A Strong Man Within the System.
If I hadn't taken the JLPT exam, would I have studied Japanese this intensely? The thought that comes to me most often these days is that language is power. The ability to express your thoughts to others is an incredibly important skill in today's world. When you face an unjust situation, language is what lets you set things right, and it's also the tool you use when speaking the truth.
Our company is a Japanese company, so knowing Japanese gives you a huge advantage. I did reasonably well on the JLPT grammar and reading sections, but I was upset because I couldn't answer many of the listening questions. I estimate I got about a third of them right at best.
The areas I had studied hard clearly showed results -- I knew a lot. On the other hand, the areas where I hadn't invested enough study time (listening) were filled with things I didn't know. After the exam, I went to Jiye's neighborhood and we had sweet and sour pork, white jjamppong, and fried rice, and it was incredibly delicious. Jiye mentioned she has her induction ceremony tomorrow. I happened to remember a funny story from my military induction ceremony, so I told her about it, and she laughed so brightly -- she looked so pretty. (The story about confusing the salute to the national flag with the salute to the battalion commander, and the "peel" sound echoed through the hall... haha)
Also, she looked even prettier than usual -- her smile, her face -- so I took a lot of photos with my camera. She seemed to like them too, because she told me to change my phone wallpaper, so I did. I'm happy with it.
Working Out with VR Eleven Table Tennis
Whenever I coded for several hours straight, maybe because of the sedentary posture, I noticed a slight dip in my condition and mood. To fix this, I used to go for walks, but it took so much effort to get out the door that I felt like I was wasting too much time. Then I found the perfect exercise for me. It's VR Eleven Table Tennis. First of all, it's fun, and I loved that it's not too different from real table tennis. Also, my world ranking right now is around 2,500th, and when I get absorbed in trying to climb the ranks, I break a sweat and get a decent workout.
After about 2 hours of playing, the Meta Quest 3 battery runs out completely. At that point, I take a break and study Japanese or listen to the CKA lectures I've been taking recently, and somehow I find it much easier to focus. I think it's probably because exercise increases blood and oxygen flow to the brain.
Something I've been realizing recently while playing VR table tennis: attacking is risky, but it's a skill you absolutely must practice if you want to grow. Just lazily pushing the ball back, hoping the other person makes a mistake, might help maintain your score in the short term, but eventually you'll hit a ceiling when trying to climb higher in ratings. Also, I've come to realize the importance of never giving up and never letting your guard down. If you're winning and start messing around, treating each point carelessly, you can get turned around on.
I think I'll be getting a lot of exercise through VR going forward.
Discovering My Obsession with the N5 Exam.
I noticed that I was afraid of failing the N5 exam. But the whole point of taking the exam was to get better at Japanese -- getting fixated on the title itself isn't a good mindset. My dad once said that truly good students study even harder after the exam is over. Since my original goal was to become good at Japanese, I should focus more on studying Japanese. I think I'll study with Yuhadayo-sensei's lectures. I plan to take the N3 on the first exam next year. Languages definitely need consistency. The silver lining is that I now clearly understand why I need to learn Japanese.
Being good at Japanese earns me recognition from senior colleagues at work, and it's a great way to demonstrate my passion and abilities. It also lets me contribute significantly to the team. I'd love it if, at the ConnectOne workshop at the end of this month, I could play table tennis with Oda-san, have various conversations, and crack jokes together.
Things to Do This Month.
Jongho-san asked me during the last 1-on-1 to finish the CKA (Kubernetes) study by Thursday, and I plan to take the CKA exam by the end of this month. Suhwan also said he'd be taking the CKA, but I want to get it first. When it's time to focus, let's really focus.
About Future Diary Entries.
Today I'm writing only in Korean, but starting tomorrow, I'll write at least a little in English or Japanese too. Writing directly in English or Japanese is tough, but I think if I write in Korean first and then convert it to English, it might be a bit easier. And once I reach a level where I can write in English directly, I think speaking will naturally follow. For Japanese too, let me gradually build the ability to compose sentences without Papago's help by expanding my vocabulary, reading more, and listening to conversations.
Even with Korean, you don't improve just by listening. You have to actually speak. It's the same reason my English skills have been stagnant. Recently, I had an opportunity to communicate in English with a Vietnamese developer (with Papago's help, of course), and I think that was the period when my English improved the most in my life. Thinking about whether a sentence is correct, whether it conveys my opinion to the other person -- my English improved through the process of crafting those words.
I believe the same applies to Korean and Japanese. If you don't have opportunities to speak, then write a lot. If you keep writing through diary entries, looking up words, and thinking things through, your skills will improve before you know it. Let's go.
I think learning korean and japanese process apply to learning english. If you don't have a chance to speak english, write down your daily story as much as possible to your diary. Through writing you can improve your vocalbulary and finding aquisite word from your brain and memorize them. At some point, your skills will improve
Don't create an unfortunate situation where you can't even try because you're aiming for perfection. It won't be perfect right away. But those imperfect attempts are definitely meaningful and an absolutely necessary part of the process.
Don't make unfortunate situation where we can't even try to be perfect. You can't make perfact phrase, but this attempts definetely meaningful. And this processis a necessary process.
And when you want to check if the sentence you wrote is correct, run it through Papago to translate the English back into Korean. If Papago interprets it fairly well, you've written a good sentence. If it doesn't, it means you phrased it strangely, so try again. There's never been a better time to study English and Japanese. Let's work hard.