4 September 2009 (15 Elul 5769)
The hard disk of my computer, which was replaced only a month ago, "passed away" physically last Tuesday. Surprisingly, it was replaced and returned to me within a week. What I suffer from most when I do not have a computer at home is that I cannot check email here. My life depends so much on email, which is rather scary in a sense.
Since I started using email in 1996, it has been my favorite mode of communication on business matters. The biggest advantage it has vis-à-vis telephone is its asynchronicity. I consider telephone calls as intrusions into my privacy. We have to deal with them when it is convenient for them; we cannot decide when to answer. I reserve the use of telephone for intimate conversations with my very best friends. On the other hand, email enables me to answer whenever I can without being dictated by others when to answer.
Unfortunately, however, I have learned (and suffered from the fact) that so many people in this country seem to prefer an intrusive communication tool called telephone to email even on business matters even when you can convey your message perfectly and more efficiently by email. I have a hard time trying to understand this mentality.
My life experience here has already convinced me that many people here have a serious problem in expressing themselves in writing; they can only compose "telegrams". I have no intention of offending anyone, but this is an empirical fact, though I have no sociological and/or historical explanation for that. The fact remains that I suffer from such intrusive telephone calls on business matters. I have already learned never to answer a call from an unidentified number. I have also learned never to give my telephone number to anyone who is not my close friend.
11 September 2009 (22 Elul 5769)
As the new Jewish (and academic) year is approaching, I have started to think about which conference(s) to take part in abroad next summer. Next year seems special in the variety of conferences to be held in the four academic worlds I live in, that is, the worlds of 1) Hebrew, 2) Yiddish, 3) Jewish studies in general, and 4) Esperanto: a) sometime in May in Bialystok, Poland (Esperanto), b) late May in St. Petersburg, Russia (Esperanto), c) early July in New York, United States (Hebrew), d) late July in Ravenna, Italy (Jewish studies), e) late July in Havana, Cuba (Esperanto), f) late August in New York, United States (Yiddish). If my research budget, which enables me to participate in conferences abroad, were unlimited, I would participate in them all, but unfortunately, this is not the case, so I will be forced to make a very difficult decision. Missing any of them means missing the opportunity of meeting friends and colleages in the respective academic world.
After racking my brain-shmain, I have decided provisionally to opt for the one in Ravenna mainly because I have never been there. It is true that I have never been to Havana, but it is too far, and Cuba and Spanish do not interest me as much as Italy and Italian. Since a flight to Italy from Israel is relatively cheap, I may be able to afford another trip to one of the two conferences on Esperanto in Europe. Although I have already been to Bialystok and I always wanted to visit St. Petersburg, I'll probably take part in the one in Bialystok. We still do not know details about it except for its topic, which is something very specific in Esperantology and is also one of my research interests. It goes without saying that in order to revisit Bialystok, the conference must be held in the first place, and my proposal must be accepted. This will be a good opportunity for me to investigate a certain topic no Esperantologist has ever done and to take my "revenge" on Warsaw; in my recent visit to Poland I had no time to make a tour of Warsaw at all, so I want to revisit the city and pay my due respect to it.
This decision will make me miss two opportunities to revisit New York, which is my most favorite city in the world outside Israel. I have never lived there, but amazingly, I have more friends and acquaintances there than in any other city in the world except for Jerusalem, of course, where I studied and live now. I will probably try to convince those friends of mine there who specialize in certain fields of Jewish studies to participate in the conference in Ravenna, Italy so that I may not have to wait to see them again until August 2011, when I am planning to revisit New York.
18 September 2009 (29 Elul 5769)
I am about to start my sixth year since I moved to Israel to settle down here in the summer of 2004. Every new year eve is a good occasion to ponder upon what I have done (or failed to do) this year and reset myself to learn from my own failures and make the next year a better one. This time, however, I would like to reflect not upon this year alone but upon these five years here in Israel.
In overall terms I have to say that I am glad that I decided to leave Japan and move to Israel both professionally and privately. In this respect I would like to thank Bar-Ilan University for accepting me and my parents and sister for their constant encouragement and support. It was very difficult to decide to leave Japan not because I missed Japan but because of my parents, to whom I owe what I am than to anyone else in this world; I still have some guilty feeling for being unable to be near them.
Academically, I have had the privilege to be in one of the world centers of Hebrew and Jewish linguistics and frequently meet eminent scholars in this field. Thanks to their inspirations, my research interests have expanded during these five years. I am quite sure that this might not have happened in Japan, where there are few researchers of Hebrew and Jewish languages, and even tenured professors do not have enough time for their own research.
My private life seems less successful, though I do not have much to complain about. The longer I live here, the more detached I find myself from the native Israeli culture. Luckily I have made friends with quite a few people during these five years, mainly in Jerusalem, through various channels, but ironically (or probably quite expectedly) almost all of them are non-sabras, mainly Anglophones. So I find myself using more and more English at the expense of Hebrew. Linguistically, I feel more at home in Hebrew than in English, but culturally, I feel more comfortable with those from abroad, especially from English- or Russian-speaking countries, than with sabras. Of course, I am generalizing, but there are few exceptions to this generalization.
I prefer not to complain about anything, and I know how to cope with problems here and manage to live happily. But there is one thing I cannot tolerate in the mentality of so many sabras. It is the mentality that reminds me of the colonized. Israel has never been colonized in the real sense of the word by other nations, but I find more and more sabras who decide to behave like colonized people on their own free will. How does this mentality manifest itself? In their lack of pride in their own language and culture. Well, I myself am not so enthusiastic about the native Israeli culture, but as a researcher-shmesearcher of Hebrew I find it difficult to encounter so many young sabras who prefer their (mostly broken) English to their (often quite broken) Hebrew. I often feel like choking them so that they may wake up and regain their self-pride in Hebrew. Fine, enough to complain.
I would like to finish these lines in an optimistic tone. Among a number of projects I have imposed upon myself there are at least two I have been dreaming of accomplishing for the past few years. I really hope that they will finally be realized in the coming year. I would also like to wish everyone a happy new year. May the year 5770 be blessed with wisdom, health, joy and happiness.
25 September 2009 (7 Tishrey 5770)
It was about a year ago that I finally started to enjoy writing articles even more than teaching. And ideas and their verbal expressions have come to flow more easily than before, though I still have to rack my brain. I have always had a tendency to think (sometimes too) abstractly, so my main problem used to be how to "inflate" articles with what seemed to me self-evident, thus verbally redundant. But recently I have been experiencing the opposite problem.
For the past two weeks I have been working on three short articles for a certain forthcoming encyclopedia in the areas in which I specialize. I was asked to contribute them as I published some articles on these three topics. So I am more or less familiar with them. But the problem is that I have to decide what not to write; I am not allowed to use any redundant explanations as the articles are required to be quite short. Quite stupidly and frustratingly, it took me as long as two weeks to finish two articles only 500 and 2000 words long respectively, and I am still struggling with the third one.
This was a total miscalculation and (overestimation) of my own ability. I thought one day would be enough for each article. Because of this unexpected delay I have to postpone some other tasks I planned to finish before the start of the new academic year in the middle of next month.
This inefficiency may also be caused by the fact that I have been working at home alone. I used to be more self-disciplined and time-efficient under the same condition, but unfortunately, I can concentrate less and less on academic topics as more fundamental things in life distract me more and more. I have to devise my own methods to restore concentration. One hour spent concentratedly and productively is even more worth than one whole day spent distractedly and unproductively.