Inside-out

This week I did a little presentation on the complexities of Japanese grammar, specifically subordination. Subordination for those wondering is when we combine two ideas, two sentences with one being what is going on and the other giving some kind of reference like, "The kid who is hugging the dog is my neighbor." The independent part is "The kid is my neighbor" and the supordinate part is "who is hugging the dog." I've discovered that this is the inside-outness that I felt was a part of going from English to Japanese. This represents the main difficulties in translation for me, as well and when my sentences even if correct in vocabulary, seem to be funny and non-native like, this is a major part of the problem. I've been putting together a plan to remedy this. I will work on a study plan for grammar and see if I can't discover some things about independent study in my native country and grammar forms. I intend to do a lot more writing and reading of Japanese and see if I don't have a heightened sense of how the grammar is put together. I'm excited to begin. I wrote a little about grammar translation methods and how they seem not to facillitate communication in the target language very well, but there might be some merit to studying grammar through reading a little more indirectly. That's all for tonight.