(no subject)
Today was the first day of classes for the exchange students at Waseda. I had my Japanese class at 9:00 and to start the fresh school year off we had three exciting tests. The first was a kanji test in which we were given a list of about 50 kanji and we had to write the readings down...I think I got like 15 at most. The second test was more kanji, but this time we were given the words in hiragana and had to write the kanji...I'm not sure how many I got, but it was pitiful. It was like taking a test over every kanji I've ever learned, except I didn't know there was a test to study for (I suppose you could say then that I haven't actually learned those kanji then, but fuck you! ;P ). The third test was reading a newspaper article and answering some questions about it. I could understand the questions rather easily, but I had no idea where the answers were in the article. It felt as if the questions weren't even related to the article at all. Of course it didn't help that I was the only that DIDN'T get a vocab. list (We had a 5 minute break between the tests and although I came back early, the teacher had already started handing the tests out to people who didn't leave...and just forgot to tell me there was a vocab. list).
According to the rest of the people I know in the class though, they thought it was insanely difficult as well. Apparently the vocab. list only had the readings anyway, so unless you also had an electronic dictionary, it wouldn't have been much of a help anyway. I loved that the teacher said, "If you don't have a dictionary, you should buy one soon." Of course, I have one, but still...they cost like $100-$500. We're all hoping it was just one those tests to see where everyone in the class is and that it isn't graded. Otherwise a lot of people will start with an F.
Ah well, we'll see how this goes. It's not like I can switch classes either, whatever class they placed you in according to the placement test is the class you're in...no exceptions.
According to the rest of the people I know in the class though, they thought it was insanely difficult as well. Apparently the vocab. list only had the readings anyway, so unless you also had an electronic dictionary, it wouldn't have been much of a help anyway. I loved that the teacher said, "If you don't have a dictionary, you should buy one soon." Of course, I have one, but still...they cost like $100-$500. We're all hoping it was just one those tests to see where everyone in the class is and that it isn't graded. Otherwise a lot of people will start with an F.
Ah well, we'll see how this goes. It's not like I can switch classes either, whatever class they placed you in according to the placement test is the class you're in...no exceptions.