Mastering Japanese-Lesson 5-Avoiding the big booby trap

In this lesson, I am going to talk about the absolute number one reason
why people throw in the towel midway when it comes to attempting to
achieve anything. Without a doubt, this is the reason behind practically
every failed diet or fitness program, its the reason why marriages fail
and end in divorce, it's the culprit behind why some once earnest Christians
quit going to church and start backsliding. It'll cause the relapse of the
recovering alcoholic or drug addict and will cause the promising young
student to drop out of school or the talented young executive to suddenly
cease climbing the ladder of corporate career success. Satan has used
this tool to mercilessly cause the downfall of multitudes upon multitudes, especially those who were so close, just inches away from finishing the race.

Let's identify this destructive beast for what it is, so that we can nip it in
the bud before it has an opportunity to do damage. First, let's take a look at
some examples of the thought processes that occur inside people's heads
just before they throw in the towel.

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The promising student:
"Man this class is boring. Forget this. I'm quitting.!"
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The martial arts student: "
"I've been practicing for months now and I'm still no better
than when I first started."
OR
"Even though I've been training longer, John got his black belt
before I did. Screw this. I'm quitting."
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The once earnest churchgoer:
"I've been attending church faithfully for years now and G-d still hasn't
hooked me up with a wife. Forget this Church crap. The evolutionists
must be right. I'm quitting."
OR
"I've been praying all night and I still feel sexually frustrated.
Forget this prayer and God stuff. "
OR
"My mom died of cancer in spite of my prayers. I'm
just can't trust God anymore. "
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The once happily married individual:
"My partner just doesn't turn me on like he/she used to.
That new employee in the office who smiled at me the day,
he/she is much more attractive. Maybe I will ask him/her out."
OR
"That original heartthumping spark that was there during our
honeymoon has faded away."
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The promising young executive:
"My boss is younger than me. I can't take this humiliation.
Forget it. I'm quitting."
OR
"Even though I have a passion for selling electronics. My
brother is making more money as a lawyer. Screw this
job. I'm going where the money is period."
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There is actually a common denominator inherent in each of the above
statements. Are you able to spot it? Basically, each and every one of
these statements is in one way or another saying, "I am quitting because
what is happening or has happened is CONTRARY TO MY EXPECTATIONS."
In other words, before the promising student ever enrolled in his or her first
class, before the aspiring martial artist ever stepped into the training hall, before the new believer ever attended his or her first worship service and before
the talented young executive began his/her first day of work, they all had unfortunately already set themselves up to fail by "BEING TOO EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO THE RESULTS OF THEIR EFFORTS!"

Don't get me wrong here. It's okay to have great expectations. For the
new believer, expect and look forward to the Lord doing great and wonderful
things in your life, for the aspiring martial artist, look forward to getting in
shape and developing physical self-defence confidence, and for the student undergoing this "5 every 2" listening absorption language system, expect and
look forward to achieving enhanced fluency. Expect and look forward to great
things BUT DON'T BE EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO THE HOW, WHAT, WHEN, WHY, OR WHERE
OF THE RESULTS or you'll lose heart when things don't go the way you had
anticipated.

Any human being who has been alive on earth for any period of time should
realize that life hardly ever runs according to our expectations. If it had, I
would be more famous than Tom Cruise and richer than Bill Gates by now(joking
here but I think you get my point.) Think about it. The Jewish ruling majority
during the Roman occupation of Israel missed the coming of G-d's promised messiah to them, simply because they were blinded or too attached to certain expectations of how He would be revealed to them. They expected a political conquerer according
to certain prophecies.

Nobody knows exactly when Jesus is coming back. But does that mean,
Christian believers are to become lax in their faith. Quite the contrary! Jesus
urges us to remain attentive, alert and to constantly maintain our ferventness
for the things of the L-rd. Likewise, I urge you to maintain persistence when
the initial honeymoon enthusiasm of the early listening sessions dies out (and it surely will), or during those times when a lack of enthusiasm and boredom
sets in.

Remember, there are many things you do on a daily or weekly basis that
you are not emotionally attached to whatsoever. In other words, 99% of
the time, you habitually do these things whether you are bored, tired, angry
or feeling happy or excited like bathing, brushing your teeth, eating meals
etcetera. I want the listening sessions to be treated in the same way.
Just do it with the faith that you'll be better for it in the end.

In fact the secret to maintaining audacious persistence is a biblical
principle. The secret lies in the following one word: FAITH

Without it, it would be almost impossible to achieve anything because
we would always be looking for short-term results instead of just putting
in our time and paying our dues to achieve our goals. Remember that
Scripture says that Faith is the evidence of things not yet seen. In layman's
terms, I like to rephrase it by saying faith no-matter-what! No matter
whether I'm bored, tired, in a bad mood or whatever, I will have faith that
this system will work and will exercise my faith by sticking to it. PERIOD.
This is the kind of faith that will build dynamic results.

I think Joseph in Egypt from the book of Genesis is an amazing example
of someone who had tremendous faith in G-d NO MATTER WHAT. Here
was a guy who was sold into slavery by his very own brothers. He ended
up being a servant boy in Egypt where he ended up being thrown into prison
for two years on a false accusation. TWO YEARS! Man, I've had times
in my life when I've thrown in the towel if things didn't go my way for two
hours. It was all because I'd become attached to the results instead of
just relaxing and trusting in G-d's power and promises.

Remind yourself of how amazingly simple this program is. All you have to
do is study five conversations once every two weeks and then on a daily
basis, twice a day for only about 15 minutes, all you have to do is just let
the tape roll, while you absorb the conents of the conversation. Dude,
nothing could be easier. So on this note, I wish you the very best as you
begin your second week of listening to the first set of conversations.
Remember, no emotional attachments. Its not going to dramatically
change your life and these listening sessions should never get in the way
of the important things in your life, like spending time with your family or
pursuing other goals.

Now here are some actual questions I received from participants along with
some ones that I anticipated might be stirring around in your head.

************************FAQ*******************************
QUESTION:
There are still some niggling nagging questions in the back of my mind
about the nuances of some little particles like sou nanDA, kitaNOyo...
sutekidaNA... my wife said I should just 'feel' them so I'm trying that.

ANSWER:
a)　The DA in sou nanDA is the colloquial version of DESU.

b) There is no difference in meaning whatsoever between 来たよand
来たのよ. However, the の in 来たのよ adds a feminine emphatic
flavor to the word. No heterosexual guy would ever say kitaNOyo.

c) The "NA" in sutekidaNA is equivalent to "NE", which is used
for emphasis. I'm sure you've heard it being used before. If
I say よかったな！In English, it means, (It was) good, wasn't it.
The NA is equivalent to the wasn't it.

By the way, your wife is right. You should just relax and "feel" the
gist of the words. Once you hear these expressions within their
appropriate conversational context enough times, you'll start to
understand what they mean in your bones.
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QUESTION:
Now I was just wondering, this will help my listening and reading a lot...
how will it help my speaking?

ANSWER:
The answer to this question is two-fold. First, at this stage, don't
worry so much about output(speaking). Input (absorption) is much,
much more important Second, you'll find your speaking ability
naturally improving hand-in-hand as your listening and reading
comprehension improve.
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QUESTION:
I was able to complete this weeks mission! And it actually was quite fun,
though sometimes I did get sleepy listening to the conversations over
and over. I feel that I am more familiar with the situations and phrases...
but I still think the guy speaks too quickly for me to follow him fully. I
was just supposed to read along right? Not shadow with my own voice?

ANSWER:
Just read along only. NO LISTENING AND REPEATING. You do NOT
have to shadow the recording with your own voice. Your eyes should
just be able to read the script in step with the guy (or girl). Further,
don't worry about getting sleepy. Trust me, the input is happening. It
actually might be getting deeper into your subconscious when you're
in a more relaxed state. Just let the tape roll five times and you're done.
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QUESTION:
Explain the following:
kitaNOyo - a kind of more casual __expression... a stronger casual tone?
niwa ga aruNOyo - same kind of thing? does this happen with women and men?
nanishitaNda - a kind of __expression, asking for an explanation?
sorekara and sorede - whats the difference??

ANSWER:
a) kitaNOyo-As mentioned above, a casual female _expression.

b) niwa ga aruNOyo-The "NO" paints a feminine flavor to the sentence.

c) nanishitaNda - means "What did you do?"

d) sorekara and sorede-
SOREKARA means "and then".
For example:　本を読んだ。それから日本語を勉強した。
　　　　　　　（I read a book. And then I studied Japanese.)

SOREDE means "and so" inferring a logical connection between the
preceding and subsequent action.

For example. 仕事をした。それで＄１００稼いだ。(Ｉ　worked. And so I earned $100.)
With SOREKARA, there is no logical connection between the two actions. You
just did this and then you did that.
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QUESTION:
Matey, I understand the importance of repetition. But isn't listening to
a set of conversations 100 times a little crazy?

ANSWER:
It's not any more crazy than a professional golfer waking up early in the
morning, to make a thousand putts until his hand starts bleeding. He
goes back in the house, slaps a bandage on his hand and then makes a
thousand more putts. It's not any more crazy than a young Arnold
Schwarzenegger working out eight hours a day, seven days a week.
It's not any more crazy than an aspiring piano player practicing the
same musical scales hundreds of times over and over again. Let me
put it this way, let's say your playing basketball and see you an opportunity
to make a winning shot, but its a difficult long shot. Which would you prefer?
That you had practiced that shot before 50 times or 100 times. Think of it
this way, after you've listened to a set of conversations 100 times, that's it
baby. You'll never ever have to go back to it again to review or whatever.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. 15 minutes in the morning and at night
over a period of two weeks is not extreme.
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Next lesson will talk about the benefits to be gained from language study.

STAY TUNED!