Behold, for I shall do a new thing.

This weekend, I decided to start the next phase: I am going to teach myself Japanese. Super hard? Yes. Am I scurred? Not at all. I’ve found recommendation for texts, good resources for external materials, and plenty good people who can encourage and help me along the way.

The motive, in short, is to prove to myself that I can do it. It’s going to be awesome.

So far all I’ve got is a few phrases in (lame) Romanji (besides DURR KONICHIWA and MOAR DESU) and some basic rhetoric on the grammar, but I’ve got to start from scratch, and learn the kana alphabet before I get anywhere of any real use. I’ve got to study esoteric (to me presently) abstract mental association between sounds and characters. Honestly, it’s right up my alley: unlike when I totally blew my Spanish education, this will force me to think entirely in the language, instead of always having to use English as a ‘middleman’ between construction, which always kept me from fluency (and alright, let’s be fair, laziness too). Also, so far, I’m finding the phrases full of delightful mnemonics:

ringo (りんご) = apple. Ringo Starr is an apple!

watakushi (わたくし) = I. When I was young, people would see me and say “What a kushi(cutie)!”

jibun (じぶん) = used to show possession. Gee Boone, you’re always thinking of yourself!

Yes, I’m so clever.