September 16, 2014

And the 14-15 season had already started

I knew I have neglected this poor blog for longer than I intend to.
This morning, I was shocked to see my last post was about Superbowl dinner.  What was I doing, not opening blogger in the first half (and plus) of this year?
... USUALS.  Everyday whatnots.

My husband has taken a lot of business trips during the time.  He made his first trip to South America just after the Soccer World Cup, and safely made his way home.  Thank goodness.
My daughter is now a 4th grader and doing some complicated math drill as homeworks (and of course, a lot of Kanjis to memorize).  Now she wears shoes as big as mine.  Honestly, we have switched each others' shoes more than once, like, after going out all day and her feet get tired too much.

My family members has exciting life of their own, I see.

And what about me?

"What about me?" - Is this a common, cheap self question of mid-40 wife/mother's?

Ok, let's see.  I've started something new, yes.  I am learning Italian on the NHK radio program since this April.  At the same time, I am trying to blush up my Spanish also on the radio programs.  It IS confusing learning TWO latin-based languages at the same time.  My Spanish was mucho, mucho mejor than my newcomer, Italian.  While I try to memorize one new word in Italian, it was read in Spanish pronunciation twice (which is not really a problem, they are so alike).  I mis-spelled the word like Spanish.  I asked myself why I don't just stick to Spanish,  which I still can't make proper past-tense sentence and have tons to learn.  Why?  Because Italian is NEW to me.  Close enough to make me want to learn, but new.

Now, after 5 month of doodling and murmuring, my Italian has improved.  A little.  I think I can order a coffee and a sandwich (Vorrei un cafe e un panino con tonno, per favore.)  

Well, listening to 15 minutes programs on the radio is the most exciting thing in my life.  And I think I am completely satisfied by that.

That's me.  And I needed this post to realize that.

Using a foreign language is a time-consuming process.  Take this Blog?  I spent more than 50 minutes just to post this much.  Blog post in Spanish or Italian?  No way.
But it's not about me speaking out loud.  It's about understanding.  It's about understanding myself (like today).  Composing foreign language sentence requires a good amount of analyzing and constructing, re-constructing pieces.  Pieces of thought, that is.

And of course, it's about learning what other people does.  I just want to understand those interviews on the news without Japanese subtitles.  Real words.  Not watered-down version.

Maybe, I learn other languages so I can read Sports News websites without translation.


Go, Texans!  2 - 0 is a nice start.


2 comments:

Twisted Knitter said...

I have missed reading about what is going on with you! I hope you update, because I am still reading. Go Texans!

O'chica said...

Thank you! I want to fly back to Texas!