This blog has undergone several changes.
– Comment moderation is off. It was on by default. That wasn’t the intent.
– The name has been changed. Given that a native Japanese speaker thought I was humiliating myself by presenting myself as a god of spoken and written Japanese, the name was obviously not working.
– I have eaten a great amount of humble pie. Pursuant to the above, I’m really not seeking to hide that yes, my Japanese isn’t good enough. What hurts is that I gave someone the impression that I think my Japanese cannot be improved. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, about as far from Japan as you can be from Tokyo without moving to the South Pole. I have not had nearly enough opportunities in life to write in Japanese. In spite of all the Japanese reading, listening, tutoring of beginners, etc., that I do, I cannot possibly hope to stand up to a native speaker in terms of understanding of the Japanese language, and giving the impression that I thought otherwise was a bitter, ugly mistake.
Hiding under a rock not being an option, I will be more specific.
Also, it seems that the definition others have used for “a linguist” really wasn’t something that fits what others understand “linguist” to mean. To wit, rather than “one who studies languages,” which is what I found in Webster, it is “one who studies languages academically,” in a formal university environment.
That is not, and could never be, the focus of this blog, because it is not, and will never be, the focus of my own study.
While I could do without the feeling that I just insulted every resident of Japan simultaneously, there’s too much work to do to dwell on it any further.
P.S. Absolutely without sarcasm, I am grateful at the reply regarding the Japanese that best fits “moment” in the “moment of Zen” context. I have wondered for years, but I had no one to ask. I stand corrected.
