Self-Criticism
Thursday 4th March
…can be a good thing. I think it has driven my photography in a good direction. I’ve started taking photos now where instead of saying “Oh dear Lord, that’s rubbish” to saying “It could be better, but that’s a pretty good job actually”.
Likewise in my Japanese studies, I’ve been pretty harsh on myself. I’m frustrated that I still can’t pick up a Japanese book or newspaper and just read it. Last night I was working on my latest assignment, a 400 word essay about a recent event, and struggling once again.
This morning, however, it dawned on me as I looked at last night’s work in progress…
That’s really not your average every-day level of skill is it? I’m actually doing alright! I think I just need a little patience to go with my hard work.
I love how, although it’s a completely other system of writing, it’s still recognizably your handwriting!
sweavo
4 Mar 10 at 11:16 am
Agree.
I once read, your feelings on your own photography is a circle
1. You are not happy with your photography. So you strive to improve then
2. Your friends and family start to say they like it and you feel a little better about your photograpy, then you improve some more and
3. Your peers start saying they like your work, and you feel a little better about it then
4. You see someone else’s work which is mind blowingly good. You realise you have so much to learn.
5. Goto 1.
rollasoc
4 Mar 10 at 11:56 am
A lot of that looks remarkably similar to shorthand.
Me
4 Mar 10 at 12:33 pm
Difficult to say for sure, but I think I only see 7 bits that are crossed out which can’t be too bad.
Roger
4 Mar 10 at 12:52 pm
But the point is, Roger that even if 90% of it were crossed out, it’d still be a pretty good achievement!
Stu
4 Mar 10 at 1:10 pm
It’s all greek to me?!?!
rollasoc
4 Mar 10 at 1:55 pm
Very true!
Roger
4 Mar 10 at 2:07 pm
I am very impressed – damn good work indeed!
Lois
4 Mar 10 at 5:34 pm
I get that feeling with my job: totally incapable and inadequate, and then the boss slaps me on the back and I feel better for a minute.
lordhutton
4 Mar 10 at 6:11 pm
It is truly amazing, Stu. I don’t think I have enough space in my aging memory to learn any new language, let alone an ideographic one with so little commonality with English and the romance languages.
When I look at that, I get the sense that it’s written from left to right, and I even thought I saw a paragraph indent. Some Asian languages are written vertically in columns, aren’t they, or even right to left? The characters are so different from what my mind expects that you could probably turn that upside down and I’d never know. Quite sn acievement indeed, to compose prose like that.
I was happy just to learn what the Japanese phrases in the intro to Styx’ “Mr. Roboto” meant.
ScottJ
5 Mar 10 at 1:02 am
Yes, I wrote left to right… it’s pretty much optional whether you go left to right (and lines from top to bottom) or top to bottom (and lines from right to left). I think novels tend to be top-bottom, computer stuff is left-right and I think newspapers do whatever fits in the space they have.
Books in Japan open the ‘wrong’ way – very confusing when you look at what you think should be the front cover, and it’s the back.
Stu
5 Mar 10 at 9:50 am
self-criticism’s a tricky one isn’t it! I think it’s what makes talented people talented but it’s also what makes people hold back from opportunities and can thwart achievement. I think self-criticism is vital but the critic must also be good at handing out gold stars.
Oh, and a gold star for skills in Japanese!
sweavo
5 Mar 10 at 10:17 am
Just out of curiosity, what’s the character that looks like a capital “G” rotated 90 degrees to the right? I notice it appears a large number of times in the piece, leading me to think it might be something common like an article or conjunction.
ScottJ
5 Mar 10 at 3:09 pm
Ah yes… “no” the posessive particle. What is on the right (material or figurative) belongs to what is on the left. Mine are a little sloppy… it should be joined and the same size as all the other characters.
The third line down shows it nicely… “china” no “cuisine” no “restaurant” = “a chinese restaurant”.
Later on there is an “over there” no “chair” no “on top” which give us “on the chair over there”.
Stu
5 Mar 10 at 3:28 pm
I agree with Me, it does look like shorthand.
jane
6 Mar 10 at 5:07 am