Category: Editorials
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In Paper versus Electric Dictionaries, Electric Wins
It was quite a while ago now I ran a little poll asking if people preferred using Paper Dictionaries, Electronic Dictionaries, or both. Well, turns out the results were pretty much unanimously in favor of Electronic Dictionaries! With their convenience, portability, and instantly accessible information, electronic dictionaries are probably the best option for language learners these days.…
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Performing a little surgery
So recently I had the opportunity to perform a bit of surgery on an iPhone. A relative had accidentally dropped their iPhone 4, smashing the screen into a web of glass that even Spiderman would be proud of: Getting it fixed by Apple meant buy a new phone. Other repair guys were giving us estimates…
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You Can Read Academic Japanese
Oftentimes reading academic articles in a foreign language can be a rather intimidating task, but this may come as a surprise: reading academic articles in Japanese is actually pretty easy. Well, okay it does have two little prerequisites: a decent familiarity with Chinese characters and a basic understanding of Japanese grammar. This is nothing a…
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Korean (Hangul) Primer
Following on the tail of the previous entry (Classical Chinese [Hanmun] Primer), I wanted to share more from my adventures at the Joint Library of Humanities and Social Sciences (人文社會科學聯合圖書館) at Academia Sinica. These two images are from the Korean-language primer used in the colonial schools under the Japanese. What’s interesting here is the usage of…
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Classical Chinese (Hanmun) Primer
I recently took a day and traveled out to the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, heading to the Joint Library of Humanities and Social Sciences (人文社會科學聯合圖書館) in search for some primary sources related to my research area. While I was there, I happened across some Classical Chinese Primers (漢文讀本, 한문독본) that were compiled and edited by…
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Whistle While You Work
I’m someone that needs to listen to music while working, especially when writing. I can’t work in dead silence, which is probably why I never study in libraries. Music helps keep me motivated and also gives me the energy to keep going. I prefer instrumental tracks, like classical music (and dare I say) video game…
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Changes in Motivation
Confused Laowai recently wrote up an interesting blog post that goes a bit into motivation–and how that changes–especially after being abroad, in the country of the target language you want to learn. It’s a very interesting topic, and very much worth the read (it’ll make the following post more relevant as well). I think this…
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In Odd Praise of the Demise of Google Reader
I know it seems odd–I’m an avid RSS user and I loved that Google Reader had all of that information conveniently placed in one central area. Sure, I use The Old Reader and Feedly (fantastic alternatives by the way) but I still do miss the old Google Reader. Or so I thought. Once it was gone,…
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Studying–is there no end?
There’s a Chinese proverb that goes: 學到老 活到老 還有三分學不到 It says, “Learn till old, live till old, and there is still one-third not learned.” It means that no matter how old you are, there is still more learning or studying left to do. Wow. That sounds harsh! But does it have to be? No, rather,…
En Route To Fluency 