Tip's Notes & Plans

[Shannon-8]

Good job sticking with your goals, Tipさん!

I will have to come back later to read through your essay. I got stuck on words in the first sentence already, in my initial reading attempt without dictionary lookups.
This is my placeholder post at the moment.

NOTES

…アメリカ南北戦争 (なんほくせんそう American Civil War)
…差別 (さべつ discrimination WK24)
…抗議デモ (こうぎデも protest demonstration)
..人分離 (ひと ぶんり segregation WK31)
…違反 (いはん violation WK26)
…暗殺 (あんさつ assassination 13)
…価値 (かち values WK22)
…作戦 (さくせん strategies WK11)
…用いる (もちいる to utilize WK36)
…指導者 (しどうしゃ leader) see 指導 WK23
…禁止法 (きんしほう prohibition law)
…聖職者 (せいしょくしゃ clergy)
…辛抱 (しんぼう patience 38)
…脅威 (きょうい threat, menace, danger)
…起こる (おこる to occur)

If injustice occurs anywhere, then justice everywhere is threatened.

[tip]

Thanks for reading. With the exception of some made up katakana, I tried to only use words/kanji combinations up to WK level 38. The grammar is unlikely to be correct. The contents of the video had me wondering what you would think about the legal arguments he made.

[Shannon-8]

I’m not really that great at Japanese, especially the grammar. But I thought that your message came across clearly… And I liked points that you made and the organization.
The one thing that struck me as different from the Japanese that I’ve read so far (this was most like chapter 1 of Quartet, which had biographies of famous people…I didn’t read the biography children’s book with that book club)… is that they would insert some honorable version of the subject’s name where in English, we use a pronoun (he/she/they).
… So this year, you can focus on figuring out
…i) which part of a person’s name to use. I have lots of trouble with that, sometimes even ascertaining which section is their family name… This is especially the case with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Minister… I think that I would probably just use “King”. Also at the initial introduction of his name, I would in parentheses attempt a katakana version, so a Japanese reader would be helped with pronunciation.
…ii) which honorific ending to use. I also have lots of trouble with this, and end up calling people 先生 apparently far too often. For King, that’s what I would have chosen. But probably, it should be -sama, rather than -san? I really am uncertain about this.
…Thus, I would replace several “彼” occurrences with “King様”. And also consider where a 彼 could be omitted altogether, while the sentence would still remain clear.

That was really the big thing that got me.

There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t know about formal writing grammar! It seems that there are things, like でわ and である that I have no idea how to use… And also scholarly words.

I was actually super-impressed with how much you were able to express from WK38 and below and straightforward sentence structure.

I was especially impressed with how you managed to get the word play across on the “injustice” quote.

お疲れ様
Good work!

PS re. the video… As a person who has studied “the law”, and how laws are made by elected individuals… And that the group primarily affected by the law didn’t have representatives, but their 相手 party (with strongly negative demands) had 100% representation… The affected group had no actual means to change the law… Other than to appeal to the represented people and their representatives.
… It might be instructive to consider another group who is affected strongly by laws but has no ability to vote, “children”… And consider how laws that control children actually have more representation amongst lawmakers than adults with no vote could get. Because children grow into those adults. And because adults carry a duty to protect and care for children and to educate them to make the most of their lives.
… So it does seem that the only legal way to draw attention to the “wrongness” of a law that should be changed (after letter-writing campaigns, new coverage and negotiation attempts, all of which were previously carried out) would be to somehow increase the spotlight on the actual problem, to demonstrate how it is wrong.
… If King was my client, I could not have made the points any better, except, perhaps, more succinctly. Which King himself jokes about his rambling by joking that there isn’t much else to do in jail. What a great sense of humor!

[tip]

@Shannon-8

some honorable version of the subject’s name

Thanks for the well worded advice.
You are absolutely right. In my community, we usually say MLK without any disrespect intended (like he’s family). For an essay however, the keigo is necessary even if my writing was mostly casual.
As for the katakana, I can barely read it so making up a version on my own would be laughable.
Google translate has it as “マーティン・ルーサー・キング・ジュニア牧師” (Thanks Duolingo stories for the Jr part.) 牧師 may or may not be right for reverend. BTW ガンジー was included because I could not recall how to spell his name in English. Where does the H go ? sort of thing.
Your comments and the video got me deep into my head about government being based on consent. Lots of what ifs…
MLK was not short on words for sure. As a southern clergyman, he would have kept his congregation in church all day. When I was a child, I was jealous of my Catholic friends who were in/out like clockwork on Sundays while my people were bringing food and beverages for the long haul!

…some of the vocabulary from my essay.
アメリカWK 3南北WK 19戦争 WK 11 I wanted to say war between the states but could not think of how “between” would work.

聖34職23者12 holy employment person was me mashing kanji together; good to know it’s actually a real word.

脅威 this may have been from Duolingo. upper WK 40s

起こる WK 12

[tip]

Week of 01/19/26
Reading-
Monday: MLK holiday one year later essay.
Tuesday: Mango language convert kana only to kanji where appropriate

Kana only

Speaker 1
こんばんは！げんきですか。
いいてんきですね！^^ それにあたたかいです。あしたハイキングですね。きをつけて！
おやすみなさい！
Speaker 2
メール、どうもありがとう！
ほんとうにあたたかいですね。じゃあ、またらいしゅう、げつようびに。
おやすみなさい！( _)zzz

Kanji as needed

Speaker 1
こんばんは！元気ですか。
いい天気ですね！^^ それに暖かいです。明日ハイキングですね。気をつけて！
おやすみなさい！
Speaker 2
メール、どうもありがとう！
本当に暖かいですね。じゃあ、また来週、月曜日に。
おやすみなさい！( _)zzz

Wednesday:
• Particle だの。。。だのcontext sentences. This is an advanced grammar point that I have not seen before; according to Bunpro, it’s similar to another grammar point that I have not seen before.
• Particle だって（たって）context sentences
Thursday: Bento graded readers about New Years soba and NHK song competition.
Friday-Sunday: 生きてるだけで,愛 The magnifier and book light are working well. I do have to keep a post-it next the line I am reading to keep from straying to the left with vertical writing. One sentence baffled me for hours until I realized it was a mix of two different vertical lines. To be fair, each sentence is extremely long. I’m only on page 2.

Listening- Boy Detectives
When I hear some words, the kanji/kana appear in my head; given that there are a relatively limited number of sounds in Japanese compared to English, I could be seeing the wrong word. In one section, there was a lot of talk about boats. I’m intrigued.

WK- This week and through February, the devs will be adding content and shuffling things around. Specifically, 4 radicals, 6 kanji, 14 vocabulary incoming. At this rate, their marketing strategy of just over one year of study will be blatant false advertising.

Level 38 had 28 vocabulary left. Level 39 unlocked 8/8 radicals, 27/35 kanji, 29/108 vocabulary. There was also one new radical from level 13.

BINGO

Walking , tai chi and outdoor time are going well. Florida can’t decide if it wants to be in winter or spring. Some days are too cold for outdoor walks. Other days, I break a sweat and get tan lines on my arms.
I did a recon walk for my eventual bike ride to the park. If I make a loop, it’s uphill both ways. If I go in/out, it is longer but downhill on the way back. BTW the bike has been idle for so long that the front tire is flat.

[hrudey]

@tip

Florida can’t decide if it wants to be in winter or spring. Some days are too cold for outdoor walks. Other days, I break a sweat and get tan lines on my arms.

Yeah, it was in the low 80s on Sunday and it’s below 30 this morning. I’m expecting it to rain frogs by Wednesday.

[tip]

Remember that time the iquanas “froze” and fell out of the trees?

[hrudey]

@tip

Remember that time the iquanas “froze” and fell out of the trees?

We didn’t get much of that up in South GeorgiaNorth Florida, but it sounds familiar still.

[Shannon-8]

That’s crazy and insane-sounding
But possibly feasible

Wait-a-sec… Send like click bait, it’s so incredible…
Wow!

[tip]

WATCH: Cuban Tarzan catches cold-stunned iguana as it falls from tree in SW...

Just last week in fact.

[tip]

Level 39 has 54 vocabulary remaining. Level 40 unlocked 5/5 R, 30/36 K, 26/131 V.

This is about all I accomplished this week. I blame falling off the sugar wagon for my sluggishness and brain fog. February March will be my month for clearing the Salad Over Sugar BINGO spot.

I did take my first day trip of the year to Lake Wales, Florida. This was founder’s day weekend at Bok Singing Tower “America’s Taj Mahal”… a rare occasion when they let visitors cross the moat and get up close to the front door of the tower. Bok’s tomb is also there for those who are interested. Bok Tower Gardens - Wikipedia

[tip]

Week of 2-2-26

Reading-
Duolingo
The movie wasn’t interesting. The acting was the worst.

えいがはおもしろくなかったです。えんぎはさいあくでした。

We should go with this restaurant このレストランにしましょう。
I’m hungry! Let’s go with this pizza shop. お腹がすきました！このピザやにしましょう。
Let’s go with ramen！ ラーメンにしましょう！

Particles
で has 13 use cases

1. Location
2. Superlative (in/among)
3. Lists locations (でも。。でも）
4. Time (in/at; age; limits)
5. Method (using…)
6. Pricing (at/for)
7. Time or amount (by/for)
8. Composition (from/of)
9. Manner or intention (how)
10. Motive or reason (due to)
11. Source (from/according to)
12. Dependency (based on)
13. Who/what did it.

でも has 6 use cases that got a little abstract for me… will ponder this one before moving on.

Novel-
生きてるだけで,愛

I picked apart a few sentences, then got caught up in reading about Japanese art history. Some of the websites were in Japanese. When I search for the rather dramatic title used in the novel 「虚空に爪を突き立ってるような荒々しい波が富士山を背景にザッパーし！」 this image comes up 神奈川沖浪裏 Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Listening-
The audiobook loan expired before I finished listening. I have been reading the book club spoilers.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/2102064/

The blonde lady weirded me out. I could follow the older men’s speaking except for the proper nouns. Shame about the view of Fuji but progress made the town prosperous.

Mt. Fuji? 富士山 vs 富嶽. I went back to WK level 1 ふじ山 and read the explanation notes i.e. it’s too soon to learn the kanji for the first part. WK level 31 富士山. The kanji 嶽 is not on WK because it is obsolete. 岳 the modern kanji is WK 45.

https://www.youtube.com/@ParisPromenade

Food and flea markets in France narrated by a Japanese speaker… slow and enunciated speech.

BINGO- I forgot how much I dislike the chore of checking off boxes. I do however love to see number go up/down. So from now own this update will just have metrics.
To wit:
I discovered that I have 23,594 unread emails and feel overwhelmed.
I ate 4 salads and 2 soups (aka wet salad)
-Also ate: 1/2 bag of fun sized snickers bars; justification- healthier than my favorite sugared snack.
I did tai chi not at all
January 10-31st I walked 67,212 intentional steps.
Spent money on Sashiko supplies.
Filled 5 pages of my creative journal
Spent 300 gems to legendary up to Section 2:4 on Duolingo.

[hrudey]

@tip

I discovered that I have 23,594 unread emails and feel overwhelmed.
…
January 10-31st I walked 67,212 intentional steps.

The second number being bigger than the first is at least good. How many of those emails do you think you actually need to read vs. how many you can just delete unseen or, alternately, mark as read and store in a folder in case you need it at some point?

[tip]

Brady Bunch Cartoon - Sunshine Day (Lyrics)

[tip]

I have to bite the bullet and decide to let go of some things. Also, it seems near impossible to unsubscribe from certain notifications. I haven’t used Google calendar for a decade but it still insists on telling me I have nothing scheduled about every other day.

[tip]

Week of 2-9-26

WK 40 had 38 vocabulary. Finished available new content too before moving on to next level.
WK 41 unlocked 5/5 R, 28/35 K, 20/109 V. New content to be done as it appears.

Comparison is the thief of joy.
I have decided to stop following the Read Every Day thread. They are over there reading chapters and volumes in the time it takes me to read three sentences. Happy with my process and don’t want to be stymied by my self-esteem.

Reading-
Duolingo- not surprising.. My mistakes are going from EN to JP; most involve the choice and placement of particles. 金曜日にどこで食べますか？

Mango language- convert kana only to kanji

Kana Only

〜はじめまして！どうぞよろしく！〜
ジルさんはアメリカじんです。いちがつにハワイからきました。えいごのせんせいです。ちゅうごくごもはなせます。
リリアさんはドイツじんです。ゆうめいないしゃです。ごしゅじんのベンさんはエンジニアです。
スコットさんはオーストラリアじんです。だいがくせいです。せんこうはにほんごです。かぞくはオーストラリアにすんでいます。
ジャックさんはアイルランドじんです。にがつにアイルランドからきました。おくさんののぞみさんはアイルランドじんじゃありません。にほんじんです。

Kanji Conversion

〜初めまして！どうぞよろしく！〜
ジルさんはアメリカ人です。1月にハワイから来ました。英語の先生です。中国語も話せます。
リリアさんはドイツ人です。有名な医者です。ご主人のベンさんはエンジニアです。
スコットさんはオーストラリア人です。大学生です。専攻は日本語です。家族はオーストラリアに住んでいます。
ジャックさんはアイルランド人です。2月にアイルランドから来ました。奥さんののぞみさんはアイルランド人じゃありません。日本人です。

Novel 生きてるだけで,愛

Lookups

kanji	kana	notes
色合い	いろあい	hue; tone; tinge; tint
トレース紙	トレースし	tracing paper
飛び散る	と び ち る	to fly around, to scatter
	しぶき	[n] spray; splash
合成	ごうせい	[n] composite photo
	そっくり	[adj-na] exactly alike (e.g. in appearance); spitting image of; identical; strikingly similar
知らずに	しらず に	without knowing
	ファンタスティック	fantastic
	はるか	[adv,adj-na] long ago; long before
遥か昔	はるか昔/ はるかむかし	long ago
肉眼	にくがん	[n] naked eye
技術	ぎじゅつ	[n] technology; engineering [n] technique; skill
一瞬	いっしゅん	[adv,n] instant; moment; for an instant
	クール	[adj-na] cool
筆を走らせる	ふでをはしらせる	[v1,exp] to write with facility; to draw with ease
	やべえ	wow etc
	はずもない	Expression – it cannot be that …, it is highly unlikely that …, it is impossible that ..

並ベられれば 確かにその写真と三十六景の画は、お互いをトレースし会ったかのように同じ富士山の色合い、同じ波の形、飛び散るしぶきのまで数一緒。
並ベられれば = some sort of passive conditional form of the verb

If they are arranged side by side, indeed, the photograph and the Thirty-six Views painting matched each other as if on tracing paper, with the same coloring of Mt. Fuji, the same wave shape, and even the same amount of splashing water.

知らずに見れば間違いなく合成だと思うほどそっくり。If I looked at them without knowing they were so similar, I would certainly think they were a composite.
もちろんそんなファンタスティックな奇跡を起こしたのはその写真を撮った人じゃなくて、はるか昔に肉眼で五千分の一秒の光景を画に残してた天才葛飾北斎(Katsushika Hokusai,)なんだけど。Of course, it wasn’t the person who took that photo who produced such a fantastic miracle, but the genius Katsushika Hokusai, who long ago left behind in painting a scene that could be seen with the naked eye in 1/5000 of a second.
でも現代科学の技術でようやく捉えられたその一瞬を、江戸時代の北斎が肉眼で「あ、やべぇ！俺、今すごいクールな波見えたよ！」とかって筆を走らせたはずもないから、やっぱりあの画は彼の頭の中で想像して描いたものなんだろう。
But, There’s no way Hokusai in the Edo period (saw ) that moment which was finally captured by modern science techniques, with his naked eye, said something like "Wow! I just saw a really cool wave!” And drew it easily; so that picture was probably something he imagined in his head and drew.

Listening-

The Little Prince: It has thematic music which I don’t really care for. They have several different voices for each part which is good.

Paris Promenade: more flea markets and French food. The vocabulary does not change much which is like a bite sized SRS. This content has me rethinking my dislike of French food. She eats mostly meat and potatoes. Of course there are the deserts and onion soup.

BINGO- to be updated at end of the month

[Lisaveeta]

@tip

I have decided to stop following the Read Every Day thread. They are over there reading chapters and volumes in the time it takes me to read three sentences. Happy with my process and don’t want to be stymied by my self-esteem.

Good call. You’ve got your own process and it’s definitely working for you. Participating in the challenges can be exciting and inspiring, but it can also feel threatening. But maybe next time you could participate, rather than just read the thread. Everyone is really supportive. Sentences rather than volumes are absolutely fine.

[tip]

I wonder how I could participate in a meaningful way? Just saying I did a sentence or two feels lame especially compared to others. That’s why it only goes here on my weekly log.

[Lisaveeta]

When I started on the Reading thread, I was reading Satori Reader stories an episode at a time or one or two Web Easy News articles so really not very different from what you’re doing now, but since what you’re doing is clearly working there really isn’t any need to participate unless that community accountability and hearts works for you.

[hrudey]

@tip

I wonder how I could participate in a meaningful way? Just saying I did a sentence or two feels lame especially compared to others. That’s why it only goes here on my weekly log.

I can’t speak for everyone, but it’s Read every day, not the “Read the approved amount or more every day” so I wouldn’t let that bother you. Of course, I also don’t look at the other posts in there for the most part, so the next day when I go into it I see my last post, which I can just quote and then clean up so it’s got the home post linked.

But what @Lisaveeta said is right - if what you’re doing is working for you that’s what matters. If you think participating would help, great, if not, just keep doing what works for you.