水曜日 ありました。木曜日あります。
Halloween was so much fun…
Me as Wednesday Addams
Yes I am now one of those tw**s that takes a picture of themselves in the mirror!
Had a listening test today in Japanese. Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook (click here if you want to be) will have noticed already, heh! It went so very well but then I ran out of time! Damnations. I missed about 6 questions (out of 50?) but all of them that I did answer I think I got correct.
I find listening in Japanese so difficult. It’s ok when it’s written down and I can see what the vocab is, but when it is said (in super fast speed) I miss all of the important bits. Tomorrow I have Japanese conversation so I will get to practice some more!
I haven’t done my portfolio work yet and Sensei’s getting a bit miffed at me I think, so I better go and do that hey!
じゃまたね！
Wednesday Addams and Foreign Language Teaching
I’m going to a Halloween party tonight and I will be dressing up as my most favourite fictional person; Wednesday Addams
I was a little obsessed with her (and Christina Ricci) when I was younger and I pretty much own the same dress already (faux pas?)
So today’s Japanese lesson went really well actually. I nailed the vocab test and then actually understood most of the new grammar notes (causative form?) It’s getting a bit full on now so I must start living in the library again soon.
I’ve got half an hour to kill before my next lecture; Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching (yes, it is as boring as it sounds). It’s not that difficult, but so so loooong. The lecturer is a crazy cat-lady/hippy/extrovert and she repeats everything at least twice, sometimes three times. It kills me. And it’s 3 hours long. THREE HOURS GUYS. I stop concentrating after 20 minutes so you can imagine the joy I go through every Tuesday (I say every Tuesday but I’ve actually missed 4 lessons already… I just couldn’t cope okay!)
Tomorrow if I’m not too hungover I’m going to spend the WHOLE day doing work! I’ve got my first Japanese listening test on Thursday and then on Friday the Japanese exchange students will be visiting our class so that we get a chance to speak to them 🙂 I always get a bit nervous when speaking to actual Japanese people (mainly because my Japanese is excruciatingly terrible) but I want to try my best to at least impress them a little!
I still haven’t decided on a Japanese university but I think I’d like to go to Obirin… it may be a little far-fetched since they only allow 2 people in the year from our university, but a girl can dream right? I need info on Obirin please!
Other than that I hope everyone enjoys Halloween tomorrow. Halloween in Japan must be the funnest time of year.
Japanese University Choosing time!
So this week we had our first Year Abroad Meeting (waaah!) I am so excited about my year in Japan!
JAPAN… of course!
So we have to do a little research on the universities offered to us and then put down out first 3 choices. HELP ME! These are the choices…
Aichi Shukutoku University, Nagoya
Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka
Kitakyushu University
Kyushu Sangyo University
Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo
Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
Obirin University, Tokyo
There are 3 others but they are for higher levels and I might as well not bother because my Japanese is CRAP!
So I don’t really want to go to Kansai, there are so many foreigners there that I might as well go to Europe or America instead, I feel that Nagoya may seem the same? I think I’d prefer to go to Tokyo so maybe Meiji or Obirin? Though I’m very drawn to Kyushu too.
I have to have my choices made in 3 weeks I think so I better get crackin’.
In other news, I have a listening test next week (boo) followed by another oral exam (double boo). For my oral exam I have to come up with problems I might face in Japan, then the teacher gives me some sort of answer and we have general chit chat.
Example 日本に行って、風をひいたら、どうしたらいいですか。
After that bit (which should last about 6 minutes??!!) we have a general pow wow about other things which we can’t prepare for, eek!
Pray for me please
じゃまたね！
Back to school part 2
My ass is back into gear! I’ve had a bit of time off but I’m ready to ROLL!!
…maybe not this ready
So I’ll start with how the school year is going. It’s been nearly a month and I’ve learned… nothing! Joke.
Our modules are set out a little differently this year; I no longer have to do Japanese Reading and Writing because I was ahead last year (shwing!) and instead there is an extra module called Japanese Conversation (does what it says on the tin really) as well as the usual grammar lessons. Hopefully by the time I go to Japan next year my language skills will be SUPER AWESOME!
Other than that I am doing a semester of Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching, where we learn about how to teach foreign languages! I’m attending a seminar about the JET programme later today, for those of you who don’t know the JET programme is an exchange and teaching programme between Japan and other countries. It’s quite a big deal and very helpful if you manage to get in, it’s something I might consider when I finish my degree (‘when’ being the key word here!)
We’ve also got quite a few seminars about our year abroad (SO CLOSE NOW!!) which I am super excited about!
And of course I haven’t forgotten about the lovely team at Japan Cinema, occasionally I have to check out the ‘About’ section to make sure Marcello hasn’t gotten rid of me for being such an aweful team member! Now that university is back on my life has more structure and I can write again! And hopefully I will have more readers too!
Mata ne!
Nearly back to school!
Argh! It’s nearly time to go back to university! I am so excited!
I’ve had a really awful month, a lot of bad things have happened so I’m really ready to get back to life. I started by writing another review for Japan Cinema! Can’t wait until it’s up!
I also went for a run today (shock horror!) I couldn’t believed it, there was so much sweat!
And I’ve been learning Japanese too. I’m quite pleased with myself actually, I’ve been doing new vocabulary for September so that I can be a little ahead when I start. Luckily Sensei gave me the whole vocabulary list before I left so I figured I’d be an idiot not to use it!
Before I go back to uni though I have to move house, meh! I hate moving house, but this time at least I’m living with 3 wonderful girls and we have a dog! How exciting is that! I can’t wait to take him for walks (I’m so sad I know!)
The moment we’ve all been waiting for…
… MY INTERVIEW IS UP!!!! Argh, it’s amazing! I’m so happy with it, be happy for me and read read read:
Fullmetal Alchemist interview!
I cannot tell you how happy I feel about it! I want to give many thanks to Marcello and of course John (who gave me the opportunity in the first place) I feel like I’m accepting an award at the Oscars.
So after passing my exams and getting my interview up, I’m a pretty happy woman!
I have to apologise for my lack of posts recently, I try to keep this blog as much Japan-related as possible, which is not so possible when I’m not in university as the only Japanese thing that happens to me is my occasional trip to Noodle Nation (which is Chinese anyway). It’s nice to see people are still reading though, thanks guys.
My wonderful Japanese teacher emailed me after I passed my exams to say well done, it was emotional. I haven’t been doing much (or any) Japanese learning recently, this needs to change! I’ve been working almost every day so it’s hard to get the motivation, but after my holiday (in 2 weeks I go to Amsterdam!!) I’m going too get right back on it!
Thanks for all the congratulations messages from you all 🙂 it was so much appreciated. I haven’t forgotten you.
Lesbian Invisibility in Japan
NEW POST FOR LINGUALIFT!!!!!! It’s about lesbians in Japan. I did an essay on this topic and I found it really interesting, so please read! (Click the pic)
Click for my article on Lingualift
Sorry I’ve been away for a while, I’ve been back home to Liverpool (YAY) Before that I interviewed the creators of Fullmetal Alchemist!!!!!!!!!!! The interview will be up on Japan Cinema soon, I’m so freaking excited!
Oh and the best news of all I PASSED ALL MY EXAMS!!!! Wow! I got all B+ so that ain’t half bad! My sensei even emailed me to tell me I’d done really well! Wonderful news 🙂
I’m just working full time at Russell and Bromley right now so life is a little dull, but I must get back to studying Japanese!
Brain-dead bunnies and a happy Pikachu
This is it, the day before my last exam! Been up since 8am, it is now 10.20am and my brain has already shut down.
I’m just doing some reading comprehension (lame!) I think the exam will give me a bunch of Japanese texts with some Japanese questions about said texts which I then have to answer in Japanese? Either way I’m pretty screwed… and scared! So I need to practice my reading skills, which are shocking to say the least:
All the pretty Japanese writing is tainted with my inevitable doom!
The library is dead! It’s hard to believe that this time 2 weeks ago people were actually sleeping in here. Now it’s just me and some other guy exchanging glances of worry.
So once again I need lots of luck, I might even wish myself luck because I’m grasping at straws here!
3 images in one post? Aren’t you lucky!
Kanji Death
Gotta love Instagram
Yes, revising has turned into taking photos of my own hand in an arty fashion. I HATE KANJI. Seriously, everything about learning Japanese would be made so much easier if Japan had just thought of its own writing system. BUT NOOOOO! Damn my life.
So let’s forget about that for a while and concentrate on how my last exam went: BRILLIANTLY. Working/sleeping/living in the library finally paid off. I mean sure, I didn’t know everything, but I managed to remember quite a lot, even got a bit cocky and left early. I am actually quite looking forward to results day now (well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves!)
So the next few days will be revolving around my Kanji exam on Friday which I’m not feeling very confident about but then at least it will all be over after that. Schwing!
I’M SO SORRY PLEASE COME BACK!
Right well I’m finally back! The month of coursework hell is over!!! All I have left is 2 exams and I’m FINISHED with this year!!! So this is the part where I apologise about the quite frankly crap effort I’ve been making in every other part of my life that doesn’t involve coursework:
Sorry guys 😦
So let me update you on the last month: COURSEWORK. JOB, STRESS.
That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing! Japanese seems to be going pretty well, I feel ready for Friday’s big exam. The exams are multiple choice BUT with negative marking if you get the answer wrong, intense. You better all wish me luck! So today I’m going to be mostly going over grammar points (I hate grammar!) Too many particles to understand, so I went and bought myself a super book to explain the lot to me BUT I can’t even understand the ENGLISH words (words like idiocyntasmiplosia… hnn, not exactly that but you get the idea).
Also gonna review a filmy for the beautiful Marcello 🙂
Remembering my natsuyasumi when all I have now is work!
It’s a wonderful day! I’ve had another post put up for Lingualift! Yesh! It’s about the Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara. He’s pretty awesome and a bit obsessed with the concept of time and existence, it’s deep stuff! Check it out yo!
I’m currently working on another little art-related article for the wonderful people of Lingualift BUT I mustn’t neglect Japancinema.net so tonight I’m gonna watch another explicit movie and see what everyone has to say about it!
Until all of that however I have a lot of uni work to do (it never ends!) Today I’m focusing on 2 (TWO!) presentations that I have next week! One is a Japanese speaking test, I’ve gotta describe a photo, I’ve decided to use one of me and my friends on holiday in Italy… I’ll show you it:
Ahhh, my beautiful long hair *sniff*
I figure that there’s quite a lot to talk about in this picture so it should make for a good presentation.
My next presentation is about… Hmmm… I don’t actually know! That doesn’t help… Let me see…
The history of Japan – The Twenty-one Demands (don’t know what that is?) The Peace Preservation Law (again, what?) and The March First Movement! So all in all, I’m pretty screwed for that! Sounds as boring as it gets doesn’t it really? Any takers?
A Hundred Views of Edo
From Oxford to Japan 