Japanese with anime voice: episode42
Hello, I’m Sachi.
April 30 is Library Day, which commemorates the promulgation of the Library Law in 1950. This law made it possible to borrow books from public libraries free of charge in principle. I see. Libraries were not always free to borrow books.
Japanese libraries are more stylish in the past. Like the ones built when Western culture arrived in Japan? They have a kind of stylish, Western-style architecture. However, as you know, Japan is an earthquake-prone country, and from the standpoint of earthquake resistance, such old buildings can no longer be used for public purposes. So nowadays, most of them have been reconstructed, or libraries are built separately and the old ones are used for limited-time events. If the old building is left as it is and used for other purposes, that’s fine, but to rebuild it… It’s a building from the good old days but, it’s kind of sad, isn’t it?
But in my hometown, they built a separate library for earthquake resistance reasons. But I think the old building was sturdier. I think the current one looks like it will collapse soon. I shouldn’t say such a thing. It just looks fragile, but in fact, I am sure that the earthquake resistance measures are excellent.
I have seen movies from overseas, and it is the same all over the world that libraries are supposed to be quiet. But I think that if the library is too quiet, the coughing, sniffling, and crying of children will bother me a lot. And it echoes. In my opinion, it would be better to play healing music in the library at a low volume. I wonder how that would work. Is it bad?
I used to go to the library to study because I liked the atmosphere of the library. I think I just liked myself studying in the library. I also liked to find my favorite library. The library where I live now is one of my favorites. It’s located near a castle, so it matches the landscape of the castle, and it looks nice and has a nice atmosphere.
Well, now that I think back, I used to go to the library quite often. I’m not the type of person who can sit at a desk and concentrate for hours but… Why did I love the library so much? It’s a mystery to me.
Libraries usually open at 9:00 a.m., but I have never been able to get there right on time. If you arrive 30 minutes or an hour after the library opens, it will soon be lunchtime. Even if I stay from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m., I take breaks during that time, so in the end I never have time to concentrate on my studies. All that is certain is that I am in the space of a library.
I knew it, home is the best. I can sleep when I want to and not have to worry about the noise coming from me, while being considerate of those around me. Sometimes, when you are dozing off, do you ever say “ah” for some reason? I think I just said something while dozing off, and then I go back to sleep. I think I did that a few times at my last company. It’s so embarrassing when you do it in a library or something. But at home, there is no one listening, so I don’t have to worry about it.
Also, when I’m studying, if I can’t get an explanation into my head, I want to read it out loud. When I read out loud, I can understand the meaning of the explanation. If I don’t understand the meaning, I start talking to the explanation, saying, “I don’t understand the meaning at all, but what does it mean? How could I go to the library to study when I talk to myself so much? I am the person who should not be in the library.
Also, this is something I realized years ago. Language learning should not be done silently in a café or library. The sounds of a language are important, so unless you imitate what you hear and speak it out loud, you will not be able to pronounce it or speak it as well as a native speaker. I think it is necessary to practice moving the mouth. Whether studying grammar or vocabulary, I realized that it is more effective to study out loud. So now I study English and other subjects at home while speaking out loud. When I can’t pronounce a word correctly, I get frustrated and my voice gets even louder. It’s really a problem. Really. Incidentally, I also read this podcast episode out loud many times. First of all, I put what I say into writing, so I read it out loud to get the whole flow of the sentence. When I translate the text into English, I also read it out loud. I am really a noisy person.
