paying money to feel dumb
Already : Hatachi Archives
paying money to feel dumb Tuesday April 27
listening: candlebox - far behind
reading: everyone's away message
feeling: far behind
riho and i have been writing letters back and forth every now and then for the last two years. she's one of the old modus vivendi crew that i worked with in new york. and she's hella cool.
(oh, and mike, she told me mami-san kekkon shita... go figure. demo, mada kodomo ga inai. anyway. i apologize for the japanese digression.)
riho doesn't have real e-mail; she's only got e-mail on her cell phone. as a result, i have to send these short two-line messages that don't really get me anywhere. and while writing japanese may get me somewhere, my speaking and listening is far behind. you know, like the candlebox song. but i digress.
thus, i asked for her number over e-mail and told her i'd call her sometime, and that's exactly what i did tonight. we talked for about 20 minutes about various things, mostly about me because it's easier for me to practice speaking spontaneously than listening. especially on the telephone. but it was a good and bad conversation: good, i'm trying to maintain a friendship; good, i was practicing my spoken japanese, which i never do; bad, i should be way better than i am despite her chiming in telling me that i've improved.
but i figured that if i have one 30-minute conversation once a week or so with her, i'll get way better and more comfortable at speaking. more importantly, imagine if i had such a conversation every day. man, now i'm getting greedy. but this is an opportunity japan can afford me. i'll get there eventually.
