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“Bien comunicado” Magazine Collage
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“Surrender” Oil Pastel
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Japanese “Wa” (は) and “Ga” (が)
Two weeks ago I talked about Japanese particles and how the Japanese particle “ga” (が) (subject marker) started appearing in my Pimsleur lessons when I was expecting “wa” (は) (topic marker), and how it sounded new to me. But actually, last week my daughter and I were driving around and I played lesson one in the car for us to listen to together, and I was reminded that “ga” (が) was used then. This got me thinking more about the wa/ga situation. I am still fuzzy on when to use “wa” (は) and when to use “ga” (が), but in addition to the guidelines I mentioned in my Japanese particle…
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“Serious Moonlight” Oil Pastel
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“Easter Cat” Oil Pastel
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Here Comes the Cat: Indulging in Some Language Learning Fun
My history with learning languages has been scattered throughout my life. I’ve always loved languages, but never knew which one to focus on. As a child, I liked to create my own alphabets, which I scribbled in journals that are long gone. In high school, I took Spanish and Latin. In college, I took German and New Testament Greek, and even learned the “Our Father” in New Testament Greek by heart. After college, I started learning the language I want to learn more than any other, Russian, on my own. I bought Pimsleur courses and children’s books in Russian, and of all of the language learning I had up to…
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“Everything Is Going To Be Alright” Oil Pastel
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Bosque de Chapultepec
When I visited Mexico City in the spring of 2024, one of the nicest areas I went to was Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest). This sprawling nature park covers 2,140 acres, centering around Chapultepec Hill and including Chapultepec Zoo, the Museum of Anthropology, the Rufino Tamayo Museum, and Chapultepec Castle which sits on top of the hill. Chapultepec Hill was a sacred place for the Aztecs, and the name “Chapultepec” comes from the word chapoltepēc, which is from the Aztec Nahuatl language and translates to “grasshopper hill.” Perched on top of the hill is Chapultepec Castle, a Neo-classical structure built between 1785 and 1864 as a summer palace for Spanish viceroys. Over the years,…
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“2 Different Sides of the Same Coin” Oil Pastel
Oil Pastels and Watercolor
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Japanese Particles
Since I started my current language learning schedule in September of last year, I’ve used immersion methods both in my various listening lessons and in my Duolingo app, without referring to any kind of grammatical guides. But this week while I was listening to my level one Japanese lessons in Pimsleur, I heard something new that I had to investigate. Up until now, “wa” (は), has been used as a main word marker. In my lessons it was described as a word that translates to “as for,” so “watashi wa” (わたしは) would mean “as for me” or “I am.” Why わ and は sound the same but have different hiragana…
