Japanese is interfering

I’m having trouble letting go of Japanese even though I should because it would improve my Chinese. I keep confusing Chinese and Japanese grammar. At least the Chinese characters come easy for me as I already know a lot of them from Japanese.

Another thing is that I am self studying Japanese at the same time. Since I really want to move back to Japan it makes sense I guess. I’ve just finished studying my last Japanese teaching book so I am looking to buy a new one that’s a level up. But, this one was the last in the series so I need a new series of study books I guess. The thing is, it becomes hard to find good tips on books when you get to a certain level of Japanese, simply because people just don’t study at that high of a level usually I guess. My last two books was 100% in Japanese for instance, and all of the tips on books that I can find on the Internet is for books that use English for explanations. In other words, lower levels.

Anyway, if you happen to know of any good higher level books let me know. To put it in terms that westerners understand, I guess something around the level of JLPT’s (日本語能力試験) １級 level. But, I am not studying for JLPT, so something not so JLPT-centric would be nice!

Aftermath of Morakot

Well, Taipei managed to escape the typhoon without much damage. To be honest, to me it seemed more like normal “heavy rain”. I didn’t notice the wind much, but that might be because I have buildings on all sides of my apartment, so it is protected from wind.

Picture from Morakot

The rest of Taiwan didn’t fare so well though. About 2,5 meters of rain fell at one area, which is just staggering and hard to imagine. I happened to be out in the worst typhoon, in the most hardly struck town, in japan last year. The streets where floods and I almost got washed away, but that was still “only” around a meter and 30 centimeter of rain.

About 600 people have lost their lives and the damages to the country is very high. Also, according to Taiwanese friends of mine, the president didn’t send the army to help people. For some reason, it reminds me of something, not sure what…

I am glad all of my friends and their families are safe at least.

According to Taipei Times the government has set up a disaster relief account to accept foreign donations in case you want to donate.

Hiroshima bombings “celebrate” 64 years

I was surfing digg.com, which I do more than I wish to admit, and I came onto this site about it being 64 years since the bombing of Hiroshima.

A sad event no matter how you look at it. What I find amazing though, is how the comments on sites like that always seem to be about whether or not the bombing was right or not. Especially on a site like that which is really neutral and just states the facts without laying the blame on either side. If you think it was the right thing to do, why would you want to comment on a memorial site. To me that seems like a real jerk thing to do. Kind of like going to a funeral and go on a long tirade about what a d*ck the person who just died used to be. While it might be true, it is just not appropriate to say it during the funeral. Everyone has opinions about everything, that is normal. But it sometimes surprises me how few seem to have some sensitivity and the inability to read the situation. I don’t know, maybe it is just me.

Morakot is coming

Morakots path as it is projected to pass Taiwan and then move in over China

A typhoon called Morakot is supposed to hit my town, Taipei, tomorrow. My university, Shida, is closed because of this. So is Taida. This is fine by me since it means I don’t have to do my scheduled test tomorrow! *yay* I wasn’t really prepared for it anyway. It also means I get a three day weekend. Sure, there won’t be anything to do since I can’t go outside on account of the weather. But it means I can study for my test, and rekindle my affair with my PS3 which has been very neglected the last few years.

I was out buying some emergency rations today. In other words snacks like Snickers, Pringles and other life saving food. It is surprisingly hard to find healthy food that lasts when you can’t really make anything. I don’t even have a microwave oven, so I could by some frozen food. My freezer isn’t really working either, so even if I had one I wouldn’t be able to store it. A friend suggested cup ramen, which is fine I guess if it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t heat water. I am hoping that 7-11 will keep open. If they do, I can just buy my dinner as usual. If not, the granola bars I bought today will be my lunch and dinner.

Well, now it is about time to get some sleep. Hopefully it won’t be too bad as I forgot to buy tape to secure my windows from breaking. To compensate I’ll keep my shoes close to the bed just in case I wake up with glass all over my floor.