I like grammar

I find grammar immensely fascinating. I think it's a gateway drug of sorts. Something that lets you peer behind the veil into an uncharted world full of the mysteries and intrigue of language. You learn a bit of grammar and all of the sudden you can create a variety of sentences and express yourself in another language. Obviously, you won't be fluent, but it lights a fire under you. Makes you want to continue your studies. That has largely been my experience. I was thinking about this because I was flipping through a book of Japanese grammar to look something up. I was doing some reading practice when I saw 「ながら」used in a sentence. This is pronounced something like "nagara." I go ながら? What the crap is that? It sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember for the life of me what it meant. I wasn't able to glean some context from the passage and make an educated guess, so I went to my Japanese grammar book. As I was flipping through it, I came across other grammar structures. I would read…