Start With Words

a language learning diary

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If you want to learn a language efficiently, then you need to give that language life. Every word needs to connect to sounds and images, and scents and tastes and emotions. Every bit of grammar can't be some kind of abstract grammatical code; it needs to be something that can help you tell your story. And if you do this, you will find that the words begin to stick in your mind, and the grammar, it begins to stick too. And you start to realize that you don't need some kind of language gene, some gift from God to accomplish this. This is something that everyone has both the time and the ability to do.

— Gabriel Wyner, in Why We Struggle Learning Languages

[corvidconventicle]

筈　「はず」　should, ought はず

交叉点　「こうさてん」　crossing, intersection 交差点

流暢　「りゅうちょう」　fluent, flowing

轢殺　「れきさつ」　killing by running over

踏切番　「ふみきりばん」　gatekeeper

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HALCYONIC (adjective) - often used to describe an idyllic time in the past that is remembered as better than today.

Currents foreign to Islam - Arab tribalism, Persian courtly customs, Hellenistic philosophy, Mongol political tradition, to name a few - have long coursed through the Islamic tradition, at times enriching it, at others distorting it, and often doing both at once. To assume that the West is wholly alien to Islam, or that Islam stands between a halcyonic past in opposition to a dystopian present, is simplistic.

Source: Ovamir Anjum, in Wicked Beauty: A Hashiya on Secular Desire.

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SALVIFIC (adjective) - having the intent or power to save or redeem.

The adulterer, the rebel, the outlaw, the sexual libertine - figures long condemned by the moral traditions of the world - have become the protagonists of modern literature, film, and popular philosophy. It is not merely that we tolerate them. We admire them, desire to be like them, or see in their transgression a kind of salvific authenticity. But this cultural turn demands reflection. What has changed in our metaphysical and moral landscape such that betrayal, rebellion, and even lawlessness might appear beautiful, even redemptive?

Source: Ovamir Anjum, in Wicked Beauty: A Hashiya on Secular Desire.

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JURISPRUDENTIAL (adjective) - of relating to a system or body of law.

Theology is more directly what we are saying back to God. It is more existentially the very account of our lives lived before the Divine. In other words, theology is how we choose to live in response to revelation. Not just convictions or beliefs, theology is all that we do: every devotion, every deed, and every act great and small. It encompasses the ethical, the relational, and the jurisprudential (or matters of fiqh) within our lives. It includes the care we extend to (or withhold from) others and the works of good we seek to do or fail to fulfil because we are never outside of revelation's address. We are ever within it.

Source: Martin Nguyen, in A Case for Thinking and Living Theologically: Faith, Imagination, and Malcolm X, included in Hashiya Issue 1, p. 108.

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ARDENT (adjective) - very enthusiastic or passionate.

How this carries me back to the days of our youth—this sending in of notes and waiting in ante-chambers! I had hoped, I confess, that my reticence during the years of your sacred calling would have won for me, still your ardent admirer, the right to a somewhat less formal reception.

Source: Murasaki Shikibu, in A wreath of cloud (The Tale of Genji Vol. III), Ch. II, p. 59.

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VICISSITUDE (noun) - a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant; alternation between opposite or contrasting things.

Our time in this dunyā is a time of vicissitudes. The Almighty is ever testing us as long as we dwell here. Disparities and difficulties abound. Ceaselessly and cyclically, we are beset with war, violence, loss, and harm. Disease, disaster, and deprivation assume varied forms. Even the wrongs we commit against one another have their distinctive traits, shapes, and genealogies—wrongs wrapped in hubristic ideas like nation, race, and individuality.

Source: Martin Nguyen, in A Case for Thinking and Living Theologically: Faith, Imagination, and Malcolm X.

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But ʿUbayd Allāh knew that if he divorced Rāqī, she would, according to Islamic law, be able to keep everything he already gave or promised her (i.e., mahr) for their marriage. In their case, that meant swaths of land and enviable properties. But ʿUbayd Allāh also knew that if Rāqī was the one who asked for a divorce (khulʿ), he would be able to negotiate with her to keep what he gave her. So, ʿUbayd Allāh devised a plan where he would make Rāqī’s life so miserable that she would beg for a divorce. She did exactly that. In December 1118 C.E., Rāqī came to an agreement with ʿUbayd Allāh and forfeited anything she received in their marriage in exchange for a divorce. Little did ʿUbayd Allāh realize, Rāqī also knew her rights under the law. In fact, when she was still married, she had prepared a legal document (ʿaqd istirʿāʾ) that collected witness testimony of her abuse. She took her case to court and presented her evidence. The great Mālikī scholar Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (d. 520/1126) oversaw her case. He listened carefully and examined the evidence. He ruled the following: unless ʿUbayd Allāh could rebut the overwhelming evidence testifying to his abuse, he had to return everything he took from Rāqī. Why? Because if a husband harms his wife, she has the right to divorce and the right to keep her dower. (Tesneem Alkiek, in Marital Harm through the Ages: Perspectives from Islamic Scholarship and Practice, included in Hashiya Magazine Issue I, p. 52-53)

This reminds me of how important knowledge and education are. So, girls: read, study, pursue your education. Don't stop learning no matter what stage of life you're in. Learn when you're a student. Learn when you're a worker. Learn when you're a wife. Learn when you're a mother. Learn when you're single. Learn and read, as much as you can, while you're still alive.

[xtinedancefit]

Accidentally clicking on an AI assistant feels like clicking on a link that’s going to give you a virus.

[stars-bean]

Dead Poets Society (1989) dir. Peter Weir

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Everyone knows that something is wrong. The politicians say, “we need higher standards.” The schools say, “we need more money and equipment.” Educators say one thing, and teachers 3 say another. They are all wrong. The only people who understand what is going on are the ones most often blamed and least often heard: the students. They say, “math class is stupid and boring,” and they are right.

- Paul Lockhart, as quoted by Ravi Choirul Anwar, in Salah Kaprah Perihal Matematika)

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How to learn a language fast and effortlessly, by Victoria Obiageli | TEDxAmerican Academy Brno

[white-pilled]

writing job applications and thinking that perhaps I wasn't made for this world

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Haven't been consistent with my language learning, so I'm glad I can at least keep up with Duolingo this month.

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ALACRITY (noun) - brisk and cheerful readiness.

[…] But when it comes to a child,—at an age too, when such creatures have irresistible charm—it is quite certain that she will welcome it with alacrity and henceforward devote all her time to its care.

Source: A Wreath of Cloud, Ch. 01 - part of The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu.

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TRUANT (adjective) - wandering, straying.

"Princess Senshi and her ladies," Murasaki writes, "are always going off to see the sunset or the fading of the moon at dawn, or pursuing some truant nightingale amid the flowering trees."

Murasaki Shikibu, in A Wreath of Cloud.

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ECCLESIASTICAL (adjective) - relating to the Christian Church or its clergy.

[…] I can well imagine that some of our senior ladies, with their air of almost ecclesiastical severity, must make a rather forbidding impression upon the world at large. In dress and matters of that kind we certainly cut a wretched figure, for it is well known that to show the slightest sign of caring for such things ranks with our Mistress as an unpardonable fault.

Source: Murasaki Shikibu, in A Wreath of Cloud.

(Note: I'm not entirely sure the context really meant 'relating to the Christian Church' as 10-11th century Japan hadn't known Christianity yet. But perhaps it's related to deity, spirituality, or religion more commonly known there [like Buddhism]. I think it's most probable that it refers to holy-like attitude of senior ladies in Japanese court, which were more conservative about their attire etc.)