Rosetta Stone and the final countdown

I am somewhat scattered as of late. With 2 weeks (omg!) left until I leave the country for a year, I am constantly going over the lists that I've made in my head and on paper to make sure that I have taken care of everything that I need to take care of in this process of packing and readying myself. I pretty much know what I'm taking with me and I don't have many purchases of things I need left to make. Now I am just waiting for everything to be delivered and for the last couple of days to start fitting it all in.

In less than 2 days I will be traveling for the next week. I'll be stopping in Nashville for several days with a side trip to Clarksville to see a friend perform and then I'll be heading to Atlanta to visit my sister, one of my best friends from college and hopefully another good friend from college who will be in town for work. As excited as I am for that trip and all the special memories that I'm sure it will hold for me, part of me is just ready to pack and get on with this adventure so I can quite analyzing and obsessing about packing and organizing for it. (Even now I am breaking to revise my list of things to do/stuff to get). I feel as though the phrase "hurry up and wait" would apply to my life at this time.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been attempting to learn some Japanese with the help of Rosetta Stone. Santa Clause was good to me this year and delivered that to me and I am really enjoying it. Japanese, as you might imagine, is probably not one of the easiest languages for a Westerner to learn considering you are dealing with characters that represent syllables and sounds rather than the familiar Roman alphabet that we are accustomed to. Even so, in the two and a half weeks that I've been doing my lessons, I definitely feel like I'm learning the language and retaining a good bit of it. (If you want to learn how the software works, keep reading. If you'd like a summary of my thoughts on it, skip to the penultimate paragraph in this post. Happy reading!)

They say that Rosetta Stone is like learning your first language and it really is. As a child we are asked questions and given statements - simple statements - all the time. Usually a visual goes along with it. We point to something and say "this is ___." Or "that___ is blue." Rosetta Stone is like that in that there is no translation involved. You don't have a list of vocabulary to learn and instructions on how their grammar works in English. You have statements and pictures to go along with the statements and you have to match them. You learn to read the characters, you learn to listen, and you learn to speak and pronounce everything correctly. At the end of each unit, there is a "milestone" test to see how much you retain and can actively use. This part always stresses me out because as much as I learn from the lessons and can understand what's being said to me, supplying the appropriate statement within a conversation in the milestone is difficult for me. They give you a series of pictures that tell a story and within that story a conversation takes place between you and the people in the pictures and you have to supply the appropriate words and phrases. Not easy.

Other features that Rosetta has (some that I have explored and some that I haven't) are stories and games in the native language. The stories are only unlocked after you've completed a unit and you can read them on your own, listen to them, or read and listen at the same time. For Japanese, right now there are only 3 games available. The one that is the most useful for me is the "bingo" one. They give you a bingo card and you have to listen to someone speaking and telling a story in the native language. You pick out the words that they've said on your card and when you get 4 or 5 in a row (depending on how big the card is) you win. They then tally up all the word that they've said. If some of the words they said were on the card but you didn't get them, they show up in red. Then you know which words and sounds you are not quite as familiar with.

Finally, there is a tutor session that you can do at the end of each unit. You sign up for a time and you meet, live (in real-time that is), with a real person who natively speaks the language that you are learning. You get 50 minutes with them and they tutor you and help in your understanding of the language. This is something that I haven't taken advantage of yet, but will in the near future, and when I do, I'll let you know how it goes.

All in all, I think Rosetta Stone is a great product. It beats sitting in a class and memorizing words and rules. If you've studied a foreign language before and know the basics of grammar in any language other than English, I think it's possible to learn any language with Rosetta Stone. It can be quite an investment...especially if you get one of the more common languages and you are interested in purchasing all 5 levels (each level having 4 units and each unit having 4 lessons that build on each other). If you are an avid traveler, have the opportunity to go live in a foreign country for a month or more, or simply want to learn a foreign language really bad (and can stick with it) it would definitely be something to consider investing in. If you are traveling around for just a couple of weeks in a foreign country, it would be easier and a better financial option to pick up a phrase book and learn a few key things to say to be polite - most people in this world speak passable English.

I think that's all for now. I'm going to go through my lists one more time before I take a break from the organizing process and watch a movie...perhaps the Black Bear Jamboree 2010 bloopers :) or maybe I should read one of the unfinished books on my bedside table. Hmmm...decisions, decisions.

Funny Thing, Time.

I am amazed at how juxtaposing time can be. On one hand, I can feel like it moves so slowly; I sometimes feel as though it inches along and that I've been in one place for ages. On the other hand, there are times that the days seem a blur and I am surprised to look back on an event and realize how long ago it occurred. For example, I have been in Lexington merely two weeks almost to the day and even that has been divided by two brief trips to Nashville and yet my days are so colored with the same things that I feel like I've been here long enough - especially to not have but a handful of friends to spend my time with (time that is so short with them because they have normal people jobs and have families to go home to at night). Now, mom's cooking and time with the parents are great, but even then, I would rather be out doing something in the evening than sitting in the house - especially when I've been around the house most of the day. I suppose the simple solution to this is to get out of the house during the day so that I'm not tired of it by the evening. Well, I do usually get out for a bit, but there is only so much one can do in Lexington when you are not trying to spend much if any money and there is no one to do it with. I keep busy though, which is good.

What makes time seem like it moves quickly though are the more memorable events that have taken place in the past 3 or 4 months that have made time feel very quick and compressed. The exciting news for this year is that, even though I got laid off from my gig in Pigeon Forge 2 weeks early, I have work lined up for the next year! Not only do I get a change of job, but I get a HUGE change of scenery! A change that I've been praying and hoping for over a year now. In September I took a vacation to New York to audition, see friends, and generally get away from work and Pigeon Forge. I went to the Tokyo Disney audition (for the 3rd time) prepared for what they asked for in the detailed break-down of the job description. I was the 1st to audition and when I finished singing all I got was "thank you." No callback or anything! I was disappointed, not because I thought I deserved a callback, but because every other time I had auditioned I had been called back. Well, the day didn't seem to be off to the best start, but I also had the Universal Studios Osaka (that's in Japan, too) audition in the afternoon. I went back to the apartment and freshened up and changed into something a little more "me." I went to the audition and nailed it. I made it through the whole day! I felt really good about it, but even making it through the day, though promising, is no guarantee of a job. I waited and did some other auditions. Even had a cruise gig in the works, but finally on December 8th, I received a call offering me the gig in Japan. I was ecstatic! (and took it, obviously). So with communicating with them and getting everything taken care of for the job, preparing to pack, wrapping things up and moving from Pigeon Forge to Lexington, all mixed in with the holidays, the past month and a half has FLOWN by.

Amidst all of this business and finally getting some true rest from working, I have found it very difficult to focus on doing one thing - i.e. writing in this blog. Whether it be lack of focus, motivation, or material I just can't seem to find anything worth blogging about at the moment. That will very shortly change as, for the next year, I intend to communicate and share my experiences in the "far east" mainly via this blog. All of my updates, some pictures, hopefully videos, and even day to day occurrences will appear on here. I'm stoked to have the opportunity to travel again to far off places and have completely new experiences. I have no idea what the next year is going to be like, but at the end of it all I hope to have a decent grasp on the Japanese culture and have shared enough of it with you all to make it seem more familiar than foreign. That's all for now, stay tuned though. Shortly I will be adding my first Japanese related post - learning the language (and possibly a plug for Rosetta Stone.) Sayounara!

Long time gone...

It has been quite some time since I wrote on my blog! I did begin an all things Pigeon Forge blog one day but ran out of time and so that has fallen by the wayside. I think at this point, I will just say that Pigeon Forge can be interesting and fun, but you have to look for it and make it happen. Otherwise, if you aren't a hillbilly, everything will seem either dated, or uber cheesy.

In other news, I am enjoying unemployment at the moment. I haven't run out of things to do yet around the house and I haven't even begun to see people besides the parentals and a few church folk at the ROC (church gym). Also, in a matter of one month, I will be embarking on a year long journey in which I get to live and work in Osaka, Japan! In preparation, I am avoiding noodles and sushi since I am pretty sure I will get my fill over there. I am also using Rosetta Stone to gain some knowledge of the Japanese language. I think it will help, but that remains to be seen yet. I'll update on that later!

Cheers - look forward to many more updates as I begin some new adventures

Sayounara!