Sometimes a samurai mind needs to be shaken up. And stirred.
297 days ago, I signed up for Silverspoon, a service from the creator of All Japanese All the Time, that is meant to guide you to Japanese fluency. Today, I am celebrating by listening to German Rock. What the heck? Continue reading »
Break out the soy sauce, because Samurai Mind Online is lost in translating another Japanese source today! In this chapter of 1日30分」を続けなさい!人性勝利の勉強法55 Learn to Win by Yukio Furuichi (古市幸雄) asks the simple question, what is the best way to read? Continue reading »
Okay, not completely true. When I forget to turn in my daughter’s DVD of, let’s say, Barbie: A Fairy Secret (a cinematic tour de force-harrumph!) and am asked to fork over six bucks, my heart doesn’t sing. But then I remember that it is a forced donation to an organization that I have voluntarily given money to in the past and that I will willingly give to again.
Libraries have helped me shape my life, maybe even saved my life. Continue reading »
Spaced-repetition, the final frontier. To boldly go where no samurai notebook has gone before.
I’ve used notebooks for a long time. For a while, I was doing “morning pages”, a method popularized by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. (I highly recommend it.) Continue reading »
Yeah, sing it, just like the Rolling Stones. “Sa-mu-rai Time is on my side! Yes it is!” Don’t know how to sing? That’s okay, sing it badly. Don’t know who the Rolling Stones are? Abandon all hope ye who enter.
As I write this, I have a device strapped to my wrist, counting down and ready to vibrate in twelve minutes. Continue reading »
Don’t let your skills lose their charge. A little a day keeps the skills in play.
20歳であれ、80歳であれ、誰でも學ぶことをやめてしまえば老人になる。學ぶことをやめなければいつでも若さを保てる。人生で最も重要なことは心を若く保つことだ。
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest (lit: most important) thing in life is to keep your mind young.
Furuichi Tip:「太く短く」より「細かく長く」のほうが簡単!
Samurai Dose of Soy Translation: A Little Bit Every Day Over Time is Better Than a Lot over Short Periods
I have been a reluctant writer but now I have found ways to turn writing into a game. I have had a space at a writer’s loft for years and have written many pages now, but now it seems my writing has taken off in new and exciting ways. (To me at least!) Part of this is a new way in which I am managing time. (See Samurai Time is on Your Side) But I also play a little game called keeping the laptop battery charged. Continue reading »
「1日30分」を続けなさい!人性勝利の勉強法55 Learn to Win 古市幸雄 Furuichi Yukio
Furuichi Tip #1: Timing is Essential
First a note on how I found this book. I knew through the All Japanese All the Time website that if I wanted to learn Japanese, I “needed” (dwa–dangerous word alert) to immerse myself in materials that I enjoyed. However, I felt that I “should” (dwa) do this by reading Japanese comics. “Should” and “need” are actually words to watch out for as you find ways to to tap into your mind’s potential. Fun, even if fun means overcoming obstacles and enjoying it, is a better signpost to a learning and life-path.
After trying to become a manga fan, I realized that my guilty pleasure is actually reading self-help books. I love books that promise me the world, that promise me that I can transform my life in x steps. Continue reading »
My name is Juan Rivera and this is my blog. Samurai mind online is about learning and self-help strategies with an Eastern edge. Disclaimer #1: I don’t know anything about samurai. I don’t want to be a samurai. I don’t buy into the samurai mythology. I don’t want to be Tom Cruise. (Though I do like the thought of jumping up and down on Oprah’s couches and babbling excitedly).
What fascinates me about the whole samurai thing is how the Japanese were able to choose to rise to the challenge of modernization. They were confronted by the West and were able to rise to the challenge and compete with the big boys. As the events leading up to World War II show, there was a dark side to this new knowledge. Learning needs to have an ethical side to it as well.
Let Samurai Mind Online Help You Find the Way
This blog came about from my desire to learn Japanese and from what I learned about learning as I learned more and more. (Did you learn something from my overuse of learning?) As I learned more kanji, I realized that I learned more from reading materials that were fun for me. I tried reading manga or Japanese comics, but that was somebody else’s fun.
I realized that I was a self-help junkie and started to realize that’s what I needed to read. I became particularly interested in Japanese “brain-boom” books, books that explore study methods and how to better optimize learning and growth.
Disclaimer #2: I am still learning Japanese and am committed to immersing myself in the language. My translations may be flawed, but its part of my immersion journey. I could also back up my ideas with research done in English, but that also interferes with my immersion goal. I will include reviews of “Western” books that I have found helpful. Take everything I say about Japanese sources with a grain of soy sauce. Take everything else with a grain of salt and experiment on yourself.
Samurai Mind explores some of these books and their underlying philosophies as well as my meandering along the way. My purpose is to share these books and other tools I’ve come across the way so that we can all lead happier, healthier, and wealthier lives. I firmly believe that if we fully can tap our minds, we can better serve our selves, others, and the earth in a spirit of intelligent play.