less. It’s OK to suck. We all do to some degree or another. Don’t worry about the other guy/gal and don’t compare yourself to others. Just strive to suck less and you’ll inch your way out eventually.
I found lately that this kind of attitude has invigorated my Buddhist practice even on the days when I don’t “feel like it” (I’m doing it to suck less, not because I feel like it).
It’s a hard way to look at Buddhism but sometimes we need a kick in the pants.
Namo Shaka Nyorai
Namo Amida Butsu
1 Apologies for all the American slang. For those not familiar, “to suck” means to be bad at something (下手).
2 February 15th according to Japanese Buddhist. Other Buddhist communities may vary.
3 Similarly, read chapter 7 of the Lotus Sutra.
Sound Shifts in Korean Language
Posted: January 25, 2012 Filed under: Japanese, Korean, Language | Tags: Hangeul Leave a comment »Since I started studying Korean alongside Japanese, I noticed some similarities. However, I’ve also noticed some differences. One of them is sound-shifts. Japanese has comparatively few, while Korean has a lot, and it affects how words are read. This is a little reference post I wrote to remind myself and other language students of the sound shifts, using a Japanese-langauge textbook on Korean I bought a few weeks ago. As I write in the conclusion, it seems to explain things a lot more easily than trying to explain it in English because the languages are similar.
Anyhow, for example, the formal polite word for “to be” is 입니다. If you read it literally, it looks like ipnida, but in fact it’s read and pronounced as imnida (an ‘m’ sound, not a ‘p’). This is due to the complex way the different Korean letters affect each other, and how sounds have evolved over time in Korean language, while keeping their original spelling. Thankfully though the rules are pretty consistent. This post is to cover the common rules so that Korean can be read more easily. If you’re not comfortable with Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, this page is a good primer.
Hangeul Structure
Hangeul letters have consonants and vowels like English. For folks who studied Japanese previously,1 these are called ko-on 子音 and bo-on 母音 respectively.
Anyway, Hangeul uses the consonants and vowels to create “blocks” of sound called jamo (자모) like 마 (“ma” or “m” + “a”), 도 (“do” or “d” + “o”) and so on. Many jamo will also have a final consonant too called the batchim (받침) or pacchimu (パッチム) in Japanese-language texts on Korean. For the jamo above, adding ㄴ (called “nieun” but acts like “n”), you can make jamo like 만 (“man”, m + a + n) and 돈 (“don”, d + o + n). This point is really important.
Also, there is a placeholder letter called ㅇ which is silent at the beginning or “ng” if the final consonant. It’s needed because all jamo have to start with a consonant, so it helps keep this rule consistent. So, you can make a jamo like 안 (“an”) and although the ㅇ isn’t pronounced, the structure stays consistent with the rules of Hangeul.
Sound Shifts in Korean
Here are 7 rules for sound-shifts in Korean:
Rule 1: softened sounds
Many consonants will soften their sound if they’re inside a word, as opposed to the beginning or end (batchim). In the revised-romanization system, the letter is still written the same, but pronunciation softens:
- ㄱ has a “k” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “g” sound in the middle.
- ㅂ has a “p” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “b” sound in the middle.
- ㄷ has a “t” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “d” sound in the middle.
- ㅈ has a “ch” sound at the beginning or end of the word, and “j” sound in the middle.
The example used in my Japanese textbook is that 주소 or “address” is pronounced like chuso while 소주 or “Korean liquor” is pronounced like soju.
Rule 2: Hidden Pauses
If a jamo ends with the batchim ㄱ,ㅂ, ㅈ or ㄷ, and the next jamo starts with a regular consonant, the consonants sound will change to a double-consonant and you’ll hear a slight pause in pronunciation like in the English word bookkeeping.
Case in point: the word for school is 학교 has a ㄱ for batchim and a consonant (another ㄱ) after it, so the second consonant becomes ㄲ and the word sounds like 학꾜. Another word, 학생 (student) sounds more like 학쌩, while the word for magazine 잡지 sounds like 잡찌.
Rule 3: Filling in the blanks
If a jamo ends with a batchim and the next jamo starts with the “filler” letter ㅇ, the batchim letter “shifts” its sound to the next jamo, replacing the filler letter. The word for Korean language is 한국어 but the ㄱ shifts to the next jamo and sounds like 한구거. Naturally, in the process, it softens as well (see Rule 1). The word for Japanese language is 일본어 sounds more like 일보너.
Rule 4: The missing H
The letter ㅎ (h) tends to disappear in a lot of words. For example, the word for phone is 전화 but is pronounced more like 저놔. In other words, if the batchim ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅇ or ㄹ comes before the letter ㅎ, then ㅎ disappears. Likewise if ㅎ is the batchim itself, it’s pronunciation will disappear if the next letter is the filler ㅇ followed by a vowel (the vowel sound obscures it).
Rule 5: Smoothing things out
This one is kind of tricky to explain. If a certain jamo begins with either ㅁ (m) or ㄴ (n) and the previous jamo has a batchim of ㄱ,ㄷ, or ㅂ then that batchim’s sound will kind of smooth out like so:
- Batchim ㄱ (g) will sound like ㅇ (ng)
- Batchim ㄷ (d) will sound like ㄴ (n)
- Batchim ㅂ (b) will sound like ㅁ (m)
So, going back to the beginning of the post, the formal-polite word “to be” is written as 입니다, but because the middle jamo starts with ㄴ, the previous batchim (ㅂ) sounds like ㅁ. Another example in the book is the phrase “ten years” or 십년 which sounds more like 심년 (p -> m), or the phrase for a plant (e.g. a flower or fern), 식물 will sound 싱물.
Rule 6: H finally makes a comeback
Unlike Rule 4, ㅎ sometimes also makes sounds stronger, more aspirated. If the batchim before is ㄱ, ㅂ or ㄷ (or if ㅎ is the batchim and the next letter is one of these three), then it becomes the aspirated version: ㅋ, ㅍ and ㅌ respectively and ㅎ sort of disappears (actually it fuses with the other letter in a way). So, the word for express is 급행 sounds more like 그팽 because of the way the ‘p’ and ‘h’ sounds fuse.
Rule 7: The double-R one-two punch
The last rule listed in the Japanese textbook I have is for cases when ㄹ and ㄴ are next to each other, regardless of which one is a batchim and which one starts a new jamo. Either way, if they’re side by side each other, the ㄴ becomes an ㄹ, creating 2 ㄹ’s. A great example of this less common rule is none other than Korean New Year, which is 설날 but is really pronounced as 설랄.
Conclusion
This is a brief look at sound shifts in Korean language. It’s an interesting look at how complex sound arrangements kind of naturally “smooth themselves out” in day to day speech. Such things happen in all languages, some more than others, but Korean seems a little more tricky. Also, pronunciation guides in English about Korean seem to struggle to explain this easily, so I was surprised to see how easy it was to understand once I studied it in a language that was closer to Korean (e.g. Japanese). I guess it’s a good lesson in the ladder approach mentioned by AJATT.
All you language students out there, good luck!
P.S. Blog misfire again.
1 I doubt a lot of people are doing this, but as I studied Japanese for years and now started on Korean, I am trying to leverage Japanese resources where I can. I found studying Korean through Japanese is a lot easier than through English because there’s more material, and the languages are more similar than English, so things like pronunciation can be more easily explained because I already know one language. Also it’s like studying two languages at once, because of the reading practice, etc.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Posted: January 13, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Japanese, Language | Tags: NHK, proverb Leave a comment »While staying in Japan, I watched NHK’s nihongo de asobo which is this wonderful children’s show on Japanese TV that I’ve mentioned a few times before, and covers obscure, traditional aspects of Japanese culture to a younger generation.
In each episode there is usually a theme or lesson in the form of a famous text, or a popular phrase. In this one phrase was the proverb:
去る幸せは追わず、 saru shiawase wa owazu
来る幸せは歓迎する。 kuru shiawase wa kangeisuru
The phrase basically means that there are times when your luck leaves you, and when it does, it’s not worth following. Let it go. The second line also says that there are times when luck comes to you, and when it does, welcome it with a sincere, humble attitude (see line 1 as to why, in case you forgot 
).
Once again, I am amazed at this show and its subtle, Buddhist tones.
P.S. Double post today, unintentionally.
Japanese Grammar, some meta-rules
Posted: December 28, 2011 Filed under: Japanese, JLPT, Language | Tags: grammar Leave a comment »A while back, I had a small epiphany about Japanese language. I had been studying for the JLPT N2, and focusing on grammar. Like all languages, Japanese has many rules for grammar. Until then, I had been studying each grammar rule individually and how to use adjectives, verbs, etc. However, I realized that these individual rules fell into patterns, which I call meta-rules.
So, I wrote down all the meta-rules I could think of:
- A verb directly modifies a noun.
- “ii” Adjectives directly modify nouns.
- “na” Adjectives modify nouns by putting a な in front.
- Nouns modify other nouns with の. Or sometimes compound-nouns are used.
- Adjectives modify verb by becoming adverb.
- Adverbs directly modify verbs, no conjugation or anything.
- Sub clause before main, no matter how long it is, not after like English.
- Verbs modify another verb by becoming a noun first (add こと).
So, once I realized these rules, I noticed that new grammar I learned tended to fall into one of these rules. Not always, but the vast majority. It has helped me quite a bit with the JLPT exams also, because of the new questions where you have scrambled sentences you have to fill in the right order. Compared to other sections, I find those questions pretty easy (not so the rest of the test). It also helps me in conversation by correctly putting sentences together on-the-fly more often than before.1
Try it when you look at Japanese grammar, and you’ll see patterns pretty much these.
If you’re learning another language (English, Korean, whatever), it helps to figure out the meta-rules for that language too. If you’re just starting out, it may be too soon to know the meta-rules, but after you gain some familiarity, they should become more evident. Good luck!
1 Still a work in progress. ;p
Merry Christmas!
Posted: December 24, 2011 Filed under: Buddhism, Family, Japanese, Language | Tags: Christmas, Santa 4 Comments »
My daughter made this calendar at school, featuring Santa Claus. And as everyone knows, Santa Claus is Buddhist (more proof here).
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
P.S. On the side is written daisuki (だいすき) meaning “to like”. In other words, she likes Santa.
Exploring Kim Jong-Il’s death through language
Posted: December 21, 2011 Filed under: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Language | Tags: Kim Jong-Il, North Korea Leave a comment »
Reader “Jonathan”, an old friend, linguist and blog reader, emailed me this article recently.
The article shows how newspaper headlines in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea all announced Kim Jong-Il’s death using different Chinese characters, or Chinese-based words.1 In the photo shown, the top photo is of a news show from Taiwan (台湾), the middle photo is Japan (日本) and the bottom photo is South Korea (韓国). North Korea uses the more archaic name 朝鮮, by the way.
As noted in the excellent article, the Taiwanese news used more indirect, polite words like “passing away” (病逝), or “departed from this world” (去世). Meanwhile mainland China used terms (逝世) to describe Kim Jong-Il’s death as they would use to describe Chairman Mao’s passing, giving more respect to Kim. This makes sense given that China and North Korea are close allies.
Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea were more direct, less polite. In the case of South Korea, newspapers used the term samang (사망, 死亡) which is a Chinese-derived word meaning “demise or death”, rather the more poetic and respectful seogeo (서거, 逝去). The native word, chukda was avoided as well as it simply means “to die” and perhaps is too rude.
In Japan’s case, they also took a middle-route like South Korea. Instead of using the native word like shinu (死ぬ), the went with the bland, formal word shibō (死亡) mostly. Speaking from limited experience in watching Japanese news, usually 死亡 is used when talking about tragedies like fires or train crashes were people have died. It’s just bland and matter of fact, but not particularly respectful either. For example if the Emperor passes away, they might say hōgyo (崩御), which is far more poetic and respectful.
Interestingly, I checked out English-language newspapers and there’s less variation:
- The BBC simply said “Kim Jong-Il Dead”.
- The Irish Independent, my favorite paper from Ireland, said “North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-il dies on train leaving nuclear nation in consternation” which sounded a little more polite, less blunt.
- Fox News and Yahoo News both said, “North Korea’s Kim Jong Il Dies at 69
I think this may be more cultural than any limitation of English. Neither the US, nor Britain and Ireland were particularly friendly with North Korea, of course. But also, in my opinion, English tends to express death more directly anyway. I think if a respected US president were to die, the news headlines would be similar. That’s just a guess though.
Anyway, interesting stuff. Thanks Jonathan!
P.S. On a side-note, I often read the blog “Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things“, and I thought the December 19th entry was very clever. He also changed the text from “the dear leader likes to look at things” to “the dear leader liked to look at things”.
P.P.S. I love getting suggestions and articles from people. It helps me write about subjects people are genuinely interested in. I can’t promise to do them all, but I certainly try my best.
1 Chinese characters, or hanja, are used in Korean language very sparingly. Most Koreans I’ve met tell me they know maybe 50-300 characters at most, compared to Japanese which has a bare minimum 2000 characters required for basic fluency (though usually more are required). However, as explained before, a lot of Korean words are inherited from Chinese culture as compound words, or sometimes more recently from the Empire of Japan as Japanese-produced Chinese compound words (e.g. medical words, political words, etc). If you’re curious, Kim Jong-Il’s name in Hanja is 金正日 by the way.
A Tale of Two Numbers
Posted: December 18, 2011 Filed under: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Language, Latin, Vietnamese 14 Comments »While learning both Japanese and Korean, I have noticed an interesting tendency to have two different number systems: a “native” number system and a Chinese-imported one. In some contexts the native system is used, and in some contexts the Chinese-imported one is used. For example for Japanese, the numbers are like so from 1 to 3:
| Sino-Japanese | Native Japanese |
|---|---|
| Ichi いち | Hito ひと |
| Ni に | Futa ふた |
| San さん | Mitsu みつ |
While in Korean:
| Sino-Korean | Native Korean |
|---|---|
| Il 일 | Hana 하나 |
| I 이 | Dul 둘 |
| Sam 삼 | Set 셋 |
In Japanese, the Sino-Japanese words tend to get used for most things, but you might use the native Japanese numbers for things like counting one or two people (hitori, futari respectively) or counting “generic” things (hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, etc) up to ten. In Korean, Sino-Korean numbers are used for phone numbers or telling minutes of time, but native Korean numbers are used for things like age, number of people or telling the hour of time. The native Korean numbers are also often attached to counting words.
In other words, there’s no real logic or clear-cut rule about when to use Chinese-imported numbers and when to use native numbers. Sometimes one system is used. Sometimes the other system is used. The Chinese-imported numbers are usually more commonly seen because they tend to be very logical and easy to pick up, while the native counting systems in Japanese and Korean are somewhat harder and less intuitive.1 For example in Japanese, the native Japanese words are often used up to 3 or maybe even 2 and never beyond 10. Meanwhile, in Korean, most young people tell their age with Sino-Korean numbers rather than the native numbers because it’s hard to remember how to say numbers like 40 (maheun, 마흔) and 50 (swin, 쉰). Older Koreans will still use the native numbers for age, but you hear that less and less.
This may sound somewhat strange to have two number systems, but English is vaguely similar. A lot of words in English are imported from Latin and Greek (mostly through medieval French). So, we say “light”, but when used as a compound word, we say “phot-” as in “photography”, “photosynthesis”, etc. English has only one number system, but in other contexts, we do have a combination of “native” words and “imported” words for the same thing. Knowing when to use either one is something you just learn.
Languages in general are messy and dynamic. There’s a lot of history behind words and rules that the average person may not be aware of, and it’s not really necessary for day to day life. But for nerds like me, it is fun.
1 I think I remember that Vietnamese is the same way, but I can’t quite remember (I studied it 10 years ago). If I recall right, the usual numbers in Vietnamese are of Chinese origin, while the native system is obscure and mostly used in old literature, but I could be wrong.
Getting Pummeled by the JLPT, again
Posted: December 5, 2011 Filed under: Japanese, JLPT, Language 8 Comments »Well, the test is done. I completed the JLPT N2 exam this past Sunday, and like last year, I feel exhausted. I can’t be sure if I passed or not; I will get the results 3 months from now in late February.
To be honest, I feel I might have passed. Not by a great score, but I think I might have passed just enough. Or, alternatively I failed by a close score. In hindsight, I spent too much time studying for things that didn’t really help, and not enough on things that I should have. I was not as prepared as I hoped but I was not completely off-guard either. I have mixed feelings about the test in other words.
But even failure has its value.
I’ve been continuing my read of a great Japanese manga called 宇宙兄弟 (uchū kyōdai “Space Brothers”) and recently finished issue 11:
Every issue tends to have an overarching message pertaining to adult life. In this issue, the following phrase is mentioned several times:
本気の失敗には価値がある。
honki no shippai ni wa kachi ga aru.
Which means something like “there’s value in true failure.” I thought this phrase was really inspirational.
Recently I was reading AJATT’s article on learning Japanese and aiming to fail. He points out the famous baseball player, Babe Ruth, who was famous for his home-run record, but most people are unaware that he had almost twice as many strikeouts as home-runs. He failed often, but because he kept playing, he also gained the record for home-runs.
So even if I did fail the JLPT N2, which is a distinct possibility, then I can go into the test much better prepared next time around. Even if I did pass, the test experience exposed a lot of weaknesses too.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
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