About me

It’s only less than half a year and I realized that this section is outdated! (The last I updated was in Aug 2011~)

So I think I’ll do a decent update and detail my language journey over here.

Fang/ Fang Yock / Yu Huifang

I use different names under different situations but am most comfortable with people calling me “Fang” since most people address me this way.

I love different cultures and languages. Most of it is due to the society that I live in, Singapore. I have been extremely fortunate to be able to grow up with people of different races and this probably started me to want to know more about different races and cultures. This could also be the reason why I enjoy traveling as I get to experience different cultures when I’m overseas. I believe the best way to enjoy these is through backpacking as it gives me an opportunity to interact with the locals.

Back in 2009, I was studying Japanese and wanted a place to keep myself going as I was preparing for JLPT 1. I was 4 years 4 months into learning Japanese. During the period when I was waiting for my JLPT results, I started to learn Korean (11th Dec 2009). Yet I never actively learned it. The process was pretty much of a wanting to learn two languages at the same time. In the same month, I got hook on a Korean period drama, 선덕여왕. It got me REALLY interested in Korean history and culture.

The result came in Feb 2010. I screwed up the exam and only achieved 63% instead of 70% to pass the exam. Due to the efforts and time spent on preparation, it was actually pretty much of an overkill. I decided to give myself a break by attempting translation before I go back to taking the exam again. I managed to get into the team of volunteer translators of Watching America in the same month. Started to translate a lot more articles in Chinese than Japanese.

I was pretty much trying to figure out the direction of my blog in 2010. It sort of changed and I started blogging on things related to language learning processes and methods, culture and translation. In the same year, I was traveling a lot due to various reasons. My plans to seriously learn languages could not be realized as a result, unfortunately. However, I decided to give myself a break and made my way to Korea in spite of my schedule. With hardly a good knowledge of Korean, I went as I had wanted very much wanted to understand more about this country since I was interested in its history and culture. Had a totally amazing experience in Korea and this experience changed me in more ways than I could ever imagine. I returned with many things in my head and started to look at languages in a different light. In less than 2 months, I was fortunate enough to take part in Claude’s Polyglot Project. It was my first time taking part in such projects, it was such an enriching experience and I still remember the joy when I realized my name was published in a book. And I continued with sharing my learning experiences on my blog in the same year yet I was also considering taking up a course in translation during that period of time

After months of consideration, I finally started on my translation course (English and Chinese) in Jan 2011. Though this was the case, I started a blog on Korea in April as I wanted to learn more about Korea and I was unwillingly to forsake anything Korean at all. I learned a great deal about Korea while I was writing for that blog. (this, I will work on this year~)

In June 2011, Paulino approached me for his project. I was pleasantly surprised by it and participated in it. Participating in this project was another mind-blowing experience as I hardly had any knowledge of linguistics. It was an extremely steep learning curve for me but I enjoyed myself a great deal during the process and realized that my love for languages exploded exponentially after this. I realized that I was learning more about linguistics ever since. Then, in Aug 2011, I asked to be a contributor blogger for Linguistics & Multilingual Society Of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and was accepted.

After having such experiences, I wondered about taking a postgrad in linguistics but I worried a great deal since I wasn’t a linguistics major. There was a lot of moving forth and backwards with this and finally I made up my mind to go for it.

As the last few months approached, I hardly had time for learning languages during this period of time as my modules got tougher (this really made me really sad as I couldn’t even find time for myself). For the last quarter of 2011, I was just spending time with translation (still holding a desire to want to learn Korean!) Exams finally ended in middle Dec and I spent the days after that catching up on my life with friends.

2011 ended with hardly much Korean and Japanese learning, which to me was a regret in some ways.

As you can see now, I was really having a journey with languages. Thanks to learning languages, I had experienced a great deal of things. The most important thing is, I get to know many people who love languages from different walks of life. I have to say this was the most enriching thing for me cos it’s thanks to all these people that I have come this far.

I attribute 2011 a blast, thanks to someone whom I got to know during my 2010 Korea trip. Thanks to him, I had achieved a lot. It’s also thanks to this amazing person that I dare to dream big dreams and push myself further and harder. I will be working a lot harder in 2012, thanks to everyone who has given me your support in every single way possible. Seriously, thank you.

I guess that’s about it from me.

I welcome any feedback about my entries, the topics you hope to see, or if you are interested in having me participate in any interesting language project that you have (I’ll be very glad to consider them and get my hands dirty!), or perhaps if you just like to send me an email to talk to me, please do that! I welcome anything you have to say so that I can improve and learn from you! Do write to me at creativityjapanese@gmail.com

Jan 2012