Why I Am Interested in Japanese Culture and Language (Essay)

This is the essay I wrote to enter into the JREF 2012 essay contest, the prize of which was one month of studies at GenkiJACS. It had to be between 600 and 1200 words, in English, on the topic listed in the title of this post. I didn’t win, but writing the essay really helped me to realize my real reasons for wanting to go in the first place…along with giving me plenty of ideas for more blog posts.

I thought I would share this essay because a) I spent a lot of time on it; and b) it sums up in five paragraphs how my interest started, which is something not currently found on my profile. It gives a bit of my history, so I thought it would be interesting to share.

Without further ado, my essay:

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Why I Am Interested in Japanese Culture and Language

“Why are you interested in Japanese culture?” If you had asked me this question in an impromptu interview, I would have

What’s Holding Back and What’s Pushing Forward

Over and over again I keep revisiting this post by Joshua Greenwood of Sake and Geishas about the power of decisions. It really spoke to me, because I have been afraid to choose one path; afraid that by going through one door all the others would close; afraid that I had to either seize ALL the opportunities…or none of them. But now I understand that that’s not how it works. As Joshua says in his post,

“But possibilities aren’t solutions. Decisions are.”

When doors are opened, it is up to me to walk through them. It’s amazing to me how closed-minded I have been about this until now. I’ve felt that if I focused too much on one thing, I would never again me able to do the other things. (For example, Japanese vs. art, rather than Japanese + art working together harmoniously.) But living everything at once is extremely tiring and takes the joy out of a lot of it, I think. It’s hard to imagine not looking forward to drawing, but when boxed in so tightly by things like deadlines I’ve set myself to complete something that actually takes longer to complete, it becomes very difficult–even painful–and that’s what accounted for a lot of the procrastination that occurred within those time frames.

While this is sort of a continuation of another post, it stands on its own as another post where I’m realizing things and reflecting on things…

There are always many facets to everything, and with going to study at a Japanese language school in Japan, it is no different. Along those lines, I think there have been things both holding me back as well as things pushing me forward.

The Art of Perfectionism: The Good and the Bad

Perfectionism is defined by my Mac’s dictionary as “refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.” It lists perfection as “the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.” In a way, striving for perfection is a virtue, an art in and of itself. But it can also be deadly and rob you of success. Why?

The good

Aiming for being or producing the very best is admirable; it can only be a good thing! It is good to set high standards to push yourself to be better.

The truth is that no one can be perfect. No service can be perfect. No product can be perfect. But the effort we put into trying makes up for it! After all, paying attention to the details often pays off in a big way. However, focusing too much on the details as perfectionists tend to do causes one to lose sight of the big picture.

The bad

Therefore, in the end, perfectionism is a distraction, a stalling tactic, a leech that swindles away your time if it gives way to procrastination. Here are my examples of this in action:

Of Re-strategizing

Last night, while browsing All Japanese All the Time, I stumbled across a website filled with articles on self-improvement: http://www.stevepavlina.com Much of it is aimed at defeating procrastination, managing your time better, and conditioning yourself for success.

I had been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the things I was trying to do–learn Japanese, use Japanese, draw for my artbook… In writing, this list doesn’t seem like much, but when broken down it really does require a lot. Adding in things I want to do but have put on the back burner for now only make the list even longer (editing my websites, making videos…).

So after reading a few articles on the site, often picking and choosing from within the contents of each article I read, I decided I needed to alter my strategy.

I have already been calling it “The Plan” rather than a “schedule” because the latter seems to make me recoil. Using the words “The Plan” makes me more eager to actually use it, not only because it seems to sound nicer, but because when I actually use it, it works. It works every time.

I have been learning to remove distractions and batch tasks/activities. Using Evernote helps to keep things organized, and I have visual reminders on my walls and written on paper as well, but I still found myself feeling unorganized. So I took a look at The Plan again in order to see where I was going wrong.

Removing Distractions and “Installing” Fail Safes

One of the major problems I discovered in The Plan was the lack of a reminder about the timing of each item (task) listed. The best example of this is my bedtime. At night, I tend to come back to my room after dinner and draw or browse the internet, and especially if I’m just browsing, I lose track of time. I have chosen my bedtime to be 9:30, but if I’m not tired already by before 9:00, I’ll keep going until I do–or until I realize it’s after 10 or 11:00.

1) Set a reminder on my phone to go off at 9 PM. This reminds me that it’s time to get ready for bed.

This is a sort of “fail safe” where even if I don’t realize what time it is, my phone will remind me, ensuring that I get ready for bed. This increases my chances of actually going to bed on time.

The next thing I wanted to address was the unknown time which I would use to put new vocab and kanji into my Anki decks. Because I hadn’t specified a time to do it, I always felt like it was in my immediate queue.

2) Set aside a day to add new kanji, vocab, etc. to Anki. Perhaps a Friday? That way I don’t have to worry about it any other day. And since I do it weekly, I know that it will be done.

By setting aside a specific amount of time each Friday to add new vocab to my Anki decks, it eliminates my concern about it. I know that I have that time set aside to do it, and I don’t need to worry about trying to fit it in right after I came across the new vocab.

Next I considered my tendency to want to procrastinate doing my AIS lessons. One time I set the timer on my phone for 30 minutes, and I was surprised at how much I got done. So I figured I needed to readjust The Plan to specify exactly thirty minutes rather than a two-hour block of time of “general-ness” in which I have plenty of time to slack off.

3) Set the timer on my phone for 30 minutes and do an AIS lesson. Only do that lesson for the 30 minutes. After the timer goes off, I can choose to continue or to do something else.

Giving myself the freedom to choose what I do next is a bit of slack in and of itself, almost like a reward. And I’m much less likely to procrastinate when I have only thirty minutes to do the lesson.

Another thing I found that was draining my time and ruining my efforts to stick to The Plan was the many tabs open on Firefox. Each tab was a reminder of something I needed to look at sometime soon; something I needed to reply to, or something I wanted to reread or re-watch. I realized I needed to take Koichi’s advice from TextFugu (reconfirmed later in Steve’s site) and batch these items.

4) Only consider dA, Lang-8, Youtube, etc. (and Twitter!) during certain times of the day that I decide, such as during breakfast.

Having many Lang-8 tabs open bothered me because I wanted to respond to them in a timely manner but didn’t know what to reply with, so I would look at Twitter, and then perhaps Youtube, and then deviantART… Allotting certain times of the day for these things lets me, again, not worry about them the rest of the day. It also keeps me from wasting time by just browsing.

Finally, one way to remove a distraction is to literally remove it:

5) Hide or turn off my laptop if it’s necessary to do so!

I have found that if I’m having trouble staying focused on one thing, it helps tremendously if I simply shut my laptop and shove it underneath the pillows on my bed. In its place on my desk I put notes and things, and when I think of something I need or want to do on my laptop (usually internet-related), laziness kicks in. It’s “too much of an effort” to pull out the laptop, clear off my desk, and open it, so I keep working instead.

Comparison: Noticing Where I Can Improve

Another thing that has helped to keep me focused is this article I read a few weeks ago. It is called “9 Warning Signs of an Amateur Artist” and is partially what inspired me to make a more detailed version of The Plan.

One of the major things I noticed even before reading the article was the difference in productivity, or at least the amount of completed works (including sketches) that I produced in a given amount of time in comparison to some who I would consider to be more professional than myself in those terms.

The professional could quickly produce, for example, ten sketches uploaded to Tumblr in one week, while I could produce one or fewer. While I would be Tweeting about random things, at the same time the professional would be Tweeting about going straight to work on their picture (and granted, they do Tweet a lot of random things as well ). Comparisons like this are helpful because they challenge you to see where you can change your habits and tendencies from those of an amateur to those of a professional.

I have begun asking myself when I sit down and look at the picture I’m working on, knowing I need to work on it but I don’t feel like it or want to watch a YT video or something, “What would a professional artist do?” Well, most likely they would work on the picture. So I work on the picture, and feel proud of myself afterwards because I have made progress or even finished the picture, whereas I wouldn’t have if I had chosen to watch Youtube videos. It’s all in the choices. If you want better results, make better choices.

Being “Everywhere” Online

If I were to list out all of the websites that I own or am a part of, it would probably span several pages. But is that a good thing, being in so many places, or is it too much? What websites are best to be a part of? Do you really need a different website for everything you do?

I think being “everywhere” online has its advantages and disadvantages, just like anything else. In my experience, it’s better to have or be a part of more than one website, simply because you can connect with more people that way. But I have also experienced the downside of this idea, where one is a part of so many things that it becomes extremely difficult to keep track of everything.

When I first began creating accounts on websites, I had every intention of being active, of perhaps uploading art and graphics, of roleplaying and being a part of conversations, of giving advice and accepting it too. But I came to use some sites more than others, eventually forgetting about certain sites altogether. I didn’t learn my lesson though! I joined multiple forums with those same intentions, and now visit only a handful of all those that I joined. I did the same thing again with my own website…s, and again with my blogs. (Thank goodness I’ve only made one Twitter!)

When it finally dawned on me that I had way too many accounts and websites, I was in a bit of a predicament. With content scattered around cyberspace, there was no single site that had all of my stuff. I also ran into a problem with YouTube once Google bought it. When I made multiple YouTube accounts, I unknowingly made Google accounts. Now the one Google+ account that I use is attached to a YT account that I don’t use at all. Oops.

Perhaps I have finally learned my lesson! But how do I clean up the mess I made? ^^;

Merging accounts and/or their content is a great way for me to downsize the amount of sites I maintain by combining the related material and purging them of unnecessary pages. For example, by moving posts from a stale blog to an archive in an active blog, I can delete the stale blog to free up that space, and then I won’t have to worry about it anymore.

That being said, is it bad to have more than one blog? Not at all. I honestly wouldn’t have more than two or three, though, because then it can get out of hand. (I’m still working on this myself. XD) I have seen many cases where an artist has a sketch blog, a personal blog, and another blog for finished art or photography. In my case, however, I use this blog as a catch-all and post art, photos, and text “journal” posts, while my Tumblr is mainly for art. It depends on you and what you want to dedicate each blog for.

What websites are best to be a part of?
There are several websites that are commonplace, used widely by all sorts of people, and if you have an account on each (or some) of these, you’ll be reaching a lot more people than if you remained on only one site.
Wikipedia has a list of social networking websites here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
I will review some of them; most of the ones I review I have used personally.

*Twitter – Twitter is great for sharing small bits of information quickly. In terms of linking, if your blog is linked to Twitter, when you post it will show a link to your post in your timeline, which all of your followers will see in their feed.

*Blog – Having a blog somewhere is basically the norm nowadays; the real question is where do you host your blog? You could have it integrated into your website, or have a free or paid account somewhere…but where?
+WordPress
I think WordPress really is one of the most widely used blogging platforms, period. It can be used to build a website, and because it’s fundamentally a blog, your blog is built right in. For those who don’t want to do that or don’t have a website, it can also be used by simply creating an account for free on WordPress.com. (In case you haven’t noticed, that’s where this blog is hosted! XD) I really like WP and I would definitely recommend it!
+Tumblr
Tumblr is another widely-used blogging service that I also really like. It might take a few minutes to a half-hour to get used to how you edit your blog’s appearance, but once you get that down, everything else is super easy.
+Blogger (Blogspot)
Blogger is connected to Google, so you’ll end up having a Google account as well. I signed up more than a year ago to connect with some Hello!Project fans and translators, but I’ve never liked the interface (though thanks to the recent updates, that has improved) and the text I post tends to get messed up in one way or another. If you want to use only one service (where all of your content is in one place–Google provides YT, mail, Documents, Maps, etc.), then Blogger is a good choice for you.
+Google+
I suppose Google+ is similar to Facebook in how it operates, though I’ve never used Facebook; only viewed some pages. I like it. I would use it a lot more if it were connected to the Youtube account that I actually use. >.> Again, this is integrated into Google (obviously), so with this you could have Blogger and Google+ in one place. I will say that Google+ is easier to use than Blogger. However, your posts aren’t in a typical blog/journal format…it looks a bit more like Twitter in the way it displays them.
+Facebook
Again, I’ve never used Facebook and I don’t want to. But this is obviously a popular social networking site that a lot of people use. Many people have both a Facebook and a blog.

How can I integrate content/sites?
Pretty much all of the sites I listed can be used in combination with each other, or at least used alongside each other. Twitter can be embedded in WordPress and Tumblr, for example, and people who follow you can get updates when you post. Twitter can also be embedded in your personal website.

As for your own content (as in, not third-party), you can choose to have different things on different domains or subdomains, or put everything in one place. I think it is a lot easier if you keep everything in one place; I have several subdomains (a site on each subdomain) and it unfortunately discourages me from working with them. ^^;

One thing you could do is make or commission a new layout that will allow all of your content to be displayed properly on that one site. The content width (meaning the area where the content will go) needs to be wide enough to allow a good amount of text to fit, as well as pictures and video, but small enough so that the user doesn’t have to scroll side to side when they view your page.

In the end, of course, it all comes down to your personal choice! Choose the platforms, layouts, and applications that will work for you. c:

So where am I online?
Well, I did say a list of websites I own or am a part of would span several pages, so you can visit the “About” page of this blog to see the short version. It includes Twitter, Tumblr, my website, and DeviantART. ^^

Do you have websites you would recommend to be a part of? Have you experienced that overload of using and maintaining too many websites? Leave a comment and let me know!

*Prompt: “What are your online presences?” – AitsuSweetheart

Stop Overcommitting

It’s easy to overestimate how much you can do in a day. The hard part is realizing that you can’t do it all.

Overcommitment is when you agree or tell yourself to do more things than you can get done in a certain amount of time. It happens not only in the workplace, but also at school with class projects and after-school activities. It’s a very stressful thing to deal with, and is even worse if you combine it with procrastination! The good news is it is a habit, like procrastination; therefore, you can get rid of it.

Why do we have this problem? I think it’s largely due to thinking we can do more in a day than we really can. Again, it’s overestimating. Overestimating our time, overestimating ourselves, underestimating the difficulty of what we’re facing. We think “I should be able to ___ in __ days/hours/etc.” and blindly overschedule ourselves.

Victims of the “Overcommitment” Habit…

While everyone has most likely stretched themself too thin at one time or another, these types of people are most likely to revisit it again and again:

->Yes-men and Yes-women
These are the people who say “yes” to practically anything they are asked to do, perhaps out of fear or just because they can’t say no. For obvious reasons, these people likely have issues with having way too much on their to-do-lists!

->”I-just-finished-this-big-project-so-I-feel-inclined-to-take-on-seven-more!” people
These are the people who lose all their stress once they’ve completed a project or task and feel energized, ready to take on something else. That’s a good thing. The problem is that they turn into yes-men/women and say “Yes!” to too many things.
This is the one that I tend to be… ^^;

->”I-want-to-be-as-involved-as-possible!” people
Again, for obvious reasons, these people have trouble with overcommitting because they try to be a part of almost everything, whether it’s at church with groups and activities, or at school with sports and after-school clubs.

There are probably more, but let’s move on.

…and how to stop being one:
Yes-men/women
Know that it IS OKAY to say NO once in a while. People should understand. You’re not expected to do everything; nor are you expected to do everything by yourself. If you find yourself in over your head, ask for help, and then start saying no to those things you really don’t think you can do. If you’re not sure if you have the time to do something, consider what’s already on your plate. Look at trends. Is something taking longer than expected? Did you join a group or club and now have those responsibilities? Look at your calendar. How many days are filled with things to do? Consider how you’re feeling. If you’re tired, and have been tired, or are starting to feel a bit “under the weather” you might just want to turn down the request.
If saying no is something you just don’t like to do, remember that there are nice ways to say it, and if someone gets unreasonably upset (keyword: unreasonably) with you because you turned them down, they probably didn’t deserve your help in the first place.

“I-just-finished-this-big-project-so-I-feel-inclined-to-take-on-seven-more!” people
Slow down and take a look at your to-do list before you open up those requests again! Is it really empty? If it is, start out by taking on only one or two requests. Think realistically based on past experience and what the project entails. How much time will you need to complete this? Is it actually going to take you a week instead of two days like you’d originally thought? Good! Now that you know that, you can work  energetically, knowing that you can focus on just those two projects.
Take into consideration that life happens, and that you might have to take care of something unexpectedly or be invited to your niece’s birthday party. Give yourself a few extra days to allow “breathing room” for those things to happen, so you won’t have to stress out over completing those projects.

“I-want-to-be-as-involved-as-possible!” people
You can’t be a part of everything. You’re only one person. So look over everything several times before making a decision on what you want to join. With high-school sports…do the practice times or dates clash? What about game dates? Do they conflict with any clubs you belong to? What about previous engagements like weekend family trips? In church…do you really want to join that small group or are you just looking for people to talk to? Maybe instead of joining every group, visit them all in rounds.

It’s not always easy to gauge how much of yourself you can spread to different things, though. Maybe you really can do something in the amount of time you’re given, but something always comes up. So always plan for those things. Give yourself extra time, and if something comes up, it will be okay. If everything goes smoothly, it will look good because you will have gotten the task completed earlier than your deadline. ^_^

->Review current workload
->Plan for disturbances: give yourself extra time just in case (ex. three days)
->NOW make your decision. Will you take on the project or not?
->If you do, don’t procrastinate! ^_~
->If you don’t want to take on the project, just say no. Give a good reason and be nice about it.

(If you noticed, the advice is similar for all three groups of people, so it’s a good idea to look at all of it. Also, it may sound I’m talking to adults for the most part, but I’m talking to kids too. After all, I’m a kid myself.  XD)

-Thank you to ClarkPHP for the prompt.-

Thoughts on Procrastination

It’s an epidemic, or at least it seems to be. One simply waits until the last minute to act on something, even when given ample time to complete the task. Why is that?

I think the answer is simple: lack of motivation.

Motivation is key to getting something done. If you have little to no motivation, it’s going to take you longer to accomplish something–that is, if you accomplish it at all. In today’s society it seems to be okay to let things slide with a promise that “we’ll make up for it later,” only to have “later” never come, someone else pick up the slack, and the issue dropped or forgotten.

But it’s not okay to procrastinate. This isn’t a clinical study or anything, but I have noticed that when I procrastinate, it’s stressful. I don’t forget about what I have to do. It’s still there, each day, reminding me that I need to get it done. It slowly stresses me out, and if I keep thinking “I’ll do it tomorrow” or “I’ll do it next week” and so on, I often end up scrambling to get it done right before it’s due. Or, if there is no deadline, the project just hangs over me for days…weeks…months… You get the picture. Procrastinating is a stressful thing, and not only is it bad for you because of that, it’s also bad because of the obvious: you’re putting off what you need to do right now. And yet, every day, people nonchalantly decide to themselves “I’ll do it later”…

So why do we procrastinate? Because of a lack of motivation. Maybe it seems “too hard” to do or we’re “too tired” or “not prepared” to do it now. But most of the time those are just excuses.

How do we get motivated?

Getting motivated to do something requires different tactics for different people. For some, simply having a “do-or-die” kind of deadline (where you must get it done or else) is enough. They can get motivated and stay motivated by just having that deadline. But others need a different method to get motivated, often a source of inspiration, and they need encouragement, organization, schedules/routines, etc. in order to stay motivated. For me, being organized and having a routine helps me get things done.

The biggest step in conquering the habit of procrastination is probably making the first move. It might seem like a huge effort to sit down and actually start working on whatever needs to be done, but if you never start, you’ll never finish. Think of it like making your favorite meal from scratch. You can spend all day thinking about making it, but at the end of the day, you’ll never get to enjoy the meal if you don’t start preparing it. In the same way, you have to take that first step in starting on the task in order to have a chance at completing it.

But what if I really don’t want to do it?

If you have to do something that you don’t want to do (for example, an essay on a book you aren’t interested in or a presentation on a subject you’re not good at; even something small like cleaning your room), the same principle still applies. Start. Once you build up your momentum, it will be easier for you to keep going.

Take cleaning your room, for example. Something like this would be best handled by going through sections at a time. Instead of shoving things into closets and under beds, divide the room into sections and clean up one section each day. When you get bored or get tired of going through papers, change what you’re looking at by going through a different stack instead of getting up and watching TV. If you keep it up, your room should be clean by the end of the week. (Very messy rooms could take longer, of course.) But the point is you have to start.

So how do I stay motivated when I’m dealing with a large project?

That’s been my hardest battle with procrastination too! The procrastination circle goes -motivation-rapid productivity-crash (run out of energy)-procrastinate, and it’s like that because the motivation is short-lived. As soon as you start to get tired or stop seeing immediate results, you move on to something else that will deliver you immediate results. The trick to staying motivated while working on a large project is to pace yourself. Don’t try to do it all in one stretch. Again, change what you’re looking at from time to time by switching to another area of the project to keep you from getting bored. If you get tired, take a little break, but keep it short! I’ve had “little break” turn into “hiatus” multiple times, and that can become frustrating when you’re seriously trying to get something done.

• Encouragement
  Getting encouragement from others is definitely beneficial in maintaining a high level of motivation. Even looking over motivating quotes is a good way to keep yourself going.
• Organization
  Being organized is almost essential to getting things done. It starts with your mind and is transferred to everything else. Get your priorities in order and write them down, along with your goals. Clean up the area in which you work and live. Being in clutter-free spaces increase productivity. Make use of organization systems, even if it’s just something simple like a folder.
• Schedules and Routines
  Most people have a schedule they have to follow anyway, such as those at work and school. But everybody has a routine. It’s what you typically do every day after you wake up. By changing things in your routine, or developing a new routine inside your existing routine, you can add to your productivity because the motivation will come easier to you.

Procrastination may be a normal thing to deal with, but it’s not a good habit to have. Like the bad habit of biting your fingernails, it’s just something you have to break yourself of. So don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. It’s time to stop procrastinating… NOW–not later.