Learning Lanuages

 Yesterday, Mikey and I did our monthly volunteer class. I was looking around the class, about 20 adults, wondering why they were studying English. Most of the students are my age or older; a few are in their 20s or 30s. I can understand the younger students wanting to improve their English so they can travel or to help in their jobs, but the older participants, what motivates them to come every month?

For myself, having a reason to learn Japanese really helps me to keep going when I get stuck, which is often.

I have never been motivated to learn Japanese just because I live here. Somehow, I've managed with my broken Japanese; I haven't learned how to read or write, I never saw the need!

But recently I've been rethinking things. I need to really get down to some serious Japanese study. I want to communicate with Mikey's in-laws. His father-in-law speaks a bit of English, but I feel it would be so much better if I could speak Japanese; this is Japan after all.

Also, I dream of traveling in Japan. I don't know if my kids would want to go with me, so I might have to take the plunge and go alone. At the moment, I have a hard time shopping by myself, I have an irrational fear of the self registers!  After teaching yesterday, I wanted to run into a supermarket. Mikey wasn't feeling too good, so he asked if he could rest in the car. Getting what I wanted wasn't a problem, but being faced with the machine to pay sent me into a mild panic attack, too many buttons to push! Fortunately, it had an English menu, which was easy enough to use, but what if I don't have that option? I need to be able to read the basic instructions! 

Another problem I have is collecting materials to use, but then not using them. I have loads of books that I've bought over the past 30-something years, I have books I've downloaded onto my Kindle and web pages marked to get back to, but never do. I keep looking for that magic formula that would make learning easy, but I know that the only way to learn is to make an effort! I am trying, I've found a few YouTube channels that are in Japanese that I like to watch, some have English subtitles, some don't. There are a few cooking sites that I really enjoy watching. I usually write down the recipes in English. If there are things I can't understand, I ask one of the kids to help me out! I've also found some videos that are made for listening practice; these have subtitles in English and Japanese, which are very helpful. 

One thing that I worry about is mental decline as I get older. Every time I go to the hospital, I see these old people who are really not aware of what is going on around them. I don't want to end up like that. I've read that "exercising" the brain by continuously learning can help with staving off dementia! 

Just a couple of photos from yesterday. Recently, the sky has been so dramatic, and the cloud formations are really incredible.

It's hard to see, but the mountains looked white.

Opposite view, I love the clouds on the mountains

Tomorrow morning, I have to get outside; there's a typhoon approaching. It just suddenly formed off the coast, very unusual! I want to try and clean up a bit more. If it isn't raining!