Long reply part 3 (Final) wow character limit LJmiludaFebruary 23 2011, 00:46:14 UTC
"What if despite all that do, you never get comfortable with your Japanese language skills?"
I'm never "completely comfortable" with English and here I am using it. I am a second generation Taiwanese-American. I was born & raised by immigrant parents. I learned English on my own, as I could not ask my parents how English worked since they were not fluent speakers. I believe that language cannot be 100% mastered. The point of doing this is not because "I seek full comfort" in understanding Japanese. The point of doing this is to understand Japanese to an extent on which it can be a possible employable skill and improving it. The more I use it, the more "comfortable" I will be by using it. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy speaking Japanese at the same time. I use it everyday and I love using it to watch animation, play games, read comic books, and talk to my friends. I love learning about my Japanese friends through their own language. They often tell me that I have enough knowledge of the Japanese language to be "understood enough" and to "communicate enough" but I want to improve further. None of them can speak fluent English. We communicate using Japanese. We are friends because I studied Japanese to an extent that this is possible. Even if we can't speak the same language, we can still be friends in other ways. I have a friend in Korea (which is why I went recently, though you may have missed that entry) and she can't speak much English and I don't know much about Korean, but we have a common language-- art. Both of us are studying Japanese and it was a common link we used to create a friendship that has now surpassed our initial common interests.
Art is also the same deal. I don't think you can master art 100%. Skills like these are a life-long battle for improvement. If I give up thinking I will never become "comfortable" or "good enough" at something it definitely guarantees I won't. Because I won't be doing those things so I won't be improving. We are always going to suck in the beginning. The thing that matters is being fine with that suck and to keep on moving to improve it.
This is my small goal (Becoming an ALT + Improving Japanese + Releasing Doujins in Japan-- did the last two to an extent already) that is easily fulfilled in my opinion. I think I'm capable of doing this. I don't believe this is "turning my life upside down"-- I do believe it is quite a change and a big decision, but I don't feel my life is completely thrown sideways by this decision. I do believe I was slowly heading in this direction and have thought about it for quite some time. I personally feel my roads are pointing toward Asia, I've finally made that decision to listen to my wants and found paths where I am certain that can feasibly pull through.
I appreciate that you're worried about me! I want to let you know that I'm doing fine. If it ends up not fine somehow, I'm gonna make it fine, because as long as I'm still living, have a mind, have a heart, things are gonna be okay. I've gone through a lot of things in this life and feel I've gone through much, much harder things than this.
I remember when I was younger you'd often say that you were jealous of people who are better than you. In my mind, I think the reason why I excelled at so many things is because I didn't see the failure (or even think of it) and if they did happen, I kept going. Failure is not the end of it all. I make a mistake, I learn from it, and I improve. I move on. In my opinion, it's because you see these potential failures that you don't want to try... failure is scary for most, but when you're not afraid to fail, you'll go somewhere. I think you create a limit for yourself without realizing it and I think you can do better. That's why sometimes kids excel at things faster than adults. Adults are afraid of going to the hospital and think about the bills. Kids are not afraid to climb trees to find out what's up there.
If you have any more questions or worries, please let me know--I don't want you to worry about things that I may have already found my answer to. :) Thank you so much for worrying about me--you are definitely one of the longest friends I've known online next to Arturo. Sorry, this was long!
I'm never "completely comfortable" with English and here I am using it. I am a second generation Taiwanese-American. I was born & raised by immigrant parents. I learned English on my own, as I could not ask my parents how English worked since they were not fluent speakers. I believe that language cannot be 100% mastered. The point of doing this is not because "I seek full comfort" in understanding Japanese. The point of doing this is to understand Japanese to an extent on which it can be a possible employable skill and improving it. The more I use it, the more "comfortable" I will be by using it. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy speaking Japanese at the same time. I use it everyday and I love using it to watch animation, play games, read comic books, and talk to my friends. I love learning about my Japanese friends through their own language. They often tell me that I have enough knowledge of the Japanese language to be "understood enough" and to "communicate enough" but I want to improve further. None of them can speak fluent English. We communicate using Japanese. We are friends because I studied Japanese to an extent that this is possible. Even if we can't speak the same language, we can still be friends in other ways. I have a friend in Korea (which is why I went recently, though you may have missed that entry) and she can't speak much English and I don't know much about Korean, but we have a common language-- art. Both of us are studying Japanese and it was a common link we used to create a friendship that has now surpassed our initial common interests.
Art is also the same deal. I don't think you can master art 100%. Skills like these are a life-long battle for improvement. If I give up thinking I will never become "comfortable" or "good enough" at something it definitely guarantees I won't. Because I won't be doing those things so I won't be improving. We are always going to suck in the beginning. The thing that matters is being fine with that suck and to keep on moving to improve it.
This is my small goal (Becoming an ALT + Improving Japanese + Releasing Doujins in Japan-- did the last two to an extent already) that is easily fulfilled in my opinion. I think I'm capable of doing this. I don't believe this is "turning my life upside down"-- I do believe it is quite a change and a big decision, but I don't feel my life is completely thrown sideways by this decision. I do believe I was slowly heading in this direction and have thought about it for quite some time. I personally feel my roads are pointing toward Asia, I've finally made that decision to listen to my wants and found paths where I am certain that can feasibly pull through.
I appreciate that you're worried about me! I want to let you know that I'm doing fine. If it ends up not fine somehow, I'm gonna make it fine, because as long as I'm still living, have a mind, have a heart, things are gonna be okay. I've gone through a lot of things in this life and feel I've gone through much, much harder things than this.
I remember when I was younger you'd often say that you were jealous of people who are better than you. In my mind, I think the reason why I excelled at so many things is because I didn't see the failure (or even think of it) and if they did happen, I kept going. Failure is not the end of it all. I make a mistake, I learn from it, and I improve. I move on. In my opinion, it's because you see these potential failures that you don't want to try... failure is scary for most, but when you're not afraid to fail, you'll go somewhere. I think you create a limit for yourself without realizing it and I think you can do better. That's why sometimes kids excel at things faster than adults. Adults are afraid of going to the hospital and think about the bills. Kids are not afraid to climb trees to find out what's up there.
If you have any more questions or worries, please let me know--I don't want you to worry about things that I may have already found my answer to. :) Thank you so much for worrying about me--you are definitely one of the longest friends I've known online next to Arturo. Sorry, this was long!
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