Wow, it's been...a really, really long time.
I didn't realize that I hadn't updated in so long, everyone. Sorry!!! I never even finished talking about my Kumamoto trip!? Well, I'll try to get some pics online and I'll talk about it when I show them to you so that I don't clog the space now. How does that sound?
My excuse for being away for so long? I went back to the States for two weeks last month, so after my trip, I was really busy getting things together, and then I went to Siebold University for two days to help a professor with some research, and then...I left. I came back, rushed to put stuff together (lesson plans, etc.), and then ran off to Nagasaki City for my mid-year conference. Now, it's the following week and...well, I'm back!
本当に、ごめんなさい！！！
Okay, so I guess I should give a quick re-cap of recent events then, ne?
SIEBOLD UNIVERSITY
Basically, I helped a professor I met during the Siebold Summer Intensive this past August. Over two days, we interviewed about...24? girls. He left me in the room with each one and we'd have a 15-20 minute conversation. He'd come back, I'd leave the room and fill out a questionnaire regarding if I thought the girl understood the conversation, was lost, etc, while he talked to her and played back a 3-5 minute video clip of the conversation. Next, we'd switch positions and I'd watch the video and say my opinions on each part. Most of the time, I read the girls pretty well, which most of the guys didn't do. Then again, they were also fresh off the boat, while I'm more used to Japan. Also, I'm a girl, so that might be it. I also have been noticing lately that my hearing is even worse than usual and I stare at faces when people talk a lot more now, so I think that helped with how I read them. He'll do the study again in a few months when the class is over and see how the kids improved. He's looking for things that the Japanese people do such as nod and agree even when they don't understand a thing, give random sounds, etc.
I had fun, though. I saw two of the girls from the Intensive--one who was in my group!! There was also a girl a town away who may come to our monthly English meetings (excellent English; but she also studied in the States for...a year, maybe?). I also met a girl who grew up in my town. In fact, right now I teach her brother, who is in his final year at the junior high school. Too bad his English isn't very good, unlike his sister's....
FUKUOKA PREFECTURE
Coming back from the States, my final destination was Fukuoka Prefecture. I met up with
katesugarfairy and we had some of the ken's famous ramen (though it wasn't the best shop for it) and went shopping the next day. The highlights of that? Hitting up the CostCo and getting some good, old-fashioned U.S. products. I'm almost out of bagels now, though. :-(
NAGASAKI CITY
Well, I didn't really do anything special in NC. It was mostly the conference and seeing familiar faces that I don't normally see. I did some great shopping, though. The used bookstore at the station started selling CDs again, and I got the first two Orange Range albums at a cheap price, one of which, "Orange Ball," is an Indie release you can't buy in stores. There's a department store/mall thing near Dejima Wharf that has a Kinokuniya bookstore. In the English section, there was a shelving wall just for books about Learning Japanese. I found this series of books that are picture books. They range from Level 1-Level 4. There are two or three volumes of books (each volume has five books) in each set. I got the first volume of the first level, which is geared for knowing 350 words, but I think I should have gotten a higher volume and/or second level, geared at 500 words. I'm not sure if I know 800 words or not yet (level 3), and I definitely don't know a thousand...
The ALT in the next town over gave me a ride back after the conference, and on the way, we found a Book-Off. It was actually a really bad one--one of the worst I've been in, but ironically, I found some REALLY good stuff. How does that work, you ask? They mostly have old CDs, and there are major artists that they have NOTHING by. The pickings were slim. But because there were a lot of older artists, I found two Field of View CDs that are SUPER hard to come by. Now, I think I have all of their releases (jealous,
seeshellirun?), though there might be one more. I can't tell if the last release is another BEST collection or not. Plus, at only 250 yen (like, about two dollars or so), the price was the greatest thing EVER. (
seeshellirun, I can't guarantee I'll go back, but if I ever do, they had lots by them, so let me know if you want some...?) They also had the box set of the first three EXILE albums. I don't have any and have been wanting to buy them, so it was a great thing to find. It wasn't cheap--4,000 yen--but if I bought it online used (b/c it's not available anymore), it would be about 13,000 yen or more!! Plus, this is for three albums, two of which have DVDs attached and are about 4,000 yen each by themselves. Not a bad deal! So yeah, got some great stuff at amazing prices, but the store itself was BEH.
Well, that's up-to-speed. I want to talk about my new JTE, but I guess I should make a new post before this one gets too long!
My excuse for being away for so long? I went back to the States for two weeks last month, so after my trip, I was really busy getting things together, and then I went to Siebold University for two days to help a professor with some research, and then...I left. I came back, rushed to put stuff together (lesson plans, etc.), and then ran off to Nagasaki City for my mid-year conference. Now, it's the following week and...well, I'm back!
本当に、ごめんなさい！！！
Okay, so I guess I should give a quick re-cap of recent events then, ne?
SIEBOLD UNIVERSITY
Basically, I helped a professor I met during the Siebold Summer Intensive this past August. Over two days, we interviewed about...24? girls. He left me in the room with each one and we'd have a 15-20 minute conversation. He'd come back, I'd leave the room and fill out a questionnaire regarding if I thought the girl understood the conversation, was lost, etc, while he talked to her and played back a 3-5 minute video clip of the conversation. Next, we'd switch positions and I'd watch the video and say my opinions on each part. Most of the time, I read the girls pretty well, which most of the guys didn't do. Then again, they were also fresh off the boat, while I'm more used to Japan. Also, I'm a girl, so that might be it. I also have been noticing lately that my hearing is even worse than usual and I stare at faces when people talk a lot more now, so I think that helped with how I read them. He'll do the study again in a few months when the class is over and see how the kids improved. He's looking for things that the Japanese people do such as nod and agree even when they don't understand a thing, give random sounds, etc.
I had fun, though. I saw two of the girls from the Intensive--one who was in my group!! There was also a girl a town away who may come to our monthly English meetings (excellent English; but she also studied in the States for...a year, maybe?). I also met a girl who grew up in my town. In fact, right now I teach her brother, who is in his final year at the junior high school. Too bad his English isn't very good, unlike his sister's....
FUKUOKA PREFECTURE
Coming back from the States, my final destination was Fukuoka Prefecture. I met up with
katesugarfairy and we had some of the ken's famous ramen (though it wasn't the best shop for it) and went shopping the next day. The highlights of that? Hitting up the CostCo and getting some good, old-fashioned U.S. products. I'm almost out of bagels now, though. :-(
NAGASAKI CITY
Well, I didn't really do anything special in NC. It was mostly the conference and seeing familiar faces that I don't normally see. I did some great shopping, though. The used bookstore at the station started selling CDs again, and I got the first two Orange Range albums at a cheap price, one of which, "Orange Ball," is an Indie release you can't buy in stores. There's a department store/mall thing near Dejima Wharf that has a Kinokuniya bookstore. In the English section, there was a shelving wall just for books about Learning Japanese. I found this series of books that are picture books. They range from Level 1-Level 4. There are two or three volumes of books (each volume has five books) in each set. I got the first volume of the first level, which is geared for knowing 350 words, but I think I should have gotten a higher volume and/or second level, geared at 500 words. I'm not sure if I know 800 words or not yet (level 3), and I definitely don't know a thousand...
The ALT in the next town over gave me a ride back after the conference, and on the way, we found a Book-Off. It was actually a really bad one--one of the worst I've been in, but ironically, I found some REALLY good stuff. How does that work, you ask? They mostly have old CDs, and there are major artists that they have NOTHING by. The pickings were slim. But because there were a lot of older artists, I found two Field of View CDs that are SUPER hard to come by. Now, I think I have all of their releases (jealous,
seeshellirun?), though there might be one more. I can't tell if the last release is another BEST collection or not. Plus, at only 250 yen (like, about two dollars or so), the price was the greatest thing EVER. (
seeshellirun, I can't guarantee I'll go back, but if I ever do, they had lots by them, so let me know if you want some...?) They also had the box set of the first three EXILE albums. I don't have any and have been wanting to buy them, so it was a great thing to find. It wasn't cheap--4,000 yen--but if I bought it online used (b/c it's not available anymore), it would be about 13,000 yen or more!! Plus, this is for three albums, two of which have DVDs attached and are about 4,000 yen each by themselves. Not a bad deal! So yeah, got some great stuff at amazing prices, but the store itself was BEH.
Well, that's up-to-speed. I want to talk about my new JTE, but I guess I should make a new post before this one gets too long!