#this was a very entertaining song to learn. not a LOT of vocab but very soothing to practice | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

the---hermit · 1 year ago

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hello cris! i would love to ask as someone who is currently learning a language (i'm currently trying to learn italian again for the nth time) what are your favorite techniques when it comes to learning a language? i've been trying to study italian for two years now but i always end up giving up immediately 😭🫶🏻

Hello anon!

Firstly I had a vague memory of talking about this before and I checked my masterlist so in case you want to read more here is another similar ask I answered to a while back and here an ask in which I meanioned a few italian fiction books for people who are learning. I'll be honest I did not reread those and I don't remember what I wrote lmao. But you have some more reading to do after this just in case!

At the moment the main language I am very slowly trying to learn is Irish. But I will be honest it's more a free time hobby than actual studying. In the sense that I don't have a schedule for it and I have ups and downs in which I am able to focus a bit more, and times like the past few months in which my energy is nowhere to be found so I do very little progress. The main way I am dping this is with duolingo, which I feel is a great way to start and to keep a tiny bit of practice in your everyday life which is fundamental. Of course if you want to have more progress I would suggest coming up with a more structured study plan and schedule, but I'll talk about it in a bit. The other thing I am implementing is a grammar book that of course is what requires more mental energy. My technique with that is, as everything I study, to read it, underline important things and write my own set of notes. That is because I know it is my main way of learning in general.

And with this we come to a important point, before getting into learning anything try to figure out what are the ways you learn things best. Everyone's brain works differently, I personally have awful memory and my brain works way better using logic (which is why the way duolingo is structured works wonders for me, because it forces me to learn grammar rules with logic and it repeats vocabulary so much that even I end up memorizing it). Writing notes down, even several times, is my go to way of learning in general so of course I focus a lot on that. Clearly with learning a language you also need to implement a lot of practice, which is way I recommend trying out a well made plan. This doesn't mean create insane goals that will make you feel overwhelmed. Instead create a low effort plan in which you regularly do a bit of everything:

Learn vocab and practice it

Learn new grammar rule and practice them

Work on booktext esercises

Active learning with a book

Active learning with a video

These are just some ideas. When I self studied english what really made me learn the language was active learning by immersing myself with the language. That forces you to learn. Watch youtube videos in italian (I am pretty sure there's some people who make specific videos for language learnera in which they speak slowly and focus on certain vocab, so I highly recommend those, but when you feel more comfortable with the language go for pure entertainment, that will have you learn actual spoken Italian which is of course different from textbooks). Approach the language with written texts with either children's books or those novels simplified for language learning (those are great because you often get exercises to practice how much you understood of the story).

I know I have probably mentioned it before, but the first way I got into self studying English when I was younger was by writing down lyrics to my favourite album. I think I have it lying around still, a notebook filled with the lyrics to all the songs from Imaginaerum by Nightwish next to the translations. Listening to music in your target language is such a good trick imo. Take my brother, the guy does not speak one word on English but he knows by heart all the lyrics to Iron Maiden songs all.of.them. he never really had to practice English but if he had to I would suggest he started there. The more you get your target language into your daily life the better it is, and I don't mean just learning from books. Force yourself to describe the room you are in in your target language, write about your days in a diary and do that in your target language. When you are waiting in line list all the words that come up to you in your target language. It's hard at first, of course it is, but with time it gets easier and easier. The final goal is to be able to think in your target language, even if the grammar isn't perfect and it takes a long time to remember the correct words.

Think of yourself as a young child. They are learning languages like you, starting from zero, so focus on things that are for them, books and movies. You cannot expect to learn a language like a native speaker of your age right away, they have years of experience speaking it. If you instead think of yourself as a kid you will approach things that are at your current level, and after you can move on from there.

I think the goal is to make a plan and to fit even the tiniest bit of language learning into your everyday life. The progress might be slow but you are training your brain anyway. When you see something isn't working change it up, give yourself reachable goals, and keep it fun.

I hope this was somewhat helpful! If you have any other questioms my inbox is always open. Buona fortuna!

#ask #asked #asks #answered #language learning #langblr #studying #studyblr #study tips #learning tips #cris speaks #mine #the---hermit #anon

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fluffyseal322 · 3 months ago

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my thoughts on "All about lily chou-chou"

I first listened to lily chouchou when trishie sent this to me and ever since i have been in love with some of her songs and other artists like hers. One significant artist I like is Ichiko Aoba. I envision some of my favorite music to portray something Kahono would sing in Black Clover. I fell in love with that character the first moment I saw her.

I discovered that lily chou-chou wasn't just music but she had a movie built around her music and it gave very significant meaning to the soul. The movie talks about the ether a lot in which I did not understand at all in the beginning. I watched the movie for the first time and I did not at all understand a lot of it and I was extremely lost but I was extremely drawn into it. I wanted to immensely understand it. Currently i've been really invested in understanding something beyond the human vessel and discover the depths of the immeasurable soul. It's all so confusing and so much of these experiences I can't put into words... So I am learning to expand my vocab knowledge and hopefully I will find it easier to explain something that requires deeper meaning, hence the drive to learn weighty words.

Watching all about lily chou chou is good for me because I am also interested in learning Japanese so this will be a movie I'd like to watch over and over again until I am able to understand japanese and feel I would come back to this movie in the future and hopefully understand it in a different culture maybe? Anyways, the reason why I like it so much is because even though theres very dark scenes it somehow found beauty in the darkness. I love entertainment like that. It just feels so realistic and romanticizing how life really is. It helps me relate because I deem the world to be highly difficult yet so beautiful and its like, you get what you deserve. How difficult life seems is eventually what life will reward you for with patience. I am proud of every human on earth for being alive today and as much as it's said, I've never really felt it's true meaning until writing about it in this very moment. The movie shows portrays it's energies and mood very well with the colors, the way the camera moves, music tells you a lot and in this movie, instead of it just being some background noise, it uses music as an expression just as realistically humans do. You can tell a lot from a person just by observing what music they've been playing lately. I'd very much recommend this movie and if I were to briefly explain it to another being i'd say:

" the movie will teach you something very important beyond just the human mind and heart. The heart and the brain is already very hard to understand and can be explained by just using todays technology and science... but not the soul. The vagueness of the soul is far more complex than the mind, body, and heart. It realistically portrays a human's personal ether and how it has come to build. I've only watched this once but I'm sure there's way more things I've missed so this is a movie you'd have to watch a couple times to see the bigger meaning. "

Thats it for now... until then "All about lily chou chou", I hope this movie will help me get a better understanding of the book I am currently reading about the soul. ("Soulmates: Honoring the mysteries of love and relationship" by author Thomas Moore) And it is quite the confusing book that I do not want to give up on. Lord please feed me the knowledge to understand the book better and the strength to keep reading it.

૮ ฅ• ﻌ -ฅ ა Signing off on my laptop... see you later Fuwa :3

#namientertain

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kyoshalearns · 1 year ago

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Remixing My Language Learning Journey: Crafting a Unique Path Through Japanese Rap

Turning Language Learning into a Personalized Musical Experience

I have so much to write about and I'm really behind but I'm getting back on track. I want to write about my first trip to Japan, some new studying techniques, learning breakthroughs, linguistics research, tasty new Japanese food including more RAMEN…all in due time. First though I want to talk about music.

Music is an excellent tool for language learners to take advantage of because it can provide you with entertaining and compelling input at a high volume. You may have a tv show or movie you like, or even a book or comic, but chances are you won't read that over and over to the same degree that you would listen to one of your favorite songs. So it may be the case that finding music you like in your target language is a big breakthrough, unfortunately however I personally couldn't find anything I liked for a while .

I'm a long time hip-hop fan that was born and raised in the tri-state area on the east coast, near NY. Late 90s and early 00s hip-hop forms the foundation of my music taste, so automatically, even in America I have to do a lot of digging to find the things that I like a lot. I just wasn't very successful in finding Japanese rap that really resonated with my taste. Now obviously there is the vocabulary issue so lyrics mostly won't be able to resonate with me yet, which puts a greater emphasis on beat, melody, and lyrical structuring (vocab will come later with study).

I found some OK songs here and there but for the purpose of language learning you need to like the song a lot, maybe love the song, which will motivate you to listen over and over. A regular level of "just ok" is not enough.

Then one day I got a crazy idea and I started googling. I thought "what if I could just make my own remixes?", what if I could take Japanese vocals and mix them with the kind of production that I prefer? If I could do this I would be able to make all kinds of music custom tailored to my taste that would make me want to listen over and over. Personally I have a mildly musical background and have produced music before but there were some technical hurdles I needed to cross. Thanks to recent advances in audio production tech I was able to find practical methods that allowed even an amateur like myself to operate at SOME level of functional problem solving. I'm not saying I'm churning out the most professionally scrutinized hit records, but I have some, if not rudimentary, ability to realize my ideas.

Since I had that idea, at the time of writing this, I have made close to 50 remixes and am slowly building my catalog. This has been an exciting experience for a few reasons. First I'm getting a chance to engage and learn more about music production (I can speak a lot on this, maybe another post). To add to that, I have learned a lot more about the Japanese rap scene and a lot of the rappers that populate different areas of the country. I started to develop a taste for certain styles and find myself building a much stronger relationship with the artist and music, where before there was nothing. Lastly, and most importantly, the catalog that I am building is highly entertaining to me, I want to listen to it all the time and I am able to get the kind of reps on these songs that are necessary for a language learning scenario. I use YouTube music for music streaming and have a special playlist now just for Japanese rap.

youtube

I started putting some of my remixes on YouTube. The song included in this post is featuring a rapper that I really like named Jumadiba, who has a very interesting style that I like to work with.

I think I will do some lyric breakdowns in the future because it is a process to convert these songs into comprehensive input. I basically look up the lyrics and break apart the lines into vocab, that I add to anki and review while listening and practicing. It takes time but so far its the most fun I've had learning new words and I am excited to see where this rabbit hole takes me.

#LanguageLearning #JapaneseRap #MusicRemixes #HipHopFan #CulturalExploration #PersonalizedLearning #LanguageJourney #RapRemixes #AmateurProducer #LinguisticsResearch #StudyTechniques #TumblrBlog #Youtube #learning japanese #languagelearning #learning theory #JUMADIBA

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olderthannetfic · 3 years ago

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On the whole learning Japanese bc of /with aid of entertainment media such as anime and manga

For me personally, my English skills skyrocketed when i was 13, ran out of fics in my native language to read, and started braving English fic

I didn't understand shit at first, but wanting more content about my favorite characters kept me going. Fic, too, is full of slang and grammatical differences from what's considered a standard BUT just engaging with the language on a regular basis is incredibly helpful with the learning process? I'm now majoring in English after being class best for years in highschool, and I'm still doing much better than most of the other students who engage don't engage with the language as much outside of educational stuff.

I don't think reading and watching material from your target language is really about learning grammar rules etc from it, but more so about getting a feel for the language and just... Being engaged in it? And like, slang or not but you learn a LOT of words just from reading in a language an understanding context clues or looking it up. While vocabulary isn't everything, it's definitely far easier to remember when learnt from something you enjoy (like a song or show or story) than when you've been staring at the vocab list in the back of your text book for two hours now

Side note, i never know what to tell people when they ask me why I'm fluent in English lol most people here would consider reading fanfic and engaging with English fandom a very weird reason ajsjskksks

Yeah. If you want to read fic, the best way is by... reading fic.

I think the Japanese discussions are heavily informed by the pretty common experience of new anime fans using their half-baked Japanese on people in ways that are actively rude and inappropriate. English n00bs have less of a reputation for this.

The closest equivalent I've seen is... like... rap fans trying to speak AAVE, getting it very wrong, and not understanding why this could be a sensitive topic. But even that's not exact because mainstream Japanese is not a minority dialect in its home country.

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celeryjiaozi · 3 years ago

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hello! i was wondering if u have any recs for learning mandarin? what was ur process like?

im an abc kid and growing up i picked up on some basic characters but i never went to chinese school w my friends; i’ve always responded to my parents in english and now that i’m in college and don’t hear them speak everyday, i’ve realized that i’m also starting to lose the speaking skills i had—and even a bit of my ability to understand chinese, which scares me.

i really want to start learning mandarin but every time i try it just seems so daunting to teach myself all of that info…do you have any tips? were you also self-taught?

sorry for the personal essay haha but it just really inspires me that (if i’m not mistaken? pls correct me if i am) you didn’t know how to read/write that much mandarin before but now have such command of the language :,)

hello!! thanks for such a detailed message, i love getting mail on here! i only did a year of chinese school when i was 7 but spoke mandarin to my parents growing up (albeit with really basic vocabulary limited to domestic things like what i had for lunch, what i did at school, etc) so i think we have similar starting points.

i completely understand your fear of losing linguistic skills after moving out and admire your awareness of that + desire to improve!! i think chinese can be a very daunting language because of the characters / tones / lack of similarity to any other languages you might know. but as heritage speakers i think we have a real advantage in (1) our ability to distinguish between the tones as well as (2) having a basic grasp of the grammar by virtue of listening to our parents growing up, two of the most challenging aspects of the language for non-heritage speakers.

so that means our main hurdle is just expanding vocabulary and learning the characters, which is really just a matter of memorization + usage (in sentences, in speaking). i started with HSK vocab lists and initially worked my way up to HSK5, which correlates to a B2-C1 level of fluency on the CEFR scale (i.e. can read newspapers and basic novels with help of dictionary, can compose basic emails in a professional setting etc). i recommend using a spaced repetition software like Anki (you can download publicly available HSK decks like these).

i also started listening to a lot of mandarin songs and studying their lyrics to make the learning more fun! and it was exciting to spot new characters i'd learned in song lyrics, though chinese lyrics can veer towards overly poetic/esoteric. but it's just a nice change from anki decks while still engaging with the language. i have a master playlist on spotify of my fav chinese songs that you can steal from to make your own :P

similarly a lot of chinese reality TV shows are available on youtube in full form through channels like 腾讯综艺 and some are actually pretty entertaining and a more fun way to stay engaged with the language while relaxing.

lastly and most importantly, make sentences with the new characters you learn and write journal entries etc. on apps like hellotalk so you can get corrected by native speakers. it's really important to maintain a good balance of active (speaking, writing) vs. passive (listening, reading) modes of learning. and consistency > quantity! even learning 1 new character everyday for 30 days straight is more effective than trying to memorize 30 in a week then burning out the rest of the month. keep it fun n fresh and let me know if u have any other questions!!

#answered #learning chinese

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transhermetic-witchery · 4 years ago

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Message Spent

The following is a text, a corpus, a canon. The client shall remain unnamed. Beginning Transcription in...

3...

2...

1...

Bezel. It is here, a name. A name born of the verb born of the noun which is a synonym for frame, for barrier, for boundary between symbols and the places which view them. You got that so far? Should I keep going?

There are things, shapes, which don't suffer names well, at least not for long. I met Bezel when I was visiting, playing tourist. It is not a someone, nor an object in the way a particular stone or home may bear a name to distinguish it from others of the same type or class.

A wave is a name we give an abstraction, names we place on different things to confuse ourselves between them. This confusion, surprisingly, is helpful. Not a birch, or a maple, mulberry, or pine, but a tree. Waves pass through water, through metal, and again, metals' sparks.

Why I'm hiring you to write in this particular venue, in this particular way, is so that the little ripples don't get lost just because you (or I for that matter) discard them because we don't understand how they got there. Editing is a useful habit, but not for all uses.

I will make mistakes, you will transcribe oddly or poorly, and if we leave the option open, we will fiddle and tweak and generally make a mess of things by making them legible, presentable, or perhaps acceptable.

Nuggets.

Bertrand.

Sarsaparilla.

There we go, good luck interpolating that.

Alright, time to go back and remind myself of where I was headed. You don't have to include notes like this in the text.

Actually, you know what, go ahead. Just cram it all in there. Seems fitting. Besides, I may add the caveat too late and then you couldn't oblige anyway. No need to put you in a bind like that.

Bezel, that's where I started, I'll continue with that. It's a good glossary word to start with here. Can't have a gate without a boundary, and it sure is tough to get somewhere by having already been there... or, at least tough to give directions that way.

Calling attention to disjoints, faults, gaps, and the like, that seems to be the local language. Walls are good for many things, bad at others, but often good structures on which to rest when tired.

Did you ever notice how few advocacy groups there are for gravity? Or how scant moral codes there are that forbid pickpocket the Sun? A conspicuous lack of charities collecting for the cause of keeping river rocks smooth. And I've never been yelled at for not sweating glass.

There are things that enforce themselves but do so largely unnoticed, and there ate things that enforce themselves which we fancy might do otherwise. And then there are things which we enforce which are enforced by us and need that pressure to not evaporate.

Cold water boils in low enough pressure, and so do some ideas. It is polite to eat with your mouth closed. A particular word means a particular thing. We just don't do that here. That's something something unnatural something something tradition.

Bezel is a character in the story I'm telling, but like how the number twelve is a character in math, or 人 is a character on screen. Story isn't the right word, but it's the one I've gotten hold of and it's in the neighborhood.

It's an act of reminding myself of the local pressure needed to maintain the ecosystem of ideas where I happen to be. A reminder that I can move to somewhere with more or less or different pressure if it suits me or I need a different context.

It is a golden flag of a warning to remind myself to use the door rather than claw at the wall, to do the local bubble the respect of not bursting it without cause. But that is neither here nor there because it is staunchly between.

The panic of feeling every boundary is there to ensnare, impede, or imprison leaves a long wake of leaky membranes, violent depressurization, and a lot of wounds vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Oops. Mistakes worth learning from.

So what is the payload here? Why did I commission this work? And why through such roundabout methods? An abstract device. Seemed the thing to do. Filters.

Absorbing State. Another vocab word for the glossary. One of my personal favorites. An absorbing state is a state that, once entered, one does not exit. That may be water running down hill until it enters the ocean where it stays forever (in an oversimplified model), or death.

Things transition between states. On a technical level, that is the founding principle behind computation, look up Markov Chains if you wanna up the legibility of things in general. Moods, beliefs, and other experiential events can also usefully be described as states.

Let's steal a scene. Juliet on the balcony, lovestruck Romeo below. That's a scene, and just to be pedantic let's map "state" onto "scene" and see where that takes us. Some things have to happen in order for these kids to die for our entertainment.

If lines aren't said, plot ain't played out, sets aren't struck, then these two lovebirds loom peacefully and romantically entwined in Balcony State indefinitely. And, well, hang on, aren't they dead? We saw it happen. Very sad. How are they alive and well in Balcony?

Another reason for going about this project this way is to ensure publication, to cement the digital footprint. Drafts sit and await rigor, await scrutiny, and I love both of those, but I tried to eat them rather than own them. An approach, mine, but not the only or recommended.

The ghosts of discourse still linger in libraries, the academic sort, and they are lovely or terrible or very in their own ways. And the living rampage through songs and drinks and smells as always. But now, we have a nifty sort of substrate between. And not just receipts.

I was frightened to spill ink for a long while. What if I'm misunderstood, or worse what if I am understood but incorrect?!

I thought it was a matter of picking the right cause, of allying myself with whatever was stronger or righter or deeper or taller or betterer. Craved that clear thoughtless ringing of certainty and affirmation. But wait... Hmm...

They, you know the ones, the right ones, the pedestal dwellers, what's this proscenium, what's this stage? What are the chances that this message is compelling because it matches how I'm compelled. Well, that's just doubt. That's probably bad. Am good. Am brave. See me.

Wait a spell, why am I compelled? What are these rewards I'm driven to seek, these hurts I'm calloused to, I should be calloused to, I didn't need it anyway. But if I didn't need it because I'm strong, and I'm doing what they say to get the thing that was mine they took .

Oh. Ohhhhh. Ewwwwwwwww. Get it off let me out get it out of me!

Huh. That's better. What a relief. Wow. Oh wow. This is amazing! Is this what freedom tastes like?!?!

Okay, what's next? Hello? Oh. Yeah. I mean, yay! But, yeah.

...1

...2

...3

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lalka-laski · 4 years ago

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Do you or have you ever owned a cup with your name on it? I’m sure I did at some point as a kid

What’s the most expensive crafts tool that you own? All of my craft supplies are relatively cheap. The biggest waste of money though was the laminator I bought on a whim. I’ve had NO use for it since lol. Oh well.

Have you ever woven baskets of any kind (wicker, paper, cardboard etc.)? I think I did some kind of basket making class at the library when I was little? I did all kinds of arts and crafts classes.

How do you like Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis? It’s fine I guess?

Speaking of Jerry Lee Lewis, have you seen the biopic about him? Nope

How about the biopic about Tina Turner? Also no

Do you like the TV-show Frasier? I don’t think I’ve seen a single episode

What’s something you know by heart? Every Killers song known to man

What is something you’re greedy about? I’m great at sharing.... actually to the point that I could stand to be a little more possessive and protective of myself and my belongings. I think it stems from being the middle child in a house full of girls. NOTHING was solely mine, and everything had to be shared between us. How valuable does a coin have to be for you to bother to pick it up? I always pick up dimes ‘cause they’re messages from Heaven

What would be something you would wait in line to get for free? Pizza

Has there ever been a leak anywhere in your house? Uh yeah I guess?

Have you ever slipped in the shower? Surprisingly no!

Have you ever made any decorative crafts? If so, are they displayed? Mhm, quite a lot of stuff! I wish I crafted more often though.

Is it very humid where you are right now? Lol no, although it is unseasonably warm for February in Rochester. And by that I mean it’s like 35 degrees. HEATWAVE!

Do you have friends who you playfully flirt with? Nah

Doesn’t the Z in the Bzoink logo look like an L to you, too? What in the world?

Did you ever take that 5000 question survey that was circulating Tumblr? No, although I’ve seen it here and there.

Have you ever had to change a zipper in your favorite article of clothing? Oh no, that’s way too tricky!

Do you prefer buttons or zippers in general? Zippers I guess

Did your grandma have a box full of pretty buttons? Oh yes!

What’s the most exotic spice in your spice rack? Ha, I’m as white as it gets so none of my spices could really be considered ~exotic. That’s kind of a troublesome term anyways, is it not?

Do buttons tempt you to press them? Ha, sometimes.

Do you have a favorite television host? Anderson Cooper

What’s your opinion on celebrity chefs? I love me some Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. Oh, and my girl Ina Garten!

Back when it first started, did you watch ANTM? Oh bitch I LIVED FOR THAT SHOW.

Did you know, that there was even a Finnish version of ANTM? I’m sure there were several international spinoffs.

Are you accident prone? It’s my middle name.

Have you ever broken something really valuable? Oh yes, quite often growing up.

What is something that you own, that has sentimental value? I’m a huge sap so almost everything I own has some kind of sentimental significance to me.

Have you ever had your own website? Oh yes What’s something that you finished recently? A whole freakin pot of coffee. And then I wonder why I don’t feel good...

What’s the smallest town you recall visiting? The town my grandparents grew up in

What’s the longest distance you’ve had to go to work or school? My first college was roughly an hour away, but I lived on campus so I wasn’t commuting.

Would you learn a new language, if you didn’t share one with your lover? Well that’s a moot point now

Do you have friends who are constantly tagging you in challenges on FB? Nah not really

When it comes to chocolate, do you prefer nougat, jelly or caramel filling? Caramel! Although solid chocolate is my preference.

Are you more concerned about winning than just participating? Nah, I’m not competitive and I don’t have much of a drive to win.

Has somebody you know taken their own life? Yes

Do you prefer onions, leeks or chives? Chives!

What’s the most adult thing you have to do every day? Go to work, I suppose. But I half-ass all my responsibilities and that’s not very “adult” of me.

What’s the most immature thing you like to do every day? Everything?

Have you seen the movie, Clue? If so, isn’t it fab? I actually don’t think so

Do your cheeks get flushed easily? Oh lord YES!

Are there any social cues you miss entirely? I like to think I understand social cues and norms pretty well. Certainly a lot better than some people I know... *cough cough* MY FIANCE

When someone doesn’t smile back at you, what’s your first thought? THEY HATE ME AND I’M THE WORST PERSON ON THE PLANET

Is there a person who melts your heart just by looking at you? Glenn

Have you ever had tom kha kai? No clue what that is

Have you, or anyone you know ever been rude to a server? I have not, and I absolutely don’t associate with people who are. Eat shit.

What’s something you’re opinionated and very vocal about? Plenty of social justice issues. Oh, and the very hill I will die on: MOE’S > CHIPOTLE. DO NOT @ ME ^When’s the last time you had to verbally defend your stance? Ha, thankfully I don’t associate with such low-lifes :P

Have you ever played BitLife? Nope

What’s something you regularly order online? Books, and all sorts of random odds & ends that I don’t need but can’t resist

Do you often make friends online? I did back in my teenage years, although they all remained exclusively online friends. We never met in person.

Do people ever try to get something from somebody through you? Wait what?

What do you think when you see a couple holding hands? Generally I think it’s cute. And I’m in no place to judge or comment on another couple’s PDA because me & Glenn are obnoxious lol

Is there anything you’re forced to share with someone else? Well as I said earlier in the survey, I grew up forced to share everything with my siblings.

What’s something stripy that you own? I think I have a striped shirt, and that’s about it. Oh, maybe some socks?

How about something polka dotted? Again, socks.

What is something you find absolutely appalling? Saliva

Do you like elevators? I don’t dislike them

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say “midnight madness”? I’m blanking

When you’re angry, does it ever get physical? No never. Well, maybe I’ll punch a pillow or something just to relieve my aggression but that’s it.

What do you do, when you’re immensely happy? Squeal!

What made you scream out loud the last time you screamed? Who knows, I’m always getting scared and startled by shit, so it could’ve been anything!

Can you hear your neighbors through the wall? Yes, our downstairs neighbor and his lady friend have very entertaining arguments. Glenn & I literally lay on the floor to listen because we’re just that immature and bored. (To be clear: the fights are never actually serious!)

What is something that frustrates you to no end? My own anxiety, my lack of drive, my clumsiness and absent-mindedness...

Do you wear shoes indoors? I hardly even wear shoes OUTDOORS.

Who is your favorite stand-up comedian? Jim Gaffigan is one of my faves. Though I give almost any stand-up special a shot. What’s the weirdest video YouTube has suggested to you? Oh I don’t even know where to begin

Is there a drink that just goes right through you? Coffee!

Is there a food item you can’t eat because it doesn’t agree with you? It’s not so much the types of foods I eat but the AMOUNT I eat of them. Restraint just isn’t in my vocab.

Do you playfully compete with someone about something? Nah, not really.

Would you rather swim or run? Swim

Do you like the smell of tar? Actually yeah. It’s one of those distinct summer scents!

Have you ever been to a sauna? Yes, although I can only handle a minute or two. They are not for me!

Does your doorbell ring unexpectedly often? Never

Is your favorite fictional character a human, an animal or something else? Humans

Have you ever helped a stranger? If so, what did you do? Of course, in many ways. Random acts of kindness make the world go ‘round, people!!

Do you share hobbies with any of your friends? What do you do together? Reading, writing, listening to music, crafting, etc etc.

Do you have any flags on display? If so, what flag(s)? Nope

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e-dash-lace · 7 years ago

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My Fave Japanese YouTubers + some YouTube Vocab

I was introduced to Japanese YouTube and J-Vloggers through a friend and I watched a lot of videos when I was first learning Japanese. I do admit that I couldn’t understand EVERYTHING but YouTubers tend to repeat themselves often and you can see what they’re doing so you pick up a lot.

It’s important to distinguish J-Vloggers from Japanese Youtubers.

J-Vlogger is a term that usually refers to foreigners living in Japan who vlog regularly. Simon and Martina, Taylor R, Sharla, Micaela, Rachel & Jun, VenusAngelic, and Mimei are all J-vloggers. Their channels are mostly in English and they speak very little Japanese in their videos. Mimei actually does a lot of her videos in Japanese now but I wouldn’t recommend learning Japanese from her because she isn’t a native speaker. Her content is still really cute though.

Japanese Youtubers are usually native Japanese content creators. Their videos are all in Japanese usually with subtitles created by the community. They usually belong to the big partner group UUM but there are a few independents like PDR.

PDRさん

This is a great channel for beginners. @uni-venture mentioned him in her own post about this as Just Duncan. He’s a British-Japanese ハフwho spent much of his childhood in England but now currently lives in Japan with his wife and their cats. He speaks in Japanese in most of his videos with an even pace and simple videos. All of his videos are subtitled in English. He’s pretty unusual for a Japanese Youtuber because he isn’t attached to a major partner company and he mostly makes sarcastic joke videos and vlogs. He often talks about Convenience store customers and things that annoy him.

PDSKabushikiGaisha PDS is PDR’s younger brother Dante. Dante was much younger when the family moved back to Japan so he speaks no English and all of his videos are completely in Japanese. Only a few of them are subtitled in English (mostly older videos that Duncan subbed for him when they both still lived at home) and he speaks a lot faster. Despite his speed, Dante tends to repeat himself more often or use captions to emphasize words he’s using. For example I learned the word 交ぜる from one of his videos. Mostly he sits in his house and screams while doing something unnecessary like turning himself into a water balloon or fucking up one of his coffee tables. Occasionally he also make 20 minute long videos of himself trying to win something from a UFO catcher (claw machine) and throwing away like $35 in change. He is also a bodybuilder? So he occasionally makes videos about his fitness, but most of the time you would never know that because he does things like eat 100 Umaibo or deep fry an entire watermelon.

If you want to know how to use the particle ね you should really watch his videos.

はじめしゃちょ Hajime Syacho (President Hajime)

Hajime is probably the most difficult of these YouTubers. He talks FAST and his words often are kind of slurrred to together. But I think his videos are often translated by the community and he repeats himself a lot so you can learn lots of stuff from him. He does a lot of dumb stuff like Dante. His videos include drinking too much of a drink that is meant to inflate your stomach to curb your appetite, making slime alone and nearly spilling it on the floor, and covering an entire room in those heat pads that you can stick to your skin. He also does some science-y videos sometimes. He’s a pretty big YouTube celebrity in Japan so his videos are usually a lot of fun.

If you want to learn how to use the phrase やばい！his videos are the best.

Kinoshita Yuka: Oogui Eater

Yuka is kind of a legend. She’s a little Japanese woman who eats a LOT of food. The nice thing about her is that she eats pretty normally and unlike YouTubers who do this for the weird factor, she like legitimately enjoys everything she eats. She will like eat the entire Mister Donuts holiday menu and take time between don’t to discuss how fluffy the dough is and how refreshingly light the glaze is and so on. All of her videos are translated by the community. The translations are pretty good except the regular translator always translates 美味しい to Oishii which is not helpful and is really kind of annoying. In all honesty, Yuka is my life goals. Like she is my fave of all time. If my job could be to just eat like this girl, I would be living a dream.

If you want to learn how to talk about how you can’t handle spicy food, Yuka’s your girl.

HikakinTV

I used to watch him all the time but now I really don’t? He is one of the biggest Japanese Youtubers who got famous for beatboxing. He often beatboxes in his videos and even has a video where he beatboxed for Ariana Grande when she was on tour in Japan. He mostly does like food and snack reviews where he gives a review at the end. Most of his videos have been subtitled in Japanese so that you can read while you watch if you want. I don’t know he’s really not my favorite tbh…

モーニング娘 Morning Musume

So this isn’t really a Youtuber. This is an idol group with an audience of middle aged men and young girls. However, Morning Musume is one of few Japanese music groups that has its music videos available to view in the United States and all of their music videos have English and Japanese subtitles which is very rare. If yo ucan get past the cheesy costumes and the general idolness of their videos, you can learn A LOT from them. Remember to keep in mind that the Japanese you’ll learn will be a little bit more awkward than vlog-style Japanese because it will come from song lyrics. To be completely honest though, I love muting their videos and playing like hip-hop and rap underneath of them because they match up shockingly well.

Texan In Tokyo

So this is technically more of a J-vlog channel but whatever. So this channel has actually ended but it’s the channel of Grace and Ryosuke, an international couple. Most of their videos are travel videos in English but some of them are cooking videos done entirely in Japanese with subtitles. Ryosuke is really good and speaks slowly in simple sentences so you can see what he’s making and hear him talk about it. He tries to do the videos with time constraints but doesn’t always do that. Their other videos are good too for culture lessons and general information about living in Japan.

Kirizaki Eiji　桐崎栄二

So in all honesty, you probably won’t learn anything from him at all but I put him on here because I love his stuff. He, like many male Japanese Youtubers, is just like the master of pure idiocy. His channel is mostly him messing with his sister and making videos with quick, sudden jump cuts and loud slapping noises. He talks way too fast but he uses a lot of subtitles so you’ll get something. Eiji lives in the suburbs somewhere with his sister, grandparents, and parents and frequently just messes with all of them. Occasionally he purchases expensive cuts of beef, pours himself a couple of glasses of Mugicha (barley tea, god’s gift to mankind) and feasts alone in his kitchen. I just find him really entertaining I don’t know.

I think the lesson with him is to find things that make you want to learn Japanese. I don’t quite completely understand all of the humor in his videos but I really want to so I study Japanese.

Other Reccs:

AskJapanese – Interviews by Cathy Cat

Mahoto – He eats giant cicadas once a year

JPCMHD – Commercials usually in one to two week intervals

#japanese langblr #langblr #japanese #language #youtube #i don't know what this is #studyblr #language learning #japanese language #japanese youtube #i was so lazy when i made this #i need to make banners #i just #hmm #jpnstudynet #mine

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davidinosaka-blog · 8 years ago

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January 28

Hi everyone! I haven't written in a while, so this will be a pretty long post. I haven't written since Christmas Day, when my family was here and we were traveling around together. So much happened during that trip, there's no way I could cover it all. So I want to go ahead and focus on what's happened since my family left, because there's so much to tell! I'm going way back to January 29, when I took the 8:00am Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka. I was in a bit of a rush getting packed and ready to leave that morning, but we made it to the station at around 7:40, which we thought would give me plenty of time to get on my train. It would have been, except that the days leading up to the New Year are the busiest traveling days all year. I was starting to freak out a little, because I didn't know what platform I needed to go to, and every station attendant I saw was already surrounded by other travelers. I checked the time when I had 8 minutes until the train pulled out, freaked out a little, and started pushing my way towards a station employee. It all turned out fine, but I hadn't even been on the train a full minute when the doors closed and we started moving. After I got home, I got to take it slow and relax, and I met two of my host mom's former piano students when they came over with their newborns to catch up with my host mom. I had no idea that my host mom kept in touch with her former students, but when I asked her about them she said she still communicates with lots of them, and that in some families, she's taught two or three generations over the years. After we all finished visiting, my host sister, Azumi, took me to get my haircut. This was my third haircut since leaving Austin, and just like the first two I was terrified that my hair would get massacred. It went very well, though, because this time I was able to talk with my barber as he worked and tell him what I wanted. He asked lots of questions about barbershops in America, and asked me what each tool was in English as he used it. As we were wrapping up, he asked me which college I was studying at in Osaka, and I had to explain to him that I was only a sophomore in high school. He had been under the impression that I was much older than I am, which I'm still not used to, but he laughed about it and had me guess how old he was. Hopefully I'll be able to go back to the same place next time, but you never know. The next day, my host mom prepared a sort of yogurt, but it was very different from what I had been expecting. She added in every fruit she could find at the store: apple, strawberry, mango, banana, papaya, coconut, kiwi, and aloe, which I had no idea you could eat. Since then, there's always been some in the refrigerator to snack on. The next day, New Year's Eve, my host family (minus my host brother, who was still in Canada) and I all went to a traditional Japanese hotel in Mie, a prefecture close to Osaka. The hotel was built on top of several hot springs, which I had never used before, and it was where I got my feet wet (PUNPUNPUNPUN). It was actually a lot less uncomfortable than I had thought it would be, and my host mom's boyfriend, Goro, and I were able to relax in the baths for half an hour or so without feeling too strange. After we got out and dried off, we had a little down time and then went to dinner, which was a traditional Japanese feast. There were courses on courses on courses, with lots of food that I never knew existed. In particular there was a very expensive shellfish that was sort of hard when raw, but when it was cooked it was some of the best food I've eaten in Japan. Throughout the meal there was entertainment provided by a man performing traditional Japanese dances and a sushi chef who prepared an entire fish in less than a minute. The chef was very impressive, but the fish's tail was still twitching in the middle of the dish, which sort of threw me off of sushi for the rest of the night. The dances were very well performed, and I later found out that the dancer was actually just my age;he just looked much older. Once I learned that, I was even more impressed by his performance. The next morning, New Year's Day, we all soaked in the baths one more time, then stopped at a temple to pray for good luck on the way home. The temple seemed very different from when my family and I were touring because instead of a tourist site, it was the center of the community and the celebration for the coming year. There were families having picnics inside the walls, there were barbecues going on all over, and people were pouring in to wish each other a happy new year and to pray. The next day, January 2nd, my grandmother came to visit! We met up explored Tokyo, then I went back to school for a few days while she saw the sights in Kyoto. On the 8th, Azumi had a piano performance in a hotel lobby with an all-you-can-eat cake buffet, so my host mom and I decided to go check it out. All in all, it was a very fun experience, and I got to hear Azumi perform for the first time. She was very good, and her personality was much more professional while playing than while rehearsing and relaxing at home. On the way home in Goro's minivan, we jammed out to some American pop songs, which transitioned into Michael Jackson, which transitioned into Elvis Presley. I thought it was hilarious, because everyone was singing “You Ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog” as we were driving through neon signs and traffic. Maybe I was just in a happy mood, but I thought it was really fun. The next night, Goro took me and my host mom to see a performance at Osaka Castle, and it wasn't like anything I'd been to before. The actors were all on a stage in front of us, and images were projected onto the walls of the castle behind them as the story progressed. I didn't understand what the actors said, but the story was easy to follow, and the setup was incredible! When my grandmother came back to Osaka after Kyoto, we went to see it again, and it was just as good as the first time. On the 10th, I went to school from the Tsuchida's home for the first time, and it was surprisingly easy. There's only one turn, and it's at a dead end, so I don't think there's a way I could get lost on my way. School itself was pretty fun, and we jumped straight into some new grammar and vocab in Japanese class. On Thursday, Bain and I went to the middle school attached to Momoyama, our high school, and made calligraphy and mochi with the middle school students. It was interesting being around younger students, because they spoke to us the same way they spoke to the teachers, as opposed to other students. The next day I went on a field trip with Bain, Mr. Shuto, who's my homeroom teacher, and with three other students to go look at ancient pottery. The trip was incredible from the start, because instead of going to a museum, we went to the government office where newly uncovered pieces are sent to for cleaning and categorization. We got a behind the scenes tour of how the entire process works, and were allowed to touch and hold pieces of pottery more than a thousand years old. We ended with a project similar to a rubbing; we used little sacks of ink to copy the patterns from small pieces onto paper. It was awe inspiring to recognize just how much history Japan has, and how lucky I am to experience it. After we came back to school, Bain and I had to watch a biking safety video since we both commute by bike now. I had been expecting a video like Red Asphalt from driver's ed, but instead it was set up like a drama, with flashbacks and cliffhangers. After that we went to our homeroom classes to present about our field trip experience. Because I'm the last student in my class by alphabet, I was the last one to present, but this time I was much more comfortable leading up to my turn speaking than before. I think that taking a break from foreign exchange and taking time to be a tourist recharged me, and since my family left, I've been much more outgoing than before they came. The next day, my grandmother came over to my host family's house, and we made a huge sushi lunch before dropping her off at the airport. Even though all of the food was just from a normal supermarket down the road, my grandmother thought the taste was better than at Uchi, one of the only sushi restaurants in Austin. The next week, in my Tuesday math class, I started making friends with some of the guys in my Japanese math class, especially a guy named Takeo. He's only spoken with me in English, which is very impressive for a student here who hasn't gone to study abroad. He's applying to come to either St. Stephen's or St. Andrew's in Mississippi next year, and I think it'd be really cool if he came. I think that the school is actually nearing a decision now, because I heard the pool of prospective students is down to 5 or 6. I'm very excited to find out, too, because they'll be the student I host in Austin next year. In our Thursday home economics class, we all presented a children's book we had written. We split into small groups of 5, and out of each group chose one person to present. I was chosen for our group, so I had to read my (very basic) Japanese to my class, but everyone thought it was a good book topic, so we all had a good time. At the end of the period everyone voted for which book they thought was the best out of the ones that were presented, and I came in second! After lunch we did school photos for our student ID cards, which was very fun. Everybody was joking around in line. It was really fun, and when I joked about being a model part time in the US, my homeroom believed me, and I had to explain that no, I'm not actually a model, which I never thought I would have to clarify. After school I went straight to my first violin lesson with my host sister and her teacher. It was something. The teaching method was very different from in the US; my teacher, Mr. Matsuda, physically corrected my form as I was playing, and had me work on all of the very basic aspects of playing. Overall, the lesson went very well, and my teacher wants me to pay him by helping him improve his English during our lessons. I'm really looking forward to working with him again, and I think that I'll be able to improve quite a lot here. On Sunday night, Ryosuke came home from Canada! Before going out to the airport, I met one of his best friends, and we went out to the airport with him. It was a very festive atmosphere, because 40 students were coming home from their year abroad, and everyone's family had come out to meet them. I was given a Japanese flag and a “Welcome Home” banner to hold, which I thought was pretty cool, until I saw another group of students throwing their friend in the air for celebration. When Ryosuke came out and saw his family, he ran up his mom, ducked past her, and hugged Azumi first, then eventually went back to his mom. It was a really lighthearted way of greeting his family. After he and I met, he had to go and take a big welcome home photo, and as he was taking it he joked to me about his double chin, since he had gained 10 kilograms, or about 20 pounds, while he was gone. During the car ride home he and I talked a lot, and in general joked around about Canada and his family's English skills. Everyone was poking fun at him too, for gaining so much weight while he was gone. When his grandmother saw him, the first thing she said was “You got fat, didn't you?” Poor Ryosuke. Roasted by his own grandmother. On Monday we threw his big welcome home party with his soccer teammates, which was crazy fun. Everyone came up to me and introduced themselves, then told me bad jokes in English about each other. It was really cool, and since then I've seen lots of the soccer team around school, and they call out and wave to me when they see me. The next day we went to go eat blowfish, which Ryosuke said he missed a lot, and then to go to Spa World, a huge hot spring type place in Tennoji. It was really cool, and it seems like a sick place to hang out. On a weekday, a full day pass is only about $10. The baths themselves were really cool. There were two that stood out in particular: one that was filled with carbonated water that bubbled on your skin, and one that was just filled with sake, Japanese wine. It was pretty awesome. On Thursday in track and field, we said goodbye to the students on the team that would go to study abroad next year, and I felt really at home with the team for the first time. I'm still not sure if I want to stay in the club, though. I really do like the people, but the workouts don't appeal to me, to the point where I consider skipping more often than not. My feeling is that since I don't love it, I might as well try something new for the second half of my time here, but if I do that, I won't be able to compete, which I think would be very fun to do here. That's a problem for me to figure out myself, though. That's all for now! I love you all!

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limejuicer1862 · 5 years ago

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Neal Zetter

Neal is an award-winning comedy performance poet, children’s author, and entertainer with a 25-year background in communication management and mentoring. He uses his interactive rhythmic, rhyming poetry to to develop literacy, confidence, creativity and communications skills in 3-103 yr olds, making words and language accessible for the least engaged whilst streeeeeeetching the most able.

Workshops & Performing

Most days Neal is found performing or running fun poetry writing or performance workshops in schools and libraries with children, teens, adults or families. He has worked in all 33 London Boroughs and many, many other UK cities. More challenging poetry projects have involved workshops for people with brain injury, mental health, drug and alcohol problems, offenders, those with learning difficulties, homeless, other special needs including not having English as a first language.

Neal also produces adult comedy performance poetry and has nearly 30 years of experience appearing at e.g. West End comedy clubs, the Royal Festival Hall, various festivals, in the centre circle of a League 2 football pitch (!) and even a funeral (!!). He ran his own spoken word-based comedy club (Word Down Walthamstow) 2009-13. Neal has compiled and hosted/compered shows with the likes of John Cooper Clarke, Attila the Stockbroker, Michael Rosen and shared bills with Harry Hill, Phil Jupitus, Mark Lamaar, Omid Djalili and more.

Books

Neal children’s comedy poetry books, all published by Troika, include:

For 6-13 year olds:

Gorilla Ballerina (A Book of Bonkers Animal Poems) – a collection of wacky poems about weird animals

Invasion of the Supervillains (Raps and Rhymes to Worry the Galaxy) – evil companion book to ‘Superheroes’ (below)

Yuck & Yum (A Feast of Funny Food Poems), with poetry pal Joshua Seigal

Here Comes the Superheroes (Raps and Rhymes to Save the Galaxy) – in the Reading Agency’s top 15 children’s poetry books

It’s Not Fine to Sit on a Porcupine – in BookTrust’s top 20 children’s poetry books

Bees in My Bananas – a Wishing Shelf Award winner

For 2-6 year olds:

SSSSNAP! Mister Shark

Odd Socks!

Due Sept 2020 and Sept 2021 for 6-13 year olds

When the Bell Goes (A Rapping Rhyming Trip through Childhood) – a semi-autobiographical poetry collection on the theme of childhood covering growing up, school and family life

Scared? (Poems from the Darker Side) – a collection of funny, and maybe a few more serious ones, about many aspects of fear

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I wrote my first poem when I was six – a limerick which now appears in the intro to my first book, Bees in My Bananas. I always enjoyed making people laugh and have had an inbuilt sense of rhythm and rhyming for as long as I can remember. So I began writing poetry as naturally as some people learn a new language – there was no grand plan but I have never stopped writing poems since I was a tender year 2 student. And the poem?

There was an old lady from Hull And she bumped into a bull The bull said ‘Ow!” Bashed into a cow And the cow crashed into the wall!

Not a classic but Love Me Do was hardly the best Beatles song, just a fab start!

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

My Dad used to read to me in bed at night before I was able too. I especially liked the poems he read, the main two that stuck in my head were the classic Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss and The Train to Timbuctoo from Margaret Wise Brown (Google it – it’s a great single-poem book as is the aforementioned ‘Cat’). Both were beautifully rhythmic with strong rhyming and contained many new and exciting fun words, some made up and some that made no sense to me at all – but that’s the joy of poetry and reading!

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

Great question! Let me answer it in parts. When I I was a primary school child I wasn’t really aware of poets apart from Dr Seuss as mentioned in my earlier reply. I knew poems, but not so aware who wrote them.

In secondary school I studied Eng Lit to A Level and regularly had rows with my teacher over my frustration at studying Wordsworth, Coleridge, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Keats etc. I absolutely see they were fine poets but they didn’t speak to ME a teenager in 1970s London into punk rock, footy and left-wing politics. I needed to hear poems about those topics and the other things in my life. Of course she never agreed with me 😎.

(So, as I was musically inept, despite my love of it, I started to write song lyrics and worked with tune writers to construct songs In a (completely naff) local band (but we thought we were superstars). Bernie Taupin was my role model but I loved the Stones’ land Clash lyrics and Webber/Rice musicals.)

In my very late teens and beyond I started to write poems prolifically but I still could not name any poets of renown. My home-produced books (6) sold in less than three figures and that wasn’t enough as I needed to share my work, after all every poet is a communicator. I saw adverts in Time Out magazine for performance poetry clubs and comedy clubs in the West End and that’s where it all REALLY began for me. It was a scene and for the first time I got to meet and mix with other poets and learn how to produce the right kind of poems to entertain and engage an audience, as well as make them laugh. So, no longer in a vacuum, I compered for and performed with the likes of John Cooper Clarke (the Godfather of performance poetry!), Attila the Stockbroker, Porky the Poet (AKA Phil Jupitus) etc.

Nearly all the poets I’d met or read since my school days were older and, in 1989 when my performance career really started, I was very aware of their presence and influence – I looked up to them. Now I guess, 60 next week, I try to affect younger poets and those starting out in the same way: advising, encouraging and mentoring. And that’s something I really enjoy doing.

Maybe in 50 yrs time or less, my poetry will be as irrelevant to people then as the poets I studied at A Level were to me. And there will be nothing wrong with that. I get it!

3.1. What is the right kind of poem to engage and entertain?

One with a repetitive rhythm, strong rhyme and a chorus/repeated word/line. This works well with my children’s poetry (in class and on assemblies) and adult poetry (in clubs, at arts events etc). We call them ‘call and response’ poems in the trade or often I refer to them as ‘interactive’ and I should add the poems must be about a topic people can relate to in a voice and with words that speak to them.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I don’t have one. I try to write at different times of the day, on different days of the week and in as many different places as possible. Doing that means there are no times I feel I am unable to write and that must be a good thing. I guess indie cafes are my favourite places but, as I don’t drive and travel by public transport, I do loads of writing on trains, tubes and buses. Other regular haunts are the British Library, Foyle’s Bookshop in Charing X Road and home of course

5. What motivates you to write?

I am very self-motivated when it comes to writing. I always feel I have something to say about things that other people will find interesting too. I am never stuck for ideas, have never experienced writers’ block and keep a long list of topics for future poems. I have written my next three books due out the next three Septembers am already planning more. And the ideas themselves come from keeping my ears and eyes constantly open and writing about What’s around me and my experiences e.g. people I meet, places I go to, things I hear on the news etc

6. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

My influences are threefold:

The aforementioned Dr Seuss and Mary Wise Brown books inspired my rhythmic, rhyming and comedy poems. Other poets like Edward Lear and Spike Milligan did the same.

I have always had a love of music too as I explained so, as I used to write song lyrics it’s not surprising that my poems, as well as being very rhythmic and containing strong rhymes also have choruses and a strong use of repetition.

Finally, since before I could even read, I have had a love of superhero comics, especially Marvel. I used to look at the pictures when my brother collected them and when old enough to read myself I started avidly buying and collecting them myself and have never really stopped. In fact I bought this month’s new Marvel Avengers comic today. These streeeeetched my imagination, developed my vocab and taught me a lot about what was going on in the world around me e.g. politics, Vietnam Nam War, life/death, relationships, history, space and science etc. And of course this love of comics also inspired both my Superheroes and Supervillains poetry books. Keen comic fans will immediately spot some of the styles and influences from the 1960/70 Marvel and DC comics in particular. Without any doubt at all, if I never read these comics I would not have become a poet and author.

7. Whom of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

As I read mainly blogs, auto-biogs, social history, popular science and other non-fiction my book choices are theme-led rather than author-led so I have not got too many favourites. However I especially like Bill Bryson, Mark Kermode, Jon Ronson and Malcolm Gladwell as they all have a fantastic writing style and a passion for their subject. The last four books I read are Van Gogh’s Ear, The Radium Girls, Chernobyl and A History of the World in 21 Women with many Marvel comics squeezed in between.

The poets I especially admire are the ones that have been on the scene for many years like Michael Rosen, Brian Moses, John Cooper Clarke and Benjamin Zephaniah – you have to take your hat off to them for the quality and quantity of their output. I hope I achieve at least equal longevity as I certainly want to continue what I do until I leave this planet.

8. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I write because I must. A poet is what I am not what I do. So, while I might be able to lose interest In other hobbies, jobs and pastimes, I can never give up being a poet.

9What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Read, write, read, write, read, write adI infinitum. Like anything you wish to do well, the more you practise and immerse yourself in it the better you will get. And write from the heart about what you love, like, dislike and hate – about what you feel and what matters to you – and you will produce your best work.

8.1. Why write children’s books?

I write poetry for children, teens and adults but, to date, have only produced children’s books. This is because I make my living performing and running workshops in schools virtually every day so the book buyers are there in front of me. Most days end with a book sale with children I have worked with wanting a memento of the day, signed and dedicated. Given the above my writing is certainly weighted to the younger market especially as, sadly, not many teens or adults want to buy poetry books, even if they enjoy listening to poems for their age group.

9. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

In my biog you will see details of the next two books I have due in Sept 2020 and 2021, both written. I am working on my 2022 poetry book now (the title is a secret!) and am looking at both an anthology of mixed poems and an EY/KS1 book for the near future.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Neal Zetter Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

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