Remember me?

[penny4em]

Oh dear beana. I thought last time was bad but this time I've actually allowed a whole month to go by without updating. I promise to stand still while you throw rocks at me...

... or not...

Damn. Japanese is HARD. I mean, I knew it would be. I told myself it wasn't going to be a picnic before I even got here but somehow actually being here and

Comments

[bluegoo0]

Heeeeee ~^_^~ I was just considering poking you to see if you were still alive... I have recently clawed my way past exams and am now free, free to... go and have dinner with my Japanese class, which I did today ^^!

I still know no kanji. Except for 'book'.

Hm, hope you don't work through your entire ten day holiday...

[penny4em]

Congrats on finishing your exams! We have small tests every day and 4 big tests (listening, speaking, writing and kanji) every month. It's rough!

So what are you going to be doing now?

[bluegoo0]

*blinks* hmm, I could've sworn I'd replied to this... hohum ^^. What am I going to be doing? The past week would indicate sleeping 11 hours a day and reading for the remaining 13, though I have just about started drawing again *total burnout* =__=. Do you get any time to read for fun?

Anyhoo, hope you are not currently smothered in Japanese. Pancakes is another matter. Mmmm pancakes... *gurgle*

久しぶり

[deivizu]

Hey, I've been wondering where you've been. Good to see that you're doing all right. Yeah, I've been here 15 months already and I too have scarcely scratched the surface of the language. You have to have a certain level of insanity to make it.

I doubt you have to worry about repeating, especially if you've been above 70 on the tests. But I understand what you mean--if I ever have to repeat a level, I'm out of here.

The Asian students ... yeah. Must be nice, huh. Everyone I've met has been quite helpful and patient with my comparative lack of kanji knowledge. They're great. Two points: (1) Kanji actually is rather difficult for them in places because there are a number of Japan-only kanji (like hataraku) and because some Japanese kanji are very, very slightly different from their own. And they have to keep all of this straight in their heads. With great power comes great burden as well. I've scored higher than Taiwanese friends on kanji quizzes more than once. (2) You will dominate them in katakana words, which, in some ways, is

Re: 久しぶり

[penny4em]

Gomen John-san! It's taken me ages to reply but it's the holidays now (whoop!) so I finally can.

I feel fear and respect in equal parts when I think of you having been here for 15 months. I will endeavour to be as insane as you so that I may one day conduct a conversation in Japanese without first having rehearsed it in class ;o)

I've found out I am going to be moving up to the next class, although that was before the last lot of tests which I did NOT do well on. I still wound up with a B overall which is fine.

They've moved the pass rate percentage up from 70% to either 75 or 80 depending on which class you ask because no-one is exactly sure. I had a scary couple of days where I was trying to figure out what to do with myself if I left Yamasa. I couldn't come up with a bloody thing!