🌸 Chrysanthemums, Water 💧

Flowers of Chrysanthemum / Blooming / Water that does not disappear.

Author

Takumi Hayashi
August 28, 2023

菊の花
咲きにけり
消えぬ水

Flowers of chrysanthemum

Blooming,

Water that does not vanish.

きくのはな
さきにけり
きえぬみず

Flowers of chrysanthemum

Blooming,

Water that does not vanish.

The second line, saki-ni-keri uses the auxilary haiku verb “keri” to bring attentive-awareness to the dynamism entrenched in the assortment of petals blossoming, glistening, slowing molting and moving into the next phase.

This sort of “memetic film reel” is often relied upon in Japanese and keri allows us to formalize it, in the context of a Haiku.

Platform highlight: iTalki
iTalki : where you can connect w/ language teachers

Today we’re checking out iTalki

iTalki offers a way for you to connect with tutors of many different languages. In this example, I show the search for Japanese teachers. Many native speakers there, for rates as low as $10/session. I think such a platform would be very useful if you had a textbook or curriculum to go with it, so you did not feel like you were unhelpfully just “spinning the wheels” for months and months.
Might I recommend the Japanese Complete curriculum, in addition to a private tutor? The combined cost is but a percentage point of a college course and with a skilled teacher you can cover more ground.

  • Learn the most frequent 777 kanji meanings and combinations, get an edge on real-world Japanese, we cover the first 90% of kanji in the wild.

  • Get an intuitive, visceral grasp of the language via our learning system featuring Bunsetsu Jars, a visual grouping technique we developed just for Japanese Complete.

  • Use our visual sentence composer to make sentences conforming to Japanese grammar.

  • Create your own ad-libbed Japanese phrases and have a teacher read them and post the audio for you on our Misofluent social language learning section of the site.

Best for

  • people wanting to have a solid foundation in Japanese

  • people who have tried other solutions and have not had enough success

  • people who want to go at their own pace

  • people who like using the web/screen to listen and learn to new content

  • people who like doing quizzes to confirm their understanding

  • people who want authentic tips tricks and tools from trained professionals, translators, interpreters, and professors that are not available elsewhere

  • people who want a lesson plan used and improved by people who themselves became fluent speakers in Japanese

Might recommend other platforms for

  • people interested in JLPT prep (the standardized language proficiency test)

  • people wanting a traditional learning experience

  • more casual engagement philosophy

  • people who do not have five-to-twenty minutes a day to dedicate to learning

  • people who prefer to learn to speak first (recommend an iTalki tutor for starters)

Quizzes on Japanese Complete teach you to learn the “core meanings” of each kanji so you can understand their masking principle in context.

Kanji mnemonic and memory visual lessons help you quickly comprehend and retain the meanings behind kanji. Add in a little of your own imagination and focused concentration, and these meanings stick with you for life.

Flowers of chrysanthemum

Blooming [!!],

Water that does not vanish.

Brought to you for free by Takumi @ Japanese Complete. If you like this, let me know, if you have feedback or comments just reply and let me know, I want this to be the best haiku email you get!