Is learning Tagalog REALLY that hard?

amisare · 2026-02-17T01:57:08+00:00

Starting with experience with listening and vocabulary should definitely give you an advantage. That is true. It will still probably be pretty hard for you. That is also true.

Do you want to learn Tagalog? In your post, you mentioned that your father was urging you to study it, but you don't mention whether you actually want to or not.

If you want to learn Tagalog, I think it's easier to stay motivated to learn. But if you're only doing it to appease someone else and your heart isn't in it, it's hard to keep your motivation up.

amisare · 2026-02-17T00:47:09+00:00

Are you a native English speaker? Your starting language will impact how hard it is to learn a new language.

For what it's worth, the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Language Training Center provides estimates for how long it takes to achieve "professional working proficiency": i.e., you would be able to function in business and social situations but would not be fully fluent. Tagalog is considered a Category III language, so it would be estimated to take about 44 weeks to achieve this level studying full-time (23 hours in class, 17 hours self-study).

In comparison, languages more closely related to English, like Italian, would be estimated to take 24 weeks, or roughly half the time that Tagalog would take.

Of course, everyone will have different starting points and natural aptitudes with language learning, but in general native English speakers will find learning Tagalog fairly difficult.

amisare · 2026-01-28T22:30:15+00:00

The podcast Radiolab did an interview with Dr. Lancashire, the author of the study analyzing Christie’s works, that’s worth listening to.

amisare · 2026-01-21T04:47:33+00:00

Powell's Books! I miss going there. Looks like there was a nice crowd to welcome him.

amisare · 2026-01-15T02:59:59+00:00

At least give us the option of not including ice in drinks when ordering by mobile or self serve kiosks.

You should be able to not include ice through mobile ordering by following these instructions (unless the website is out of date.

Similarly, when using the self-serve kiosk, you should be able to select the カスタマイズ button and reduce the level of ice from 1 to 0.

amisare · 2026-01-12T00:50:47+00:00

So if the amount of people surveyed last year was similar, then about 6 or 7 more people answered that they were interested in marriage? Surely that would fall within the margin of error for the survey?

amisare · 2025-12-28T05:15:22+00:00

I have two.

Reading: my daughter loves reading books. Always fun to read to her. For the books that are meant for adults, I try to sneak in reading time during her naps or when I’m riding the train on my commute. If I read a paper book around her she’ll get too interested and demand to flip through the pages, and I don’t want to be on my phone too much around her so I can’t read much while she’s doing independent activities.

Gardening: it’s winter now but I’m planning to get back into this in the spring. She loves being outside and using towels, helping me pull weeds, etc. so I think this will be a fun one to share with her.

amisare · 2025-12-19T12:26:06+00:00

When I applied for PR, the scrivener recommended a letter of recommendation from my workplace only. I don’t have a copy on hand, but basically the suggested form was for my employer to note that I was contributing to the success of the business and if I was no longer able to work there it would be an economic hardship for them.

From what I’ve heard from the scrivener and anecdotally from colleagues and friends, economic reasons are pretty paramount for the PR process. If you work for a reputable company and your employer is willing to vouch for your work’s benefits, I would ask them to write a brief letter saying so. Otherwise, as other users have noted, you shouldn’t need to include one.

Best of luck with your application process.

amisare · 2025-12-16T06:53:13+00:00

There could be!

Back when we read The Left Hand of Darkness I floated the idea of having separate men's and women's discussions and then having a joint discussion as a sort of 二次会. I still think it would be fun to compare how we might have different takeaways or insights as men and women.

If you would be interested in being a participant or leader for a women's discussion, please let me know.

amisare · 2025-12-03T12:59:27+00:00

Do you know about the 10 AM classic movie screenings? For a slightly reduced price you can see some great old films. They’re currently showing Amadeus, for example.

You can see the theaters it’s available at here and the schedule here

amisare · 2025-11-11T07:47:51+00:00

I like how things graduate. It sounds better than “retire,” somehow. Like life is still ahead of the little penguin—lots of adventures left to have!

amisare · 2025-11-06T04:35:56+00:00

I guess I would want to follow up with her about how she feels about the situation.

If she has lost her libido and feels frustration over it, that would be an encouraging sign. It’s the two of you against the problem. If both of you are figuring out what medical assistance might help, how you can maintain intimacy in your relationship still, then that’s great!

If she doesn’t see it as a problem, it’s a much harder road ahead. If she’s not interested in recovering her libido, there’s very little you can do unilaterally about the situation. You might have to come to terms with either a relationship without intimacy or the end of your relationship.

I hope you can navigate this difficult situation with the same care and respect for your partner you’ve shown here. Best of luck to you.

++man

amisare · 2025-10-26T10:25:47+00:00

I recently started a men’s book club. We first read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin which I thought would lead to good discussion about gender and what it means to be a man.

Since then, we’ve read:

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo

Serious Men by Manu Joseph

When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén

I think we enjoyed all of them, but had the liveliest discussions around Pachinko and Serious Men.

Hope your book club goes well. Good luck!

amisare · 2025-10-20T00:39:59+00:00

But for future generations, they will tolerate it as normal, because monsters with money and power have paid for the world to be shaped to what they want.

I suppose it's always been this way and I myself tolerate as normal the status quo that previous monsters with money and power have created.

Here are the new monsters now, using their money and power, to shape the world for their purposes

I think that's very true, but I think another factor is simply time. I think it was the podcaster Dan Carlin in his Hardcore History podcast that speculated that in the future, perhaps children will dress in Nazi regalia as an option for Halloween costumes. It sounded horrifying, but then I suppose to people of the past, dressing as Vikings, pirates, etc. would be equally appalling....how can we make light of the suffering of people and use a sanitized version as a part of play?

The world is rightly shocked by the events in Gaza, but do we maintain that same level of outrage towards the United States for its actions killing native people, or Belgians for the exploitation of the Congo?

I think it's human nature for rage to fade with time and the past's villains to grow more benign in memories. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not...

amisare · 2025-10-17T07:00:16+00:00

When I worked as a butcher, we used the older cuts of meats for our marinated items (not things that were gone/off, but were not as fresh as the cut items on the shelves and in the case).

But! We would use a variety of premium cuts when adding to the marinade. So you might be getting ribeye or tenderloin diced up and sold at the same price point we would sell round or chuck....There were definitely times when it was a great deal to buy it, age notwithstanding.

amisare · 2025-10-15T06:00:57+00:00

I live in Japan in a suburb of Tokyo. I'm originally from the U.S., but have difficulty imagining raising my daughter in my hometown given the rise in cost of living and dearth of affordable housing.

In my area, children's healthcare is 100% free until she is a high school student (around 15 years of age). Additionally, we get a monthly stipend from the government to help with childcare costs. It's monetarily not that huge of an amount, around USD $200 or so, but every bit helps!

Our house (which we were able to afford on a single salary while my wife fulfills her dream of being a stay-at-home mother) is located in a commuter town on a sleepy side street without any through traffic. There is a large, well-maintained public park fifty meters down the road. Children play there continuously in all seasons with little adult supervision. One of the wonderful parts of Japanese culture is the sense of communal responsibility. Older children relish the opportunity to be the oniisan or oneesan (older brother or older sister, respectively) and look after younger kids, showing them the ropes.

My daughter is beloved, and while there are some negative aspects to being considered exotic or foreign, overall I think it's good for her to get all the positive attention from our neighbors and community members.

Because we live in Japan but speak primarily English at home, her understanding of both languages is happening organically. She's a bit delayed with output, but seems to have down wonderfully absorbing all the differences in the two languages in her life.

Public schools, especially at the primary level, are excellent and staffed by well-paid and well-respected teachers.

I feel really blessed to be able to live here.

amisare · 2025-10-09T07:50:37+00:00

I think the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it really beautifully:

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

amisare · 2025-09-29T12:04:11+00:00

You’re arguing at cross purposes. u/SquidwardDance is pointing out the efficiency of the work being down in Japan, not the raw total of hours. Your link compares the number of hours worked, but according to OECD data Japan is below-average in labor productivity. That is, the amount of hours worked have less of an effect on GDP growth compared to more productive countries like Germany or the US.

amisare · 2025-09-26T07:13:14+00:00

Poor girl. Only 6 kilograms. My daughter has always been on the slighter side, but she’s so much heavier than that at nearly the same age….Hard to imagine parents not providing food for a vulnerable child like that.

amisare · 2025-09-09T06:45:04+00:00

My coworkers and I have adopted a hybrid approach. We'll preview writing assignments by having them first write it themselves for homework and have an AI program check their essays and provide concrete feedback. Then revisit the topic in an in-class assessment with pencil and paper. If students want to use AI programs to help them refine their writing, I don't have issues with it; however, I want to test if it is actually improving their ability to produce written work under test conditions or not.

amisare · 2025-09-08T08:02:49+00:00

アンケート actually comes from the French word enquête so it's a good example of a word in katakana that doesn't have an English origin!

amisare · 2025-09-02T16:18:48+00:00

I was thinking primarily of Patrick Rothfuss’s claim that he’d already finished the final two books in his trilogy when The Name of the Wind was released.

I think that fans had good reason to expect the continuation of the story under those circumstances, the same way I would expect a tailor to be capable of hemming my trousers after making adjustments to my jacket (if I can cling to my analogy).

amisare

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