That cat looks like she’s going out of her way to never blink again just to spite you

Thanks, I’d never heard that term before and was very confused

That’s the entire point of voting in a two party system

That’s fantastic, thank you! I prefer reading to listening when learning so that’s a huge help!

That’s perfect. Subbed is fine too if you’re actively listening but my problem was that I would just read the subs, hear the voices, and never actually listen to what they were saying.

For some reason I thought it would eventually sink in but it never did, the immersion listening has been working much better.

Funny story, I looked up Pokemon Podcast in Google translate and pasted it into YouTube and clicked the first result and actually liked the podcast. I went to watch more, but then realized it’s a general podcast that did a single Pokemon episode. Furthermore, it’s called the Badonkadonk Podcast and each episode starts with the guy saying daaaaamnnnnnmmn, that’s a badonkadonk! before starting the podcast in Japanese. It’s pretty funny, the guy is from America and will randomly break into English

The practice problems made it stick for me, I just worked through the lesson 2’s problems a couple of weeks ago. That said, language learning is a journey. I’ve watched anime for years and did Duolingo for half a year but never got anywhere. I went to Japan in March but was severely disappointed by how absolutely useless I was without Google translate. I finally decided that I’m going to learn it this time and a couple of months ago I started in earnest.

From what I’ve researched, there’s 3 things you need to focus on (after you’ve learned the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets):

• Doing Anki flashcards with a vocab deck (I’m currently using Kaishi 1.5K). This software OP created fills the same role so use that if it works for you, I just like Anki’s algorithms that put frequently missed cards in rotation more often. Don’t overload yourself, just do a little bit every day. If you use Anki, set it to only introduce 10 new cards a day.

• Listening to a lot of Japanese for immersion, arguably the most important. Listen to podcasts, anime with no subs, whatever seems interesting enough to keep you engaged. If it’s about a topic you know about you’ll pick things up faster. Your brain begins to form patterns and with enough inputs will put things together and match words you know with words that are commonly found beside it

• Learning the grammar. This is arguably less important because with enough listening you’ll passively pick it up, but if you study a bit it can jumpstart it.

There’s a concept called tolerating ambiguity: as you listen to Japanese immersion you will have no idea what’s going on. For me it was infuriating, but you need to accept that you won’t understand in the beginning. This is how babies learn. This is the video that started me on my path to actually trying.

The part that people don’t want to admit is that it takes years to get to the point where you can really understand the language and you’ll have to work at it. If you want to go down that journey then feel free to DM me, I can help you get started and we can throw phrases we learn at each other and watch our progress grow over time.

Yeah, it’s rough, I almost quit five mins into the video and I told my wife it’s the most grating thing I’ve ever heard. After finishing the first and second video I was able to tolerate it and concepts that I had read about but never understood were clicking left and right.

I later realized it might have been because the video creator was sick and was constantly in and out of hospitals so using an artificial voice may have just made everything easier and made me feel bad for being judgy.

I’m not super far in the series yet but there’s put out so many amazing videos, there’s problem sets with answers, and the comments are filled with personal anecdotes where the creator answered DMs to questions in a very in-depth and patient manner.

There’s almost no fluff to the videos after the first one, they’re very concise and the explanations make so much sense. It’s easy to read things like “wa is the topic marker, ga is the subject marker” and not gain any clarity, but I finally understand it thanks to the vids. I’m sure one day I’ll finish the series and wish I could hear more

Grammar problems solved.

It took me a while to be able to tolerate the voice but it’s the single best resource for learning Japanese grammar. The video creator passed on but they are by far the best teacher I’ve ever come across

I created a little script that ran on startup that would wait a random amount of time between 5 and 15 mins and would just hit the left key once. I dropped it on a dev’s computer when he left it unlocked and forgot about it. After weeks of torment, it activated while he had a YouTube video so he figured out it wasn’t his fault. He was convinced it was the keyboard and started harassing IT so I had to come clean.

Jokes on me though, every time there was any quirk on his computer, server, or with his code he blamed me and didn’t believe me.

https://youtu.be/7fvCb5_Nzq4

TL;DW: keep listening to Japanese media for a couple of hours a day. Watch anime in Japanese with no subs, listen to Japanese podcasts or audiobooks in Japanese while you’re working or doing something else, etc. Try to find something you know a bit about because it will help keep you engaged and help with context.

There’s a chapter about tolerating ambiguity which means they in the beginning you won’t understand anything and it will be very frustrating but you need to accept it and keep feeding your brain Japanese inputs. You’ll learn the sentence structure and vocabulary as well as learning pronunciation, this is basically how babies learn. You’re brain is really good at pattern recognition so just give it enough inputs and eventually it will start to click

Start doing Anki cards which will supplement all the inputs. Don’t go overboard, just learn the alphabets and then some common vocab and keep listening to other media. After about a year, start reading and writing a lot. Read manga, read books, and start writing notes and stuff in Japanese.

That’s basically it. You can use study materials if you want but feeding your brain more inputs is key. In addition to being really effective it has the benefit of being way more fun than studying grammar and whatnot

I still feel those tiny needles that got me 20 years ago. Those bastards are impossible to remove because they’re so brittle and just snap off

Maybe they started halfway through and by the time they realized what was going on, it was too late. They started singing it, not knowing what it was. And they’ll continue singing it. Forever. Just because…

I went in blind because tHeRE’s sIGns eVEryWhEre aNd gOoGlE tRansLAtE EXisTs. Guess where you don’t want to have your phone out with the camera open??!

It was pretty straightforward once I figured it out but in the moment I was super nervous

We went for a two week trip, starting up north and working our way down. Hakone is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

Tokyo is absolutely massive, we had a hotel in Ueno and I spent about 2.5 days there before realizing that’s just one tiny part of Tokyo and there’s SO much more. After that I just rode the train around Tokyo for a while, exploring everything that sounded cool. I easily could have spent a month just exploring Tokyo, give yourself plenty of time there.

It really depends on what your interests are but it’s sure to have something for anyone. We were walking around Ueno Park and randomly stumbled on a local bonsai association which was such a magical experience.

Bring comfortable walking shoes that have already been broken in because you’ll likely be walking a lot. I had really lightweight shoes but they didn’t have enough support so I bought new shoes, only to get blisters from walking 50km in one day with shoes that haven’t been broken in yet 🥲

notices your solder iron

OwO what’s this?

I’m not sure if it’s because these studies are coming out or if it’s coincidence but Hank just put out a video about coral reefs and how it’s not too late to help them. It’s not all doom and gloom and we shouldn’t give up!

https://youtu.be/hxZDyV-E5WY

You’re not alone, studies show that sugar will actually decrease energy and alertness

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-hyperactivity-myth

The studies clearly show that the sugar rush myth has been debunked. Having more sugar doesn’t make people hyper or give them more energy, in fact a meta analysis links sugar to a higher level of fatigue and less alertness

Correct on how caffeine works, but sugar doesn’t cause hyperactivity, that has been disproven. It’s likely because caffeine is a stimulant so it’ll make your heart beat faster so you might feel more hyper.

As you said, water is very important as well. Dehydration can make you feel sleepy!