Last December, after trying for four years, I finally passed The Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Level 4. Level 4 is the lowest of the 4 levels of the exam. I found the undertaking very challenging. I'm currently taking two required undergraduate classes, and hope to be accepted as a graduate student in the fall. Both are pretty far from the Humanities, and I sometimes feel pretty guilty about how much fun I'm now having.
Machines are interesting.
This is better. There is an old Japanese saying, one much beloved by modern American practitioners of traditional martial arts. He who forgets the past loses both eyes. For women this is an especially terrible problem, since women's history is more often institutionalized in an oral tradition, and not given space in public libraries or artistic institutions. We must choose between entering blindly and fully into an unanalyzed tradition associated with oppression, or turning our backs on that oppression and losing the tradition as well.