Japanese and More

I’m still learning Japanese! After five months I’m now at level seven and know 200+ kanji. That sounds pretty good, but there are SIXTY levels and 2,000 kanji to learn so I’ve barely gotten started. I’m still really enjoying it though.

Whenever I feel like doomscrolling or doing something unproductive on my phone I hop over and do a few lessons or reviews. I used to spend a bit of time in the morning doing Wordle or other NYTimes games and this has almost replaced all of that. Learning such a foreign language feels a lot like puzzle solving to me.

I’m also learning how to make my own glazes for my ceramics work. The chemistry is fascinating. It’s demystified how glazes look the way they do and WHY they do what they do. And the cool thing is ultimately it’s just a bunch of tiny rocks suspended in water. It’s just rocks!

I’ve got a few mugs I’ve been posting on my Instagram stories but I’m going to start posting more to the grid. One cup design I’ve been trying to crack is a double-walled cup that you can use for hot tea and not burn your hand while it’s brewing. I’m currently on my 5th iteration and I have finally poured my first plaster molds which means I should have an unfired clay version sometime this week. I’ll definitely be posting about it!