Many rash promises to make and break this year, not least a global crack down on my abuse of ellipses. No matter how dramatic the effect, I will not leave a thought unfinished in 2010. At best, it's ambiguous and tantalisingly enigmatic; at worst, it's vague, irritating and just plain sloppy punctuation. She who hesitates is lost.
However, this is The Stained Kimono, not Eats, Shoots & Leaves. More pressing, and perhaps more plausible a goal, is the desire to memorise the 1945 kanji prescribed by the Japanese Ministry of Education for every child to have learnt on completion of schooling.
Somewhat maschochistic, yes, but not impossible. I've got a year, I already know around 300, and two of my flatmates are natives, and often leave me helpful diagrams on the fridge (and tasty leftover things inside).
Plus, how can you not love a vocab list that features "tranquilise", "torture" and "repress"? Actually, those words taken in order could form an effective - if extreme - aide-mémoire...
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