learning:Randy just let’s everything take it’s own course, laissez aller; Yoshimi
sets a goal, makes plans, and begins with step one, then step two...

Randy has often told me, “You won’t find any help at all trying to discover
equivalents between English grammar and Japanese. You aren’t a grammarian
anyway. Neither am I, unlike my mother the teacher. Monkey see; monkey do!
That’s what works! Most foreign men first learn Japanese from their girlfriend
(garufurendo). The only problem, if they don’t mix with other Japanese soon
enough, is these men (boifurendo) learn to speak Japanese like women, something
Japanese men find hilarious. Keep your ears open and ask questions. That’s how
to learn. And it’s a big help that so many Japanese words come straight from
English. You’ve already noticed this! For example ‘sex’ is ‘sekkusu’ though they
knew about sex in Japan before they learned about English; sex is also ‘neru’.
Learning Japanese is like learning to use chopsticks; when you get hungry enough,
you learn. Reading and writing is harder than listening and speaking, but the same
approach works.”

Yoshimi, on the other hand, has provided a book. It contains phrases and
rules of grammar. Boy, I am sure dumb! “It’s not hard, Morley-san.” (Yoshimi
began pronouncing my name correctly after one day). “The Japanese language is
written in hiragana, katakana, and kanji. When it is written alphabetically, romanji
(the English alphabet) is used. Kanji are Chinese characters with meanings that are
similar to Chinese, but not identical to them. Books are published from back to
front. Characters begin in the upper-right corner of the page and go down in a
column. When you get to the bottom, you go up to the top of the next column and
read down again. Or sometimes, characters go across the page, from right to left.”
Well, by gum, it sounds pretty hard to me! So far, I’ve learned more listing to
Yoshimi and asking questions, than from reading about it. I am dumb.

“Don’t worry about it, Morley,” Barry encourages. “You’ll learn quickly
enough once you get into a Zen temple.”

The conversation switches to pottery. Randy answers technical questions
posed by Barry and Knapper about firing a climbing kiln. He tells them what type
of wood is best and how to build a fire correctly to get the high temperature
required while avoiding too much heat that will damage the pots. Knapper-san
tells us about his own work. Barry talks about Chinese pottery, giving a quick tour
of the National Museum in Taipei created with tons of art treasures Chiang Kai-
shek rescued from the Communists in 1949:

page:

33

Japanby Morley Evans

November 21, 2000