Read the Japanese version of this book over the weekend. It was a great read, and I learned a lot from it. Am glad that I read it in Japanese instead of English as I can read in Japanese much faster. The translation is quite smooth and skillful. amazon.com/dp/1501111116

When I finish studying my current Italian grammar textbook, I’m thinking of taking a break from Italian and switching to Chinese for a short while. Specifically, I want to work on my Chinese vocabulary, which is not big enough for me to read novels comfortably. I love Chinese!

My goal is to acquire a size of Chinese vocabulary that’s comparable to that of the average college-educated Chinese adult. Doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to be big enough for me to understand popular novels without feeling the need to look up words in the dictionary.

Studied Cantonese on the way to and from work today. I am still in the process of learning the Cantonese pronunciation of Chinese characters. It’ll take a long time, I believe, but eventually I will reach a point where I can correctly pronounce all the commonly used characters.

Couldn’t get any reading done today unfortunately, except for a short article from the Economist. Tomorrow I will try to do some reading. I am hitting the sack in just a few minutes. Want to get a good night’s sleep as I will have a long day tomorrow.

I read this comic book in Japanese this evening. Was able to finish it in 30 mins, but came across quite a few words that I didn't know the meaning of, including some slangy words. I feel as though the Japanese are speaking a language different than mine. amazon.co.jp/dp/4758008469

Lots of language learners say the shadowing method works, but I don't know if it's really effective. I guess it's good for improving pronunciation, but based on my experience, it doesn't help too much in improving your fluency. Talking to yourself is more critical in that regard.

I think my English has reached a stage where it's no longer crucial for me to read tons of books to improve my fluency. Rather, I should make a conscious effort to express myself in English, notably by talking to myself and continually consulting the dictionary for correct usage.

总算解决了一大难题，松了一口气。过一会儿就要睡觉，祝大家晚安！

Had a difficult time this evening trying to sync my iOS in-app purchases across different Apple devices. Finally got it all sorted out after hours of trials and errors. Sometimes the iOS can get really user-unfriendly, and I find it utterly annoying.

I totally forgot about this English/Chinese Twitter account through months of disuse. Although my Chinese has gotten really rusty over the years, I’ve managed to keep up my studies of English, so maybe I should tweet more in English going forward. It’s actually a lot of fun.

I'm thinking of disposing of my old smartphones and tablets. Need to make sure that the old data on these devices is deleted before disposal though.

Once again I had some difficulty syncing the in-app purchases on my dictionary app between my MacBook and iPads. Managed to complete syncing after trying for about an hour. I get a bit tired of the iOS sometimes. Its behavior can be quite fickle and unpredictable.

下班后，我去牛车水跟朋友吃了一顿便餐。我吃的是意大利的risotto（类似泡饭），虽然价格很便宜，但是味道挺不错。顺便叫了一杯红酒，我们吃得很开心。我平时喜欢在家里自己煮饭，但偶尔在外面跟朋友一起用餐也很不错。

前几天在淘宝网买了几本词典，卖方已经送货了。因为这几天有点忙，我还没来得及收货，争取明天办理收货的手续。我很喜欢在淘宝买东西。我买的几乎都是有关学外语的产品。

今天下午，我终于将我的旧手机与平板电脑丢进了附近的回收站里面。这些机器是我在2009年与2010年买的。因为太旧，就算充了电也不能重新启动，所以决定把它们抛弃，送到回收站。希望这些机器的零件能够循环利用。

To that particular hater, I want to say: Kudos to you for digging up my old tweet from years back just to prove your point. How much is your time worth, anyway? Keep up the good work. Needless to say, I blocked that hater then and there.

Honestly I don't understand how Joe Biden can stay silent about the assassination of Shinzo Abe. What's wrong with him?

Waiting in line in front of Brothers Ramen in Tanjong Pagar now. It's a long line. I hope the ramen is as good as it's cracked up to be.

I haven't tweeted in English for ages. Maybe I should resume now. I've been writing English quite a lot privately though, in the form of journal entries. As a result of my journal writing, I've gotten more comfortable writing in English compared to before.