Comments for Three Pounds Flax http://threepoundsflax.org "What is the Buddhadharma? An Urban Hermit Takes Refuge in the Way of Zen." Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:55:58 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 Comment on Primitives Deck by kalek http://threepoundsflax.org/primitives-deck/comment-page-1/#comment-1735 kalek Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:55:58 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=24#comment-1735 Looks like Fabiusli deleted it from his Dropbox. Does anyone else have it in their own Dropbox? I just want to download missing media once (as Kris described above). Thanks. Looks like Fabiusli deleted it from his Dropbox.

Does anyone else have it in their own Dropbox? I just want to download missing media once (as Kris described above).

Thanks.

]]> Comment on Lazy Kanji + Mod (or what I’ve been up to) by limyreth http://threepoundsflax.org/lazy-kanji-mod-or-what-ive-been-up-to/comment-page-1/#comment-1250 limyreth Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:28:17 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=21#comment-1250 I love your sense of humour (It's measuring box!). Also, it's much easier to learn with this than Heisig, thanks! I love your sense of humour (It’s measuring box!). Also, it’s much easier to learn with this than Heisig, thanks!

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by emmie http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-1047 emmie Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:48:59 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-1047 I'm glad to know you're interested in onomatopoeia, 擬音語擬態語（ぎおんごぎたいご）っておもしろいですよね、since I tend to use them a lot for making my post sounds casual... 私は、よく使っちゃいます。 When I read your post, I remembered a funny experience I had with a language learner of Japanese　at Lj. I think he was an advanced learner and he was giving explanations a lot to other learners, but I thought his words are a bit too affirmative as a non-native and what he says is correct only under limited situations. Then I wrote him some examples like I did now and his reply was; "my textbook doesn't say so..." I'm sure you're more into Japanese mind and culture than that guy was. ^^ BTW, I'm doing some manga E to J translation for fun to help English speaking friends, マンガが好きで日本語を学んでいる友達がいるので、時々（ときどき）日本語を英語に訳（やく）してしてあげるのですが、 and found this 擬音語擬態語 site. http://thejadednetwork.com/ so many... I’m glad to know you’re interested in onomatopoeia, 擬音語擬態語（ぎおんごぎたいご）っておもしろいですよね、since I tend to use them a lot for making my post sounds casual… 私は、よく使っちゃいます。

When I read your post, I remembered a funny experience I had with a language learner of Japanese　at Lj.
I think he was an advanced learner and he was giving explanations a lot to other learners, but I thought his words are a bit too affirmative as a non-native and what he says is correct only under limited situations. Then I wrote him some examples like I did now and his reply was; “my textbook doesn’t say so…” I’m sure you’re more into Japanese mind and culture than that guy was. ^^

BTW, I’m doing some manga E to J translation for fun to help English speaking friends, マンガが好きで日本語を学んでいる友達がいるので、時々（ときどき）日本語を英語に訳（やく）してしてあげるのですが、
and found this 擬音語擬態語 site. http://thejadednetwork.com/ so many…

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by Kendo http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-1046 Kendo Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:35:34 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-1046 emmie, oh I didn't mean to to imply that I was seeing Japanese tweets and personally saying that this or that tweet had errors. No, my Japanese is certainly not good enough for me to be judging the grammatical correctness of a native speaker's! Rather, I was inferring that since English tweets and other internet posts often contain many grammatical and spelling errors, Japanese tweets would as well. This could be totally wrong though, and might have more to do with the ridiculous complexity of English spelling and grammar rules than any kind of universal sloppy writing when it comes to online mediums. Again, I certainly didn't mean to imply that I was reading Japanese tweets and judging the correctness or incorrectness of the Japanese used there. Even once my Japanese is really, really good, I doubt I would feel comfortable making that kind of judgement. Hope that explains what I meant more clearly. I happen to love the richness and diversity of colloquial Japanese. It's one of the most exciting aspects of the language (along with kanji and onomatapoeia) and it would be truly, truly unfortunate if the "standard" Tokyo dialect was to replace all the many variations. Sorry that I gave the impression I thought otherwise. emmie, oh I didn’t mean to to imply that I was seeing Japanese tweets and personally saying that this or that tweet had errors. No, my Japanese is certainly not good enough for me to be judging the grammatical correctness of a native speaker’s! Rather, I was inferring that since English tweets and other internet posts often contain many grammatical and spelling errors, Japanese tweets would as well. This could be totally wrong though, and might have more to do with the ridiculous complexity of English spelling and grammar rules than any kind of universal sloppy writing when it comes to online mediums. Again, I certainly didn’t mean to imply that I was reading Japanese tweets and judging the correctness or incorrectness of the Japanese used there. Even once my Japanese is really, really good, I doubt I would feel comfortable making that kind of judgement. Hope that explains what I meant more clearly.

I happen to love the richness and diversity of colloquial Japanese. It’s one of the most exciting aspects of the language (along with kanji and onomatapoeia) and it would be truly, truly unfortunate if the “standard” Tokyo dialect was to replace all the many variations. Sorry that I gave the impression I thought otherwise.

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by emmie http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-1045 emmie Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:23:12 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-1045 HI Kendo-san, I just wanted to say a little about your comment, "Japanese Tweets, where there are surely plenty of grammatical and spelling errors," This comment, from you a learner of Japanese, was intriguing. I don't see many errors when I read twitter and I wonder what realized could be not errors but many variations of Japanese expressions. Do you know language used in Tokyo, in textbooks, in flashcards, or over TV is only a standard Japanese and there are many many different variations, like dialects, all over Japan? Japanese differs along with which area, society or generation you belong to. For example, when you want to say "I’m doing tadoku." you can say, 私は多読しています。多読してる。 多読やってる。多読しよるばい。多読しよると。してるの多読。しちゃってる多読。多読中。多読するなりよ。多読するっちゃんね。多読げなやりよると。・・・It's going to last forever... I think as you read or listen to Japanese more and more, you'll come to meet those variations and enjoy them. Happy tadoku! HI Kendo-san,
I just wanted to say a little about your comment,
“Japanese Tweets, where there are surely plenty of grammatical and spelling errors,”
This comment, from you a learner of Japanese, was intriguing.
I don’t see many errors when I read twitter and I wonder what realized could be not errors but many variations of Japanese expressions.
Do you know language used in Tokyo, in textbooks, in flashcards, or over TV is only a standard Japanese and there are many many different variations, like dialects, all over Japan? Japanese differs along with which area, society or generation you belong to.
For example, when you want to say “I’m doing tadoku.” you can say,
私は多読しています。多読してる。
多読やってる。多読しよるばい。多読しよると。してるの多読。しちゃってる多読。多読中。多読するなりよ。多読するっちゃんね。多読げなやりよると。・・・It’s going to last forever… I think as you read or listen to Japanese more and more, you’ll come to meet those variations and enjoy them.
Happy tadoku!

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by kalek http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-973 kalek Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:08:32 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-973 Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Even now (in English!) I am correcting errors, so there's no reason why I can't in Japanese also. I'll try it again, then. No dictionary this time :D Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Even now (in English!) I am correcting errors, so there’s no reason why I can’t in Japanese also.

I’ll try it again, then. No dictionary this time :D

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by Kendo http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-972 Kendo Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:01:41 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-972 Yes, you definitely need to use the "Very Easy" option and the delete button often with this method, otherwise you're just hurting yourself. A deck you eventually delete because it is too hard or boring is a worthless deck. I do not actually double-check the readings on this deck. I do for MCD's and stuff like that, but with this deck I find it an unnecessary tedium. Yes there are the occasional errors, and if I suspect it is wrong I will double-check and correct the furigana, but otherwise, I just assume that all the other immersion and studying I do will correct any occassional errors I encounter. I figure its no different from reading Japanese Tweets, where there are surely plenty of grammatical and spelling errors, just like with English tweets, but because they are the exception rather than the norm, the erroneous patterns are not the ones you will remember. If this was the only exposure to Japanese I was getting, it would be far more important to make sure everything was correct, but between my MCD deck, ReadtheKanji, all the other immersion, I'm sure any occassional errors in my Tadoku deck will get sorted out over time. This keeps it fun and dictionary free. Yes, you definitely need to use the “Very Easy” option and the delete button often with this method, otherwise you’re just hurting yourself. A deck you eventually delete because it is too hard or boring is a worthless deck.

I do not actually double-check the readings on this deck. I do for MCD’s and stuff like that, but with this deck I find it an unnecessary tedium. Yes there are the occasional errors, and if I suspect it is wrong I will double-check and correct the furigana, but otherwise, I just assume that all the other immersion and studying I do will correct any occassional errors I encounter. I figure its no different from reading Japanese Tweets, where there are surely plenty of grammatical and spelling errors, just like with English tweets, but because they are the exception rather than the norm, the erroneous patterns are not the ones you will remember.

If this was the only exposure to Japanese I was getting, it would be far more important to make sure everything was correct, but between my MCD deck, ReadtheKanji, all the other immersion, I’m sure any occassional errors in my Tadoku deck will get sorted out over time. This keeps it fun and dictionary free.

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by kalek http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-946 kalek Tue, 05 Jul 2011 05:08:16 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-946 I was hoping you would do a post on this. It seems really powerful, but I wasn't totally sure how to approach it. Sounds like your approach and the approach I tried are pretty similar, although for whatever reason that my incremental/extensive/tadoku decks tend to get dropped pretty quickly. I think I need to abuse the '4' and delete buttons more haha. Out of curiosity, do you make sure your Anki readings are correct? I've heard (and experienced a few times) that Anki gets it wrong every once in a while, and that's really my biggest issue with the tadoku/Anki method. I would LOVE to be able to read my way to fluency (and maybe make some MCDs on the way to really solidify it) without dictionary lookups, but looking up readings in the dictionary just to make sure Anki is correct is tedious, and at that point I feel like I may as well be making more active cards that target specific points and using definitions since they're already pulled up anyway. I was hoping you would do a post on this. It seems really powerful, but I wasn’t totally sure how to approach it. Sounds like your approach and the approach I tried are pretty similar, although for whatever reason that my incremental/extensive/tadoku decks tend to get dropped pretty quickly. I think I need to abuse the ‘4′ and delete buttons more haha.

Out of curiosity, do you make sure your Anki readings are correct? I’ve heard (and experienced a few times) that Anki gets it wrong every once in a while, and that’s really my biggest issue with the tadoku/Anki method. I would LOVE to be able to read my way to fluency (and maybe make some MCDs on the way to really solidify it) without dictionary lookups, but looking up readings in the dictionary just to make sure Anki is correct is tedious, and at that point I feel like I may as well be making more active cards that target specific points and using definitions since they’re already pulled up anyway.

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by Kendo http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-920 Kendo Sat, 02 Jul 2011 05:41:18 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-920 Hi emmie, thank you for your comment. I have visitation with my kids right now, from Thursday night to this upcoming Tuesday, its a special extra long visit, so I couldn't reply to you sooner. I definitely think a network of friends, online or otherwise, is really important when you take on a project like tadoku or learning a foreign language. I feel fortunate that we live in such an internet-connected world these days, and its so easy to make friends all over the world who share these interests. As of right now, I'm finding lots to read online. And as I described in this post, I've worked out a pretty good method for sorting through it, even if it does seem a little cumbersome. But I definitely hope to get some more physical books soon, because there is nothing that compares to curling up on the couch with a book in hand and reading it. I really enjoyed the picture books that I found at the library, and have read most of them several times now just for the pleasure of it. I enjoyed reading your Japanese, with the English translation beneath it. This kind of thing can be helpful to me. Sorry to hear your son is so rebellious now. I also was a very rebellious teenage son, but I settled down eventually. My son is six, and my daughter is four. They are the most important thing in my life, then learning Japanese comes right after ;P I get to visit with them every other weekend, and every Thursday night for a while. And then in the summer I get a couple extra-length visits because they don't have school. Those times are really fun, but they wear me out because my kids want every single second of my attention. I would have replied in Japanese but they have exhausted me, and my brain just couldn't think that hard tonight. I will try next time. Talk to you soon. Hi emmie, thank you for your comment. I have visitation with my kids right now, from Thursday night to this upcoming Tuesday, its a special extra long visit, so I couldn’t reply to you sooner.
I definitely think a network of friends, online or otherwise, is really important when you take on a project like tadoku or learning a foreign language. I feel fortunate that we live in such an internet-connected world these days, and its so easy to make friends all over the world who share these interests.

As of right now, I’m finding lots to read online. And as I described in this post, I’ve worked out a pretty good method for sorting through it, even if it does seem a little cumbersome. But I definitely hope to get some more physical books soon, because there is nothing that compares to curling up on the couch with a book in hand and reading it. I really enjoyed the picture books that I found at the library, and have read most of them several times now just for the pleasure of it.

I enjoyed reading your Japanese, with the English translation beneath it. This kind of thing can be helpful to me. Sorry to hear your son is so rebellious now. I also was a very rebellious teenage son, but I settled down eventually. My son is six, and my daughter is four. They are the most important thing in my life, then learning Japanese comes right after ;P
I get to visit with them every other weekend, and every Thursday night for a while. And then in the summer I get a couple extra-length visits because they don’t have school. Those times are really fun, but they wear me out because my kids want every single second of my attention.

I would have replied in Japanese but they have exhausted me, and my brain just couldn’t think that hard tonight. I will try next time. Talk to you soon.

]]> Comment on Extensive Reading meet Incremental Reading, or How to (多読)tadoku without a 日本語 library by emmie http://threepoundsflax.org/extensive-reading-meet-incremental-reading-or-how-to-tadoku-without-a-library/comment-page-1/#comment-903 emmie Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:54:29 +0000 http://threepoundsflax.org/?p=59#comment-903 Hi Kendo-san, thanks for coming to my blog and being one of few male members at the tadoku community! As I was reading your post, I remember the days when I was stuck in the same issue, lack of easy books best for tadoku approach. I started tadoku about ten years ago and it was almost impossible to keep doing it. Online bookstore was not that popular yet, so foreign books were terribly expensive, let alone the tiny number of bookstores which sold foreign books. Then, yen got stronger and amazon and other online bookstores began to be known, I was able to buy easy books relatively easily. In my case, I have two children and tadoku books are also necessary for them, and moreover, my husband is a bookworm and won't be fussy about my buying many books, so I have reasonable reasons to buy books and somehow managed to keep doing tadoku. Anyway, the first obstacle you've got to overcome is to find a way to obtain easy books, and because of that, I strongly recommend tadoku doers to make friends, and if possible, to lend books each other. うわあ、長くなってしましました。 It's getting long... 他に、聞きたいことがあったのに。 I had other things I wanted to ask you. 他のエントリーに書いてありましたが、お子さんがいらっしゃるんですね。 I read other posts and found you have two children. おいくつぐらいなのかな？ I wonder how old they are... 私の子どもは、１６才（娘）と１２才（息子）です。 Mine are sixteen, daughter, and twelve, son. 息子が反抗期（はんこうき）なので、たいへんです・ My son is in rebellious age right now, so it's like "what the heck are you doing?" every day. ^^;;; では、また！ talk to you again! Hi Kendo-san, thanks for coming to my blog and being one of few male members at the tadoku community!
As I was reading your post, I remember the days when I was stuck in the same issue, lack of easy books best for tadoku approach. I started tadoku about ten years ago and it was almost impossible to keep doing it. Online bookstore was not that popular yet, so foreign books were terribly expensive, let alone the tiny number of bookstores which sold foreign books.
Then, yen got stronger and amazon and other online bookstores began to be known, I was able to buy easy books relatively easily. In my case, I have two children and tadoku books are also necessary for them, and moreover, my husband is a bookworm and won’t be fussy about my buying many books, so I have reasonable reasons to buy books and somehow managed to keep doing tadoku.
Anyway, the first obstacle you’ve got to overcome is to find a way to obtain easy books, and because of that, I strongly recommend tadoku doers to make friends, and if possible, to lend books each other.
うわあ、長くなってしましました。
It’s getting long…
他に、聞きたいことがあったのに。
I had other things I wanted to ask you.
他のエントリーに書いてありましたが、お子さんがいらっしゃるんですね。
I read other posts and found you have two children.
おいくつぐらいなのかな？
I wonder how old they are…
私の子どもは、１６才（娘）と１２才（息子）です。
Mine are sixteen, daughter, and twelve, son.
息子が反抗期（はんこうき）なので、たいへんです・
My son is in rebellious age right now, so it’s like “what the heck are you doing?” every day. ^^;;;
では、また！
talk to you again!

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