Week Four: Song of language

Another motivation for learning Japanese is to not just understand another cultural framework and set of ideas, but to hear the sort of conversations that occur within that framework. There is a sort of rhythm and musicality to speech, the dance-like ebb and flow of conversation, which is a separate dynamic to whatever utilitarian content that it conveys. It is a processual thing that can establish a resonant dynamic between people. So if I can participate in that with others, I will learn to create new "songs" that I've never sung with family members before. Or at least I will be able to listen to and appreciate the songs of others (regardless of how well I can participate) as formerly indecipherable sounds transform into a relational web that catches a universe of meaning. This more expansive view on language is consistent with the non-utilitarian right hemisphere view.

The left hemisphere's utilitarian perspective optimizes for obsessive compulsive personality types whose narrow hyperfocus ignores relative value and context. This presents a problem when contextually prioritizing tasks and attending to them appropriately. The relative value of one thing compared to another is forgotten, all context is excluded from view, and the result is neglect of formerly recognized priorities. Laozi wrote:

"Though neighbouring communities overlook one another and the crowing of cocks and the barking of dogs can be heard, Yet the people there may grow old and die without ever visiting one another." [TTC 80]

Why? Was there simply no need nor want to do so? I think there was both need and desire, or at least there could have been. But the people were able to skillfully deploy their attention; they could see the context and relations clearly and knew where to best devote their time and attention. And that was not in the affairs of others. The parallel for language learning and studying in general is that this too is a pursuit that can only succeed with a contextual perspective, that is, one that will not get lost exploring other communities of thought and investigation. "Broad ways are extremely even, But people are fond of bypaths." [TTC 53] In the age of the 24 hour global news cycle, multiple co-extensive global risks, online social media, and instant access to supernormal stimuli on nearly any imaginable subject, this sort of capacity for skillful deployment of attention that Laozi described is needed more than ever. 

But how much is it really possible? Most likely we have to design our habits so that we can set aside the things that aren't a priority, but not abandon them altogether. Recall that, in the Iroquois legend, Taronhiawagon must "maintain a small distance from his brother, while at the same time keeping his attention upon him, neither letting him drift too far from his awareness, nor letting him blend with him". This is how we deal with those other things that would distract us from our priorities.

Week Three: Automation

• Automation is the key to time management. Recall Leo Babauta's advice: "Make it so easy you can't say no." Other tips include: 
• Remove any resistance (friction) to starting up your studies. 
• Consider making a language app the first thing you see you in the morning, the first thing you play in the car.
• Participate in a spoken session every one or two days at least, or even just talk to yourself to get both practice and build your confidence.
• Expert feedback is important. (Am I saying it right?)
• Measure progress in minutes and hours, not months and years. Use timeboxing - study 20 minutes at a time - to reach a daily 1-2 hour (or more) goal. Repeatedly emphasized by Benny Lewis, Shannon Kennedy, Luca Sadumy, and Simon Ager (of Omniglot), as well as a core feature of Duolingo called a "streak", which gamifies the number of consecutive days in a row you have practiced your target langauge to help sustain a learning habit.
• Record short videos to track language learning progress, because action comes before motivation. We are motivated by our previous success. Use both comprehensible input and massive amounts of input. 
• The Iroquois legend, retold by McGilchrist, will be used to shape my memory palace (see the post on this). I will chunk and review the Genki textbooks from this perspective, and look deeper into them, in ways that I, and perhaps no one else, had before. "See a world [continuous POV of RH] in a grain of sand [fragmented POV of LH]." Or a culture in a kanji character, as it were. 
  
• Use the mimic method, which emphasizes the embodied and intuitive approach (get into the flow, maybe even try to rap!)

Also recall Whitehead: "It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle – they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments." (An Introduction to Mathematics) 

The more I can automate my responsibilities, the more time I can devote to learning new things, including Japanese. I recall an article I read four years ago about how "self-automators tackled inventory management, report writing, graphics rendering, database administration, and data entry of every kind. One automated his wife’s entire workload, too". By automating as much as I can, I should make it a lot easier to engage with Japanese. This is not unrelated to the notion of forming a daily habit or routine, and that in turn is not unrelated to the notion of ritualization. Rituals entrain, synchronize, and bond people. Vastly under appreciated, and maligned in our secular age due to associations with superstition and religion, they can provide an “honest signal” to others (see Amotz Zahavi's work on the Handicap Principle as it relates to altruistic acts). David DeSteno has more recently explored rituals in his work and book "How God Works". Many people who have left an earlier religious heritage due to perceived irreconcilable ideological differences still seek out the sense of community it provided. Gaining an intimate understanding of ritual could help them regain the communal feeling whose loss is felt most keenly. As Dimitris Xygalatas described it, ritual is primordial, and precedes religion. Perhaps, in addition to the Iroquois legend, I could try to understand the place of ritual in Japanese culture, where practice is given much more attention than supernatural beliefs (which are not regarded as requiring endorsement, thereby rendering the contemporary Western focus on ideological conflict practically irrelevant, and permitting religious pluralism to flourish). In McGilchrist's retelling, the Iroquois legend appears to address ritual indirectly, as both recognize the importance of a broader view that finds the continuity among fragmentation. 

At a used bookstore I picked up Japanese Street Slang, by Peter Constantine. Hopefully it will shed new light on how the language is used within local cultures. Someone mentioned saving inspirational quotes, phrases, or prayers in the target language, or even just counting. I like that idea. If McGilchrist has not been translated into Nihongo, perhaps I could try a Google translate of the Iroquois legend. I have other phrase books I can look at for more. ...Is motivation sustained by the promise of "forbidden fruit"? By psychological reactance? Or by the possibility of seeing deeper and further into something that no one had seen in the same way before?