Multilingual Observation | One Month in: The Shape of This Journey of Observation

For one month, I have been practicing "multilingual observation" every day. What has become clear through this "observation" is the "human sentiment" that lies deep within the words of each language. Not "learning," but "observing." Today, at this milestone, I look back on those small daily discoveries.

Not "learning" multiple languages, but "observing" them.
Over the past month, I have been sharing my observations little by little on note every day.

It started with "words that are similar but have different meanings," and along the way, after catching a cold and losing my voice, I spent the month looking at "words of the body," "words of the heart," "words of relationships," "words of inside and outside," and finally, "words of others."

Words reflect human sentiment.
Human sentiment, as numerous as the words themselves, was slightly different in each case.

To begin with, observation isn't about analyzing something in a difficult way. It's about picking up those moments when you feel, "Huh? This is actually kind of interesting," just as they are.

In the case of language, when you try to grasp familiar words using words from another language, you realize you can't express them well. Even if the meaning is similar, it just doesn't feel quite right.
But it is precisely in that "not feeling quite right" that discoveries are made.
And when you carefully re-examine this "gap" between words, you realize that you have always been looking at things from the same perspective.
"Wait? If I look at it from this side, it's completely different."
It really is full of moments like that. Haha.
But each time, a landscape I didn't know yet quietly peeks out. Through language, there are many "rediscoveries" within our everyday lives.

"Multilingual observation" is not difficult. We Japanese speakers, in particular, can express foreign languages in katakana, so it is actually hard to notice that many languages are already blended into various parts of our daily lives. For example, foreign language menus at cafes, signs seen while out and about, or a word heard on the news.
Multilingual observation is something anyone can start at any time, using familiar things and events. As a bonus, while you were supposed to be staring at words in languages other than Japanese, your sensitivity to Japanese also increases.

Through multilingual observation, before you know it, every day becomes filled with "rediscoveries," little by little. For me, this past month was exactly that.

I want to continue accumulating these small "rediscoveries" in my daily life through words.
Multilingual observation will continue. Please join me on this journey.

※ Click here for a look back at the one-month mark, exactly two months after I started posting.

※ Multilingual Observation Table of Contents ↓