UGHHHH, I feel sooo hungover

But I am not. Apart from a glass of red wine at last night's party, I was dry...so what explains my huge pounding headache? I went to the knitting circle for the first time - it was quite the experience. These ladies, all middle-aged and looking forward to more (and more) grandchildren, were very chatty...talking about everything from RHS (retired husband syndrome) to growing harvesting nagaimo(Japamese mountain root). So that was about 4 hours of Japanese...then a party at night went on for another 5 hours...that makes a total of 9 hours of Japanese yesterday. Oh my goodness, my brain hasn't worked this hard since all-night exam cram sessions in my university days! Ouch, it hurts a lot. The painting accurately depicts how I feel right now...like my body parts are floating in the wide Pacific Ocean. I like Miro's works - they are so enigmatic and enticing.

TIPS on learning a language:
Live it, speak it, read it, watch it, join it, listen to it, BREATHE it.

LIVE it: Do all your shopping in that language, if possible. Find some international food stores or Chinatowns (if you are learning Mandarin or Cantonese) and bombard the store workers with questions. They might be annoyed, but I suppose it's all part of their job.

WATCH it: Watch many soap operas, TV dramas, and movies in that language. Make sure you watch each one more than 10 times - enough so that you are sick of each scene. While you are watching, shadow their talking. (don't watch too many slapstick, sexual, or violent movies, otherwise you will learn things that are better left unsaid...trust me on this one!)

LISTEN to it: I listen to more Japanese music now. I am currently working on being able to sing more Japanese songs at karaoke. So listen to the music of the language you are learning, don't forget to check out the lyrics and meaning, finally repetition is key. Even if you are tone deaf, go ahead, sing-along! If you can get a radio station via internet in the language you are learning, try listening to it more often.

JOIN it: If you have a club or circle near you with speakers of that language, why don't you see if membership is open to anyone. Make sure it is something you are truly interested in, otherwise, you'll get bored to death.

SPEAK it: When you get the chance, speak speak speak! It is much easier to listen (input) but far more difficult to spit out some words (output). Listening is always easier but speaking is essential - how else can you improve in fluency? If you saw me at a party here in Japan (maybe 2 years ago), you might have been shocked. Very quiet BB, only listening with big wide-eyes and smiling an ever-constant smile...shock eh? My expression came for the most part from not knowing half of what was going on/what they were talking about. ^_^

READ it: Buy some magazines (with a focus you are interested in) and read simple captions or however much you can. When Spanish was my targeted language for improvement, I sometimes bought gossipy People magazine, en espanol! The key to this is buying a mag with plenty of pictures to hold your interest. If you can find some comics in that language, it might be easier to study, too. I found some Japanese manga online with audio - it is great for learning and has various new cultural references.

EXCHANGE spit with someone who can speak that language:
Ha ha...just joking, or not. This one is a poor play on something one of my friends told me, which was, the best way to improve one's ability in any language is to swap plenty of spit with a speaker of that language. Poor humor BUT has more than just a grain of truth to it! If you date a speaker of another language, the chances of you picking up key phrases are quite high. This past weekend Hiro taught me how to say, "Whatever Japanese I learn goes in one ear and out the other." I used this expression at the party yesterday and was surprised to see people impressed by it. I also used "betsu bara" which he taught me and they were again, surprised. 'Betsu bara' literally means, "separate stomach (more specifically for sweets)" - one can say this at the end of a meal when despite being utterly stuffed, you can still pack in a heavy wedge of cheesecake. This phrase is popular among women, as you can imagine - that and Hiro's colleague Nobu who apparently needs a dose of Haagen Daaz each day.

This is definitely the year of Japanese for me. My English, on the other hand...hee hee hee. ^_^