Whoops :-/

I... am a bad, bad monkey. On the spurr of the moment, I took a romp up to Greenwood with my cousin, today. We were going to go to a psychic fair at a shop we know, up there, but ended up missing it. (Running a touch late is usually a risk of traveling with my cousin.) So, we went to get muffulettas from McAlister's and then headed over to Borders. I was originally planning just to pick up something for Mother's day for my Step-mom, but... *sighs*... I splurged. On this book.

It's in the name of Learning, true, but this still means I need to stop by the bank tomorrow and dip into my savings, just to be sure there's enough gas money for the week. That money is not for frivolous purposes. Bad Litha. Bad, bad monkey!

On the bright, side, I think it was a good choice in books. And I did manage to resist further splurging on the WOD Rulebook. Looking at the charts, inside, I can see things I need to work on in my Hiragana before I let myself move up to Katakana. I'm not drawing the symbols poorly, but it still irks the perfectionist in me to see the little differences between my writing and the symbols in the book. Besides that, I understand that the Japanese appreciate good handwriting, so all the more reason to work harder at it. I'm also gaining a better understanding of when to use what symbols, as there are some odd places where you write the symbol for "ha" instead of "wa," even though it's still bloody "wa" you're saying. It's mildly frustrating because I'm not yet clear on why it's done that way, but ours is not to reason why, etc. etc. I imagine I'll ask someone along the way.

I'm also learning about things I need to work on in my pronounciation. Apparently the accents in Japanese and English are completely different--the former being a
matter of the pitch of the syllables, whereas the latter is a matter of what syllables are being stressed. In other words, while we're gabbing away in English, when you speak Japanese, in a subtle sort of way, you're singing every word. (No wonder it makes me shiver a little every time I hear it. :-P)

For example, we can conTRACT an illness, or sign a CONtract.

If you "sing" the word "ame" as re-do instead of do-re, you're talking about rain instead of toffee.

This is why my next purchase will be an audio course to suppliment the book, and this is also where having posession of a little good anime and access to Crunchyroll.com is useful. It's easier to pick up the music of the language if you can actually hear it in conversation...

(Edit: Incidentally, mixing dark hot chocolate in with a cup of vanilla coffee and milk is a very good thing. =-P~)