四月之子

[nnozomi]

Xi-laoshi, my Chinese conversation partner, recommended in passing that I get my reading practice from books designed for learners, like one she showed me called something like Beijing in Spring or The Four Seasons of Beijing, you can tell how seriously I was taking this genuinely thoughtful suggestion, I’m afraid. No! This kind of thing is why a lot of people don’t ever master languages! (Also an overgeneralization, I know—it works for some people—but still.) My f-list is full of people whose perfect English comes from TV shows and fic; I’ve just been reading Li Kotomi on learning her Japanese through anime and music. I got good at reading Japanese from a) middle-grade books aimed at Japanese preteens (I still fondly remember the first one I got all the way through, in which an eighth-grade girl daydreams about kissing her best friend, also a girl) and b) Japanese translations of novels I knew very well from having read them in English. I can’t imagine I’d have gotten even as far as I have in Chinese if I’d been dutifully reading graded readers, instead of watching dramas and the farming show and reading fics and the occasional article about Zhu Yilong. It only makes sense. Or am I biased? What do you think?

I finished my readthrough of the Joan Aiken Dido books, in general highly recommended. I think osprey_archer was talking about hesitating to read the later books because they get so dark, which is an interesting point. The two Is books--Is [Underground] and Cold Shoulder Road--are definitely dark in places, although not tonally so different from the rest of the series, and worth it for the characters and the wild plots and the language. The second-from-last book, Midwinter Nightingale, though, is the most bleak and depressing thing I’ve read in ages—most of the book is spent with various horrible people, and when we do see Dido and Simon they’re usually miserable and in trouble. It ends with a defeat for the villains, but I wouldn’t call it a happy ending in any sense. Not going back to reread that one. The very last one, The Witch of Clatteringshaws, which Aiken knew would be her last, also has its dark moments but is very funny here and there and ends genuinely happily. (I couldn’t resist the following selection, which is really not typically Aikeny at all but delightful.)

‘...perhaps, in a hundred years’ time, this day will be remembered by our grandchildren as the day when a not very large force of English beat off an attacking army of Wends who wanted to turn this island into a place where everybody spoke Wendish. Don’t you agree?’
’What’s Wendish like, then?’ one of the men enquired.
Rodney Firebrace spoke up. ‘Wendish is an awful language. It’s highly inflected — there are nine
declensions of nouns—
‘What’s inflected?’ somebody shouted.
‘When words have different endings to express different grammatical relations. And Wendish has thirty different kinds of verbs. You have to decline them as well as conjugate them.’
‘What’s verbs?’
‘I hit. You run.’
‘Who says we run? We ain’t a-going to run!’
‘No way!’
‘Hooray for English verbs!’
‘We don’t want no foreign verbs!’
‘Are you all with me, then?’ called Simon.
‘Sure we are!’
‘Let’s go!’
‘We'll show those Wends the way back to Wendland!’
‘Let ‘em wend their way!’

Also, anyone reading the Dido books should not miss lionpyh’s post-series fic Now, in the meanwhile, with hearts raised on high, which is one of the best fics I’ve ever read in any fandom ever as well as being an immensely satisfying conclusion.

Y brought home this hilarious winter song called 布団の中から出たくない, ie “don’t want to get out of bed.” Highly recommended to anyone studying Japanese, and accessible even without Japanese thanks to the funny animation (for the southern hemisphere, they also have a summer song along similar lines). Although COMPLETELY different in style, I feel like clearly the Chinese equivalent is Liu Chang’s 再睡五分钟.

Since it’s timely, have Cesar Camargo Mariano (best known to me as Elis Regina’s husband, but also a great musician in his own right) doing April Child.

There’s a fancy coffee shop chain in Japan which uses city airport codes for its shop names, like NGS Coffee in Nagasaki and so on; the problem is that they’re based in Fukuoka, and so the company overall is known as FUK Coffee.

Photos: Spring is doing its thing and I have too many photographs, here are some and the rest will have to wait until the next post.

Be safe and well.

Comments

[antisoppist]

When I read Joan Aiken as a teenager there were only 4 books. I loved Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Blackhearts in Battersea was OK, and I loved Nightbirds on Nantucket. But then the Cuckoo Tree was more Dido and still no more Bonnie and Sylvia and I can't remember anything about it. And then I grew up and didn't know there were more of them. I will get hold of them and reconcile my teenage self to it being all about Dido forever.

[clevermanka]

Many thanks, as always, for your wonderful photos 🧡 Love the building with the painted flora next to what looks like the plant that inspired it.

[goss]

Cool mural. :D

Omg the coffee company! XD

[china_shop]

It only makes sense. Or am I biased? What do you think?

I loved the first graded reader I found, despite its clumsiness. I felt like it rewired my brain, and I found that really exciting (versus my laborious attempts with drama scripts and books for native speakers, both of which involved looking up endless unfamiliar vocab and repeatedly having to stop to puzzle out syntax). If I could have found more (affordable) readers after that, I would definitely have kept going; sadly, I couldn't find many for Korean. But then, I'm at a much lower level than you, and I'm not actively studying anymore. (My motivation fell down a hole when my teacher cancelled our class some years ago.) So I'm a terrible example and probably only prove your point.

(Iirc, the "You Can Learn Chinese" podcast guys are pro-graded readers because research shows increased reading speed is good for your speaking. I guess your brain learns to process the language faster? But I can't find the episode where they said that, and I may be misremembering.)

*stares at your photos for a long time* So lovely! I think the mural is my favourite -- it's like camouflage.

<3 <3 <3

[umadoshi]

It only makes sense. Or am I biased? What do you think?

I think I have never successfully learned a second language and thus couldn't say. But your take on it sure sounds reasonable!

All the cats and blossoms! *^^*

[superborb]

I think the problem is usually material with a suitable vocab level for a learner is targeting a younger audience, so it gets boring. That being said, bf has gotten a lot of mileage out of Bluey and Peppa Pig in Chinese...

They totally knew what they were doing with that coffee shop name hahhaha

[grayswandir]

I can’t imagine I’d have gotten even as far as I have in Chinese if I’d been dutifully reading graded readers, instead of watching dramas and the farming show and reading fics and the occasional article about Zhu Yilong. It only makes sense. Or am I biased? What do you think?

Hah, well, I think you know I agree with you. ;) I mean, I also agree that whatever keeps you motivated is what works best! But yeah... I'm usually either bored or actively irritated by graded readers, textbook dialogues, or children's media, which are all things a lot of people recommend. I'm sure they're very helpful if you enjoy them or can make yourself sit through them, but it's just not sustainable for me, since I don't like doing it. Whereas, by contrast, I'm fine with looking up a zillion words in order to read or watch something I'm actually excited about.

(Love the cats and flowers! Spring!)

[sakana17]

I can’t imagine I’d have gotten even as far as I have in Chinese if I’d been dutifully reading graded readers, instead of watching dramas and the farming show and reading fics and the occasional article about Zhu Yilong.

I can't claim any fluency at all, but I have learned so much of, about, and in Chinese from dramas, the farming show, songs, guardian_learning, blogs, Zhu Yilong media, etc. etc. The language aspect is part of what keeps me looking for & watching Cdramas. If you're biased, I have the same bias.

I love the assortment of photos! Gorgeous, colorful blossoms and cats! What more can anyone need? :D The tree spilling over from the roof is particularly striking. The black and white cat looks like one of my sister's cats. He had the same black spots by his ears, looking like hair with a part down the middle.

[tinny]

It only makes sense. Or am I biased? What do you think?i

It makes total sense! Motivation is everything. If you're interested in the content, you will persevere, and that means you will eventually succeed. (Not that I feel like I've succeeded yet, but if I hadn't been blorbo-motivated, I would not have studied/watched anything at all, so... that definitely is the way to go. )

I do like the concept of graded readers, learning goes much faster when you have a specific percentage (I think it was 95%) of vocab already present. But when I'm not interested in the content, I won't read them, it's as simple as that. There should be graded readers of BL novels!

The percentage thing I got from starandrea, but I don't remember the exact source. All I remember is that there was a site linked that made text adventures, and this post here has a bit about percentages... : https://blog.wordswing.com/posts/incremental-character-learning-through-text-games/

It's another form of gamification (although it did not work for me).

ooops, clicked the button too quickly.

so the company overall is known as FUK Coffee.

LOL, they set themselves up for that one! :D

Spring

Yay Spring! I love the cats, and all the blossoms, especially the cherry tree over the wall. Oh, and the house imitating the tree next to it. Lovely!

[yaaurens]

I wonder if the coffee company was originally started by tea drinkers who couldn't break into the tea biz and somehow ended up being brilliant at making coffee...

[meikuree]

Or am I biased? I'm on your side in this, everything has its value but learning from media is fun and feels less prescriptive!


anyone reading the Dido books should not miss lionpyh’s post-series fic Now, in the meanwhile, with hearts raised on high, which is one of the best fics I’ve ever read in any fandom ever as well as being an immensely satisfying conclusion.

lionpyh is one of my most admired writers on ao3 (the entire site, not for a fandom), so I'm happy to see them recced! good taste. I wonder if you've seen this interview about their writing process? http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/articles/that-obsessive-recursiveness-an-interview-with-leo-mandel/

There’s a fancy coffee shop chain in Japan which uses city airport codes for its shop names, like NGS Coffee in Nagasaki and so on; the problem is that they’re based in Fukuoka, and so the company overall is known as FUK Coffee. omg, LOL. the last time I was in Japan with my partner we were having fun going around specialty coffee shops (Japan's coffee culture is top notch) and this just tickles me.