I've never really thought that learning a language was all that difficult. Yeah, languages have lots of rules, grammar, blah, blah, etc.

But even those tend to be either (A) accessible or (B) not that important.

What's hard--for me, really hard--is finding time to study and learn.

**ENTER: Bodybuilder Coach.
**BODYBUILDER COACH: You don't find time, bro. You make time.

I hate advice like that. Yeah, it might be a valid statement. But a lot of us are already "making time" for other things like jobs (which help us stay alive and whatnot), family (which help us feel alive and whatnot), and all kinds of other important activities like exercising, watching movies, cooking, and every now and then an old-fashioned space-out session.

I've found that what helps me to stick to my studies these days, more than anything, is forgiving myself when I fail to achieve or stick to my goals.

It's fun to bust out a calculator and think, 20 words a day for 90 days... that's 1,800 words! Boo-yeah!

But then you get the flu. Or lose your job. Or get brutal whiplash in a car accident. And 20 words a day feels pretty much impossible. That's OK.

Right now I'm struggling to complete the following every day:
- Learn 20 new Korean words a day
- Learn 20 new Thai words a day
- Learn 20 new German words a day
- Do ALL Anki flashcards due for review
- Full-time writing/editing job
- Write a daily lesson
- Work on courses and reply to barrages of emails
- Exercise, cook, and eat healthy

Yikes. I don't think there has ever been a single day where I managed to do every single one of those. I'm sure it's possible, but I'd probably hate life if I spent every waking minute doing those things. Also, I still need to do stuff like brush my teeth and shower, you know? Oh, and go to the grocery store. That takes forever!

So maybe I should rearrange my daily goals...

Must Do Every Day:
- All Anki review flashcards
- Write a daily lesson
- Full-time writing/editing job

Should Feel Awesome Whenever I Manage to Do:
- Learn 20 new Korean words a day
- Learn 20 new Thai words a day
- Learn 20 new German words a day
- Work on courses and reply to barrages of emails
- Exercise, cook, and eat healthy

That feels a little more manageable, I guess. ^_^

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Wow, that was the tangent of a lifetime. The reason I was bringing up a lack of time is that there is so much useful information in every sentence that we learn together which I don't get a chance to explain.

Seeing as how we're now on Lesson #284 and have introduced over 3,800 sentences so far, that is a ton of information.

For example, in the last lesson we had this sentence:

充電切れそう。
じゅうでん　きれそう。
My phone's gonna die.
Literally: "charge + looks like it will run out."

I think the verb 切れる is so interesting, especially when we put it next to 切る：

切れる
きれる
to expire; to run out; to wear out; to be disconnected
Note: There are other translations, too, but let's avoid overkill.

切る
きる
to cut; to sever; to turn off; to hang up (the phone)

Way back in Lesson #17, we also saw how ～きれない (which in my mind is the negative present tense of 切れる) can attach to masu-stems in order to mean something like "can't do all of (something)." Here are some sentences we looked at:

食べきれない。
たべきれない。
I can't eat all of this.

数えきれない。
かぞえきれない。
There are too many to count.

Speaking of Lesson #17, in that lesson, we were talking about Rei's uncle and how everyone was making fun of his made-up word 分かりきらない.

When I was writing that lesson, I also wanted to mention something else he said that day. We were talking about how we wanted to move to another country (we were still living in Tokyo then but getting ready to go to California... now we're in Thailand). Anyways, Rei was saying that her Mom wants us to hurry up and have kids or something.

Her uncle looked at us and said:

昆虫
こんちゅう
insect; bug

Apparently no one understood his joke, as they were all saying, "What are you talking about?" I was pretty sure I understood it (and I was right), but I didn't say anything because I wasn't too confident and I tend to be a bit shy.

Sadly, he had to explain himself.

昆虫 (こんちゅう // insect; bug) is another word for 虫 (むし // insect; bug), and 虫 is a homophone with 無視 (むし), which means "disregarding" or "ignoring."

In other words, he was saying, "Insect," and he meant, "Just ignore her."

For example, you could say:

無視しないでよ！
むし　しないで　よ！
Don't ignore me!
Literally: "ignoring + don't do + よ！"

In Lesson #189, we had a very similar-sounding sentence:

マネしないでよ!
マネ　しないで　よ！
Don't copy me! // Quit copying me!
Literally: "mimicry / imitation + don't do + よ！"

In that same lesson, we had:

見て、ニコのマネ。
みて、ニコ　の　マネ。
Look, I'm Niko (doing something stupid).
Literally: "look, + Niko + の + mimicry / imitation."

I think this sentence should have been in [NDL #26] - Japanese Rei Uses Every Day, which had gems like:

ニコのせいだよ。
ニコ　の　せい　だ　よ。
It's your fault.
Literally: "Niko + の + fault + is + よ."

And:

ニコが悪いんだよ。
ニコ　が　わるい　んだよ。
It's your fault.
Literally: "Niko + が + bad + んだよ."

Speaking of 悪い (わるい), "bad," we just saw that in the last lesson:

ここ電波悪いなあ。
ここ　でんぱ　わるい　なあ。
The signal is really bad here.
Literally: "here + radio waves + bad + なあ."

When I wrote that sentence, I also wanted to point out that all by itself, 波 (なみ) is the word for "wave."

You know it in the world-famous--or rather, world-feared--word 津波 (つなみ // tsunami). But maybe you already knew that, because we just saw this word in Lesson #265:

地震が津波を起こす。
じしん　が　つなみ　を　おこす。
Earthquakes cause tsunamis.
Literally: "earthquake + が + tsunami + を + cause.

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What I really want to say is that there are countless connections between every word of every sentence. And even if you don't have time to read all of our daily lessons from start to finish, and even though I can't point out all of these connections for you, your subconscious works on figuring this stuff out every time you trudge through some Japanese text.

A tapestry of Japanese is being built in your mind. Slowly, perhaps. But things will fall together eventually. So even if we don't feel that we're making too much progress, let's give ourselves a pat on the back for getting up and trying again each time we fail.