a few things

In learning Katakana, I have mentioned before that some of them look similar to their Hiragana equivalent. Well, scratch that problem. Here's a new one for y'all. Consider the following symbols:

ツ  シ   ソ  ン

You can clearly see there are four different ones, even if the difference is tiny. In fact, the only practical difference to these signs is the stroke order. Two of them you make the long line from up-down, and the other two down-up. Can you guess which one is which? I thought so. Now consider this: in print it's fine, you can clearly see the difference and learn which one is which. But have you ever had a friend, a colleague or a relative whose handwriting is completely illegible? I know I have a few. Of course everyone writes in their own individual style; some swirly, some straight, some more or less flowy. Now consider thus: these people (or even those with semi-legible handwriting) writing the characters above. 

Conclusion: I'm screwed.

On a brighter (...?) note I can amuse you with my Fail of the Day (maybe a tag coming up here...) which occurred in my hunt for breakfast. There is a lesson to be learnt here, or in fact there are two: 

1. Do not - I repeat, DO NOT - go adventuring in the supermarket without a Japanese speaking friend alongside.

2. Learn fricking Japanese, woman!

Anyway, I ventured to the supermarket and decided that I'd try a Westernised breakfast - soy milk and cereal. Just to try. So I got the soy milk (fairly simple as it had soy beans on the carton) and then continued to decide what cereal to get. Now, this sounds as though I had alleys and alleys of brands and kinds to choose from - no, there were two kinds. One which looked more or less like regular maize corn flakes, and then what you can see in the photo right. Brown ones. My mind immediately went to wholemeal, kind of All Bran type of cereal. And, as the health aspirant I am, I grabbed a bag, snorting a little towards the regular, unhealthy sugary stuff. Alas, I could not have been more wrong. 

As I discovered this morning, once I excitedly had poured milk into a bowl and added cereal and put a spoonful in my mouth, - they're bloody chocolate cereal! Sugar rush is an understatement and I might have put on 2-3% fat in that first mouthful. 

If there ever was a warning bell ringing, telling me I need to learn this language asap - this was it. Studying, I bend to thee.

Jo x