Infinitesimal Progress

… is progress nevertheless.

Yes, the sixth book in the Triple Threat Investigation Agency is close to complete (maybe another month with rewrites/editing).  Then, I’ll be posting about Mo-Mo’s Dead and so is Disco till you beg for mercy. 

But that’s not the progress I’m excited about (well, not as much).  It’s been a year since I started studying Japanese!  I can read Hiragana and Katakana now.  Granted, I may not necessarily know what’s being written—someone could be calling me some rather unpleasant name—but damn!  I can read it!

I’d never have thought I’d get that far.  It’s a challenge to be sure, because Japanese has three—count ‘em—three alphabets.  Now, the Kanji, well, that’s going to take some mastering.  But I figure if I’ve gotten this far, where I excitedly read names of Japanese restaurants and stores as I saunter past and give myself a thumb’s up for being able to do so—then I can go, progress, even further!

In English, it’s subject – verb – object.  In Japanese, it’s subject – object – verb. I’m slow in class.  I need to digest information . . . wrap my head around the fact the verb comes at the end (that, in essence, a sentence is reversed).  I’m going to the park. = To the park, I am going.  These are manageable.  It’s when you get to the complicated statements.  What particle do I use?  Preposition?  What’s the polite way to ask or say something?  The casual way?  What do you mean “wa” is “ha” and “wo” is “o”, and . . . ?!  And the fact that Japanese only has past and present tense should make it easier.  Should.

But it’s all good.  I love challenges, and this one’s perhaps the biggest, most trying one yet. But I’m going to master it.  It may take me a decade, but who’s in a rush? 

Infinitesimal progress … is progress, nevertheless.