A new era

This is yet another new start to my website.  This time round it’s a completely different approach.  I’m going to keep developing Japanese learning aids, and I will be posting messages about technical and interesting things that I find.  Using WordPress will hopefully allow me to post content without the distraction of fiddling with things, as I’m a programming geek by nature I’m never happy with something, so I’ll keep my thoughts and technical experiments separate.  WordPress is designed primarily as a means of people to communicate themselves simply and effectively and I don’t intend to diverge much from that in this main area.

This back to basics is also a statement on a rebirth.  Japan has been through such a horrendous time recently, and so many Japanese families are having to rebuild their lives from nothing again.  I also have been through a process of learning to adapt to a massively changing situation and purging out old things can be quite liberating for the soul.

There is and will continue to be a different area of this website which is going to be the playground of my PHP framework experiments.  There will eventually be many custom applications for a variety of purposes, but primarily Japanese learning aids.  This way, I can keep my two passions in active development at the same time.

By concentrating on the word rather than the function here, hopefully other people can find some of my blogs and findings useful – rather than me putting something up only to change the website again a week later.  There’ll be a mixture of Japanese and programming / web development topics, as I have a keen interest in both.  I’m between a beginner and intermediate level at Japanese, and I’ve been programming for more years than I can remember (I started programming as a small child on an Acorn Electron, and have never stopped since!)…

I had started sketching out a book of articles on learning Japanese in this site’s previous incarnation.  I do intend to expand on that, but for a couple of reasons I’m starting afresh.

1. I’ve learnt a lot more Japanese since when I started, and I’m sure some of the information, while technically correct, may not have been the best equipped advice to give.
2. Retrospect is a wonderful thing!  I’m a believer in taking one’s experience from the past and applying it to the future to a better goal.  I’m confident that eventually I can take what I’d started previously, and make it so much better.

I do want to thank my closest friends for their continued support.  I may seem stoic, but I’m not always a strong person, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without some fantastic friends.  However strong we are, each of us need the support of someone else at some point in their lives.  Perhaps with this blog I can reach out that support to other’s who may be on a similar path to myself.

皆さん、どうもありがとうございます。お互い頑張りましょう。