http://bizcomcult.blogspot.com/ — Musing about multicultural communication etc. I started this while in a class taught be Garr Reynolds, better known as the writer of Presentation Zen.

http://baroquebobcat.blogspot.com/ — my first blog ever, and definitely baroque in some of its sentence structures, stylings. It clearly didn’t last very long, unlike the baroque period, which lasted from the late 16th century through the early 18th(thank you wikipedia).

Some of what I’ve written is rather cringe-worthy, but it is interesting to look back at  it and remember those heady days, playing Starcraft with exchange students, surrounded by Japan. Or, reflecting on my kendo miscommunications.

On the other hand, I still don’t understand about, oh, a third of the words the first time I see them. But, I can read the japanese because most of the kanji have furigana. And I have learned a few new words like mono-oki(物置) which means closet, more or less.

I borrowed this book from the library for the same reason that I read manga and the same reason I bought Eragon: to practice reading Japanese. I don’t care too much about the exact meaning of what I am reading, because I find that when I do, I end up looking up every word, even if I have a vague idea of its meaning. And, when I do that, it becomes boring, a chore.

Thinking back to elementary school, I remember when I first started reading books that were substantially above my reading level. I think I had the same approach then. I don’t remember looking up words I read in a book up in the dictionary, though I liked dictionaries.

When I read with a dictionary, words gain meaning, but the writing itself loses it. I lose my place in the story, the picture in my head, however vague, collapses and the practice becomes tortuous and alittle boring.

I should know, I tried to read harry potter like that for about 10 minutes-I couldn’t get through two pages.