Playing DVDs on My Laptop

Yesterday, I stayed inside my apartment all day long. I didn’t get any studying done, but that’s okay with me.

After months if not years of hesitation, I finally installed the VLC Media Player on my MacBook. The purpose of this installation is to make the DVD drive on my laptop compatible with multiple region codes. It used to be that I could only watch DVDs of one region code on my laptop due to copyright restrictions, despite my extensive library of DVDs originating from different regions.

I Googled the info, found the software, watched a few introductory videos on YouTube, and finally downloaded it on my computer. Initially, I was a bit concerned that this software could be harmful to my computer, but it seems to be running just fine.

I’ve developed my DVD collection mainly since I migrated to Singapore 21 years ago. I’ve bought them primarily for the purpose of learning foreign languages, including English, French, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, and Cantonese, but I own a few discs in Japanese, too.

I could play DVDs on my existing DVD player hooked to my TV, but I wouldn’t be able to listen to the audio with my earphones, because neither my TV nor my DVD player has an earphone socket. Now that I can play them on my MacBook without worrying about region codes, and listen to the audio much more clearly with earphones or wireless earbuds, I’m ready to watch them in earnest for much more effective language learning.

Granted, we are living in the age of streaming services, so it might sound a bit anachronistic that I’ve gone to all this trouble just to be able to watch DVDs. But that’s not entirely the point. Firstly, I really don’t want my entire DVD collection to go to waste, just because I have Netflix. Secondly, there are numerous movies I possess on DVD that are not yet available on streaming platforms. I believe that streaming and DVDs can complement each other as alternative sources of entertainment, and I will continue watching Netflix and DVDs as the fancy takes me.

Need to Practice to Think

Last night, before going to sleep, I started to watch a YouTube video by an English teacher on the topic of how to speak English continuously without getting stuck. Although I was intrigued by the subject, the video was around an hour and a half long, and I fell asleep right in the middle before I could hear any practical advice from the speaker.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that I’m far from fluent in English, and I would love to be able to speak continuously without pausing to think about what to say next.

On this front, I am currently facing a few difficulties, which I’d like to explore today.

First, I still tend to get confused with a few grammatical points in English, especially those related to the usage of the definite and indefinite articles, and the singular and plural forms of nouns, which do not occur in Japanese, my native tongue. I constantly ask myself whether I’m saying a particular sentence correctly, often fighting the urge to consult the dictionary, which inevitably slows down my speech.

Second, while I do possess an extensive vocabulary in the form of passive knowledge, when it comes to expressing myself, it takes time for me to access that knowledge and find the right words to say, especially when I’m trying to use advanced vocabulary.

However, I believe that the most important factor that hinders my spoken fluency is the fact that I am lazy by nature in terms of thinking, and tend to save brain energy by not forming strong opinions about most things in life. Even when I’m speaking in Japanese with my dad, I often find myself talking in short, choppy sentences, and jumping mid-sentence from one topic to another in a completely whimsical and haphazard way.

Granted, I talk to my dad on the phone mainly to relax, relieve stress, or joke around, so there’s no need to try to speak coherently, but it definitely doesn’t make for good speaking practice.

While it’s tiring and impractical for me to feel strongly about everything that happens around me, going forward, I might consider doing some practice to think about certain issues - for example, by expressing how I feel after reading a newspaper article, instead of hurrying on to read the next one in a mechanical and unthinking manner.

By the way, some academics say that in order for you to be fluent in a foreign language, you need to be fluent in your mother tongue to begin with, claiming that your proficiency in your second language can never exceed that of your first language. According to this theory, I need to practice speaking in Japanese first.

However, I don’t quite agree with this assertion. Since my aim is to become fluent in English, I believe I can jump straight into speaking practice in English, without taking the circuitous route via Japanese. As a case in point, here's an interview on YouTube with a Japanese lady who was born and raised in Japan, and yet became more fluent in English than Japanese by dint of diligent and intensive learning. She now speaks English like a typical American. 

At the end of the day, it’s a great amount of hard work that counts when it comes to developing fluency in a foreign language. I’ll continue putting in the effort to achieve my ultimate goal.

Read Foreign Affairs Magazine

Today marks the third anniversary of my mother’s passing away. I dreamed about her last night, but unfortunately forgot what the dream was about when I woke up this morning. I still think about my mom often and talk about her with my dad every time we speak on the phone. While I don’t really believe in concepts like God, heaven, and afterlife, I’d like to believe that the Almighty is taking very good care of her now in the land of eternal happiness.

Yesterday afternoon, I visited the hair salon to have my hair cut, bleached and dyed. I opted for the same shade of bluish-green color for my hair dye as last time, and as expected, my hair came out just fantastic after the coloring process.

Although the green hue of my hair will keep fading and eventually turn brown in a manner not unlike autumn leaves, I actually enjoy witnessing this gradual transition. In an attempt to make my hair stay green a bit longer, I apply sunscreen to my hair and use lukewarm water to wash it every day.

Afterward, I headed to the Tanjong Pagar neighborhood to go through my weekend routine of grocery shopping and reading at Starbucks over a decaf latte. This time, I read the latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine.

Despite the fact that I’m interested in world news, yesterday was my first time reading this respectable publication. Previously, I was a bit intimidated by the thickness of the magazine, fearing I wouldn’t be able to finish reading it.

Yesterday, I read several articles on what’s happening lately in Russia and China with a great deal of interest and fascination. To my pleasant surprise, they were not too difficult or abstract to read through - in fact, they were extremely well-written with clear structure and relatively plain vocabulary. While a copy of “Foreign Affairs” retails around SGD 30, I believe it’s well worth the price, and I look forward to buying its next issue.

By the way, I read books, magazines, and newspapers both in Japanese and English. I can read Japanese much faster than English because I’m much more proficient in the former. Nevertheless, I still love reading in English as I get to not only enjoy the content of the article, but also appreciate the beauty of the English language along the way.

In my view, when it comes to reading, what really matters is not so much the number of books you read as the amount of knowledge or enjoyment you derive from them. As such, I shouldn’t feel as though I’m being less productive while reading in English compared to Japanese. Moving forward, maybe I can read more in English in relation to Japanese to optimize my overall reading experience.