i'm trying to get better at japanese
i first started learning japanese when i was a kid living in australia because that's the language that my school taught, and i think that was a super huge example of how a good teacher can totally shape a person, because that class was awesome and it definitely rewired my brain a bit. and anyway since then i'd been like kind of trying to teach myself in a way that was not good because i was a child, but i did at least learn kana, and then high school is when i really started to learn seriously again because there was classes.
since high school, though, i haven't really touched a textbook. i don't think that i'm very good at reading textbooks to be honest because they are so insanely boring, so my main ways of studying can be summarised as: anki (which i became too busy for after starting uni), reading stuff in japanese, watching stuff in japanese, and then probably the most effective one is that i started talking to people from ffxiv.
i play on a japanese server because my friends who i started playing with are in aus/nz, so i joined them on that server. side note but the netcode is actually so crazy good, i don't really struggle in content because the game seems to be fairly generous in like "believing the client". but anyway, i started talking to and making some friends with people i met on ffxiv, and also started using a jp twitter account and all that.
it's really a lot of fun. the friends i've made are all really nice and they're glad to tell me what a word means if i don't know. plus i learn some slang and stuff (most of it is ffxiv-related jargon) and that's cool to know. but also i've only talked to them via text chat because to be honest the thought of speaking japanese out loud makes me want to drive a stake through my entire skull. so anyway
i'm pngtubing to try and get more confident in speaking in japanese. and i'm playing minecraft
is this the optimal solution? probably not! i think most people would agree that simply talking to another human being would be more effective. but i'm deranged.
it's actually been a lot of fun though. i've not really done that many videos but it has definitely helped me feel less uncomfortable in speaking. i've been playing minecraft with the better than adventure mod (a mod for beta 1.7.3), and it's been a lot of fun, and i've also noticed that it's helped me learn some more vocab, because i'll see a word and then my brain will be more inclined to remember how to say it in japanese because i'll probably say it again later.
my jp friends said that i'm good at speaking and compliments make me powerful. i'm gonna be playing ffxiv sometime in vc with one of them so i am hoping that i don't suddenly forget all vocab i have ever learned in my life, which is a valid concern to have.
also back on the topic of minecraft
i'm really liking old minecraft
because i've been playing old minecraft a lot recently, i've been thinking, as usual, about how it's so different from new minecraft. probably a lot of thoughts i'm going to talk about now are going to be basically the same as my other minecraft blog post, but new minecraft does feel more adventure oriented than old minecraft.
old minecraft, and in particular beta 1.7.3, does feel particularly balanced around no sprinting. you can't sprint, but old minecraft doesn't have biomes in the same capacity as new minecraft. biomes are pretty small, so the old walking speed doesn't feel too bad. new minecraft does feel much more built around these strong movement options; you have sprinting, horses, elytra, ender pearls, and so many options; thus, the biomes are large and sprawling and there's tons of different things to find if you go searching far enough.
new minecraft has its appeal, obviously, and there's a reason why the game maintains such a grip on culture even still, but i think that old minecraft really is more my speed. the vibe is different, and the gameplay is much more slow. i think it feels more quaint.
something that i was kind of surprised about is that i think mobs are actually kind of scarier in old minecraft. you don't have good movement options, you can't sprint, mobs can move the exact same speed as you, the lighting is much darker meaning you can't see them when they're lurking in a dark cave, and they spawn much more frequently. for me, night time in new minecraft just feels like an inconvenience, but in old minecraft it kind of does feel like a threat. there's this sort of this fabled status behind "surviving your first night" in minecraft that has existed basically ever since minecraft has, and in a silly way i kind of feel like i'm re-understanding that.
there's also something about the fog and the lighting and the colours of old minecraft that does my brain good. i want to eat it and swim in it.
anyway, in summary: learning languages is so fun. and also minecraft is fun.
hope you guys are doing well! xoxo