I survived the JLPT!!!
Oh. My. God. Oh my God. The JLPT is finally behind me and I don't have to study anymore!! *heaves another happy sigh of relief* It's kindof hard to believe really, I've been thinking about taking this test ever since I got here last year, and then for the past month or so I was studying for hours almost every day, and now it's finally over.
I don't know if it was nerves, I panicked because of time, or what, but despite all that studying and how ready I felt just before taking the test, once I finally got it and looked through it, I had the feeling that I'd been focusing on the wrong areas to study. Like, I knew grammar in and of itself, but the questions I had to answer using them had a bunch of words I didn't understand, or were worded so strangely to me that I had a hard time applying all that I had tried so hard to learn. Or I had questions where I was sure more than one answer would work, but without context it was hard to figure out. Reading was a bitch, just like I feared, but I think that was an issue of time, like it always is. I owned the listening section though, which used to be one of my weaker points. At least that improved!
...Something--someone, really--made me really angry, though. So, we're supposed to turn off our cell phones before the test, right? And not ten minutes in, this girl's cell phone goes off. She was one person in front and to the left of me, so I heard the exchange between her and one of the proctors. If your cell phone goes off in the middle of the test, even if it's just vibrating, you will be disqualified. That's what the rules say. But apparently she didn't know how to turn her phone off, so they let her continue. What? Seriously?? I don't know about you guys, but if I knew I was risking disqualification from an important exam I could only take once or twice in a year by leaving my phone on, I would risk embarrassment and ask someone beforehand if they could help me figure out how to turn off my phone. And then, as if that weren't enough, after time was called, she totally kept filling in blanks on the answer sheet! And it wasn't an accident, like she was just finishing up one answer or anything, she actually waited until a proctor would pass by, collecting other tests, and resume as soon as his back was turned. I was tempted to report her, but I didn't bother. I've always hated tattletales, and normally I don't care if someone else is breaking the rules, as long as I'm doing what I need to do, no one else matters. But this time, I just thought about how hard I studied, and how difficult and stressful it was for me to try to answer everything before time was called. I succeeded at this through a lot of hard work; I was really proud of myself to be able to finish on time, even though I wasn't confident of all of my answers. To see her cheating like that, and knowing that by doing so she could possibly pass while I fail, made me really angry. Even if we both pass, I felt like her passing through cheating would somehow cheapen what I managed to do while following the rules. Maybe a competitive spirit is finally awakening in me, I don't know, but I've never felt that way before.
All that aside, pass or fail, I'm glad I took this thing. I put myself through hell and I hated it, but I learned so much from it. It gave me a clear goal for studying. But I'm glad it's over, because it was really driving me crazy by the end. From here on out, I'm hoping to enjoy learning at my own pace. I've asked my teacher to suggest things for me to read, particularly Japanese folklore... fairy tales, ghost stories, that sort of thing. I couldn't get nearly enough of that at school, after all! Also, I want to get faaar away from business Japanese and learn better ways to describe stuff. For example, apparently there are lots of old, traditional words in Japanese to describe various colors. Think "indigo" as opposed to "blue," that sort of thing. I might not need it for Japanese class, but I retain knowledge that's interesting to me a lot better than I do just practical, everyday stuff. I can look up practical, everyday stuff on my own. What I want is to go off the beaten path of Japanese study for a little while, and work on something that fits my personality.
In other news, I ordered the Chrono Cross and Xenogears soundtracks, and I am greatly enjoying the nostalgia. They should also make for nice background music while I'm working on that translation project. Now that the exam is finished, I have no excuses left not to work on it, but luckily I only have about 6-7 pages left. I'm hoping I can finish before I leave for Nagasaki on the 16th. It'll be my first trip since Takarazuka, so I'm very excited! I'm thinking once again, my report for the month will be more about the fun stuff I do than anything work-related...