ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

Pictured above is a random picture of me hugging a Haechi statue at the summit of a mountain where the Seoul Tower is located. The Haechi is a mythical creature of Chinese origin that Seoul officially adopted as its symbol in 2009. We English speakers call it the unicorn lion!

It is a new year. It is prime time to discuss what we call “New Year’s resolutions.” Please feel free to ask me in person about any of the following.
At least in America we observe the tradition of making long-term resolutions on New Year’s day. A resolution comes from the word resolve, which is another word for willpower. To have resolve is to have a lot of willpower, or intent to accomplish something. A resolution is like a promise, then, where you decide on a goal and then go all out to obtain that goal. A New Year’s resolution, however, is meant to be a long-term devotion whereby the promised objective is to be maintained consistently throughout the year. That is one interpretation. Another interpretation of the New Year’s resolution is that whatever is projected has to be something grand in some way. Following the former interpretation one could resolve to learn a foreign language, or to start a habit such as waking up early or reducing the amount of coffee per day. Following the latter interpretation, one could resolve to acquire a driver’s license or to learn how to swim.

Another common one would be to travel. To travel falls into both interpretations, since to travel implies both a habit and a single act. For example, if I tell someone that I travel I would be implying that I like to travel and that I travel often. According to this habitual sense, to say that I travel is also to say that I go out of my way to travel, that I make plans occasionally, once circumstances permit, to travel. According to the singular sense, to travel is simply to go to one place in a given timeframe. For example, I can tell someone that this year I intend to travel, I can simply be meaning that I intend to go to one country abroad. In fact, I would really like to travel to France! I have already gone to Korea, as you might know from my last post, and that being the only other major Asian country I hoped to visit, now I’ve got my sights on France. Although, not really, as I would rather travel Japan: than actually go abroad. I used to have my sights on Europe and Latin America before coming to Japan, but now that I am actually here I can’t picture myself spending any more time than what I have left outside of this wonderful place that I currently reside in. I want to eventually see Hokkaido and north of Tokyo, maybe in 2018.

Allow me to say a little more on New Year’s resolutions and my own personal resolutions. The resolutions made should not be broken, and they should not be made haphazardly, casually. Traditions, I think, lose their point and power if they were observed heedlessly. That would be like complaining about some flaw you perceive in yourself, making plan with others to overcome that flaw, which might be common with others, and then going back on your word and neglecting all efforts and plans made to correct that flaw. Except with resolutions, and really all promises, you would only be lying to yourself and losing all credibility with yourself. Consequently, I don’t think resolutions should be abundant. In fact, I think one resolution a year is enough. I’m a guy who likes to go slow but steadily and certainly. In my 29 years old I’ve come to realize how difficult it is to learn and accomplish anything either half-heartedly or with divided attention. I have wanted to do so much with myself, like learning Spanish, German, and French, and music theory and how to cook, but I’ve made no considerable progress in any of them. However, with Japanese I’ve made some permanent gain. I’ve at least got a foothold on the language, and after all the time I’ve put into studying it I am realizing that I’m learning new aspects of it at a faster rate, now that I am getting a handle on its grammar and sounds. All that’s left for me maybe is just to expand my vocabulary, kanji repertoire, and to practice practice practice.

Well, I do have two resolutions I am making this year. I want this year to be the year that I learn Japanese and piano. What does this mean? Well, I won’t go on about it in detail, since it is important that one simply do rather than just talk. I’ve been practicing piano consistently for the past month, and I started up my Japanese studies in a serious way ever since I returned from my trip abroad in Korea to visit my old high school friend (see my last post). Concretely my work looks like this: practice piano when I wake up and before I go to bed, 30 minutes each, everyday if possible; and work through my Kanji in Context workbook chapter by chapter, kanji by kanji, sentence by sentence on top of other Japanese texts. That’s it, slow and little and consistently. Never lose confidence my friends and keep at it. Keep going, keep on, keep at it. And now, I must return to my studies!