he human mind is made for nothing m

he human mind is made for nothing more than for using language.
No, that’s not quite right. The human mind is made for nothing more than for communicating with other minds: and language is the tool that it instinctively, automatically uses.
If language then is a tool to a purpose, it makes sense to approach it the same way any crafts-person or artist uses a tool. The pianist tunes and maintains their piano, but doesn’t sit down to press keys; they sit down to make music. The luthier sharpens their tools, but doesn’t set out to push planes and pull saws; they set out to build a guitar. The cyclist adjusts and oils their bike, but doesn’t set out to turn pedals and shift gears; they set out to go for a ride. Past the basics, the use of the tool improves not as a result of concentrating on the tool, but of using the tool for its intended purpose over and over again and letting the natural intelligence of the body and mind refine the process by itself. The human is an amazing creature that will adapt in every way to be more suited to what it is asked to do regularly.
If then you want to be better at a language, simply process more of that language, at regular intervals and in large quantities; and what better way to do that than reading? You are in control of both the pace and the quantity – no one is rushing you and no one is holding you back – you can understand as deeply or broadly as you wish – and there is always, always more text waiting for you, more authors with things they wish to tell you, more worlds waiting to open themselves to you.
[RANDOKU] Multipass Reading: Be Sloppy the First Ten Times, Because You Can Always Come Back
by khatzumoto
Too many people try to read books in one shot. One sitting (or a handful of long sittings). One long, “Hail Mary” pass. That’s all well and good, except that, since you’re both the quarterback and the receiver in this metaphorical game (in fact, you are an entire, single-person American football team), you very quickly throw your arm out.
So, no, bad. Don’t read a book once.
Read it 10 times.
And the first nine times, read badly. Read sloppily. Just these first nine times. Read the book out of order, skim and skip to the cool parts — the pictures and cleavage 1 and swearing and the fight scenes.
Remember how, when you were a kid, and there were things called newspapers, and (especially when a big, fat one came in on Sundays) you would skip directly to the comics — the funnies? Yeah? Do that. With all books. Especially books in languages you’re not used to yet.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying never read books properly. I’m just saying don’t do it now; don’t do it first. Do it later. Skim and skip and skid through the book now: only read the cool parts. You can always read it properly, word for word, like a good little girl, after the hundredth time. Your hundredth pass through can be your “proper” pass.
What’s that? Yeah, we started with nine or ten; we changed it to a hundred. Why? ‘Coz we’re capricious like that! Okay? We play it fast and loose!We take DayQuil at night! We drink milk from the carton! We spread butter without a butter knife! We’re reading randomly, motherlover! This beRANDOKU (亂読, 多読 (tadoku)’s sexy cousin)!
OK, easy, Internal Leonidas. Calm down.
• So, is it your hundredth time through yet? No? Then keep reading sloppily.
• OK, now it is your hundredth time through? Yes? Good. Now, your hundredth time through, you can read the book “properly”, in order, in sequence, in long sittings, because any book you’ve been through a hundred times probably deserves it because it’s obviously one that you actually like enough to do that to.
But the first 99 times? Pffft. Screw it. What, are the words running away? No. Is the book running away? No, you own it. The book will still be there and the words will still be there in the exact order the author put them in and you’ll be able to go through them in that exact order, like Teacher’s favorite kid, after your hundredth pass through the book.
You own it. You own the book. Do you know what it means to own something? It means you can do whatever the Fuddruckers you like with it, that’s what it means. You can make it live in your restroom, tear it up and put the pages in your pocket, make paper planes out of it and no one can say jackto you because it’s your property. Oh, and you can also objectify it, gaze at it, and cast your eyes across its pages in any order you like! In fact, you can even flip the script and choose to not look at the parts you don’t like — to treat them as if they didn’t even exist!
By the way, do you like how the numbers keep changing? 9? 99? It’s sloppy, isn’t it? That’s the point. Sloppy. Like our reading. We don’t do the job once well, we do it a hundred times badly, like laying a coat of paint, many times over the same spots goes the brush.
Don’t not read properly, just postpone it. Read badly 9~99 times first — be flaky, like someone who breaks his promises and skips out on his friends because he can’t be bovvered and abandons the woman (or women? ) he’s holding hands with at the time literally the instant something better-looking comes strutting down the street 2: in short, be an absolute bastard, because it’s a freaking book; it’s an object; treat it like one; you can do that and it’s cool. Then read well.
↑ Maybe if I actually read books properly, I wouldn’t write paragraphs like that…
Screw around now so you can be serious later. If you would read like an adult, read like a child first.
1. `How do you decide which sentences from your input to copy over to your SRS?
o This is a tough one! If you’re like me, you’re a greedy little hobbit who wants to know everything. So here are some tips:
 Pick the ones that stretch your knowledge slightly, not so much that you’re lost, and not so little that you’re simply tagging “です” on the end. One vague guideline when you learn, say, a noun, is to learn it with the verbs that act on it.
 Picking the ones you’d like to say or write one day is an excellent start. There are many sentences out there and you’ll have to get pretty selective. Don’t be like me and feel like you have to learn everything you see. Go for what seems the most valuable.
 The other thing about picking sentences from your input is that it takes a lot of mental energy. So the key there is to just keep going until you drop. Go until you’re tired of it, then take a break from picking sentences but never take a break from getting Japanese input. As far as possible, you should spend every waking hour (and maybe even sleeping hours, if you it doesn’t keep you awake) receiving Japanese.
2. Where do you get the sentences? (internet, etc?)
o The short answer to that is anywhere and everywhere that native Japanese is spoken and written. More concretely:
 When I first started, I got them from the Starter Oxford Japanese Dictionary. As the name implies, it’s very good for starters, but you will soon outgrow it.
 2ch is perhaps the most famous Japanese forum site. It’s got a forum for every interest. Here, you can read a lot of the words of just regular Japanese people. There’s lots of both slang and more formal-toned discussion. As you may be aware, it was thstarting point of the Train Man phenomenon.
 Electronic dictionaries, like the Canon IDF-3000 and later the Canon V-80, have been key sources of sentences. These can be quite expensive, so do shop around a bit.
 Internet dictionaries. If you don’t yet have an electronic dictionary and/or a software dictionary, the Yahoo online dictionary is a decent substitute. It has tons of example sentences in both the bilingual Japanese/English and the monolingual Japanese sections, respectively. BUT!! BE CAREFUL OF ANY EXAMPLE SENTENCED LABELED “[慣用表現]” — these are awkward; do not use them.
 Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC is the place to look up the pronunciation of Japanese names, in the “Translate Words” section. However, the example sentences on the site sometimes contain errors. They are mostly good, but I would avoid them to be safe; you don’t want to go learning erroneous Japanese, and when sentences are your primary learning medium, you need to be able to trust what you read 100%. The Yahoo online dictionary is mostly based on highly-regarded, rigorously edited paper dictionaries that have been around for a while (decades?). WWWJDIC is a bit newer and more open source. Don’t get me wrong, though, I mean no disrespect to Dr. Breen.
 In February 2005, I installed the Japanese version of Windows XP on my computer. This was an important move. It is also a reversal of our typical idea of cause and effect in that: it’s not that you know so much Japanese that you can use a Japanese OS. Rather, it is by using a Japanese OS that you learn a lot of Japanese. If you use a computer a lot, consider turning it fully Japanese.
 And, of course, there are the usual suspects: movies, books, dramas (dramedies and soap operas), news and videos.
 Fuji News Network’s online newscast can be depressing, but it’s how I learnt to understand the news.
 Yomiuri Online recently (2005-ish) started podcasting a lot of both audio and video content for free. You don’t need an iPod to watch/listen to it. They also have a superbly written geek section.
 If you’re a fan of BitTorrent, then the good people of D-Addicts record shows from Japanese TV, sometimes complete with commercial breaks. uTorrent is a good BitTorrent client.
 When it comes to movies, I watched a lot of dubbed Hollywood movies, because (a) I knew I already liked the movie, and (b) I already knew the situation and what dialogue to expect. Dubbed Hollywood movies can guarantee you both enjoyment and learning.
 I love Star Trek, Seinfeld and Will Smith. You can find Japanese versions of these on Amazon.jp. These generally come with Japanese/English audio and Japanese/English subs.
 If you