crammin' grammar
inspiration came in the most unexpected form yesterday. i reluctantly went to naganuma (my japanese school) in the afternoon after i'd organised to confront my fear and sit the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test?) mock i've been putting off for the past six months. i'd been avoiding it because through the badly designed afternoon classes who relentless tested me on Level 1 problems as well (i'm level 2- the lower the number the better you are basically) i was convinced i'd fail because i had no clue what was going on. when i'm convinced i'll fail, i either go nuts and don't resurface for a month (think, university second year quantum mechanics course) or give up completely, and this time i fell into the latter category.
so i sat the mock. kodaira sensei, the teacher that is kind of like my mother (really fussy about my safety, emailing me when i was absent to check i wasn't dying of bronchitis again, pretty terrible intermediate japanese teacher) was adjudicating. after the exam, she came in with a sort of kodaira disapproval face (as best seen when i told her i was sleeping in a tent on an island over the weekend) and i started laughing- "no surprises that i failed huh?" - and she went "no actually, by one mark... you passed"- to which i jumped up victoriously- seriously?? i was asking.
so we sat and we talked, and i've always been honest to her. i told her i hated studying the grammar text book- "everytime i open it i promptly fall asleep"- hence i'd beaten probability and got a fabulous 2/20 on the grammar section (its a multiple choice, 4 options per question). the whole thing is in japanese- the explanations, the examples, which is not the problem- but some of the examples are just SO dull:
"国連から派遣された医師団のもとで救援活動が続けられた"- roughly, "Thanks to the United Nations dispatching a medical team, the relief project could continue" REAL FUCKING USEFUL SENTENCE. not only that, because none of the grammar tested in the exam isn't actually anything we'd learnt in class, i had no clue what was going on.
but after i found out i'd passed (by the skin of my teeth) i actually found a passion to pass this bad boy. so the hated grammar textbook has been removed from under my futon and dusted off, i was a horrible friend and cancelled my bank holiday weekend trip to visit colin in sendai, and i'm now in the process of trying to cram 170 grammar points I WILL NEVER USE IN CONVERSATION in less than a week. the exam is on the 2nd December, however, I have work next week too. super.
i'm off to eat conveyor belt sushi.
so i sat the mock. kodaira sensei, the teacher that is kind of like my mother (really fussy about my safety, emailing me when i was absent to check i wasn't dying of bronchitis again, pretty terrible intermediate japanese teacher) was adjudicating. after the exam, she came in with a sort of kodaira disapproval face (as best seen when i told her i was sleeping in a tent on an island over the weekend) and i started laughing- "no surprises that i failed huh?" - and she went "no actually, by one mark... you passed"- to which i jumped up victoriously- seriously?? i was asking.
so we sat and we talked, and i've always been honest to her. i told her i hated studying the grammar text book- "everytime i open it i promptly fall asleep"- hence i'd beaten probability and got a fabulous 2/20 on the grammar section (its a multiple choice, 4 options per question). the whole thing is in japanese- the explanations, the examples, which is not the problem- but some of the examples are just SO dull:
"国連から派遣された医師団のもとで救援活動が続けられた"- roughly, "Thanks to the United Nations dispatching a medical team, the relief project could continue" REAL FUCKING USEFUL SENTENCE. not only that, because none of the grammar tested in the exam isn't actually anything we'd learnt in class, i had no clue what was going on.
but after i found out i'd passed (by the skin of my teeth) i actually found a passion to pass this bad boy. so the hated grammar textbook has been removed from under my futon and dusted off, i was a horrible friend and cancelled my bank holiday weekend trip to visit colin in sendai, and i'm now in the process of trying to cram 170 grammar points I WILL NEVER USE IN CONVERSATION in less than a week. the exam is on the 2nd December, however, I have work next week too. super.
i'm off to eat conveyor belt sushi.