pasithea

When I lived in Oklahoma I did a lot of social work type stuff. One of the groups I worked with was Literacy Volunteers of America This was a very humbling and interesting experience to me. I could not imagine going through life being unable to read. One of my students was a man who had run his own business for 20 years and had gotten buy trusting his secretary to take diction properly and his accountant to handle his finances properly. It totally stunned me that somone could run a successful business which handled over a million dollars a year and be barely able to read a stop sign. He was not stupid, his life just had not afforded himt he time to learn to read.

So now I'm finding out a bit of what it was like from the other side. I've been studying hard for japanese class. I still have only maybe half of the hiragana characters memorized but suddenly I'm finding words springing to life. I see characters and I recognize them. whats more I can understand characters I don't know because of the context. This morning I glanced at my book and noticed a prominent GI on the cover, the read the characters around it RA and NA. The last one was was easy. Hiragana! Similar things when I look at the various food items and other objects I have with hiragana text on them. I'm suddently seeing and understanding words. it's really really exciting! Like unwrapping christmas presents type exciting! I can't wait to go to the bookstore this weekend and pick out some childrens books to learn to read. :)