Golden Week.. etc
It's been embarrassingly long since my last post. I'm not sure anyone even reads this anymore because I post so rarely....
Before I came here, I thought for sure I would post like mad-crazy. Guess the routine has taken hold, and things are pretty "normal" to me now. It's hard to be a tourist when you live somewhere.. ya know?
SO....... Today is Children's Day... Yesterday was some other holiday. Tomorrow is a replacement holiday for the one on Sunday. I'm in the midst of, you guessed it, Golden Week. One of those wonderful times in Japan where there are all sorts of holidays next to each other. It happens a few times a year. Golden week is probably the best because it occurs in SPRING. May = Spring. It's wonderful. It's not humid yet, and the weather hovers around perfect almost every day.
I am still studying Japanese constantly. After 9 months, I still can't speak... but I can understand a LOT of what I hear. I can read faster and I understand a lot more kanji. I am working on book 6 of the CLAIR course (A JET program language course that is broken down into montly books. It's a 6 month course).
I also signed up for the Upper-beginner local Japanese night course (it's taught entirely in Japanese, and I'm suprisingly comfortable with that.). And soon I start a conversation course with other ALTs. We all have the same problem - we can understand, but we can't speak. What's stopping us is understanding verbs when we hear them, but the inability to conjugate them as we would like.
I'm still taking shuuji (caligraphy) lessons. Sooooooo difficult. But I enjoy the challenge.
School (i.e. work) is doing better, I think. I proposed a schedule, and I hope it takes hold soon. I like to be utilized. I have also made an effort to talk with my coworkers more, even though I still can't speak Japanese. Our conversations involve them speaking Japanese to me, and me responding in English. Luckily, it works both ways- they understand me, I understand them - we just can't speak! haha.
The new school year started at the beginning of April. The new students are very cute and very timid. There are some wacky ones too, which is great. They are usually the most eager learners. Also, these 7th graders are keen on swarming me and touching my hair and pointing out how long and big my nose is. Not something I am used to... and I certainly don't enjoy it.
I am going to visit home in just over 2 weeks. it's going to be really reall weird. I will be jet lagged and reverse culture shocked. I only have a week and a lot of things to do and people to see. It will be interesting to see what I can accomplish without a car or phone.
Before I came here, I thought for sure I would post like mad-crazy. Guess the routine has taken hold, and things are pretty "normal" to me now. It's hard to be a tourist when you live somewhere.. ya know?
SO....... Today is Children's Day... Yesterday was some other holiday. Tomorrow is a replacement holiday for the one on Sunday. I'm in the midst of, you guessed it, Golden Week. One of those wonderful times in Japan where there are all sorts of holidays next to each other. It happens a few times a year. Golden week is probably the best because it occurs in SPRING. May = Spring. It's wonderful. It's not humid yet, and the weather hovers around perfect almost every day.
I am still studying Japanese constantly. After 9 months, I still can't speak... but I can understand a LOT of what I hear. I can read faster and I understand a lot more kanji. I am working on book 6 of the CLAIR course (A JET program language course that is broken down into montly books. It's a 6 month course).
I also signed up for the Upper-beginner local Japanese night course (it's taught entirely in Japanese, and I'm suprisingly comfortable with that.). And soon I start a conversation course with other ALTs. We all have the same problem - we can understand, but we can't speak. What's stopping us is understanding verbs when we hear them, but the inability to conjugate them as we would like.
I'm still taking shuuji (caligraphy) lessons. Sooooooo difficult. But I enjoy the challenge.
School (i.e. work) is doing better, I think. I proposed a schedule, and I hope it takes hold soon. I like to be utilized. I have also made an effort to talk with my coworkers more, even though I still can't speak Japanese. Our conversations involve them speaking Japanese to me, and me responding in English. Luckily, it works both ways- they understand me, I understand them - we just can't speak! haha.
The new school year started at the beginning of April. The new students are very cute and very timid. There are some wacky ones too, which is great. They are usually the most eager learners. Also, these 7th graders are keen on swarming me and touching my hair and pointing out how long and big my nose is. Not something I am used to... and I certainly don't enjoy it.
I am going to visit home in just over 2 weeks. it's going to be really reall weird. I will be jet lagged and reverse culture shocked. I only have a week and a lot of things to do and people to see. It will be interesting to see what I can accomplish without a car or phone.