Another language? OK!

OK, so I am here, in 2006, and I have begun the lengthy process of learning another language. I find myself drawn to languages. I have studied only one in depth, Spanish, and took about one and a half quarters of German in college. Now it's Japanese, and I am currently using a book to learn Kanji, the written symbols. I also like to explore languages wherever I travel. I love traveling immersion style, with no guide, relying solely on feet, dead reconing, and a piercing attitude to get by. When we went to Europe for our honeymoon we learned a lot of Italian, and then adjusted to the Spanish style of speaking...well...Spanish; I guess I really learned Mexican in school? What we didn't learn was French. WHY? No, it's not because I hate the F*ing frogs, it's because we didn't have to. Nearly everyone there, save for one older couple on the train to Versailles, spoke lots of English. Screw that! I want to learn French! Well, not so much right now, but you see where I am going. When I travel I find one of the best parts is the exercise of integrating with the environment. The challenge of stepping into the socks, shoes, pants, shirts, and hats of another is wonderful. Damn, I forgot to put on my underwear again. Oh well. And the goal of true integration, true communication, is the root of understanding. Otherwise I'd be on a tour bus going, "OOOH, look at all the pretty buildings...Where's my McDeadCow on a stick?".
When traveling I genuinely try to become as one from that region. I watch and learn from the people around me. Try it this weekend. Dress just a little differently than usual to get you in the mood, go to a cafe, and pretend you are from another place, perhaps another time. Trust your imagination to guide you. Let the anthropologist in you brush the dirt off of your own relics. Walk in and have a seat. See what others are doing and mimic them. Go to the man behind the counter and order something someone else has ordered, perhaps in the same way that you watched and heard it being ordered. A cup of coffee? Watch someone pour their cup from the pot, and follow them, doing it yourself. The action is not as important as the impression you get from actively participating in learning. Language, art, science, ordering coffee...it's all the same. Open yourself up to the learning around you at every moment, and your thoughts will become deeper, your knowledge more sound, your vision more perceptive; you will start thinking with complexity, acting with intention, and you will find yourself reaching.
As a favorite singer of ours says, "Shake off the dust and arise"-Matisyahu

Here's my "Kanji of the Day" : wazawai



This Kanji, like many, is a combination of characters, a complex word in our parlance. The top character with three kinked vertical lines is a radical for river:


The bottom character is the character for fire:


The interesting thing about Kanji, for me, is that many of the charaters are representations of real world happenings. One can see where fire meets water there is surely some type of calamity going on. Perhaps a lavaflow? A fire burning through the city that is being put out? There is imagination here.

According to another website: Each year, there is a public survey asking Japanese residents what they think is the one kanji (word or concept) that best sums up the year. The kanji for 2004 is wazawai, meaning calamity. There was a large earthquake that killed 200 people in Niigata in October, as well as many more typhoons and supertyphoons than usual this year.