littlewonderlog

The English speaking ability of Kang Kyung-hwa, the former Foreign Minister of Korea is very classy.

She doesn’t make grammar mistakes, uses very high-level vocabulary (quite understandable given her field of work), and speaks eloquently in a calm manner.

It’s not just that she speaks good English, but that she speaks it well.

Even during her term, what she did every day was ‘learning English’.

Wait, did she have to learn more with her level of skill?

Yes, obviously.

She said that she looked up words in the dictionary when she encountered new ones while reading, and she always carried English magazines or books so that she could read whenever she had time.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

The fact that those who are really good at something are the ones who work the hardest is a timeless truth.

Overthinking drains the energy necessary for action.

Overthinking complicates things and prevents moving forward.

Overthinking causes fatigue and prevents starting anything.

It’s great to have a direction, strategize, and come up with a plan before taking action. Yes, it’s true. Yet, if it’s too difficult to figure things out, it’s better to just start something – anything.

Although there will be (so incredibly many) times when you feel like “Wait, it’s really not working”, staying away from those circumstances will show better ways, other ways.

If there’s no direction or way to do things, just start something small, now.

If you procrastinate and do nothing, nothing will ever happen.

I was talking to my friend and found out that she has had trouble sleeping because of work-related stress. She’s got so much work to do, and often wakes up in the middle of the night because of the issues that need to be addressed.

What should we do when problems keep coming up and there’s no choice but to keep looking for answers?

It’s been almost a year and a half since I started walking or running in the morning, and more than six months since I cut out caffeine, so I usually have very deep sleep. I hardly wake up during the night until morning.

When I think so much about solutions to certain problems, however, those problems are the first ones popping into my head right after I wake up. It’s like they stayed in my head before I went to bed, took a break during the night, and started showing up first thing in the morning. I mean, seriously?

What do I do?

After getting out of bed, I do some reading and head out for a walk or a run. After that, I feel much lighter. There’s still no solution to the aforementioned problems, but my mental state when dealing with them has changed.

Since I get some fresh air while running outside, my head feels much clearer, and I can think straight. Then, if I keep seeking solutions, they eventually come.

We need to have a good night’s sleep and keep looking for solutions.

Because, at the end of the day, the power to change everything is inside me. Always.

I knew that word, but it has faded.

I know that phrase, I know that it’s there in my head, but it won’t come out.

What was that? What was that?

It feels like it’s there, but it just won’t come out.

What do we do? What do we do?

Is there any other choice but to keep going?

There’s no way but forward.

There’s no other way but to move forward.

If you quit because it doesn’t work, you shouldn’t have started in the first place.

Am I talking only about language learning? Not really.

After I write something in my native language – Korean, I usually try to check it with a grammar tool.

The same mistakes often keep popping up, yet I feel very happy when there are no grammar errors.

Although it is my native language, I have a college education, and I read and write, it’s amazing how many grammar and spacing errors I make without really realizing it.

Writing seems to be an excellent way to find weaknesses in my language skills.

There is no such thing as true mastery of a language.

Even with my native language as well as with foreign languages, I keep moving forward little by little.

Facing the chilly air, I stopped by a bookstore in the city center after running some errands.

I could immediately smell the warm heaters and diffused aromas.

Although I can have a basic conversation in Japanese with AI, my sentence structures are not quite well grounded, so I checked the Japanese grammar section.

Japanese grammar books that are well structured and quite comprehensive are all big and heavy enough to kill a bug. I am quite certain that I would have a pretty good grasp of Japanese sentence structure by mastering one of these books.

Still, after flipping through millions of books for a while, I came home empty-handed.

Why? Because I know that I don’t have the time and energy to commit to Japanese grammar for now. I know that I don’t want to ‘choose’ to commit to it now.

I watch Japanese TV shows while doing the dishes and practice speaking a few sentences every day, and that’s about it.

I fought my (typical) impulse to start something that I wouldn’t commit to finish. It was a success.

It’s a matter of self-discipline, thinking and choosing, and growing day by day.

A speaking habit, if not carefully looked at, can easily get out of control.

I try not to let complaints out of my mouth, such as “I don’t want to do this” or “I don’t feel like doing this”.

Thoughts coming to the surface are not stoppable. They just show up.

However, it’s a different matter to dwell on them and let them out of my mouth.

I can’t stop the thoughts, yet at least I can choose how I process them.

When thoughts like “I don’t want to do this”, or “I don’t feel like doing this” appear, I recognize them. Oh hey, you came again. While I fully acknowledge them, I don’t let them go out of my mouth simply by closing my lips tight.

If I let those thoughts just exist, they are somehow gone after a while.

If I’ve got to do the task that I don’t really feel like doing, speaking these thoughts out loud doesn’t help anything in any way. Besides, it drains the energy of others who happen to hear them.

If I don’t actually need to do the task, I can simply stop doing it.

Observe the thoughts, and control the speaking habit.

It’s about living today’s life better than yesterday with more conviction and self-mastery.

I do 20 Judo push-ups every morning before heading out to run.

20 reps is a joke, I know, but since even 10 was really hard at first, it is quite an achievement for me. Anyway, this everyday minimal upper body workout still builds my muscles a bit, making my arms a little bulky. It’s nowhere near MMA fighter-like bulkiness, yet I don’t want it. Nope.

To keep my arms beautiful as well as strong, I’ve been thinking about finding an alternative upper body workout. The problem is that I’ve only been “thinking” rather than actually looking it up. I just keep forgetting.

This idea always occurs to me in the middle of push-ups.

‘Wait, I was gonna stop this and find something else.’

Every time.

But then, since I’ve started already, I just finish it. And I do this every day, because I do it out of habit, unconsiously. I don’t even realize I’ve started anymore.

Same thing happens the next morning, while I’m feeling (minor) pain in my arms.

Inertia is a strange thing, and really, what’s wrong with me?

…to improve your observation skills.

I have been watching stand-up comedy shows while taking a shower (thank you, waterproof phone holder).

Although there are some on Disney+, I mostly use Netflix since they have a much wider selection.

While watching those shows, I am amazed at how those comedians see the world.

They catch really minor aspects of rather boring, ordinary daily incidents and make fun of them in a really effective way.

Maybe it’s because they are always alert to the surrounding world to find new material for comedy?

Without a keen sense of observation and a clever mind, it must be quite a challenge.

It might be a good idea to practice this way of seeing and thinking to improve observation skills and insight.

Why not start today?

AI does everything. It translates and interprets languages in real time. Why bother to learn another language then?

While doing some language-learning routines, I’ve had some thoughts. Should I really go through all this hard work?

Hmm, well?

It’s convenient! You don’t need to use a translation app, and you can understand things you read or hear within a second.

I was told that there are some sort of earphones that provide real-time interpretation, but I haven’t seen or used them yet.

Even in these circumstances, there are certain subtle nuances in words. Even great translations have an inevitable gap in delivering the meaning, and it’s almost impossible to understand puns without knowing the language.

Besides, while learning a language, your brain gets younger, you practice self-discipline, you get to have fun getting to know new things.

You will be able to say whatever you want in your own words, not someone else’s (or some AI’s) translated ones.

Although I’m not sure how the world will change in the future, I believe I will go through this (hardship of) language learning in the next couple of years.

I have had it coming. I always have, and that’s the fun of it.