Karl Andersson

Up and down week. I edited a bit but was mainly focused on the kanji. I’m on 1,430 out of 2,000 now and have a retention rate of 98 percent. So it really feels like the Heisig method, combined with a flashcard SRS, is working. Unfortunately the deck I’m using is lacking kanji every now and then, probably because it’s based on an earlier version of Remember the Kanji. So I’m only at kanji 1,332 instead of 1,430 in the deck, out of how many I don’t know (because it also includes a thousand or so kanji from the last volume which is not part of my goal now). I reckon I will need a week to catch up the lost 200 or so kanji once I’ve reached the end of RTK.

As for immersion, I’ve substituted Haro FM for my dear old Swedish radio in the mornings. And I’m reading an entertaining manga called ヤンキーショタとオタクおねえさん.

Japanese

• Remembering the Kanji: Kanji 1204–1430
  • Flashcards Deluxe: 98 min/day
• Radio: Haro FM in the mornings
• Manga: 星海ユミ: ヤンキーショタとオタクおねえさん, chapter 1–6, pp. 3–94.
• Video: Inside of Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower

Anime

• 1988: Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. E26.

Article

• The Guardian/Rutger Bregman: The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months

Pretty good classes this last “in-house” week:

• Editing class.
• Archival filmmaking.
• Exceeding the corporeal.

I keep focusing on Heisig’s kanji learning method and I’m now halfway!

Finally installed Anki and experimented a bit with sentence mining but in the end added the premade deck Core 6000. (I still don’t understand “best practice” with Anki learning, and none of the videos on sentence mining answered that.)

Flashcards Deluxe this week:

We watched another Miyazaki movie, Howl’s Moving Castle, but it felt like all effect and no heart. As if something he crafted with his left hand using the same old Miyazaki routine of ingenious creations, likeable characters, funny sidekicks, and a love story. And again there was no clear resolution to the spell!

I also rewatched Haneke’s debut Der siebente Kontinent with S, and it was even more gruesome now than when I was twenty. Actually, I think I thought it was “fun” when I watched it back then. The rest of the trilogy coming up.

Took another little bike ride today and it feels so good.

Japanese

• Remembering the Kanji: Kanji 931–1203
  • Flashcards Deluxe: 87 min/day
• 新にほんご500問 N2: Week 3 (pp. 145–212), test: 26/35.
• Anki
• Haro FM: Sunday 14-15 = 21-22: “The Experience”

Anime

• 1988: Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. E25.

Film

• Der siebente Kontinent (Michael Haneke, 1989, 111 min)
• Howl’s Moving Castle (Miyazaki Hayao/Studio Ghibli, 2004, 119 min)

Video

• Doha Debates: Arguing for a Fairer Global Economy | Speaker Spotlight: Jason Hickel
• Matt vs. Japan: How to Make Japanese Sentence Cards (SRS)
• BritVsJapan: Learn Japanese Rapidly using Anki | Best Flashcard Layout + Sentence Mining

Scattered in-house classes online. It’s hard to keep concentrated in front of the virtual classroom for five hours straight. So far we’ve had one really good class. Wednesday was supervision day, so I got direct advice from my supervisor. It felt useful despite there’s nothing concrete to comment on yet.

I tried to learn more kanji every morning and repeat them through the flashcards app in the evening:

Via Reddit I found a long text on sex in pre-Meiji Japan. I only read until Wabi Sabi, but I like how the author emphasises sex as one of many appetites, similar to how Foucault describes the “dietetics” of ancient Greece in The History of Sexuality, volume 2 (if I remember correctly). I remember discussing these various “appetites” with K once, he tought me about shokuyoku (食欲) for food and seiyoku (性欲) for sex, and how they were seen in similar ways. (The “yoku” kanji being represented by a “valley” and a “lack thereof”, where “valley” is a euphemism for vagina – according to the Heisig mnemonic at least.) The author even calls Japan of that time a “matriarch” society:

Sex was experienced in and beyond one’s marriage. Marriage had been very fluid in that sense. Again, for many Japanese people, sexuality had been like quenching their thirst. There had not been any serious religious intolerance and taboos on sexuality in Japan. In our contemporary concept, the Japanese people were often in open relationships or polyamory. In this free environment, a child might be born with no certainty as to who a father was. But it did not matter, for a child was raised by a mother and her family, if not by someone in the community. It is how a matriarch society works.

He is also critical of monotheism, and rightly so:

Much like the Ancient Israel and much of the rest of the world before monotheism’s invasion, sexual unions were believed to have power to fertilize the lands.

Closed 200 tabs in my browser. The modern-day version of throwing away papers from your desk. Feels as good!

Japanese

• Try N2: Chapter 7.2 (pp. 111–21). Review: 20/25 (or 19/20 when excluding the listening, which obviously is my weakest point).
• Remembering the Kanji: Kanji 688–930.
• That Japanese Man Yuta: Can Japanese Kids Pass JLPT N3? (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test N3) – I got them all right!

Articles

• Vice: Quebec Author Charged with Child Porn Over ‘Hansel and Gretel’ Retelling
• Stanahashi: Free, Open, and Sacred Sexuality had Thrived in Japan Till 150 Years Ago

Anime

• 1988: Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. E23–24.
• 1992: Chameleon. OVA1.
• The Cat Returns (Morita Hiroyuki/Studio Ghibli, 2002, 75 min)

Film

• NOAH (Patrick Cederberg & Walter Woodman, 2013, 18 min)

Full day classes Tuesday through Thursday. I liked the game “The Quiet Year”, which I read the introduction to and which we attempted to play during class.

I generally spent the mornings learning new kanji and the evenings editing my film.

I started using Reddit. Funnily enough I’ve never used it before at all. It always felt like this wonderful site that you will dive into when you have nothing else to do, and that time never came. Anyway, I’m following the Japanese learning and Anki subreddits, and the huge Anki community and the possibilities for tweaking the app through add-ons and even custom HTML and CSS code (or Javascript if you’re so inclined) makes me want to switch from the relatively simple Flashcards Deluxe app that I’m using on my ipad. Especially the beautiful statistics screens that people are posting are what will eventually make me switch, I think. Of course, what matters is consistency and putting in the work. It’s always tempting to spend time researching and discussing study methods instead of actually studying.

I rewatched the first episode of The Wire with S, who hadn’t seen it but was recommended it. We’ll see if I continue, I’m not crazy about TV series in general. We saw another Miyazaki: Porco Rosso. I gave it a 4 out of 10 on Myanimelist = “bad”. It felt like the script was a halfmeasure, with the theme of the pig spell not developed enough, not being cared for enough by the creators, so why should we care as viewers?

It’s getting warmer again, I took a couple of bike rides and they do me good.

Adam Alsing died.

Japanese

• Try N2: Chapter 7.1 (pp. 103–10).
• Remembering the kanji (James Heisig): Kanji 446–687.

Articles

• The Left Review/R. Taggart Murphy: East and West: Geocultures and the Coronavirus
• BBC Travel: Amabie: The Japanese monster going viral

Anime

• 1988: Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. E22.
• 1990: Yuusha Exkaiser. E2.
• Miyazaki Hayao: Porco Rosso (1992, 94 min)

TV

• The Wire, S1 E1.

A pretty mellow week. It’s Easter. I took a couple of shorter bike rides to stay healthy. I finished a manga page. And I’ve started to edit!

I keep being focused on Japanese. Mainly by learning kanji through the Heisig method, which works amazingly well and fast so far. (As I wrote the word “mellow” above, I automatically thought of the mnemonic to that word: A tall and a fat child being grilled over the fire until their bodies get mellow = 熟.) I also dug through another double chapter of the Try N2 book, which I bought in Japan in October 2019. Buying is easy, actually sitting down with the books and putting in hour after hour of learning is harder. At least it’s clear to me what my strong and weak points are. In the Try N2 book I score well on grammar but have severe problems with reading and listening. In the cute little 新にほんご500問 N2 book, which I bought last month, I score very well on kanji readings but very bad on both grammar and vocabulary.

I wonder if I should give JLPT N2 a try in December. It was in December 2014 (!) that I failed it with a weighted score of 67/180 (vocabulary/grammar 22/60, reading 15/60, listening 30/60). Now that I was going to check out the application deadline I realise that the test center in Berlin has disappeared! I also note that they have added one in Stockholm.

I made a new acquaintance in my field and chatted a lot with him on Line. He gave me a very valuable perspective (from the West!) on my research, as well as inside knowledge.

I dug into the Japanese concept of “yankee” or “bad boy” manga together with K.

Next week our “in-house” classes will begin, which will take place online.

Japanese

• Try N2: Chapter 6.1 and 6.2 (pp. 86–102), review: 12/16.
• Remembering the kanji (James Heisig): Kanji 246–445.

Book chapter

• Robin DiAngelo (2018): White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
  • 1: The Challenges of talking to white people about racism

Stories

• Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World, edited by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro.
  • Antonio Luiz M. C. Costa: “Once Upon a Time in a World”, pp. 83–117.

Podcast

• The Intercept: Somebody, ep. 2: The Nurse

Articles

• CNN Philippines/Chuck Smith: Why Philippine TV doesn’t have ‘Boys’ Love’ shows like ‘2gether: The Series’
• Africa is a Country: The virus of whiteness
• The Intercept: It’s a Scandal That We Don’t Know Who Supported the Coronavirus Bailout. Help Us Find Out.
• Tagesspiegel: Neuer Radweg zugeparkt – Polizei sieht “keine Gefahr”

Film

Arsenal 3

• The Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland (Elizabeth Povinelli/Karrabing Film Collective, Australia, 2018, 27 min)

Video

• Freedom Forum: Speaking Freely: Bell Hooks
• WordPress: Matt Mullenweg: State of the Word 2019
• Matt vs Japan:
  • What is MIA? Introduction to the Mass Immersion Approach
  • “JLPT N1 and Not Fluent” | Confessions of a Traditional Language Learner
• Sky News: Could Sweden’s controversial COVID-19 plan pay off?

Grade feedback

I skyped with my Space and place lecturer and had him argue for the grade he gave me. I still don’t agree with him, but at least I pushed it as far as I could. What really irritated me was that he said I should have written longer and developed certain themes. The word limit for this essay was 1,500. I had gone over that and written 2,000 words plus references. So I pressed him to explain what I should delete in order to make room for what he wanted more of. He said maybe they should up the word limit for future generations, but I don’t agree with that at all. You can do something brilliant no matter if it’s 100 words or a doctoral thesis: Constraints is what makes the work, what decides what you focus on and what you exclude. I only demand that the work be graded within those constraints. I have the feeling that my work wasn’t, and, what’s worse, that the lecturer didn’t even get this.

I’m a bit surprised by how determined I was to follow up on this grade. I didn’t do anything of the kind when I got my grade for Theory and history, which I was also disappointed by and which was without comments. I guess I’ve grown more confident in the sense knowing what to rightly expect. I also don’t like when lecturers say they are too busy at work to give feedback. We are your work.

Kanji studies

I started learning kanji from scratch with the much hyped Heisig method, as described in Remembering the Kanji. I’m hooked! Why didn’t I do it this way all from the start? I’ve self-studied Japanese for almost ten years (since August 2010) and I still can’t read Japanese text without severe problems! That should tell me something. I’m now through the first 250 kanji in Heisig’s book – and I remember all of them. I realise that even simple kanji like “overnight” (泊), which I know perfectly well how to pronounce (as in とまる/tomaru) and which I’ve seen on a daily basis outside the cheap “overnight” stays in Minamisenju, I still wouldn’t know how to write! Now with Heisig, I just think about the two things you get when staying “overnight” somewhere: Water to wash yourself with and white sheets to sleep in. Voi-fucking-là!

I also really liked Heisig’s introduction, where he argues for his method:

Finally, it seems worthwhile to give some brief thought to any ambitions one might have about “mastering” the Japanese writing system. The idea arises from, or at least is supported by, a certain bias about learning that comes from overexposure to schooling: the notion that language is a cluster of skills that can be rationally divided, systematically learned, and certified by testing. The kanji, together with the wider structure of Japanese—and indeed of any language for that matter—resolutely refuse to be mastered in this fashion. The rational order brought to the kanji in this book is only intended as an aid to get you close enough to the characters to befriend them, let them surprise you, inspire you, enlighten you, resist you, and seduce you. But they cannot be mastered without a full understanding of their long and complex history and an insight into the secret of their unpredictable vitality—all of which is far too much for a single mind to bring to the tip of a single pen.

The interview with James Heisig shows the passion with which he went about this task back in 1977 – it’s very inspiring.

Desk diary

I also went back to one of Danny Choo’s desk diaries, which I used to read often because I found them too very inspiring. It’s the kind of stuff youtubers will tell you nowadays, but even so, good reminders:

Remember that the speed of time is relative to how long you have been alive – if you are 2 years old then 1 year will feel like half a life time where as if you are 45 years old (like me) then 1 year is just 1/45th of a lifetime which passes without you even noticing it.
Given that time is running out, I need to make sure that the rest of the time I have is spent on the important stuff – not on the stuff that won’t make a difference in the remainder of my life.

I like the idea of a “desk diary” in general, it’s like a snapshot of the current state of your desk, as in your life in general. And I’ve always loved desks, they were always my favourite piece of furniture.

Oh, and we finished the fourth season of Mr Robot. Loved it all the way through – the whole series, that is – despite some predictable elements in the story, but this is after all American TV.

Japanese

• Try N2: Chapter 5.1 and 5.2 (pp. 72–85), review: 14/17.
• 新にほんご500問 N2: Week 2 (pp. 77–144), test: 30/35.
• Remembering the Kanji: First 244 kanji.
• Flashcards Deluxe: 130 of 277 cards active.

Anime

• 1988: Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. E20 and E21 (Toraoh’s first appearance!).

Book chapter

• Robin DiAngelo (2018): White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
  • Author’s note
  • Introduction: We can’t get from there to here

Articles

• Japan Visitor: James Heisig Interview
• Danny Choo: DESK DIARY 20160906

Podcasts

• The Intercept
  • Intercepted: Capitalist Death Panels: If Corporate Vultures Get Their Way, We’ll Be Dead
  • Somebody: Who Shot Courtney Copeland? E1: Courtney

Film

• Das weiße Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Michael Haneke, 2009, 144 min)

Arsenal 3

• Die Schläferin (Alex Gerbelaut, 2018, 17 min)

Video

• NHK: 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki, Ep. 1 Ponyo is Here
• Matt vs. Japan: Why “Remembering the Kanji” is The Best Way to Learn Kanji (2018)
• David Hoffman: 1979 Wall Street Interviews – Are They Any Different From Now?

TV

• Mr Robot. S4 E10. Exhale episode. Plus the rest of the season.