I Hit One-Third Mark of My French Dictionary!

A few days ago, I finally hit the one-third mark in my studying of French vocabulary from the Larousse French-Chinese dictionary. It took me 127 days to reach this point—if I extrapolate from this learning speed, it will take me roughly a year to finish the entire dictionary.

Studying a dictionary in its entirety is not a completely new undertaking for me. As far as French goes, I’ve done it twice already, each time resulting in a significant boost in my knowledge of vocabulary. However, as I have quickly forgotten most of the words I had learned, my vocabulary is still not sizable enough for me to read through French novels with ease, hence my decision to study numerous French words again from yet another dictionary.

By the way, during my first attempt, I created physical flashcards to study thousands of words, leaving piles and piles of cards stacking up in my living room. It was effective to some extent, but it was very time-consuming and labor-intensive, leaving me with relatively little time and energy to actually study what was written on those cards. Essentially, I was exhausted and close to burning out.

So, for my second attempt, I completely did away with flashcards, and focused instead on loosely glancing at the dictionary entries multiple times each day. It was a significant improvement on my previous attempt, and my knowledge of vocabulary expanded substantially. However, what’s truly regrettable is that I got complacent after this, and didn’t follow up with more studying, leaving my vocabulary to level off and stagnate over the next few years.

This time, I am determined to see my vocab learning through to the very end—when I finish studying my current dictionary, I won’t stop learning French words right then and there; instead, I’ll most probably switch to another dictionary and go over its contents from beginning to end. I’ll repeat the same process indefinitely until I get truly comfortable reading French novels, in the same way I feel reading Japanese and English books.

Incidentally, I am not focusing on growing my ability to express myself in French yet, whether it’s speaking or writing. As my ultimate goal is to become fluent in spoken French, I’ll need to tackle these aspects of language learning sooner or later.

Having said that, I’m not in a hurry at all—I believe that there will come a time when I feel compelled to start practicing speaking and writing, as well as improving my French accent. I won’t forcibly initiate some action before it’s suitable to do so; instead, I’ll let nature run its course through my language learning journey and develop my knowledge in a way that I feel most comfortable with.

My Thoughts on Hiring Domestic Helpers

It’s Sunday afternoon again. I am having my cleaning lady help me do some housework now while I try to write this journal entry as quickly as possible. For the past 10 years, I have hired a part-time domestic helper to tidy up my apartment for three hours on a biweekly basis. She helps me iron my clothes and clean my bathroom, kitchen and living room.

For three hours’ worth of housework, I pay the domestic help agency SGD 83 (approximately USD 61), which I find quite reasonable. The lady who currently services my house is from Myanmar. Although her knowledge of English is somewhat limited, it’s sufficient for her to understand the tasks that need to get done, so overall I’m quite happy with her level of service.

Here in Singapore, hiring a domestic helper is a very common practice, due to the prevalence of double-income households and an aging population. Most domestic helpers are from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. They are attracted to Singapore for the higher wages compared to their home countries, and the relatively low language barrier to overcome as people here speak English.

When I was in Japan more than 20 years ago, it was very rare for Japanese households to hire domestic helpers, as it was taken for granted that each person should take care of their own housework and paying someone else to do their domestic chores was generally frowned upon as a sign of laziness.

However, these days, things are slowly changing in Japan. A few weeks ago, I read a report on a Japanese news site that in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, there has been a significant increase in demand for domestic help in normal middle-income households as people experience more pressure at work.

I think it’s a good change, because paying others to do your housework is not something that you should be ashamed of. I believe that lack of open-mindedness is holding back Japan’s economic development, and it’s high time that Japanese people started changing their mindsets.

Given its shrinking population, Japan should also consider allowing more immigrants to settle in the country. The language barrier is a major impediment, as Japanese people generally aren’t fluent in English.

For immigrants to adapt successfully to their new environment, the government should provide more support for immigrants, including helping them learn the Japanese language and local customs. Granted, it’s an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, but it needs to be done as Japan’s very survival as a nation is at stake.

Watched "18x2 Beyond Youthful Days"

I have a busy day planned for today. First, I need to write this journal entry and have it proofread by ChatGPT in preparation for my online English lesson on Tuesday; then, I need to go to Farrer Park for grocery shopping for the upcoming week. In the afternoon, I am going to the nearby cinema to catch “Article 20,” the latest film directed by Zhang Yimou, one of my favorite directors; after that, I am going to the gym across the street for a one-hour workout. When it’s done, I’ll finally come home to cook dinner.

Speaking of films, last night I went to the movie theater in my neighborhood and watched “18x2 Beyond Youthful Days,” a Japanese-Taiwanese co-production directed by Michihito Fujii. This is a love story between Ami, a young Japanese female backpacker in Taiwan, and Jimmy, a Taiwanese boy whom she meets locally. It depicts their encounter, their interactions during Ami’s short stay in Taiwan, and Jimmy’s railway journey in Japan 18 years later where he reminisces about their fleeting but happy days together.

As this film opened only a few days ago, I can’t give any spoilers in this journal entry, but I can say that it was enjoyable and worth watching. The dialogues were in Japanese and Mandarin, both of which I speak and understand, affording me a deeper level of appreciation for this touching story.

Due to historical reasons, I feel that Japan and Taiwan share many commonalities in terms of culture and the general ways in which people think and behave, in a way that feels much closer than the relationship between Japan and Mainland China.

Many Taiwanese grow up reading Japanese comic books and watching Japanese cartoons and television series; Japan is also their favorite travel destination, where they enjoy exquisite local food, well-maintained cultural sites, and spectacular nature. Both peoples savor each other’s cuisines, which tend to be more lightly yet subtly flavored compared to food from other Asian countries, like Mainland China or Korea.

I traveled to Taipei on a company trip last October and enjoyed myself to the utmost. Given my very short stay in the city, I focused on visiting local bookstores, one of my favorite things to do wherever I travel. I ended up buying a few Japanese comic books translated into Chinese. As I’m focusing on learning French now, I still haven’t gotten around to opening them. However, whenever I get tired of French and feel like a change of pace, I’ll definitely binge-read those beautifully drawn comic books and get my fill of the Chinese language.

Switching My Gym in June

Today is the last day of the long weekend of the Good Friday holiday. Aside from writing this journal entry, I only have some mundane tasks planned for the rest of the day, like shopping for groceries and hitting the gym.

Speaking of which, I have a membership at the gym located in the shopping mall near my apartment. I’ve been going there since July of last year on a one-year contract. Although I’m happy with its facilities and services overall, I’ve decided not to extend my membership when it expires at the end of June.

The reason is that my new office has its own gym, which is open to the employees at about half the price of what I’m paying at my current gym. Given that I only ride the treadmill and never lift weights, I only require the most basic facilities for my workouts, so I’ve decided to switch to the company gym.

Like many gay guys, I admit that I find muscular guys more attractive than guys who are lanky or chubby, and I have previously harbored a desire to become muscular myself. However, it didn’t take me long to figure out that building up muscles is no easy task–it requires total dedication, where I should be prepared to work out daily for about 90 minutes, as well as tailor my diet to maximize my protein intake.

As I’m currently focusing on my French studies, which take up a substantial amount of my free time, dedicating an hour and a half to muscle-building on top of that is an impossibility for me, so I have no choice but to give up on the idea of acquiring a beach-body physique–at least not anytime soon.

However, that doesn’t negate the importance of exercising twice a week or so, especially walking vigorously to the point of breaking a sweat. I’ve read that moderate exercise like walking is hugely beneficial in terms of maintaining the health of your brain and slowing down the overall aging of your body.

Accordingly, I am determined to keep up my current exercise routine of a 60-minute uphill treadmill ride every time I visit the gym. As the saying goes, health is priceless, so while I’m pretty busy with my language learning, I’m going to do whatever is necessary to stay healthy, regardless of whether or not I look attractive to the other gay guys.

Should Have Perfected My English Vocabulary

Yesterday was a public holiday here in Singapore for Good Friday. I spent a good part of the day studying French words.

As of today, I am 28 percent of the way through my dictionary. Typically, I spend about three hours a day learning French vocabulary, allocating two hours to learning new words and another hour to reviewing the words I’ve learned during the preceding two days.

Not many people try to study vocabulary by going through their dictionary from beginning to end, but I have done it for French at least twice before, so I’m quite used to the idea and also know very well what to expect.

While it’s an efficient method to acquire an extensive vocabulary in a relatively short period, you also forget many of the words you’ve learned. It sounds like a largely wasted effort, but I’m not dismayed by this phenomenon anymore as I’ve experienced it so many times before.

The important thing is that you shouldn’t feel disappointed by the number of words you forget; instead, adopt a zen attitude about it and continue learning a new set of words every day without worrying too much about retaining them in your memory.

Since I’m not too concerned about forgetting words, I don’t use flash cards in my attempt to secure them in my long-term memory either. All I ever do is peruse the dictionary entries meticulously without explicitly trying to commit them to memory. As a result, while certain words will stick in my head, other words will inevitably be forgotten, but I'm perfectly fine with it. 

When I am done learning my current dictionary, I intend to either study the same dictionary again, or switch to another dictionary and learn the contents from cover to cover. Either way, I should be prepared to spend a few years repeating this cycle of studying an entire dictionary to acquire a vocabulary extensive enough for reading French novels without feeling frustrated.

By the way, when I was learning English earnestly during my first two years of college, I also studied tens of thousands of words and expressions, including idioms, slang, and phrasal verbs. Sometimes I spent more than five hours a day studying, which certainly helped to boost my ability to understand English. By the end of the second year, I was already able to read English novels comfortably.

Little did I know back then that my English learning journey would be far from over. Although I read dozens of books, somehow it didn’t contribute too much to my spoken fluency in English. Since then, I have tried various methods, such as shadowing movie dialogues and English broadcasts, as well as memorizing novel passages verbatim, in which I’ve achieved varying degrees of success. I’m quite fond of my current learning method, which is writing a journal entry and having it proofread by ChatGPT, as I find it quite effective in identifying problem areas in my English.

If I could start all over, I would have persisted a bit more in perfecting my knowledge of English vocabulary before starting to read novels. Up until now, I still encounter a few unknown words or phrases when I watch an American movie or series on Netflix, especially slang and colloquial expressions. Although I can still follow the general flow of the story, I feel slightly uncomfortable when I come across unknown words, and get a bit jealous of native speakers for understanding the content perfectly.

Now that I’m learning French intensively, I don’t have the time to relearn English vocabulary for the foreseeable future. However, if and when I get tired of my French studies and need to take a break, I’ll be more than happy to plunge back into learning English and deepen my understanding of its colorful colloquialism.

Sticking to My Current Learning Method

More than three months have passed since I began learning French vocabulary from a dictionary in earnest. As of today, I have covered about 26 percent of its contents - a remarkable achievement, if I do say so myself.

I study French vocabulary almost every day, not out of a sense of obligation, but because I genuinely find it enjoyable. 

At first blush, studying words directly from a dictionary might sound like a silly and quixotic idea, as the popular belief has it that the meaning of a particular word tends to stick to your head more firmly if it’s memorized in the context of a story.

However, as I soon discovered after I started this undertaking, there are huge benefits to studying words in alphabetical order, even if the method seems mechanical or robotic.

One benefit is that the words that are derived from the same source tend to be shown right next to each other in the dictionary, so that I can study them all at the same time.

For example, the basic verb “déchirer” (to tear up) appears right after the noun form “déchirement” (tearing up), which is preceded by the adjective form “déchirant” (heart-breaking), allowing me to observe the patterns in which a word changes its form depending on its grammatical attribute.

Another benefit to this learning method is that it helps me identify the so-called “faux amis” (false friends), which have very similar, if not identical, spellings to English words and yet have radically different meanings from their English cousins.

For instance, while the word “affection” can mean a feeling of fondness in a way that’s similar to English, it can also mean an ailment or disease, which is hardly imaginable to an Anglophone. The same goes for the word “allocation,” which can be understood as a distributed amount as in English, but it can also refer to benefits or subsidies granted by the government.

If I faithfully follow the sequence of words in the dictionary, I can easily detect such various nuances of a word and obtain a comprehensive understanding of its possible meanings in a matter of minutes.

Conversely, if I stick to learning words strictly through a contextual method as advocated by some language learning specialists, it can literally take ages before I can grasp the whole picture surrounding a particular word, tiring me out in the process, with no end in sight.

Accordingly, I will gladly stick to my current method of studying and keep learning the dictionary entries word by word, page by page. At the rate I’m going, I expect to finish learning the entire contents by the end of the year. Even at that point, my French will still be far from perfect, but at least my reading and listening comprehension will be greatly enhanced compared to now, so it’s definitely something to look forward to.

Reading "Just Keep Buying" Now

 

This morning, I woke up naturally around 8 a.m. without needing the alarm. Typically, on Friday evenings, I have a tendency to stay up late, mostly watching YouTube videos in a leisurely way, but last night, I took the precaution of going to bed around midnight because I had to get up early enough to make it to my hairstylist appointment at 10 a.m. today.

After having my morning coffee at my apartment, I walked to the hair salon instead of taking the bus. It took me around 30 minutes, and I reached there just in time for my appointment. It was a pleasant walk, but the weather was rather hot, and I perspired quite a bit on the way. It was a good thing that I had put on the sunblock before leaving home. This time, in addition to a haircut, I had my hair dyed dark green, my favorite color.

I was expecting to spend around two hours at the salon, but the entire process only took around an hour, freeing up an extra hour for me. So, I headed over to the Starbucks in the nearby shopping mall to relax. Although the coffee shop was somewhat crowded today, I managed to find a table and sat down to do some reading over a cup of latte.

The book I am currently reading is titled Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways to Save Money and Build Your Wealth, authored by Nick Maggiulli. This book is about how you can efficiently save and invest your money in preparation for your retirement. 

The most intriguing part of this book is what the author thinks about buying a house as opposed to renting, as a means of growing your wealth. He doesn’t give a definitive answer as to which is the better option, as the soundness of a real estate investment depends on market conditions and your specific financial situation.

Whether you are buying a house or renting, each option comes with its pros and cons. In view of my current situation and the recent high interest rate environment, I am tentatively leaning in favor of renting, but I’d really like to buy my own place one day, because I want a slightly bigger space for myself.

By the way, I am reading the Japanese version of this book. I bought it last year at a bookstore in Japan during my vacation. As I haven’t read the original version in English, I can’t comment on how good the translation is, but in terms of its readability, it’s written in natural Japanese and in a style that’s straightforward and easy to understand, so I believe that the translator must be very skillful.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable read, so it shouldn’t take me too long to finish it. I’m curious to find out what other interesting tips the author presents in the remainder of this book.

Enjoying Hong Kong Now

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Moving to the New Office

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Watching "Dahmer" in French Now

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.

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.

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.

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. 

However, for the parts that I can 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.

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.

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.

My Thoughts on Learning English Through Movies

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

So Many Coffee Chains!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I'm a Fan of Bull Nakano

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Dire Need of a Massage

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

AJATT is Not For Me

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Back in Love with French Again!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Michelle by the Beatles.

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 Un homme et une femme at a Tokyo CD shop revived my longing and admiration for the language of Rousseau.

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.

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.

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.

Lessons Learned From "I Learned Italian in 7 Days"

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.

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.

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.

Check this out:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

First Blog Post of 2024 - Importance of Repetition in Language Learning

Happy New Year!

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.

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.

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.

Check this out:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I can’t help but feel excited about how my French will evolve in the coming years!