Category: Essay

…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.

It’s strange, I know, but it’s fun and it works (at least for me).

I had been enjoying watching ‘Hanzawa Naoki’ on TVING (a Korean OTT) until my one-month free membership expired, and now I have found a new show for learning Japanese – Culinary Class Wars. Wait, it’s a Korean show. I know, just hear me out.

Culinary Class Wars would never have been my choice, since I rarely watch Korean content anymore, yet it’s available in a Japanese dub!

After watching two episodes with my husband last weekend, I found it pretty useful for learning Japanese.

The studio setting makes the voices clear without outside noise, all lines are colloquial, and the subject matter is all about food and cooking – topics I am particularly interested in.

After watching the Japanese dubbed version, ‘listening to it’ in English without the screen on might be a good next step to improve both languages.

Although there is never enough time for language learning, I am still grateful to live in a world that offers an enormous amount of great learning materials.

Really grateful.

… enough to replace reading in Korean.

For a long time, I have been reading books in English, but not as much as I do in Korean.

The reason is that my reading speed in English was three times slower than it was in Korean.

My learning habit which had leaned heavily toward listening rather than reading, tended to slow my text recognition, and the occasional need to look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary didn’t help.

Since I could read three Korean books in the time it took to read one English book, I couldn’t help but choose Korean books and read English books for merely 15 minutes or so a day.

However, something changed around the end of last year. It just hit me. “Wait, I can read English books pretty fast?” It was the first time I’d ever felt that way.

Although my reading speed in Korean was slightly faster than in English, it had clearly changed. It may have been that way for at least a couple of months, but I guess I just didn’t notice it.

It’s delightful that I can read English books for the sake of ‘reading’, not just for learning English.

It’s delightful that there’s been some sort of breakthrough in my rather painfully slow English reading speed.

It’s delightful that I have so many delightful things.

While there are several advantages of reading books in English, the best one of all is that I can primarily do the ‘reading’ activity while improving my English. And another thing is that sometimes I can get them for a ridiculously cheap price.

Recently, I bought the eBooks of ‘Reminiscences of a Stock Operator’ by Edwin Lefevre and ‘How To Trade in Stocks’ by Jesse Livermore for less than $2.

It would have cost almost $14 for the Korean translations.

These kinds of copyright-free books that were published a long time ago are available on the Internet Archive website, but they are usually a bit lousy in terms of editing and formatting. If you look them up on Amazon, though, you might be able to find a better version for free or at a very low price.

$2 for two eBooks is just ridiculous, but these books definitely should help improve my knowledge base and English at the same time.

Of course, there are cons: these tempting prices make me end up hoarding so many eBooks that I will never finish reading them in this lifetime (Is it also a pro? Maybe).

For a while, I listened to Bach’s Well-Temprered Klavier while taking a shower.

After a few months, I got a bit tired of it, so I switched to French pop.

After a few weeks, the same thing happened again (story of my life, basically), so I didn’t listen to anything.

And then again, I got tired of that silence (and the noises in my head), so I started to watch (but mostly listen to) some stand-up comedy using a waterproof phone holder.

Those weird sounds I make when I laugh at comedians’ words while bending my neck to wash my hair are rather ridiculous. Still, it should boost endorphins, so I’m okay with it.

And since comedians keep talking and talking, it should improve my English listening skills.

What’s the downside, really?

It was right around this time last year.

I wanted to travel to Japan, but I didn’t have time. Well, it was rather that my mind was so caught up with everything that there was really nothing left to spare for traveling.

It saddened me, since it only takes about 2 hours from Korea to Japan. I felt a bit down for a couple of days, but then I found a solution.

“I can learn Japanese!”

At least, I could travel through my mind. And it would be useful when I actually traveled to Japan. It sounded fair.

So I started learning Japanese on Jan 22, 2025.

Interestingly, I did travel to Japan a few months later, and I did use my terrible Japanese (Sumimasen, Japanese people).

Since then, I have kept the habit of learning Japanese, however small a time slot I can spare, and now it’s already been a year.

Language learning is a form of mental travel, and every day can be a day of travel.

No matter where you are or what you do, you can always travel and cherish life.

This might sound a bit strange, I know. However, they are all important to me.

Why do I even care about blood sugar levels? That’s because I have to. At some point in life, we all do.

Anyway, I eat fruit for lunch, hold my phone in my hand, and then read the KBS news aloud in English. Inside my house, of course.

While I roam around the house like a ghost, my blood sugar should stay stable. Fruit doesn’t really increase blood sugar levels as much as rice does, but whatever.

After finishing the news, I sometimes read books while walking around inside, of course.

This makes my lunchtime fly by, and I can work toward my 10,000 step goal per day.

There are always good ways and means if you really think about it. I love it.

While I was looking through Audible for a new audiobook, I somehow found this book – “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami.

Oh, an audiobook in Japanese. Tempting.

By listening to the preview, I could only catch about 30% of it. It feels so good to recognize words or phrases I know, but it is still too high a level for my (amazingly terrible) Japanese.

After all those years of trial and error in learning English, one of my language learning principles has become “not to learn materials that are much higher than my level”.

Everything remains somewhere in the brain, yet I found that level-appropriate materials were much more effective in terms of understanding as well as speaking.

I have no doubt that watching Japanese TV shows with subtitles is better suited to my level.

Until the day I can understand most of that audiobook, I have decided to keep that Haruki essay in my (already overflowing) wishlist.

That took self-discipline.

It really did.

走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. 走ることについて語りつつ、小説家としてのありよう、創作の秘密、そして「彼自身」を初めて説き明かした画期的なメモワール。 表紙撮影＝小平尚典 ©Harukimurakami Archival Labyrinth 2007 (P)2023 Audible, Inc....

One of my favorite Japanese learning materials is the food TV show, ‘K-foodie Meets J-foodie’. And yes, it IS a ‘learning’ material.

All they talk about is food. I love it. I’m more eager to learn about Japanese food, but the Korean food tour part helps me pick up words describing Korean food and ingredients, so it has its own advantages.

I have watched the whole series with my husband, and I’m watching it again while doing the dishes after breakfast.

Watching it a second time really helps me understand better and recognize words I’ve learned, which is a small but powerful thrill.

This TV show seems pretty appropriate for my current goal; ‘enjoying food trips in Japan without translation apps’.

I would understand better and know more words, I hope (or expect).

Yes, it is a ‘learning’ material. I mean, really.

Watch K-foodie meets J-foodie | Netflix

Korea’s top foodie Sung Si-kyung joins Japan’s beloved Yutaka Matsushige on a tasty adventure as they explore culinary gems across Korea and Japan.