Japanese Students Fun & Easy Study Material

I have been studying Japanese for three years now; I was one semester abroad in Tokyo. But as all language learners know one must continually study and never lose heart in the face of the everlasting and ever-growing material to learn. For Japanese learners, Kanji is widely acknowledged as the most difficult of all to fully handle or approach. For that learnthekanji.com is an excellent tool and user-friendly. Next, what to do about applying those new tools of understanding and learning in grammar, vocabulary, and kanji. I have found that reading blogs of my favorite Japanese bands can be fun and very educational. If one writes a list of every new word or kanji one comes across in the daily blog then studies them as they move along, your vocabulary and kanji understanding will quickly progress. If you love MONO and POLYSICS as much as i do, then read these blogs, “Taka” from MONO’s Long Air Home or POLYSICS’s Dekikana.  But just google your Japanese favorite band’s then search through their website for a link to a blog almost all bands have one nowadays.

ENJOY!

Poetry Submission

Regrettably as I progressed through college i became more and more intellectually cynical and insular. Casting judgments towards all that I only wish I could partake in, although sometimes rightly so in the case of last years ACUMEN. I cynically declined involvement in newspaper, literary magazines, and creative writing classes; all the while complaining of my inability to take them and blaming my institution for their lack of consideration for my myriad of interests.

But I have since begun to pull myself our of this self-imposed inadequacy and despondency.

Here is the poem. I wrote last week, polished today, and address the general Austin College community as my homage to the autumnal campus life.

Autumnal Mist

A deep, thick fog shrouds us in gloom

Heavy, as the purple melancholy stifles the moon

No light pierces the thickness,

Instead diffused to an eerie glow,

Disarmed of power, transmuted to doom.

The lone, wail of a distant train

Persistently grows louder

Then suddenly fades, and returns.

Inert, as the burial shroud envelops all

The man-fashioned tombs as buildings.

The steeple, a sepulcher, thrusts the cross

Into an acrid sky, cleaved by an unnatural glare

From a floodlight, between the graveyard gloom

And the purple melancholic tomb.

The fog slows all to a slumbering, half-wakeful droll.

Lethargic glooms entombs us in doom.

As if each breathe inhales an opiate smoke,

Whose tendrils clinging, stinging, binding, winding

Around us in us through us, returning to sod.

With bated breathe never strengthening,

Thick, and moist, evinces its sloth

Under which I can only wince

In dull lethargy, sinking gloom.

No sun finds me in this tomb.

My eyes become aglaze

Transfixed in this eerie haze;

I feel the mortal slumber.

(Oct. 2009)

“Nationalist Church” – My 1st article in Austin College newspaper

Here is the full body of my piece as it appeared on September 17, 2009 in the Austin College newspaper, The Observer.

This past weekend, as I sat enjoying the beautiful voices of four classically trained tenors from the Philippines in Dallas at the Faith United Methodist Church, I could not but stare in discontent and anguish at the conspicuously-placed oversized American flag. The Methodist flag, standing next to it, dwarfed, like a necessary adjunct. Christianity in America has been hijacked, or rather developed into a subservient tool of politicians to garner votes, and widen support. To whom do Christians owe their allegiance? The answer is simple. Christ alone. Our kingdom is not of this world of nations, presidents, and political parties but of heaven, the kingdom of God, from whence our hopes and dreams must originate. Too long we have looked to the “great American nation”, advertised as “God’s Land” to solve all our problems. Easily becoming fodder for arrogance, exceptionalism, and militarism. Much of America’s folly can be traced to us Christians, harboring self-righteousness, which, when converted into political capital becomes a deeply dogmatic and irreversible arrogance. War and the teachings of Christ are mutually exclusive, but sadly so often intertwined. His teachings reduced to a pedagogical tool devoid of its true power. Followers of Christ have forgotten that love is kind, peaceful, noble, and self-sacrificial, not fearful, pre-emptive, and nationalistic.

“Islamofascism”, the favorite buzz word of the religious right, heralds the new dawn of religiously-based anti-religious actions. We have put our faith not in God and his redemptive power but paradoxically the “redeeming power” of our wealth and weapons. Salvation cannot spring from bullets. If all non-christians are going to hell, then how can we presume the right to send them there? Where is our mercy, our true call of duty to God’s redeeming power? How many Christians must murder in unjust wars before we wake up and smell the sulfur? How can we advocate war and pro-life simultaneously? How can we encourage enlisting when Christ enlisted us to glorify him, not the state? Christ demonstrated a revolutionary spirit of service, love, and grace. He even sacrificed himself to the arms of the Roman tyranny and hateful, envious Pharisees. Blood flowing, humiliated, mutilated, Jesus forgave his murderers in his last breath. How magnificent! How revolutionary!

We make millions while the impoverished go hungry, destitute, broken, sick, and alone. Did not Christ exclaim that to clothe and feed the least of these was to clothe Him and feed Him as well? Hiding behind a debunked economic theory, we rationalize our greed and apathy towards the least of us. But no longer!

A Compilation of News & Polls Verifying Americans want a Public Option

Recently, my friend told me that he had read that most Americans don’t want a public option so I am here compiling a list of all the websites that say that a large majority of Americans want a public option from many different websites, and media sources.

CBS, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, The Washington Independent, Employee Benefit Research Institute, Verdict (siting CBS poll), FiveThirtyEight… That’s all for now. But seriously google it for yourself… or click here.

P.S. I just had epiphany. Many conservatives from neo-con to libertarian will say that the government will always run things inefficiently and unsuccessfully in comparison to the great and always efficient private system. Well, if one holds this belief one cannot support that belief that a public option (intrinsically inefficient) will push the private (superiorlyefficient) out of business effectively making America a one payer system. Also, the very idea that one can hold these two opposing beliefs represents the desire by the Republican Party, as demonstrated by memos, that they want they NEED to shut down this plan or they will be the big losers when finally the people win and the corporations lose. Becausethis would conceivably put them in big trouble at the elections.

Breaking the Silence – Of Israeli Governmental Lies about Operation Cast Lead

Sojourners recently directed me to this wonderful site that has testimonials from Israeli soldiers who are coming out of the woodwork to expose the explicitly inhumane, unlawful laws and treatment of the Gaza Palestinians during the Operation Cast Lead in January of this year. I would suggest reading the testimonial sections entitled “A scream as i will never forget as long as i live”, “shoot if you like”, and “later  you discover people” in the Rules of Engagement section. Very informative and important for Israeli americans and americans in general as one must always stay informed so to be a true participator in what America prides itself in – “democracy”.

Walter Cronkite – A Journalist Unlike Any Pandering Journalist of Today

Walter Cronkite’s death, as celebrated by the big three media giants, demonstrates more about the media’s blatant disregard for truth and government patsy-ism. Walter Cronkite did what many media “celebrities” would never even think about doing directly contradicting the lies and half-truths propagated  by the government. Glenn Greenwald writing for The Nation and Salon explicates the status of America’s current journalism or lack thereof. His article can be found here.

Christians For Comprehensive Immigration Reform

The time for Christians to invade the contentious, often demagogically hateful arguments, that define the immigration debate is long over due. The Sojourners organization of Christian journalists, social and political activists, and preachers, dedicated to presenting materials to the Christian population in America so that we can make intelligent Biblically-based decisions politically and socially, recently opened an online community resource center. The organization expresses its vision of immigration reform on a set of key virtues derived from Scripture: every human being is made in the imago Dei (image of God) regardless of national origin, families are a key element to healthy society and should never be forcefully divided or unnecessarily divided for excessive lengths of time, and our neighbors must be treated with compassion and love.

These virtues can be more succinctly found here.

Thus they support reform bills such as DREAM Act, AgJOBS, family immigration-related reform.

Before the meat of these reforms are explicated here. Christians MUST take a Biblically-informed strong voice about this reform issue.  We must not let ourselves be controlled by the irrational, unfounded, fearmongering arguments spread by demagogical voices such as FOX’s Hannity and O’Reilly, or CNN’s Lou Dobbs and similarly venomous voices on the radio. We MUST inform our Christian brethren and sistren with LOVE that the bigotry and unfounded point of views they may hold do not align with anything in the Bible. I encourage small groups to use the resources presented so that real discussion and hopefully activism can be achieved.

DREAM Act represents a reform to allow citizenship to the thousands (c. 65,000) of undocumented students whose dreams of access to higher education are shattered by the difficulty placed on them to become citizens. DREAM Act stands for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors.

AgJOBS seeks to reform the migrant worker, and temporary agricultural immigrant workers status, whose basic human rights and access to protection from abusive work and pay situations are protected by a broken immigration system without the laws to protect them. The status quo is thus:

“Because their working conditions are often poor and they are discriminated against in our labor laws, many farmworkers leave agriculture when they have the opportunity to do so.  This instability causes constant demand for new migrant workers from abroad and public policies to facilitate migration.  Agribusiness and other employers have succeeded in preventing meaningful labor law enforcement or immigration law enforcement in the workplace.”

Therefore the bill proposes that providing more access to citizenship and stronger law enforcement to protect these workers from the myriad kinds of abuses levied by the agriculture companies. It states, “The ability to legalize immigration status is key to enabling farmworkers to come out of the shadows and to bargain for better working and living conditions. “

More information can be found here:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s729/show

http://www.fwjustice.org/Immigration_Labor/AgJOBS_Info.htm

http://www.equaljusticecenter.org/new_page_46.htm

Stuff White People Like—->Irony Gone Wrong

Often i had heard about this book, and i finally visited the website after perusing the book at Border’s with my girlfriend. I could not stop it from coming back to mind as the day moved on. So here is my email to the blogger.

Hello,
I have read sections of your book, sometimes laughed, sometimes frowned, and many times wondered what you, the author, could be trying to achieve with this often misdirected, under-supported, or misleading (and maybe even racist) statements. I have been pondering what could be your purpose and also it made me think about what is appropriate when it comes to racial comedy, that is what is racist, who is the speaker, is it irony, satire etc.
Particularly, though i would love to hear your thoughts, purposes, goals in your blog and book. First of all unlike many of the other sections of your blog and book that i have read (granted i have really only a small amount of the total 150) this post about Asian girls bleeds the line of racial commentary. Mostly you spread racist or mean or prejudiced or unkind and unfounded stereotypes of Asian women not white people or white men. 6 out of the 11 sentences in that section are stereotypes about Asian women not white people; I find that highly problematic, because not only are you straying from your proposed field or discussion but to many from that which is safe ground as a (hopefully ironic) white racial stereotype categorist/blogger.

For example

“Asian girls often to do this to get back at their strict traditional fathers. There is also the option of dating black guys, but they know deep down that this would give their non-english speaking grandmother(s) a heart attack.”
This absurd statement assert that all non-english speaking Asians are racists because the very thought of black man with their daughter can only result in death. That is a pretty bold statement about all Asians.

“Asian women well into their 30s and 40s retain teen / college girl looks without the help of botox, yoga or a trendy diet (future posts).”
Can’t possibly that they may naturally age better.

“Asian women also avoid key white women characteristics such as having a mid life crisis, divorce, and hobbies that don’t involve taking care of the children (also future posts).”
The submissive and easily controlled Asian women stereotype.

“Should white guy / asian girl marry, they produce hybrids that are atheistically pleasing, but are very annoying.”
Why may i ask are they annoying? Now i don’t think the use of “hybrid” is a very kind term. They are people, not cars, metals, animals, or electronics. Also this is only aminor alternative from the traditionally offensive and negative slur “halfbreed” (used below by the racist commentor “Ted”).

“This practice is also a means by which white people can catch up to the asian peoples in the population race, as most of the hybrids often act white rather than asian.”
This is a sad reality for many people that has more causes that you give notice to, and therefore becomes an very hurtful statement toward anyone in an interracial relationship or marriage with an Asian American or Asian living in America.

Also, i would like to comment on this passage of #11 Asian girls.
“(White girls never go for asian guys. Bruce Lee and Paul Kariya’s dad are the only recorded instances in modern history).” Completely untrue and unfounded. Look here

The post has become a ground for many racist’s to spread their hate. An exemplary example

Ted on June 20, 2009 at 6:54 am

After reading the “atheistically (sic) pleasing” comment, I decided to do some research to see if Asian/While halfbreeds are actually more attractive that pure white people.

Several of the online dating sites let you select a race/ethnicity to browse from, and a few of these include a “mixed” category. The “mixed” are mostly Black/White (dad was black, mom was a dumpy-looking white fatass), but there are also several that are Asian/White (dad was a dateless white loser, mom was an Asian seeking a greencard).

My findings:

1. Halfbreeds are NOT more attractive than pure white people. They are actually kind of weird looking.

2. Halfbreeds have dark hair and dark eyes. Sorry Asian women. Hate to ruin your bizarre breeding experiment, but your kids will still look like Gooks.

3. The online-dating Halfbreed population is FILLED with TRANNIES. Apparently, the combination of having two weirdo parents plus the identity confusion associated with being mixed actually causes you to want to have your inadequately-sized penis surgically removed. Halfbreeds are incredibly fucked up mentally, with double the rate of mental illness of pure whites/pure Asians.

In light of the unfortunate reality for satirists and irony enthusiasts many do not or cannot understand the literary device. Instead of laughing because they see through it and thus recognize (what i percieve may be your aim) the absurdity and untenability of their racist stereotypes, they filter the satire or irony through their own political, religious, racist, or other lense and come up with something completely different. Like ted or the many conservatives who thought The Colbert Report really was a conservative news comedy show. Thus, i think the best option is to stay away from producing blogs or sections like “#11 Asian girls” where you use irony(hopefully) about Asian women stereotypes because as a white male and one whose proposed concept is surrounding stereotyping white people you stand shaky ground that easily falls into racist or offensive speech about Asians. Also it apparently encourages racists to post their own hurtful, degrading, and outright racist screeds in the comments.
Please help curb racism, not encourage it! Be a little more careful concerning your content and how it may be recieved. Thank you!
Sincerely
Nick

A Opportunity Lost, A Memory Gained

I exited the Makuhari-hongo station on the Keisei line near my university, aptly named Kanda Foreign Language University; a moments glance at the gloomy grey sky reminded me of my gratitude to my hostmother’s entreaties to take my umbrella along. My kasa is one of those ingeniously clear umbrellas that allow the user to know where they are proceeding as even when going directly against the wind and rain. Usually i do not take this line or this walk to my university but as i begin to walk and look around me i realize i am surrounded by my fellow Kanda peers. They laugh and joke. Many on bicycles that after some coaxing they allow some of their friends to ride on the back of, like kids too big for their tricycle anymore but clinging to the joy of riding it. Nearing the college campus now, the crowds have thinned out. I don’t perceive anyone is around me until all of the sudden the sky opens up. It’s a sudden deluge. Quickly i open my umbrella and look around. Just ahead of me is another college student, a petite girl, trying futilely to cover her head with her hand and run toward the campus still a 5 minute walk away. “Hopeless” I think as i begin to gain the courage to run upto her and shield her. Before i know it i am there; and suddenly realizing that the rain is not pelting her mercilessly, she looks up at me.

I quickly say, “Are you a Kanda student?”

“Yes!” she says.

“I am too. We can go together.”

We begin talking, but the details are lost in the fog of time in my mind. At one point i tell her that i helped her because i believe in the “ichinichi ichizen” Japanese buddhist philosophy that means “One day One good deed”. She says that helping her is like three good deeds not one. I laugh but my inability to speak Japanese well, as i have only been in the country for less than a month, restricts me and i don’t reply. She tells me her name earlier. Feeling awkward in the throes of a balancing act – coming up with a question then translating it as quickly as possible – we walk in silence mostly. Soon the moment is already gone. She runs off to class, as i say goodbye. It hits me. I did not tell her my name!

Right time. Right place. Right conditions. A delightful opportunity blossomed into a joy-giving memory of helping others, visibly in need to which I held the resources to satisfying. Invigorating, the moment draws me back, the nostalgia enticing me to repeat that moment.

Helmets! They are cool!

Recently, on June 3 2009, I, Nicholas Ammon, received my first concussion in the fray of the thrice weekly skate  affair. I can say that, though the trick was simple, the execution, excluding the painful and illuminating fall, was fantastic. A high and fast ollie soared me over the top of the fun box but as i was nervous while in flight i sought to put her down to early. Thus the board stopped instantaneously, and that callous physical force, inertia, threw me to the concrete flat, and my head made a resounding thud. I know that i did not black out but the feeling of deep pain left me with few words but darkness. Kind younger skateboarders helped me to locate my car which i could not remember where i had parked it. My board also was strangely absent; i searched i even took other kids skateboards to look at them. I was afraid. It was all a horrific, terrifyingly bad dream. My phone did not work, my car was missing, my head throbbed with the force of successive tsunamis, my skateboard was gone. Everything was a haze and my left periphery visual blurry and vague, like my recollections of the last 20 minutes.

After my parents arrived we found my car. Unbeknownst to me, i had tried to leave the skatepark right after hitting my head but could not remember it (until later). I had left then parked at the front of the park upon realizing that i could not remember the highways i must take to return home. I was frightened that all that passed and i could not recall any of it.

The only comical part in this story in hindsight is this: one nice skateboarder as “are you ok?” a stupidly comapssionate question. But i answered without a moments thought, “as long as i can still speak Japanese then i will be okay.” This demonstrates the reason for which i will now wear a helmet in dangerous situations from now on. The importance of my mind to my passions, hopes, and dreams became profoundly evident as i stared about in darkness and confusion after my concussion. Nothing is more important to me than my brain.

Also, the entreaties from friends, family, and my girlfriend to wear a helmet combined with the last two days of constant throbbing headaches every minute of the day are enough to make anyone think thrice about not wearing helmet in tense situations as i was in.

Wear your helmet in the Bowl kids (at least)!!