setting goals, boredom and emotional connection (and associated success)

I'm inspired now, I have a lot I want to write about, but..

...First. Let me apologize for my countdown posts. For those who actually read this, you know that I'm leaving to Japan soon, as the posts count, in 4 days. So I just want to post in japanese, because you know, it's special for me, that how I started this blog, and that's how I'll enter Japan, in Japanese.

But I also do know, that my writing differs considerably in both english and japanese. When I write in english, it's a strong self who's writing, a more confident self. On the other hand, when I write in Japanese, my posts tend to be more sentimental and more personal. This disparity is also a thing I intend on making disappear (but I'll talk about it later on the post).

It's been a time of a lot of thinking, a lot of solitude. I'm in summer vacations. My friends from university are either in China or live far from me. My friends from my hometown are either working or with other friends.

I feel lonely, classes are over, my friends are gone, I'm going alone to Japan. That's why I like twitter so much. It gives me the opportunity to interact not only with people with the same interests I have but it also gives me the chance to actually learn something on subjects I'm interested about and to put my japanese to practice.

But anyway, let's get to the bottom of the tittle and shut up about the rest.

I took a walk. 

As I previously said, I like to take walks. I can enjoy music, podcasts and podcasts that lead me to more deep and creative thinking. And I say creative thinking because what I just listened made me think about it and it actually led me to other things to which I can connect and relate. 

Think about it like this. You know something, and that is it, you just know it. But then, you learn something new that you can connect to what you already know. And! And that makes you feel like you are broadening your thoughts, your knowledge, your brain (like seriously, this is probably normal, but whenever this happens I feel something moving in my brain).  

My first point. Though it's really all connected but still...Setting goals.

Setting specific goals.

I've written a lot on what I want to do in Japan. It's true I have and I do want to do a lot. But I did not mention specific goals. Gotta be specific, concrete, 具体的, am I right?

Obviously I intend on studying Japanese. Of course, I mean, who doesn't?! I remember, when I first entered college my main purpose, goal or dream, was to be fluent in both chinese and japanese. And with those skills I'd just work with translation or whatever. 

But times have changed, I myself have changed a bit (or maybe a bit more than just a bit). Back then I was a brainless kid. I still am, Really! I'm probably the stupidest and dumb person you'd ever know, if you could get the chance of meeting me. But now a little more "brainful" than I used to.

Continuing... 

I've come to have a grown interest in Japanese culture. I'm gonna do my best to behave as a japanese person and to "become" japanese. I want to work with japanese my whole life, so when in rome, do as romans do, right? 

The japanese are a very special, and very sensitive people. I want to "become" japanese so that I don't do harmful things to them. So I'll study japanese culture more deeply through books, though people and though japanese culture itself (as one I was told on twitter, the so called "branching" - my main interests on "palpable" japanese culture are calligraphy and Haiku (the sensitiveness, to which I can to some extent relate). 

Among those two, I'll pick Haiku. Small poems, That will force me somehow studying classic japanese (yay, finally going to put N1 grammar to practice!)

I mean, let's face it, gotta be realistic. setting loads of goals will lead you nowhere. So, gotta focus  first in what you really want to, and then comes the rest.

As for the japanese language. the following are my main goals.

I want to be able to write this kind of posts in Japanese. I haven't tried it yet, but I know it'd take a lot of time.

I can understand keigo pretty well, but I rarely have the chance to use it, so I actually want to see to what extent I can use it in Japan (had to write quite some emails in keigo this summer).

As I said before, Haiku will eventually lead me to Classical japanese. 

And to improve my overall japanese through living and studying the regular way - sentence which, will lead me to my next point.

Study. Study is boring! I'm always saying study should be fun, yeah! But it isn't! Look at me! Why do you think I need to separate my study throughout the day? Because I'd get bored if I didn't! Reps are boring! Why do you think when I use the word study I always use brackets""? Because the way I "study" is not study really. It comes all down to interest. I "study" what interests me. I "study" though internet articles for my reading skills and for interest. I study through dramas because it makes me learn not only japanese, not only japanese culture but also because it's a moment when you forget all the rest.

What I want to make it clear is that. It does not matter how you study, what really matters is that you use what you have learned. And if you use are using that means you have an interest in it, which will give you even more motivation and lead you to more "studying". 

I was talking to a friend the other day and asked him "do you like studying (without brackets)?". The answer I got was "no, but I like to be able to understand what I enjoy thanks to that study". It comes all to this, the feeling you get when put what you learn to practice. That's what moves us. For myself, it's not so much being able to read that makes me feel good and happy, no, not at all, what really makes me feel happy is when I put my language skill to practice when I speak to japanese people. That's why I'm always saying I'd rather be an interpreter to becoming a translator. You won't see me really smiling until you've seen me talking to japanese people. 

Yes, this is the ultimate goal, to use japanese on my daily life. Which in turn will lead me to my next point.

Emotional connection to your goal. 

Whatever your goal, your purpose in life it may be, whatever, without having created that connection you most likely will fail in achieving it. 

As for myself. I want to be fluent in Japanese, what kind of keeps me studying japanese, doing my daily reps, getting bored with my reps, enjoying japanese through the internet, helping out those who I like with japanese (this is actually a pleasure, I might teach something but I also learn a lot, I say this because I've always said I don't want to be a teacher, but it's not that bad after all), is my goal of one day using japanese daily in a job of some sort, preferably using oral language ie, interpretation, or working at some company where I have to speak. I'm sure you have a goal too, and since you're reading this it's probably related to the japanese language. 

Be that as it may, define your goals, your concrete goals, then create a connection with it, and then work your way through it. You can do it, you just love doing it.

As for the person who is writing this, me, well, I don't know what will happen, I don't know how I'm going to be when I come back from Japan, the only thing I do know is that whatever happens, it's all thanks to you. 

The japanese learner, the japanese person (anyone really), that drives me. If it wasn't for the japanese learner, I'd never get motivated to get my japanese to its level (intermediate I'd say), if it wasn't for the japanese person, I'd never have the dream of using it daily.

And if it wasn't for 浜崎あゆみ, I'd never even try to study japanese, so...

今日も一日ありがとう。