Japanesque: Musings on all things Japanese cover art

Japanesque: Musings on all things Japanese

Japanesque: Musings on all things Japanese

By: J.D. Wisgo
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About this listen

Are you into Japan? Having been obsessed with the land of the rising sun for nearly thirty years, J.D. Wisgo (creator of SelfTaughtJapanese.com and Arigatai Books) talks passionately about Japan’s culture, language, and other related topics such as Aikido, calligraphy, and translation, with occasional treatment of other topics like software development, AI, and virtual reality.


No knowledge of Japan or Japanese is required, but Japanesque promises to provide interesting, insightful, and funny information about everything related to Japan.


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J.D. Wisgo Language Learning Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Episode 5: With the recent advances in AI, does learning a foreign language still make sense?

    Episode 5: With the recent advances in AI, does learning a foreign language still make sense?
    May 15 2024

    With the recent major advances of AI such as Large Language Models (LLM) that have significantly improved the quality of translations, does it even make sense to learn foreign languages anymore? Is it a waste of time?


    I'm pretty sure you can guess my stance on this one, but I decided to list a bunch of reasons to back up why I feel the way I do about language learning in the future.

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    13 mins
  • Episode 4: Studying Calligraphy in Japan

    Episode 4: Studying Calligraphy in Japan
    Apr 16 2024

    In this episode I talk about some calligraphy-related activities during my recent trip to Japan:

    • a 1-on-1 calligraphy training session I had with a calligraphy master in Kyoto (Chifumi Calligraphy Kyoto)
    • a visit to a calligraphy exhibit in Kyoto (in Shimadai Gallery)
    • the book hotel in Jinbocho (the city of books) and purchasing a calligraphy dictionary


    The cover image is the final work I made during my calligraphy lesson in Kyoto. It reads 以心伝心 [ishin denshin], which means "communicating without words", or "telepathy".


    By the way, the cover image in Japanesque episodes 1 and 2 is also a work I did of the character 和, meaning "peace" and "Japan".


    Here's the website for the calligraphy classroom I visited: https://calligraphy-kyoto.com/


    Check out this link for my photo album of the Shimadai gallery: https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2024/04/13/japan-travels-shimadai-gallery-calligraphy-photo-collection/

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    22 mins
  • Episode 3: Ki-Aikido Training in Japan

    Episode 3: Ki-Aikido Training in Japan
    Apr 11 2024


    In this episode I talk about a 5-hour Ki-Aikido training session that I attended in Osaka (in Japanese). I also give a very rough summary of Ki-Aikido to give some context to my experience.


    I plan on covering Ki-Aikido (心身統一合氣道）in more detail in upcoming episodes, but if you want to know more you can check out this article: https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2019/10/22/oregon-ki-society-learning-mindfulness-self-control-and-aikido-in-and-around-portland/


    Cover image is of me training in the US in a recent event. I didn't have any photos from the Osaka event, unfortunately.

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    17 mins
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