Beany Brain Newsletter #26: Food for Language-Thought and Sick Spoons

Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.

Table of Contents

• Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

  • Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope t …

• Food for Language-Thought

• Sick Spoons

  • Yeehawesome!

• Wonderful Wednesday

• Today’s Beany-full Summary:

Food for Language-Thought

Last week a friend asked me how my neurodivergencies have impacted my Japanese language learning.

I have thoughts on this. Many thoughts.

Here’s what I think helps me learn Japanese as a neurodivergent person:

• ADHD thirst for curiosities and diversions: if a word or phrase is funny or shocking, I’ll remember it better; sensory-seeking and shiny newness help with acquisition.

• I already know I’m a different kind of person so at the beginning it was easier to throw myself into situations where I looked crazy when I just wanted to practice new words and phrases in situ.

• Anything that’s gamified, like the Duolingo app where I rack up points, is helpful. It’s especially good for refreshing my kanji writing skills.

• Taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) was good for helping me with outer accountability. I knew what I had to study and what I had to learn. I took levels 4 and 3 back when there were only 4 levels (now there are 5) and I passed both. Maybe I need to think about orienting myself toward the final levels.

Here’s what I think has hindered me as a neurodivergent person from learning Japanese to a top level:

• Anxiety: worry about spending money on lessons; worry about making mistakes.

• RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria): embarrassment (actual pain) when I’m not fully Japanese (which of course I never can be) or for example, when the high school kids at the convenience store mocked my accent.

• Low number of spoons and amounts of energy for even doing daily tasks.

• Auditory Processing Disorder (I have this in English too: it takes me a pause/second or two longer to understand what someone is saying to me): stress in conversations and/or in the classroom around hearing what people are saying and processing it quickly enough. This is especially tough on the telephone or if someone is wearing a mask and I can’t see their lips.

• Easily frustrated and difficulties with memorization.

None of this is kicking myself or boo-hooing. I’m simply analyzing and understanding myself better, where I’ve been and where I want to possibly go, and to write it out and think about it feels like a good step.

Do you second- or third- or fourth-language learners relate to any of the above?

Sick Spoons

Remember the spoon theory?

You start the day with a certain number of “spoons,” and how many you have depends on what issues you’re dealing with or if you have a visible disability or an invisible disability.

It really depends on the person.

With ADHD, autism, and generalized anxiety disorder, sometimes I feel like I wake up with just barely enough rounded metal utensils to get me through each day.

And with each social or business interaction, I lose more.

This week, however, with a sore throat and aches, I’m looking in the silverware drawer to see if there are any leftovers available. [After I wrote that, I now have a diagnosis from the ENT for a throat infection and I’m on antibiotics. I hope they kick in quickly because I’m in so much pain that it’s hard to rest and sleep.]

The soup is sloshing, folks. The spoons feel fewer in number and smaller in size right now.

What’s helping:

• turmeric lattes (unsweetened soy milk, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, honey, vanilla)

• soup (the one in the photo is ochazuke: rice, green tea, nori seaweed, salmon flakes, umeboshi pickled plum)

• chocolate (dairy free) spread with peanut butter

• chocolate-peanut-butter-banana smoothies

• making myself sit down and rest and breathe

• my husband helps a lot around the house, but he’s helping even more right now

• a bowl of plain soy yogurt, bananas, tahini, and honey

• intentionally reminding myself that it’s OK to not be 1,000,000% “productive”

• changing my schedule around a bit

• realizing that this is a spoons issue because I’m writing about it

So it’s an earlier night for me tonight. Goodnight and oyasumi nasai. Over and out.

Yeehawesome!

Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?

1. “Derry Girls” on Netflix! It’s a hilarious sitcom set in Derry, Northern Ireland in the 1990s. It’s only got 3 seasons, and I’m on my third or fourth time watching them again. It makes me laugh so hard. Almost a bit Fawlty Towers-ish in that in each episode, the girls (and Michelle’s cousin James) get into deeper and deeper trouble. The head nun of the school is my favorite character. Caveat: language and adult themes.

2. Sweet and spicy and salty nuts! I got this recipe from our friend Carole in the UK. She served them to us on their little electric boat going up and down the Thames, and making them and eating them reminds me of that time and also, dang it, I just love a mix of flavors and the crunch of nuttiness. (They’re sitting on the counter in a jar staring at me until my throat infection gets better. I need softer foods at the moment.)

3. A friend asked me tonight to remind her of the name of the Netflix documentary about design that I love: Abstract! I think I need to rewatch it. If anything is yeehawesome, it’s that show. I think what I admire and enjoy so much about it is is the designers’ genuine curiosity about life and love for their field.

Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.

Today’s Beany-full Summary:

• Neurodivergencies can impact how you learn a second language, with helps and hindrances.

• Being sick can decrease the amount of spoons you have to deal with everyday life. One of the ways to help yourself through this is actually noticing it and reminding yourself that it’s OK to slow down and rest.

• Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?

Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.

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