Rebuttal where Trevor Noah talks about the benefits of traveling

https://youtu.be/xwI3IW9wES0

New Yorker: The Case Against Travel

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/the-case-against-travel

TIL cũng được

Cũng được means "good enough," or "this'll do." You can use this when talking about food or about anything really. It's funny because in Vietnamese there's more liberty to be a food critic, whereas in English if your friend cooked for you and asked "how's the food?", if you said "cũng được," it'd come off as impolite!

TIL “bác” usage

TIL in Vietnamese the pronoun Bác is a title that can be used for either a man or woman. For some reason I thought it just meant a man who's between ages ông and chú. I still haven't fully figured it out, but it's now on my list to study further.

New perspective on foreign English accents (story)

Lately after traveling, I've gotten some new perspective on foreign accents from people for whom English is a secondary language. I always used to take it at face value; basically I didn't give it that much thought in any direction. I just used to think, Okay, maybe this person has just accumulated some mistakes in their pronunciation from when they learned English, or something something lost neuroplasticity there are some syllables in English that aren't part of their native tongue, and now that they're an adult it's harder for them to acquire these syllables. Shrug.

I think all of this is still true to a large extent, but what deepened in my perspective is that as I've tried to learn other languages, I see things from a more linguistic perspective. The accented or at times slightly mistaken English someone is speaking is a beautiful blend of their native tongue and English. I went on a guided tour in Osaka, and my tour guide was a Spanish scholar of Japanese history. He was born and raised in Mexico, then studied in Spain, then moved to Japan to do research, where he now lives with his Japanese fiance. His first language was Spanish, second language English, third language Japanese. The tour was in English, and it was stimulating to hear his pronunciation of certain English words using the pronunciation of the Spanish alphabet, such as the short 'a' where in English we might use the long 'a'. Another one of course is the mishmash of cognates and/or borrowed words between English. So when he said the word "vegetables" in English, it came out as a lovechild of the English "vegetables" and the Spanish "vegetales": He said "vegetals".

In many parts of the world that aren't the U.S., emphasis on learning to speak English is less of a hegemonic, colonial sin and more of a true lingua franca for modern life and modern business. And not just to do business with or "serve" the West. When the Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. visit each other's countries, they most often use English to communicate. Because speaking a foreign language is hard, but chances are both strangers studied English in school. As a native English speaker, it's an interesting phenomenon to observe, because both strangers are speaking in different versions of accented (and often, broken) English to each other, and yet it works.

You get some beautiful English-Japanese linguistic blends in Japanese, too. Because the public education system has put a strong emphasis on learning English, you get a pop cultural phenomenon whereby the English version of a word is assimilated into the language and used by the younger generation until it sticks. I was surprised that in Japanese, a table is a "teburu", a toilet is a "toire", a shirt is a "shatsu", a card is a "cardo". McDonald's is a fun one: "Makudonarudo" when the full name is used. So now you can see how when a Japanese person goes to speak English in America, they might ask for the toilet in a way that sounds like completely mysteriously broken English pronunciation ("toire"), but in fact it's coming from a cognate effect with a word that is completely valid and common in Japanese.

I saw this in Vietnamese, too. TV is "tivi", chocolate is "sô cô la".

Now when I hear foreign accents, I think less about how the person might be "mad-struggling" in English, and more about how there is linguistic and cultural depth to the slightly different vocalizations they are making.

TIL Pokemon board game Ubongo

I bought my little cousins some souvenirs from the Pokemon Center DX in Tokyo, one of which was a Pokemon themed version of a board game called "Ubongo". Kind of like a manipulable Tetris with cardstock but with a different goal, you race to fit the shape pieces into the template card you're given. 

In particular I focused on finding souvenirs that could be found in Japan only. I guess I assumed this was a Japanese board game, but I think it might have just been a corporate partnership. Granted, the box was in Japanese and the label on the outside says "for sale in Japan only", so I did achieve my goal. I mean the art on the board game and the box are still remarkably original and beautiful.

The game was fairly satisfying. Little super cousin "Bella" (not her real name) and I had a board game night to ourselves. We ate takeout pho. I made sure to blanch the pho noodles within 10-20 seconds so that they wouldn't get mushy, which I've done in the past. 

Hôm này tôi ở bên Mỹ

Hôm này tôi ở bên Mỹ, và tôi sẽ nấu ăn trứng khuấy cho ăn sáng. Bây giờ tôi không muốn ăn món ăn Châu Á tại vì ăn nhiều rồi bốn tháng.

Cũng hôm này tôi sẽ chạy ở ngoài và làm việc tại vì tôi không làm hai cái trong nhiều thời gian. 

Chúc bạn sẽ có một ngày vui hôm này.

Summer camp, elephant showers, and hunger pains (story)

I went to my first (and incidentally, only, considering it was so late) sleepaway camp when I was 16. It was hosted by a university an hour away, and it was for STEM kids.

I was physically nervous upon arrival. I didn't fall asleep my entire first night in the dorm.

That first day, especially, there were just a bunch of kids running around on the grass doing the summer campey, running-around games? I guess you'd call it the cousins of capture the flag, but which are annoying because it's like, ugh, what are the rules for this one? I guess because it was already mid-game I found it not-fun because you're sort of throwing yourself into the fray and you're pretending to chase after the frisbee or whatever that everyone else is chasing after. So that you don't look stupid and also get some exercise. But in truth you have no idea which team you're on or what the hell you're supposed to be doing.

For beautiful tangential context: You know at Disneyland when there's the parade and they want you to get up and clap your hands, and jump, and dance, and chase the confetti, and chase the rubber balls they shoot out of the float? When I was a kid, I just, naw, I never did that. I preferred to just observe. Like I never really understood other kids' and other people's needs to do the novel physical activity. I guess some of that still rings true for me today. I went to Phuket recently and went to visit an elephant sanctuary, and they had this activity for tourists to shower with and wash an elephant. Or like feed an elephant. And just like, I don't have an interest in having the "experience" of brushing the elephant under the shower, or even my hand being the one necessarily giving the banana to the elephant, because someone else is doing it anyway. I can just observe vicariously; like I don't see what's so exciting about "me" or "I" in particular having done the activity. I don't get like what exactly people are trying to "win" or "check off" their bucket list?

Once I got used to it, summer camp became less cringe and the month I spent there still constitutes one of the happiest times of my life thus far. Nonsarcastically. The End.

Honestly, the thing that was more annoying was that I used to have these growth spurts combined with a demanding metabolism (neither of which ultimately yielded an impressive height) where I'd just have to eat so damn much, not because I enjoyed it, but because otherwise I'd be so hungry I wouldn't be able to do anything else or my stomach might even have mild pain. This phenomenon continued all the way through to the end of my first year of college. That's actually how I made a lot of friends during freshman year. I'd have to eat so much food that the first group of friends I was eating with had already finished and left, and so I'd get another helping of food in the dining hall and sit down with a completely new group of strangers in order to have some company. Life hacks? I dunno.

TIL US Global Traveler card

TIL that if you are registered on the US Global Traveler program, then upon reentry to the US you don't need to have your Global Traveler card on you. You can just scan your passport. I wonder if it was always like this. Anyway, it's super convenient because while I brought my passport abroad, I didn't pack my traveler card. 

Global Traveler is great, and it saved me a line of like 100-200 people going through CBP today! 

A country’s snacks as gifts, pt. II

I think I accidentally became a shopaholic in Japan, because their internal consumer market is so vibrant. It's really remarkable, and unexpected. I usually have a very high threshold for buying things, but I am such a sucker for the fact that the Japanese put tasteful art on literally everything, including their consumer products.

You'd assume, given how globalized our world is, that these goods would easily already available on Amazon or something, but they're really not. There's a lot of outright *quality* put into these goods that, goodness gracious, I've never seen before in my life.

I'm flying NRT-LAX right now and at the airport 7-eleven I bought a ton of snacks to bring home to family. I think that 7-eleven knows people have a preference for this because this one seemed particularly stocked with a rich diversity of snacks. So there you have it, folks. Not to mention the suitcases of gifts I bought, I'm about to become a Japanese Santa Claus.

TIL that Tokyo feels more like a home to me than Osaka

Part of it is that there is some cultural differences between the residents of Osaka vs Tokyo (Osaka is slightly more rough around the edges, for Japanese standards). The other is that I went "back" to Tokyo and hung out with my friend again, so there's a bit of a "return" effect. Osaka doesn't have nearly as much stuff as Tokyo, and yet is still sort of in the same category of a city. If I were to go back to Japan, I'd spend more time in Tokyo and probably not Osaka. But Kyoto is amazing and is sweet in its own right. 

TIL que la tienda de Zara en Japan es fantástico para mí

Hoy estaba en Osaka y fui en un tour con otros turismos. Pero cuando hemos terminado, fui de shopping para ropa nueva. Y cuando entré Zara, yo estaba sorprendido porque me encantaba la ropa. Es magnifica. Ahora quiero comprar toda de la ropa de Zara de Japan. Pues, pienso que es porque a mí, la gente de Japan es muy creativa.

Remarks on learning Japanese in Japan

1) One thing that makes it easy to learn Japanese while in Japan is that everyone is so kind and friendly in their conduct that you don't feel discouraged from trying.

2) For learning languages in another country, I love using ChatGPT as a life hack. It's like having a friend who's available to whisper in your ear what to say, right in the moment, and also give you the English syllable breakdown so you can get close enough to enunciating it. Not to mention that if you improve you can have convos with ChatGPT in the language or have it help you fix your grammar or word usage. It's way faster than Google Translate or Google search. Frankly, googling "survival language X" on Google search and then scrolling through the content of an article is painful.

3) It's also easy to start a conversation with a Japanese person because in Japan, everyone has so much unique clothing you can compliment them on their shirt, just like in America. This is different from other parts of the world where people are all wearing the exact same thing, or perhaps nothing creative in particular.

4) After being in Asia for 4 months and especially Japan, I bow a lot now and hand items with two hands, and am more comfortable using chopsticks that sometimes I completely ditch the fork for a chopstick because it feels better. I wonder how many of these habits will stick around, and whether it'll be weird if they half-stick and I'm in the U.S.

5) Special thanks to my mom for basically 100% coordinating this Japan trip and encouraging me to push onward to Japan when I was already ready to end my Asia trip. Although it's never good to rank countries, I honestly think Japan tops all the countries I visited (though Vietnam and Japan cannot be compared, because Vietnam has a special place in my heart). I think Japan is such a special place and has such rich culture and artistic creativity. It's enough to incentivize me to keep learning the language and adopt it as my 4th language, even if only to be able to continue to sip from the vast artistic and design depth of Japan over the rest of my life.

When learning another language, don’t try swearing to sound cool

Beyond the usual reason that in highly respectful societies will come off as extremely rude, it's because it will sound dissonant and discordant, and for some reason make the native speakers around you feel worried.

You don't want to pick up slang and swear is because the cool usage is likely super subtle in a way you will not understand. Really great perspective I got was being on the receiving instead of giving side of this. In Asia I remember meeting someone who learned English as a secondary language and was swearing in English in a playful way to be more colloquial with me, but I found it less endearing than I imagined and more worrisome. As in worrisome on the other person's behalf. I don't know why I felt that, but it's due to something along these lines.

Self-pop quiz: Japanese that I've learned

Arigato gozaimas = thank you

Arigato = thank you (informal, would be rude in public)

Arigato gozaimasu = thank you but more formal, I noticed older people and service people will use this more often

Domo arigato gozaimasu = thank you but most full and more textbook I think (so more formal)

Domo arigato = thank you (formal) according to the Internet as an alternative to arigato gozaimas, but I never heard anyone say this other than an old man from Takayama. Or domo arigato means "thanks a lot", so maybe half informal because gozaimas is missing but made up in formality with the domo.

Sumimasen (my mnemonic: "sue me, my Zen") = excuse me or sorry. You use this a million times. You can also barely whisper this and surprisingly, a Japanese person can hear you!

To-i-re wa doko desu ka? = where is the toilet?

Ko-re wa doko desu ka? (my mnemonic: Kore like Korea) = where is this?

Kore wa nan desu ka? = what is this?

Kore onegaishimas = this please

A-re onegaishimas = that please

Mizu onegaishimas = water please

Gohan onegaisimas (my mnemonic: sounds like my friend Sohan) = rice please

Okaikei onegaishimas (my mnemonic: sounds like Hawaiian lol) = bill please

Piinitsu = peanut

arereguii (not sure I got that right) = allergy

Menyuu = menu

Ohio onegaishimas (mnemonic: sounds like Ohio the state, please lol) = good morning

konichiwa = good afternoon

kanbanwa (?,... not sure if I spelled that right. You make some weird Kung Pow Chicken noise with your mouth) = good evening

Sayonara = goodbye

wakarimasen (my mnemonic: "Bulgari, my Zen" with w) = I don't understand

tomeshite (my mnemonic: "tommy shit"), mo ii ka? = try it is okay?

cardo, mo ii desu ka? = card is okay?

hitori = one person

Hitori no teburu onegaishimas = one person table please

yoroshiku onegaishimas (my mnemonic: "Euro shiku") = I am in your debt (deeper thank you; use this if someone spent extra time to help you, I think)

¡Duh! Puedo practicar mi español en este blog

No sé por qué, puedo solamente ahora descubrí que puedo practicar mi español usando este lugar. Es bueno porque puedo escribir cada noche y mejorar mí español.

TIL from Osaka: train platform mechanical safety cables

Okay, I'm going to shoot for roughly nightly reflections using the TIL (Today I Learned) style, mainly to help build some consistent habit into my daily life. Also because journaling is good for stress.

Well, I took the train down from Kyoto and a really cool thing I learned about Japanese public transportation is that they have these bungee cord-like cables at the platform of the train station, so you have some safety of not falling off the platform. And when the train arrives, then these mechanical arms raise the soft rubber cables way above your head so you can cross and enter the train. It seems like a super cost effective way to implement the usual door gates that line up for subways, while also being super design smart because you don't need to account for the train to line up (and train lengths, future trains, etc). Honestly, Japan is an amazing paradise for designers.

Osaka is really cool. Going from Kyoto to Osaka, now there's higher population density again and it feels like popping back into Toyko. I've got a day tour tomorrow by a Spanish expat. So I get to practice my Spanish on the tour before going to Mexico in 11 days.

Takayama onsen

I tried the Japanese Onsen public bath in the inn. I went at 7am which was great timing because it meant the bath was recently cleaned. And everyone was busy eating breakfast so I had the bath to myself. I ain't wanna see no wenis. 

It's very beautiful (the interior design and the traditions) and very clean, but I didn't find it very relaxing because there's like 16 steps you have to follow. It's a bit like an OCD esque homestay with a bunch of passive aggressive signs everywhere. Also I don't find being naked in public very relaxing. 

There's a shower step before the bath step, so I did that. But when I got to the bath, since my body is sensitive I found the bath to be way too hot for me to even put my foot in. So at the most I ended up taking a "public shower" in the public bathhouse.

All-in-all an interesting experience!

Hello I am a Child

On the train to Takayama, Japan, out the window I saw some elementary school kids walking home from school. They wear these bright yellow caps 🧢 as part of their school uniform. Really great way to keep track of the kids and indicate, "Hello, I am a child."