Language.

If there is one thing I am going to miss about studying at N.U.S., it's just how freaking diverse everything is. There are so many international students here it's not uncommon to be in a group of people and have at least three nationalities and three languages going on. Usually, what happens is that everyone is conversing in English, and then little translations of whatever native tongue goes on the side of the main conversation.

It's an interesting concept. There are things that are said on the surface level, but then you never know what the other person is really saying in his or her native tongue. I rather enjoy participating in this linguistic hodgepodge.

Because after a while, asking people if they are from Norcal or Socal gets kind of old.


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So I'm trying to become more literate in Japanese, and since I figured that reading newspapers and books are out of my league, I'm going to start small. I joined Mixxi (the Japanese equivalent of myspace) and I read blogs. I look up the words that I don't know and I read them again.

After a while, you give up trying to imagine what the English equivalent is. You listen and read the words for what they are, not as stand-in symbols for something else. Because no matter how hard you try, even the best translation in the world will never capture the rhythm and implied silences that come with every word and every sound. It is what it is.

And this is my unrealistic dream of mine, to one day be so literate in Japanese I can actually read their newspapers and books as well as I can in English. Maybe even write in Japanese. Now how cool would that be?

I have a long road ahead of me.

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Languages are sexy. They're like people. They have their own personality, history, quirks and rhythms. You may fall in love with it upon first sight or hearing, but it takes a whole lifetime to truly know it as well as your own skin. And like most people, the more intimately you know a particular language, the more rewarding the whole experience is.

As a friend of mine once said, write it like it's hot.

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I'll be back in the States on the 19th of December. More specifically, I'll be arriving in Los Angeles at approximately 11:05 AM.

It feels strange, thinking about that.

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Hey, to person whom I owe a guest blog: I haven't forgotten you. While I have been thinking about other things, there's something that I am waiting to experience this weekend and it may be worth writing about. Yes, I know, I am being purposely vague. Now I hyped it up too much for you. Forget I said anything.