tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13836990862909073982024-03-14T14:17:49.936+08:00Life of a Japanese Polyglot in SingaporeUncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-30930286899515116262024-02-26T09:56:00.004+08:002024-02-26T09:56:46.648+08:00Enjoying Hong Kong Now<p><br /></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a5aee397-7fff-a1fb-2865-b2c9765e2640"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Last Saturday morning, I took a Cathay Pacific flight from Singapore to Hong Kong for a four-day vacation. Today is already Day 3 of my stay, and I am enjoying myself immensely here, like I normally do whenever I visit this former British colony.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday, I went to Peng Chau Island by ferry for a little excursion. I got there early in the afternoon, and explored pretty much the entire island within two hours. It had some nice hiking trails through lush green hills and beautiful beaches with clear, turquoise blue water. The tracks were neatly paved and easy to walk on, which made my journey around the island a pleasant experience. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">However, besides beautiful nature, the island didn’t have much to offer by way of enticing cafes and eateries or attractive souvenir shops, and there were no hotels. I found myself a bit bored toward the end of my stay and felt relieved when my ferry back to Hong Kong Island finally departed from the Peng Chau Island Piers at 5 p.m.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">After returning to downtown Hong Kong, I headed to Causeway Bay to visit Perfume River Vietnamese Restaurant, one of my favorite dining establishments in town. I had beef curry with steamed rice and spring rolls for dinner. As expected, the beef was extremely tender and blended nicely with curry, and the spring rolls were pleasantly crunchy. I will certainly revisit the place on my next trip here.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, compared to my previous visits, I’ve noticed that there are much fewer visitors from Mainland China. I’ve read in a news article that it’s due to the fact that the Chinese economy is not doing well these days. The unfavorable exchange rate of the Chinese Renminbi against the Hong Kong Dollar, which is pegged to the mighty US Dollar, isn’t helping matters for Mainlanders either.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The same article also mentioned that there is now a reverse flow of people, with more Hong Kongers visiting the neighboring Chinese city of Shenzhen for cheap shopping and dining experiences than the other way around. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I’ve visited Shenzhen three times before. To be perfectly honest, it felt like a boring city that lacked the beauty and allure of Hong Kong, but it could be because I didn’t know my way around Shenzhen and ended up visiting only boring places. The next time I travel to Shenzhen, I should really plan ahead and go to more cool and fun places.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-29387570922288898822024-02-18T13:46:00.000+08:002024-02-18T13:46:21.168+08:00Moving to the New Office<p><br /></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-01f8fe43-7fff-6640-bb94-96aa1a8c123b"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">On Friday, I worked for the last time in my previous office, where I spent nearly 19 years of my professional career. Due to the heavy workload I was handling, I had to work frantically until the last minute and rush out of the building for another appointment, leaving me with little chance to reminisce about what I had gone through in that building. Never mind - I think I’ll have time for that later if I really want to go down memory lane; it’s not like our previous office building is being decommissioned or torn down.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My previous office was located around 15 minutes away from my apartment by foot. I took full advantage of its proximity by coming home during lunch break almost daily. I would normally do things like tidying up around the apartment, prepping dinner, and taking a short nap. It certainly helped that I practiced intermittent fasting and didn’t need to have lunch, freeing up a bulk of my lunch break for my other priorities.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Starting Monday, I will work in a new office building. To figure out how much time I need to get there, last night, I walked from my apartment to the new office at my normal pace. It took me 30 minutes, exactly double the time I needed for my previous commute. Besides walking, I can also reach there by public transportation, such as the bus or subway. From a health perspective, I think it’s best if I stick to walking, but I’m keeping my options open for now.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Afterward, I swung by the Starbucks in the nearby shopping mall to study some French words. I am about one sixth of the way through my dictionary. Considering that it took me two months to come this far, and assuming I can keep up my current learning speed, I should be able to finish studying my dictionary in 10 months, adding up to a year for the entire process.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">On the topic of acquiring vocabulary, I’ve watched a few YouTube videos posted by those who excel in language learning and come to the conclusion that, what truly matters is not so much the number of pages you study in the dictionary, but rather, how much repetition you have in learning the same words.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">That’s why I’ve decided to limit myself to studying two and a half pages’ worth of words per day. If I ended up with some extra time after hitting my daily quota, I would use it to review the segments I have previously memorized, rather than moving on to the following pages.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My goal is to be able to understand French series and movies on Netflix with French subtitles without feeling the need to reach for the dictionary. The reason why I set my goal based on my level of comprehension of audio-visual material as opposed to books is that, once I acquire a near-native ability to understand movies, it should also help me enhance my pronunciation, as well as my speaking and reading skills.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Exactly how many words will I need to learn to attain that level? I don’t have an answer to that, and quite frankly, I don’t really care. All I know is that I need to keep cramming my head with dozens of new words on a daily basis, until my vocabulary finally reaches critical mass where I no longer feel the need to bombard my head with dictionary entries. Probably thousands of hours are needed for that, but so long as I can enjoy the process, I would consider all this time and energy well spent.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-14097744956473139172024-02-12T17:46:00.000+08:002024-02-12T17:46:04.871+08:00Watching "Dahmer" in French Now<p><br /></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a81d72b6-7fff-9da0-5497-82cfdd5457d3"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Over the past few days, I have been rewatching the drama series “Dahmer” on Netflix. This series is based on the true story of Jeffrey Dahmer, who confessed to have murdered and dissected the bodies of 17 men from 1978 to 1991. He was convicted of his multiple crimes and sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms in prison, but his life was cut short in 1994, when he was killed by his fellow inmate, Christopher Scarver.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I watched “Dahmer” for the first time in 2022, right after it was released on Netflix. It was a gripping story that kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. Recently, I’ve decided to watch it again, but this time in French audio with English subtitles, for the purpose of practicing my French listening skills. As of yesterday, out of the 10 episodes, I’ve already watched eight. I’ll finish the remaining two episodes tonight.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As things stand now, I can understand about 80 percent of the French audio, but that doesn’t mean that my listening skills will soon be perfect. The gap of 20 percent covers the sections containing words and phrases that are not yet known to me. Unless I look them up in the dictionary and commit them to memory, I won’t ever be able to bridge that gap, no matter how many times I watch the same content.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Currently, I am in the middle of “sweeping” my French dictionary for unknown words and phrases. Given that my dictionary contains 765 pages’ worth of entries and I can only study about 2.5 pages per day, and allowing for a couple of cheat days out of every week, the entire process is expected to take approximately a year. As such, acquiring a robust enough vocabulary to understand French shows and movies will definitely be a long and slow undertaking. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">However, for the parts that I </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">can</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> understand, watching the series with French audio is highly beneficial for me in the sense that it forges the connection between my existing knowledge of words and phrases and the actual way in which they are pronounced. Once that connection has been firmly established, it will never be undone, and will be permanently integrated into the foundation of my listening skills.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">That’s why comprehensible input is important, and you should find a listening material at a level suitable for you, rather than something too difficult that sounds like a bunch of gibberish.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When I’m done studying the French audio of “Dahmer,” I plan to do the same thing with other Netflix shows I’ve previously enjoyed watching, such as “Squid Game” and “Inventing Anna.” I’m excited at the prospect of gradually solidifying my listening comprehension skills, before eventually learning to speak French fluently, years down the road.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-597312043104300752024-02-10T14:26:00.000+08:002024-02-10T14:26:15.682+08:00My Thoughts on Learning English Through Movies<p><br /></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-cd236764-7fff-4daf-aa52-635508d734fe"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Finally, it’s the weekend again. This morning, I first woke up at 7 a.m., but seeing as it was still a bit early, I went back to sleep. At long last, I woke up for good at 10 a.m. After a long sleep, I feel like my batteries have been fully recharged, and I’m ready to take on new challenges of the day.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As today is Day 1 of the Chinese New Year holidays, most of the major shops and restaurants are closed here in Singapore. As such, I can forget about shopping or dining out, but luckily, movie theaters are open, so I might catch a film later today depending on my mood.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To be honest, I don’t go to the cinema very often, not because I don’t like movies, but because there is a plethora of choices available nowadays with streaming services such as Netflix and the Apple Movie Store. They have rendered a trip to the theater unnecessary, unless there is a freshly released movie playing that I desperately want to watch.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When I first came to Singapore 22 years ago, I used to visit the cinema almost on a weekly basis, as it was the biggest source of entertainment for me. Back then, there was a movie theater right in my neighborhood, which offered midnight showings on Fridays and Saturdays. I would catch the latest Hollywood blockbuster movie and try to study its dialogues in English.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I remember seeing films like “Two Weeks Notice,” “Love Actually,” and “Match Point,” which I found very charming and entertaining. As a gay man, I was so profoundly moved by “Brokeback Mountain” that I watched it more than a dozen times at the theater. “Argo” was another movie that deeply affected me and kept me thinking about it for days after the first viewing. I somewhat miss those days when I went to the theater frequently.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, in terms of learning English, I am rather skeptical of the efficacy of watching movies in elevating your spoken fluency, especially if it’s the only method you practice, without pairing it with other learning methods, such as learning vocabulary and reading books.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It is true that some learners manage to learn English to a highly advanced level by watching movies and television shows, but we shouldn’t forget that they achieve fluency not only by watching movies, but also by hitting pause on the video whenever they stumble upon unknown words and phrases and looking them up in the dictionary before resuming the video. This takes nearly superhuman effort and patience which, in my opinion, makes the method inefficient at best. It’s definitely not a walk in the park to learn English through movies alone. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As I’m learning French now, I’ll keep reminding myself that I shouldn’t rely too much on watching movies to improve my French proficiency, but should rather focus on traditional methods, such as conscientiously learning words and phrases, especially when I’m still at an intermediate level. That being said, it would be wonderful if I could understand and enjoy French cinema. I will keep working hard until I achieve fluency in the language of Rousseau.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-89078925387993576372024-02-05T22:15:00.000+08:002024-02-05T22:15:16.869+08:00So Many Coffee Chains!<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This morning, I managed to wake up on my own at 6:45 without the alarm. It’s a rare occasion for me, as I typically sleep all the way until my alarm goes off at 7:45. To take full advantage of the extra hour I’ve gained, I’ve decided to write another journal entry.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-bd00d0b6-7fff-4324-0ca6-dd965b207dca"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Incidentally, my office is slated to relocate to another location in just a few weeks, about 15 minutes further away on foot compared to my current office. Therefore, it behooves me to practice waking up a bit earlier going forward.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To be able to do that, logic dictates that I move up my bedtime in the evening by 15 minutes, from 11:45 to 11:30 p.m. I know it’s easier said than done, as I normally have tons of things to do before I go to bed, but something has got to change to accommodate my new commuting routine.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Late yesterday afternoon, I went to the Chinatown Point shopping mall to do my customary Sunday grocery shopping. Once I arrived at the complex, before going to the supermarket, I wanted to sit down at Starbucks to study some English. Unfortunately, the outlet was packed with no available table for me.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I quite like this outlet, because it's covered on two sides by huge glass walls and directly looks out onto a busy intersection right in the heart of Chinatown, allowing customers to observe the comings and goings of people outside, which is always interesting.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Out of no choice, I went to The Coffee Bean upstairs, which is nestled in the middle of the building and offers a much more boring view and a somewhat suffocating vibe. To be fair to The Coffee Bean, I visit their outlets as often as I go to Starbucks. They not only serve decent-tasting coffee but also tend to be cleaner and better maintained than Starbucks, which is often short-staffed and full of leftover beverages that take ages to get cleared away.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, aside from Starbucks and The Coffee Bean, there is another coffee outlet in the mall called Luckin Coffee, a huge coffee chain originating from Xiamen, reputed to be China’s answer to Starbucks. I’ve been to Luckin Coffee only once. Their outlets are sleekly designed and their beverages taste OK, but I normally don’t visit them as they don’t offer decaffeinated coffee, a must for me.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Over the past few years, there has been a drastic increase of coffee chains operating here in Singapore. I wonder how they can stay in business without cannibalizing one another. It could be that the overall demand is still growing, not so much for caffeinated drinks per se, but for venues where people can chill and relax, due to the high level of stress they are feeling in this ultra-modern and fast-paced city.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It remains to be seen how the competition will shake out, but consumers are the ones who stand to benefit. I'm looking forward to a brighter future where we can enjoy better-tasting coffee at more reasonable prices.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-81066759372371882312024-02-04T14:43:00.005+08:002024-02-04T14:43:49.273+08:00I'm a Fan of Bull Nakano<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Last night, I spent hours watching YouTube videos with no specific purpose. After watching a few videos on US politics, I ended up watching several female professional wrestling matches in Japan in the 1980s and 90s. Back then, I was still in elementary school. My father was fond of watching female wrestling matches, which aired on TV on Sunday afternoons, and being close to my dad, I naturally joined him in those viewings in our living room. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a642b02d-7fff-0f5e-19a9-60f27e73e3a2"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It didn’t take me too long to become a fan of professional female wrestling and start watching the broadcasts religiously. What truly fascinated me about it was the element of surprise where those young females, some of whom looking quite pretty and even elegant, could fight with each other so ferociously within the confines of the wrestling ring.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">There was also an element of entertainment, where the wrestlers made singing performances before the matches, in a manner almost reminiscent of pop idols. For dramatic effect, the wrestlers were mainly divided into two camps - the goodies, who wore pretty make-up and always fought in an honorable way, and the baddies, who wore scary make-up and resorted to all manner of underhanded tactics, like hitting their opponents savagely with a wooden sword or metal can.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">About two years ago, I chanced upon the YouTube channel of the former wrestler Bull Nakano, one of the most notorious baddies back in the day, boasting a height of 170 cm (approximately 5 feet and 7 inches) and a weight of 115 kg (approximately 254 pounds) at her heaviest. She was active as a wrestler from 1983 to 1997.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Although I didn’t know much about Nakano, after watching one of her interview videos, I immediately became a fan. Quite in contrast to the scary and ruthless image she projected as a wrestler, she has slimmed down drastically since she retired, and has become a good-looking middle-aged woman with a gentle and affable demeanor.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bull Nakano’s YouTube channel mainly consists of videos in which she interviews other female wrestlers or recounts her own experiences of fighting as a baddie, which I find absolutely fascinating. She conducts her interviews in a very friendly and respectful manner, so I can watch her videos without feeling too much stress, despite the gruesome subject matter that they inevitably deal with.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Needless to say, I am against any form of violence in real life, but I hold those professional wrestlers in high regard, and respect their choice to work as fighters for a living. I wish them well and hope they don’t get injured too badly. In particular, as an avid fan of Bull Nakano, I wish her continued success in the coming years, and will keep watching her videos on YouTube to support her excellent work.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-69313863588876071712024-01-28T17:34:00.002+08:002024-01-28T17:34:46.211+08:00In Dire Need of a Massage<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Owing to the stress I’ve been experiencing, I feel tense all over, and I’m in desperate need of a full-body massage to loosen up my muscles. The massage parlor that I typically go to is inside the Chijmes complex, which mainly consists of bars and restaurants, conveniently located in the City Hall area. I don’t go there very often, as I normally don’t get too much tension, but today is one of those rare occasions when I genuinely crave for thorough relaxation. As soon as I’ve finished writing this journal entry, I’ll call the parlor up for a reservation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Speaking of massages, here in Singapore, getting a massage is not very cheap, although it’s not outrageously expensive, either. For today’s 60-minute full-body massage session, the price is SGD 71, approximately USD 53. In Asia’s cheaper locales like Bangkok and Johor Bahru, you can get it for much less, so many Singaporeans like to go for massages whenever they travel to those destinations. I don’t know when my next trip to Thailand or Malaysia will be, but I’d definitely consider having a massage during my stay there.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-02a90a81-7fff-a33d-30f0-96bd4db2e6f0"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, while so-called new age or alternative therapy methods, such as full-body or foot reflexology massage, yoga or aromatherapy, can most likely make you feel more relaxed, I’m not fully convinced that it’s beneficial for your health, especially in terms of healing your chronic ailments. I say this from the perspective of someone who believes in science only: if you have an issue with your kidneys, for example, you should go to your doctor’s rather than your masseur’s.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Having said that, it is not my intention to make light of the usefulness of alternative therapy, much less disrespect the contributions made by those working in the industry, including therapists, instructors and masseurs, to bring joy to people seeking relaxation and a sense of healing. Sometimes, what truly matters to clients is not so much how their physical condition improves in a clinical sense, as whether they can feel good during and after the therapy session.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To sum up, if you have a physical condition that requires medical attention, you should go see the doctor immediately; but if you’re simply seeking a therapeutic experience for relaxation, you shouldn’t hesitate to choose whatever form of therapy that suits you, whether it’s considered “alternative” or not.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-5376221983294976242024-01-21T12:18:00.000+08:002024-01-21T12:18:16.061+08:00AJATT is Not For Me<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday was sort of my “English day,” so I studied quite a bit of English and no French at all. I started my day with writing a journal entry in English, then had it proofread by ChatGPT, and finally transcribed the proofread version into my diary, like I customarily do. The entire process took me around three to four hours, so it was definitely a solid amount of studying.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-96b55eb1-7fff-f22f-8481-ebf70c1cc7e7"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As per my diary, I began to use ChatGPT for language learning purposes on April 20 of last year, so it’s been exactly nine months that I’ve been studying English through journal writing with the aid of this chatbot. Ever since, my English has undergone a substantial transformation, as manifested by my enhanced fluency in both written and spoken English.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I’m convinced that this is by far the most effective method to improve my command of the language, so I’m determined to keep up the practice, despite the fact I can only write journal entries on weekends due to time constraints.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Other than writing my journal entry, yesterday I watched a bunch of YouTube videos in English, most of which were related to language learning. There is a community of YouTubers who are particularly into learning foreign languages through the immersion method. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The typical examples are the AJATTers, who aim to teach themselves Japanese to an extremely advanced level within a very short period (two to three years at most) by immersing themselves in an environment known as AJATT, the acronym for All Japanese All The Time.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The so-called founder of this method is a guy named Khatzumoto. He’s sort of a mysterious character and not much is known about him, but apparently he taught himself Japanese to a near-native level by using some insanely intensive methods.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">These include making full use of flashcard apps like ANKI to memorize numerous words at frequent intervals, and creating an environment where he can listen to Japanese 24/7 - literally all the time, even during sleep, whether it’s through YouTube, radio, or television.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Although currently I’m learning French, as a working professional I can’t adopt as drastic and extreme a method as AJATT, but I do tend to agree that in order to learn a foreign language to a high degree of proficiency, you need to have a one-track mind and dedicate your free time exclusively to the studies of that language.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">With French, I’m willing to do exactly that, by diving into my dictionary whenever I get some free time, like during lunch break and in the evening after work. Until I reach the end of this dictionary, I’ll refrain from studying other subjects, such as Italian and Chinese, although English will remain an exception for now.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-63807985156300166162024-01-14T02:40:00.006+08:002024-01-14T02:40:54.442+08:00Back in Love with French Again!<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Last week, I had a very busy and stressful week, so it was a huge relief when I finally finished my work on Friday evening. From the office, I walked over to Raffles City Shopping Centre, where I had my eyebrows trimmed at a beauty salon, before heading home.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a06506fc-7fff-5e01-0016-d58a59288228"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Back at my apartment, after dinner, I studied some French words from my dictionary as usual. To assist with my studying of the dictionary, I recently started using ChatGPT to look up the meaning of those words and phrases that aren’t explained clearly enough in my dictionary.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To my pleasant surprise, ChatGPT has greatly enhanced my learning experience, providing me with explanations that are not only detailed but also plain enough to understand. The answers provided by this chatbot are clear to the point that leaves little room for ambiguity for me. I find this truly liberating as any lack of clarity in definition of words leaves me feeling puzzled and frustrated.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, I have been learning French off and on since 2003, which makes it more than 20 years up until now - well, actually, it’s not quite true, as I tried learning French for a few months in 1986 when I was 12.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Back then, my father recommended that I study this language through a radio French-language course, which aired for 20 minutes daily on NHK, Japan’s public broadcasting system. I eagerly complied with his suggestion, since the notion of learning this Romance language sounded kind of cool to me.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The mellifluous sound of spoken French really enchanted me, but unfortunately I had to cut my French studies short after only four months because I had to move from Japan to China to study in a middle school in Shanghai.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As I got busy trying to adapt myself to living in a new country and had to contend with learning Chinese, I completely lost interest in learning French, except when my yearning for the sound of French was briefly rekindled when I heard the French lyrics of the song <i>Michelle</i> by the Beatles.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Fast forward to the year 2000, when I was already back in Japan, a chance opportunity to listen to singer Lisa Ono’s rendition of the famous French tune <i>Un homme et une femme</i> at a Tokyo CD shop revived my longing and admiration for the language of Rousseau.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I didn’t know it back then, but it was evidently my destiny to get reconnected to this foreign tongue. In 2003, one year after my migration to Singapore, I picked up a French textbook at a local bookstore to revisit this language at long last.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Since then, I’ve been learning French, albeit sporadically, for more than two decades. Inevitably, my drive for learning French wanes whenever I get busy with my other pursuits, like learning English, Italian or world history. Despite my inconsistency in dedication to studying, French continues to hold a special place in my heart, so it’s unlikely that I will ever give up learning it completely.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This time, I find myself learning French with enough passion and dedication to challenge studying a whole dictionary. As of today, I am about eight percent through it. It remains to be seen whether I can persist until I reach the end of this dictionary, but no matter what the end result may be, I won’t have any regrets for having tried at least.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-34091878474733662472024-01-07T12:34:00.001+08:002024-01-07T12:36:45.041+08:00Lessons Learned From "I Learned Italian in 7 Days"<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A few years ago, a young famous YouTuber named Nathaniel Drew posted a video series titled “I Learned Italian in 7 Days,” composed of two episodes.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-fefecc86-7fff-e803-e23a-c35c9c3d4dde"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Being a language learning aficionado, and having already subscribed to his channel by then, that sensational title really piqued my interest. So, I pressed Play to see how fluent Nathaniel got in the language of Dante within a space of just one week.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Spoiler alert: in the second and final episode of this series, Nathaniel holds a conversation in Italian with his native-speaker friend Giuseppe for a few minutes to demonstrate how much he was able to learn within that short timeframe.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Check this out:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fxAaBZNduQs" width="320" youtube-src-id="fxAaBZNduQs"></iframe></div><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Naturally, Nathaniel stumbles along here and there, but he can already engage Giuseppe in a conversation in a way that’s meaningful enough for them to keep talking. That truly showcases his remarkable talent in learning a new subject.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Having said that, I have to respectfully disagree with Nathaniel’s characterization of the language learning curriculums of public schools as “a joke,” in the sense that it’s not effective enough to enable students to talk in foreign tongues. That sounds a bit arrogant and presumptuous to me.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Nathaniel seems oblivious of the fact that a second language is not the only subject that a typical high school student needs to contend with in preparation for their college education, so it’s only natural that they achieve a very limited degree of fluency in their target language.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">If they had whole days to spare to fully dive into their studies of a foreign tongue, I’m sure they would achieve much better results, even if they used the same traditional learning methods as their existing curriculums.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Coming back to the content of Nathaniel’s video, one thing that truly stood out to me is the importance of being very selective in learning vocabulary, by focusing exclusively on the top 1,000 Italian words. Based on my own experience of learning multiple languages, I fully agree with his approach to acquiring vocabulary in an effective way.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Given the limited time that we can spare for language learning each day, it’s vital that we focus on the most commonly used words first, before learning more specific or advanced vocabulary. If you’re learning words from a vocabulary list or dictionary for the first time, make sure you begin with the most basic ones, preferably those written for elementary learners or even young children.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Studying a whole dictionary with a limited vocabulary content is much better than studying a tiny segment of a voluminous and comprehensive dictionary, even if the numbers of words you learn are exactly the same between the former and the latter. The former enables you to see the forest without having your vision blocked by the individual trees; the latter is the opposite, and you’re bound to get bogged down somewhere among the trees without ever seeing what the entire forest looks like.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In my own case, I’m currently learning words from a French dictionary that’s not too extensive and only contains moderately advanced words. Since I already know around 90 percent of the headwords, I don’t find it too overwhelming, so I’m confident that I can keep learning.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This journey of studying vocabulary is instilling in me the sense of priority and the importance of being highly selective in what I learn. I’m looking forward to witnessing how my learning philosophy will evolve by the time I reach the end of my current dictionary.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-89771352728590683692024-01-07T00:05:00.003+08:002024-01-07T01:17:18.777+08:00First Blog Post of 2024 - Importance of Repetition in Language Learning<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Happy New Year!</span></p><p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This afternoon, I watched an interesting video related to language learning posted by a young man called Loïs Talagrand. He is a native speaker of French who grew up on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti, currently working as a software developer.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-fbfa4a62-7fff-47f7-746e-1af69fdbf537"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Like most people on the island, Loïs went through the French education system and studied English for several years before graduating high school. However, at that point, he still wasn’t able to express himself in English fluently, and had difficulty understanding spoken English.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In the video I watched today, Loïs speaks English with perfect fluency and almost zero accent. He talks about the two main learning strategies he utilized in his college years that helped him elevate his English to an extremely advanced level. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Check this out:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GOpPHWqtltM" width="320" youtube-src-id="GOpPHWqtltM"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The first strategy is repetitive listening. To improve his English, Loïs watched and listened to enormous amounts of native content, such as podcasts, television shows, and movies. What’s remarkable about his method is that, if he liked a certain content, instead of listening to it only once, he would repeat it multiple times to deepen his understanding. The same goes for the books he read.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As he stresses in this video, repetition is the name of the game. Consuming the same content several times allowed his brain to naturally absorb the basic rules of grammar and pronunciation, which contributed to building up his own fluency in the language.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Loïs also mentions the importance of comprehensible input, meaning that you should listen to materials that you can understand quite well, instead of something that’s too difficult for you.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The second strategy is to set English as the default language in your life, and maximize your exposure to the language, even if you’re living in a non-English speaking environment. This includes, for example, setting the interface language on your computer and smartphone to English, and trying to do as many things as possible exclusively in this language, like talking to yourself or even thinking in English.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Loïs emphasizes in the second half of the video that, even if you employ the perfect strategies, there is no hack or shortcut in learning to speak a foreign language to near-native fluency - you still have to dedicate thousands of hours to reach that level. I fully agree with what he says, and do not hold any illusions about finding some magic method that can suddenly make me super-fluent in English or French.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As I am learning French right now, I find these tips to be extremely relevant to me. Maybe I can start by increasing the amount of French that I listen to daily, with a focus on repetitive comprehensible input.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I can’t help but feel excited about how my French will evolve in the coming years!</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-30581243089769552032023-12-31T10:14:00.000+08:002023-12-31T10:14:46.712+08:00Last Blog Post of 2023 - Watched a Lot of Netflix!<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday morning, I tried to write a journal entry as I normally do on Saturdays, but I couldn’t think of anything to write about, so I gave up after only writing a few lines, and opted instead for watching some Netflix. I watched the first four episodes of the series “Grace and Frankie” and the movie “The Craigslist Killer.”</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a586809-7fff-2c3a-976c-7bdf5bc5071e"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I’ve subscribed to Netflix for several years, so of course I’ve known that “Grace and Frankie” existed, but for some reason I haven’t gotten around to watching it until now. I started viewing it mainly for the purpose of learning colloquial English, thinking that it must be a light-hearted comedy series that’s easy enough for me to understand.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As it turned out, “Grace and Frankie” was a bit of a challenge for me - not only did the dialog contain many Americanisms that were too vernacular or location-specific, but it also introduced too many family members into the first few episodes, leaving me scrambling to keep track of who’s who, which I found very frustrating.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Having said that, Jane Fonda and Martin Sheen are great in this show. Fonda was 77 years old when it was first released, but she still looks energetic and youthful for her age. As for Sheen, this is the first time I’ve seen him play a gay character. His performances look genuine enough - he actually kisses his boyfriend character several times - and he doesn’t go over the top by portraying his gayness in a caricatured way, demonstrating his refined skill as an actor, and his fundamental respect for LGBTQ+ people, which is something I truly appreciate as a gay man.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The movie “The Craigslist Killer” is a made-for-television movie that was released in 2011, starring Jake McDorman, Agnes Bruckner, and William Baldwin. This is based on the true story of the serial killer Philip Markoff, who was a medical student in the Boston area when he committed his multiple crimes, including murders and robberies. Compared with “Grace and Frankie,” I found this movie much easier to follow, as the story was quite straightforward. It’s a film of decent enough quality, and an excellent material for me to study English with, so I’m quite happy I watched it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">After dinner, I went back to studying French, where I learned three pages’ worth of words from my French dictionary. As of now I’m about four percent in, so I’m definitely making good progress. Vocabulary constitutes a big part of what makes up a person’s proficiency in a foreign language, so I’m determined to keep learning until I reach the end of this dictionary.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-81310697842243005292023-12-27T08:16:00.000+08:002023-12-27T08:16:05.451+08:00No Illusions About Learning Vocabulary<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This morning, quite miraculously, I was able to wake up early enough to write this journal entry. Although I know that I’ll get sleepy during the day, I’m still glad that I get to be a bit more productive this morning than usual. I’ve just poured myself a cup of decaf coffee to put my brain to working mode.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-47478d2e-7fff-b6c0-4317-cbae3600689d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It’s been a few days since I started learning French vocabulary in earnest. This time, I’m using a French-Chinese dictionary to learn French words, though I didn’t buy it specifically for the purpose of learning both French and Chinese; rather, it’s because its Chinese translations are written in plain language that’s easy for me to understand, compared to other French-English or French-French dictionaries. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I’m trying to learn words from this dictionary at the pace of three pages per day. Given that there are 765 pages in total, it will take me 255 days to finish learning all the entries in this dictionary. It’s roughly a year, assuming that I’ll take a break of two days out of each week. It certainly sounds like a daunting task, but I’m confident that I can accomplish it, given that I’ve done similar things in the past.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, this time, I’m not using flash cards to memorize words the way I used to in the past. In fact, I’m not even trying to commit the entries to memory - instead, I simply pore over them meticulously and make sure I understand what each word means. I read through the same segment three times in total, twice on Day 1 and once on Day 2, to deepen my impression.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Aside from that, I pay close attention to how each word is pronounced. Whenever I’m not sure what a certain word sounds like, I immediately look it up in the dictionary or on the YouGlish website, and try to imitate it on my own. I’ve never tried this method in my previous vocabulary learning projects; it’s something that’s been made possible by modern technology, for which I’m immensely grateful.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I don’t hold any illusions about how quickly I can improve my French to a highly proficient level. Basic grammar and pronunciation can be learned in a relatively short period of time, but acquiring an extensive vocabulary is definitely a long-term undertaking, requiring months, if not years, of commitment. I strive to hold a realistic yet hopeful view and continue to tackle my daily learning tasks calmly and surely.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-30921660176391922102023-12-25T13:24:00.000+08:002023-12-25T13:24:19.736+08:00Watch This Video to Improve Your English!<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday was Christmas Eve, and I had a quiet relaxing day, mostly spent at home. I woke up around 9 a.m., had a shower, and wrote a journal entry in English, which took me around two hours. As usual, I had my journal entry proofread by ChatGPT in both American and British English. Luckily, not so many errors were detected this time - I just made one glaring mistake involving the usage of a definite article near the end of my journal entry.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-7217d93b-7fff-c898-6e44-0b5750e21a09"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Once again, I noticed that my writing gets fewer corrections in British English than American, demonstrating that my written English is more closely aligned with the former compared to the latter. I honestly don’t know why it’s the case, because since I was very young I’ve always preferred American English, mainly due to the way it sounds and my general feeling of adoration for American pop culture, such as music and movies.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">To this day, I still think that the U.S. has the coolest and most cutting-edge culture in the world, despite its numerous problems like gun violence and drug addiction. The good thing is, with the high-speed Internet and streaming services like Netflix and Spotify, there is more than enough American content that I can enjoy here in Singapore without visiting the States.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Given the recent strong exchange rate of the US Dollar, it’s gotten considerably more expensive to travel to America. I think I can make do with virtually enjoying American culture through streaming services for the time being.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Speaking of American English, last night I watched the YouTube interview of a Japanese woman called Hana who currently resides on the East Coast of the U.S. with her American husband. What’s remarkable about Hana is that she speaks English with native fluency with no accent, despite being born and raised in Japan. I actually mentioned this video in my previous blog entry, but it's definitely worth revisiting, so please indulge me:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IDPSl796gW0" width="320" youtube-src-id="IDPSl796gW0"></iframe></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In the interview, she talks about her experience of growing up in the countryside where there are very few foreigners around. She studied English through virtual means, such as watching American shows with English subtitles and posting her writings on language-exchange websites to have them amended and learn from her mistakes. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Whenever she came across words that she didn’t know, she would stop the video, look them up in the dictionary, and then resume watching. She also mentions that she talked to herself a lot to improve her ability to speak English.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">That certainly sounds like a lot of work, but she somehow persisted in her efforts and eventually became fluent in English. Chika, the interviewer, who is herself bilingual in English and Japanese, remarked that Hana’s English sounds more native-like than hers in the sense that she uses expressions that only Americans would know, showcasing her in-depth knowledge of vernacular American speech.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Hana responded that it might be due to the enormous amounts of YouTube that she watches daily. She constantly incorporates new expressions into her knowledge and tries them out at the earliest opportunity she gets.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">There are definitely a thing or two that I can learn from her experiences in studying English. It’s just the question of whether to put them into practice to give my English that extra boost it needs to elevate it to a new level.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-40155972304951380332023-12-10T12:17:00.001+08:002023-12-10T13:14:22.330+08:00My Language Learning Strategy, Explained<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday, I had a very relaxing Saturday, which gave me ample opportunity to plot out the strategy for learning French to an advanced level. Depending on your level of proficiency, you should focus on different aspects of language learning, which I summarize as the following:</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e73ef6b8-7fff-0343-4ad7-943761d21dc5"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">At the beginner’s level, you should focus on the three main pillars that constitute the foundation of your language skills, which are grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. A beginner’s textbook with audio clips is an ideal material for learning the basics. Grammar and pronunciation are particularly important at this stage - for grammar, you can train your skills through a few grammar drills books; as for pronunciation, repeating words and sentences several times with the help of an IC recorder is key.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">At the intermediate level, the three main pillars previously mentioned are still important, but the emphasis will gradually shift to building up a robust vocabulary. There are only so many words that you can learn from a beginner’s textbook, so you need to make a deliberate effort to learn and memorize words from vocabulary lists and dictionaries. You can begin with a basic vocabulary list with 1,000 words or so - it’s important that the quantity is small enough for you to learn within a month or two, lest you get fatigued and burn out before you finish the list.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When you’re done with the first vocabulary book, you can progress onto something more advanced, but once again, you shouldn’t overestimate your learning capacity. You should find a compact-sized dictionary for intermediate learners that can be handled within a few months. Apart from normal dictionaries, you can also study dictionaries of slang and idioms, depending on your needs.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, when it comes to memorizing words, I used to be a stickler for creating flashcards, either by hand or by computer software. However, over the past few years, I’ve become more neutral about the use of flashcards, and I no longer view it as a must for vocabulary building. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Using flashcards for memorization can indeed be very effective, but it’s also extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. If you’d rather avoid that cumbersome process, it’s perfectly fine if you just read through the dictionary and pore over the entries meticulously. Regardless of which method you use, the key to success is repetition, so you should go over the same entries multiple times before moving on to the next chunk of words.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As you progress from the intermediate to advanced level, your daily consumption of native content, such as novels, shows, and movies in your target language, should gradually increase. When you have acquired a large enough vocabulary, you should be able to read books without constantly reaching for the dictionary. You should definitely read extensively to get the feel of how the language is actually used by native speakers.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In addition to enjoying native content, at the advanced level, you should start practicing to express yourself in your target language, whether it is in spoken words or written form. The way things stand now, with the advent of ChatGPT, I believe that practicing to write is much more effective than practicing to speak, in the sense that the former is easier to proofread and correct than the latter, and you can therefore learn from your mistakes in a much more reliable and straightforward manner.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">If you want to progress from C1 to C2 level as per the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), this practice of expressing yourself in your target language is crucial. However, having said that, this is a significant undertaking that requires years of practice, so it’s definitely not a must for everyone.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In my own case, I’m not aiming for fluency in the French language, so I’ll probably skip the final step. I’d be very content if I could read books and watch movies in French. Now, enough talk and strategizing. It’s time to get down to brass tacks of studying the language of Rousseau.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-62495952868905230892023-12-09T09:50:00.000+08:002023-12-09T09:50:04.370+08:00Ready to Learn French Vocabulary!<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">For the past few months, I’ve been learning French from a grammar-based textbook that I bought in Japan in September. I’ve been using it to primarily brush up on my grammar, but since it comes with downloadable audio clips, I’ve been practicing pronunciation with it, too. It took me a long while, but I’m finally approaching the end of this textbook, and am ready to do something new to bring my French up to a new level.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-fd5f1e1a-7fff-1e7c-9286-3ace1bbd7e96"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Based on my experience of learning several foreign languages, at beginner-to-intermediate levels, your focus should be on studying grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Now that I have covered grammar and pronunciation with my current textbook, the next logical step for me is to study vocabulary, so one of these days, I’m thinking of buying a simple dictionary with which to learn numerous new words and phrases in French.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My method of studying vocabulary is relatively simple - just open the dictionary, copy the words onto flashcards, and memorize them. Unlike what’s suggested by the latest linguistic theories on second language acquisition, typically, I don’t try to learn words in context, but rather opt for learning them mechanically in alphabetical order, covering the dictionary from beginning to end.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">While I understand that this might not be the most scientific and efficient method, I can vouch for its efficacy to a certain extent, not least because this is how I built up the bulk of my vocabulary in English during my freshman and sophomore years in college. By the end of the second year, my vocabulary had grown robust enough for me to read through English-language novels without feeling the urge to reach for the dictionary.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My current goal is to become able to read French novels and understand French movies with French subtitles. I don’t aim to become fluent in spoken French yet, as it’s going to be a significant undertaking in its own right, requiring years of practice.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, I don’t have a specific time frame as to how long I want to keep up my studies of French before learning another language. I guess the simple answer would be that I’ll keep learning French until I get completely fatigued, which is normally a good sign that I should switch to something else. The same goes for my English studies.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-65785855636562396502023-11-29T07:57:00.003+08:002023-11-29T13:07:44.055+08:00Practicing Both Accents Now<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It was a relatively uneventful day at the office yesterday, which is actually a good thing. It probably has to do with the fact that all three of us who handle our clients’ orders are back at work. I was able to perform my tasks at a calm pace without feeling stressed, which felt fantastic for a change.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-09e27152-7fff-e451-cf29-db40807212a5"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">During lunch break, I went home to prepare dinner for the upcoming two days. This time, I chose pork, ginger, garlic, mushroom, black fungus, and a Chinese vegetable that I don’t know the name of as the ingredients. I cut them into thin slices and stored them in the fridge.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When I came back in the evening, I stir-fried them together in a frying pan. Typically, I cook my meat and vegetables on a low heat, as I previously learned in a book that heating food at low temperatures for an extended period of time allows the flavors of the ingredients to fully come out.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As expected, yesterday’s dinner turned out delicious, and what’s more, I’m going to cook the exact same dish again tonight. Although my repertoire is still very limited, I’m proud to say that my cooking skills have been improving slowly but surely.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday evening after work, I stopped by The Coffee Bean near the office to study some English. I reviewed my previous journal entry and compared it to the proofread versions in American and British English generated by ChatGPT.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I not only copied my preferred proofread version into my notebook, but also practiced reading the different versions aloud using both American and British accents. Since I’m less experienced with a British accent compared to American, I searched for sample sound clips on the YouGlish website whenever I felt uncertain about how to pronounce certain words and phrases in British English.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When I was having my English lesson last night after dinner, my Canadian teacher, Sean, commended me for the improvement I’ve made in my British accent. It was hugely encouraging. My pronunciation practice is obviously paying off, and I’d like to continue perfecting both accents.</span></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-40032991852472284422023-11-26T10:59:00.004+08:002023-11-26T12:18:09.411+08:00Still Having a Cold<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My cold symptoms are still persisting, and I spent most of yesterday lying in bed, trying to recuperate. Fortunately, after a good night’s sleep, now my head is feeling a bit less fuzzy and my muscle pains have somewhat subsided.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5c5977ee-7fff-8ee1-ead5-ba37bcc95d75"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Speaking of muscle pains, on the very rare occasions where I feel extreme tightness of muscles around my shoulders due to stress, I visit a massage parlor for a full-body massage. It does make my muscles feel much more relaxed, but I don’t think I should go there this time as I believe that my muscle pains are triggered by my cold instead of stress.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">If I went ahead to get a massage, it might even make my condition worse, by helping the pathogen circulate throughout my body. The best thing to do at a time like this is stay as inactive as you can and focus on resting.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, it’s my personal belief that if you don’t have much of an appetite when you’re unwell, you shouldn’t force yourself to eat anything. I’m not a doctor, so I could very well be wrong on this, but as a practitioner of intermittent fasting for nearly five years, I believe that being in a state of hunger can do your body a whole lot of good, like clearing the fogginess of your head and facilitating production of the growth hormone.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Since I didn’t feel up to doing anything mentally taxing yesterday, apart from writing a journal entry in the morning, I didn’t do any studying. Instead, I watched a few YouTube videos on learning how to practice English pronunciation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My favorite YouTubers who specialize in teaching English are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@englishwithantonio" target="_blank">Antonio Parlati from Italy</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@innainenglish" target="_blank">Inna from Belarus</a>, both of whom speak English with remarkable fluency with virtually zero accent, despite being born and raised in non-English speaking environments. I value their learning tips from a non-native speaker’s perspective.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In terms of methodology, both of them mention the shadowing technique, which is obviously <i>the</i> most go-to method for perfecting your accent. Apart from that, Antonio also stresses the importance of recording your own voice and listening to it to identify areas for improvement in your accent.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I have tried the shadowing technique before, but have been reluctant to record my own voice as I find it extremely embarrassing. But to achieve my dream of speaking English with no accent, maybe I really need to pluck up the courage to take that additional step. Facing and overcoming your fears is the secret to attaining success in any endeavor.</span></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-41863282077287976062023-11-25T11:27:00.002+08:002023-11-25T11:29:27.176+08:00Having a Cold Today<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Since yesterday morning, I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather. I must be having a cold - my muscles are mildly aching, and my head feels a bit fuzzy. I took it easy at the office and performed my tasks a little more slowly than usual, so that I wouldn’t make a mistake. Given my physical condition, I obtained permission from my boss to work from home in the afternoon. Thankfully, my work-from-home setup functioned properly, so there wasn’t much impact on my work quality.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d16d6079-7fff-b1cb-178c-96720dff886f"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Typically, on Friday, I do three major housework tasks - to vacuum my apartment, to do the dishes, and to wash the laundry. Fortunately, I rely on machines to complete all these things, so all I need to do is wake up a bit earlier than usual and make the necessary arrangements in the morning for the machines to work successfully.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Take vacuuming, for example. To make it easier for my Roomba, the robotic vacuum cleaner, to move around in the apartment, I put away several pieces of furniture. While I am at the office, I operate the Roomba remotely and vacuum the apartment twice in a row. When I go home during lunch break, I put my pieces of furniture back into their original positions. It’s a rather tiring process, but it’s still a lot less work than if I had to do the vacuuming myself.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday, despite me feeling a bit unwell, I completed all these housework tasks, so there are no additional things to do around the house over the weekend. I will focus on recuperating and refrain from doing anything strenuous, including working out at the gym. I’m thinking of reading <i>The New Yorker</i> magazine that I bought a few days ago. The issue I bought features articles on Jim Jordan and Xi Jinping, both of whom I find fascinating.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Other than that, I’m thinking of studying some French using the textbook I bought in Japan. This textbook focuses primarily on grammar, without much emphasis on vocabulary. Since it comes with complimentary MP3 sound files of recordings by a native speaker, it’s an excellent material with which to practice French pronunciation. I’m roughly halfway through this textbook now; when I finish it, I’m thinking of learning vocabulary in earnest.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">My goal is to become able to read novels and enjoy movies in French without feeling the urge to look up words in the dictionary. While I’m fully aware that my French knowledge does nothing to boost my professional career, understanding French does enrich my life immensely, so I’m determined to keep on learning.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-60016387762325522902023-11-19T09:48:00.004+08:002023-11-26T12:31:24.415+08:00Came Back from Melbourne<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Last night, I flew back to Singapore from my week-long vacation in Melbourne, Australia. The flight was about seven hours long, and it was mostly smooth and turbulence-free. I flew with Qantas, Australia’s most popular airline, both to and from Melbourne. The service level was quite decent, and I will definitely consider flying with them again.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5953d702-7fff-2926-c44c-3da201e94b12"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">One thing I liked about Qantas was that they provide an in-flight high-speed wifi service free of charge while flying in Australia’s airspace, which is a significant amount of time given the massive land mass of this country. During the flight, I got a WhatsApp message from my new friend Chris, whom I got acquainted with in Melbourne this time. It warmed my heart to hear from him, and I shot back a message to him immediately.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Another thing I liked was that their fold-out table comes with an ergonomically designed metal flap against which I can place a smartphone or tablet, allowing me to view the screen at a comfortable angle. With this feature, I had quite a pleasant experience reading from my mobile Kindle and watching Netflix shows on my iPad.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Speaking of reading, during my stay in Melbourne, I read an interesting book by Shion Kabasawa (</span><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 10.5pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">樺沢紫苑 </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">), a Japanese psychiatrist. The book, titled <a href="https://amzn.asia/d/dj9nLv3" target="_blank">脳のパフォーマンスを最大まで引き出す 神・時間術</a>, which translates to <i>Miraculous Time Management Method to Optimize Your Brain Performance</i>, is about how to use your brain power in the healthiest and most effective way within the 24-hour time frame of the day.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">According to Kabasawa, the several hours after you wake up in the morning is the most precious time of the day because your brain is the freshest, and should therefore be reserved for creative activities, such as writing and studying. From this perspective, it makes more sense for me to write my journal entry in English in the morning, as it’s quite an exacting activity that requires substantial brain power and creativity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Another thing that I found interesting was the significant roles that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems play, in terms of switching your body between activity mode and rest mode. When you wake up in the morning with sleepy eyes, you’re still in rest mode, and your parasympathetic nervous system is dominant. It gradually gives way to activity mode as your sympathetic nervous system gains dominance. The opposite occurs when you go to bed at night.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In the book, Kabasawa mentions that one relatively easy way to switch your body from rest to activity mode is to take a hot shower right after you wake up in the morning. A hot shower helps you raise your body temperature by a few degrees, facilitating the activation of the sympathetic nervous system.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Following his advice, this morning, I hit the shower right after I woke up, and immediately afterward, I began writing this journal entry before doing anything else. This journal entry is already stretching longer than my usual entries, so maybe this method works, though it needs to be tested several times to verify its efficacy.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Now that I’m concluding today’s journal entry, I need to get to the daunting tasks of unpacking my suitcases and washing my dirty laundry from the Melbourne trip. Luckily, today is Sunday, so I can rest for one day before returning to work tomorrow.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-90418203236310265162023-11-11T08:52:00.000+08:002023-11-11T08:52:04.093+08:00Melbourne, Here I Come!<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This evening, I am flying to Melbourne, Australia for a week-long vacation. My plane is taking off at 11:40 p.m., so I need to get to the airport at least two hours in advance, at 9:40 p.m. I’ve always been a slow packer, and typically, I pack until the very last minute. However, this time, I want to pack well in advance for a change, and get to the airport earlier. I’ve always liked to hang around at Singapore’s Changi Airport, where there are numerous nice shops to browse. I’ll probably chill at Starbucks at some point, doing some reading while savoring a latte.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-28ebb815-7fff-3548-d08e-e8a716201026"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By the way, I won’t be renting a car during this trip, unlike my previous two trips to Melbourne. Initially, I wanted to drive to the Twelve Apostles via Great Ocean Road, but unfortunately, no car was available for renting for the dates I wanted. So, I’ve decided to participate in a guided bus tour to the Twelve Apostles instead. While the bus tour won’t allow me to enjoy the sights at my own leisurely pace, it does free me up from the burden of driving, which is really good, given that I’m not that skilled at driving. Aside from the Twelve Apostles, I’ll take another bus tour to the Yarra Valley to visit a few wineries. Although I’m not exactly an oenophile, I do like red wine, so I’m looking forward to the winery visit.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">On top of these bus trips, while in Melbourne I’m planning to visit a gigantic suburban shopping mall to purchase some clothes. It’ll be a good opportunity for me to improve my wardrobe, so I might stay there for an extended period of time to engage in some serious shopping. Sure, I could do the same thing here in Singapore, but somehow I never get to do it over the weekends as I prefer to avoid crowds. Plus, other priorities always get in the way, like grocery shopping and visits to bookstores. I don’t know if I’ll ever become a good dresser, but I won’t become one unless I try, so we’ll see how it goes at this shopping mall.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-46355411470702420002023-11-07T08:06:00.002+08:002023-11-07T13:09:35.897+08:00Apples of Different Sizes and Shapes<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday, we had a particularly busy and stressful day at the office, since there were only three of us to cover the desk. To make things worse, our systems didn’t work very well, so we wasted quite a bit of time trying to accomplish some very simple tasks.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-34b37344-7fff-e497-c4d9-b62ffd02883f"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I had to shorten my lunch break from the usual two hours to just one to handle the increased workload, and stayed overtime for an extra hour just to make sure that I’ve completed all my tasks. Fortunately, no major errors occurred yesterday.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I usually go to the nearest coffee shop after work to relax and do some reading, but I went straight home last night since it was already late. I cooked penne for dinner, which turned out quite delicious. I’ll cook the same thing for dinner tonight, since I cut the meat and vegetables for two portions yesterday.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">While preparing dinner, I caught an episode of an old Japanese television series, named ふぞろいの林檎たち <i>Fuzoroi No Ringo Tachi</i>, which translates as <i>Apples of Different Sizes and Shapes</i> in English. Season 1 of the show was aired in 1983, when I was nine years old.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Back then, I couldn’t watch the entire series because I missed the live broadcast of an episode here and there, but I remembered it being very interesting. Last night I watched the final episode of Season 1, and at one point I was moved to tears.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Once again, I was impressed by its excellent quality, whether it be the convincing performance of the actors, the intriguing plot, or the messages conveyed to viewers. It made me want to watch the season from beginning to end.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Although I went to bed by midnight, I somehow woke up at around 4:30 a.m., so I applied for the visa for Australia in preparation for my upcoming trip to Melbourne commencing this Saturday. The application procedure was not difficult at all, and I was granted a tourist visa in a matter of a few minutes. Now that I have arranged my plane ticket, hotel reservation, travel insurance and visa, I’m almost fully prepared for the trip. I am eagerly anticipating this journey.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-63152803337064793602023-11-02T07:52:00.005+08:002023-11-02T07:52:38.602+08:00Watched House of Cards Again<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday evening after work, I headed to the Starbucks at the Bugis Junction shopping mall near my apartment, where I studied some English.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-85d22e5f-7fff-f1ed-fa9d-d2bb6cb59e64"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As usual, I transcribed my previous journal entry into my notebook by hand. What I transcribe is not my original writing, but the version that’s been proofread by ChatGPT using natural English. This act of transcribing by hand enables me to identify areas for improvement in my own writing far more effectively than if I just glanced through the proofread version.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When I am done transcribing, I commit all amendments to memory by reading the proofread version a few more times. I stop only when I can reproduce the proofread version perfectly by merely looking at my original version. The whole process takes me at least an hour.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Afterward, I went upstairs to the gym and had a workout. It had been a while since my previous gym visit, so I avoided any strenuous workout for fear that my body wouldn’t be able to cope. I walked on the treadmill while watching an episode of <i>House of Cards</i>, a Netflix show.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Speaking of which, for me personally, <i>House of Cards</i> is a great show with which to study spoken English. Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, who play the two central characters, speak with remarkable enunciation that can serve as a model for my own speech. I’m currently watching Season 3, so I still have a long way to go before I finish.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-51260507916356983682023-10-29T10:50:00.000+08:002023-10-29T10:50:07.129+08:00Playing DVDs on My Laptop<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Yesterday, I stayed inside my apartment all day long. I didn’t get any studying done, but that’s okay with me.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-6074e3e7-7fff-f5be-af5b-f2e5ac8ddd12"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">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.</span></p></span>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1383699086290907398.post-5999981866901989842023-10-07T13:29:00.002+08:002023-10-07T14:04:45.592+08:00Need to Practice to Think<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">On this front, I am currently facing a few difficulties, which I’d like to explore today.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IDPSl796gW0" width="320" youtube-src-id="IDPSl796gW0"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div>Uncle Polyglothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102865477554802603noreply@blogger.com0