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The big one was last night. This made be blow. I told my wife I could take Kai and his friends to the public pool. She came right back to say, “Are you sure? You’d have to watch them, you know.” What do you think I thought? It spiraled into this: “Darling. In America we are taught that you don’t have to be told something twice. If you didn’t learn the first time then you lose if you make a mistake the second time. Survival of the fittest. Japan has a fool proof system in which its interdependent nature ensures that everyone stat on their toes because the message is repeated down the line. Repeating things a million times is common. What do you think I would do if I took the kids to the pool? Do you think I would fall asleep and let them just play? And if I did, what could happen (this is where she brought up the kid whose foot got stuck in the filter last summer).” So I asked her if she would do this if I were a Japanese and she said no. I asked why to which she said that gaijin are too relaxed about everything and that Japanese can’t trust them to take things seriously. Hmmm. I can understand what she is saying after living in Europe a few years. I often wondered how the hell our Polish family got by day to day; talk about misfit luck. Anyway, I wonder if I will ever be treated any better than this. It’s a struggle to act, but I have to do it if I am ever going to break into this world.
Do changes mean I am losing the fun in my life? Does this mean I will become the salaryman? Will I have to become a Japanese in order to fit in? The answers to these questions are on my mind; probably the reason I haven’t done one of these podcasts in a while. Where do I put importance these days? Hmmmm. GETTING A GOOD JOB, making my wife happy and finding enough time to spend with my son. Oh, friends…uhhh…fun…well. Man, this life can be tough. News Weather Current Events Food and Drink Main Topic Music by: The Yoshida Brothers by permission (Tabidachi) Pepperhead Farms
I’m using Anki to help me study kanji and build some vocabularies.
How will I overcome this doomed failure. Well, its called cognitive dissonance. Similar to Piaget’s disequilibrium, Leon Festinger (1957) states that when there is a discrepancy between two beliefs, two actions, or between a belief and an action, we will act to resolve conflict and discrepancies. If we can create the appropriate amount of disequilibrium, this will in turn lead to the individual changing his or her behavior which in turn will lead to a change in thought patterns which in turn leads to more change in behavior (Huitt, 2001). I’m sure you can see some other overtones in what I have just written. Motivation plays a big part, maybe the biggest part, in changing our ways. I’ve had to realize this in order to save a marriage, clean myself up, and get on the right path to a career. It certainly doesn’t happen overnight, but I’m willing to set sail and wait for the right wind and current to take me to the mother lode. If I could only figure out how to raise the sails….hmmm
I’ll be revising this list as my life here unfolds. The learning Japanese one is going to be the kicker. Kanji and keigo….oh my. I can see the I.V. being inserted already.
Dial 011 (in America and Canada) 81 + area code + number (81(Japan) 78(Kobe) + number). If you see the number like this: 078 555 5555 then dial 011 81 78 555 5555. The area codes and numbers are in different configurations around Japan. And some cities and people put the parenthesis around different groupings. For example (0789) 55 5555 or 078 (55) 5555. I can’t figure them out. I just group them all the same way like in the states 078 555 5555. More info here.
This is circulating around the net from Douglas Adams, the last part of “Life, The Universe and Everything”. I thought I would preserve its greatness here also. 16 things it takes most of us 50 years to learn 1. The badness of a movie is directly proportional to the number of helicopters in it. 2. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time. 3. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. 4. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers. 5. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is: age 11. 6. There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.” 7. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. 8. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.” 9. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them. 10. If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and he decides to deliver a message to humanity, he will NOT use as his messenger a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle or in some cases, really bad make-up too. 11. You should not confuse your career with your life. 12. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter/janitor, is not a nice person. 13. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. 14. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. 15. Your true friends love you, anyway. 16. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. |
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A couple weeks ago I made a mistake at a sample wedding by saying “taijo” instead of “nyujou”. Taijo means “exit” and nyujou means “enter”. Granted it would have been a big mistake in a real ceremony, but in a sample it was just that I had relaxed too much and tried to say it naturally without reading the script. Well, I’m being reminded of that mistake at EVERY wedding since along with the proverbial, “Don’t make a mistake on the names, ” and “Make sure to pronounce the names like this,” or “Don’t forget this or that.” Man. I can understand being told once or twice, but 20 times is way over my patience level—I persist. 
I get a lot of memos at the universities and for weddings in Japanese. Instead of always asking for someone to translate for me, I’ve decided to try to learn the kanji. Yuk. I can’t say I have any confidence that I will learn them because my motivation is low. Why is my motivation low? My probability for success is low, I don’t value the results enough, and the connection of value to success is not high enough. According to Victor Vroom (1964), that’s enough to call this venture a failure before it even begins. But I will not give in to theory. I WILL prevail. 
Peace.
so uhm yeah, greetings from an half irish half arabic guy that lives in germany! ah and start making more podcasts, like 3 a week 
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Are we going to have a Christmas this year?:
Public Baths - Sentos:
I'm sorry. It was my fault.:
Meyer's Briggs...ENTJ:
The ride up slows down...lessons learned:
DJ and Shamisen:
World's oldest man turns 113:
Things are looking better...but:
I just get sick now - alcohol:
Is it worth it to go to Japan?:
Podcast Episode #89:
16 things it takes most of us 50 years to learn:
Sex doesn't sell in Japan?:
They treat me like a child...why?:
Podcast Episode #88:
Anki - Studying Japanese - Motivation: