So...what exactly am I doing over here anyway?
Probably should have written this post a while ago, but....I'm lazy.
Yeah, so here's an update on my daily life over here. First of all, the set up of this school is basically...like high school. We even have (omg) a bell. Yes...a bell...in a college. I remember my reaction on the first day of school which was something along the lines of "o_0 nanda sorya!". There are 5 90 minute periods (yes...omg, there are periods) per day with a 50 minute lunch break after 2nd period. The set up of classes is weird because each class only meets once a week. I don't know what the minimum amount of classes are, but I'm only take 6 (technically 7). All my classes, except sports class, are foreign students only classes.
Mondays- Monday is fun day because I have basketball class 4th period, but that comes after my 3rd period Japanese language class. Boy, it's loads of fun when my teacher asks me to read aloud. I basically have to pause every other word, so she can tell me the readings for the kanji. yay! I'm also behind in the homework because I have to translate it before I do it. But before I do that, I have to translate the text. Then of course after that, i have to figure out what the heck I'm suppose to do because it's all stuff I haven't learned yet. what fun! ^_^V
Tuesday - Tuesday I have the ungodly hour in the morning 9:20 class. It's not really a Japanese language class because we don't actually learn the language. I think we do random subjects in there like writing reports on recycling. Now we're writing a report on food.
Later in the day is my english class. I'm not signed up for it; I just show up every week because my korean friend, who is in there, told me to come. The teacher is American and really fun; it's probably one of my favorite classes. The people are pretty lively, and, despite the fact that it's an english class, I actually get to practice my Japanese a lot. Right now, we're doing skits in english, and I'm in a group with my Korean friend. She came up with the story. It takes place in an airplane. Basically, a terrorist hijacks the plane and forces the pilot to go to Hollywood because she wants to kill her former boyfriend, Brad Pitt, for cheating on her. Yep, pretty imaginitive, my friend. The script is funny; I'll post it sometime.
Then after that, I have english club. Yes, english club. Which, again, despite the fact that it says "English", I still get plenty of Japanese practice. I figured I'd join just to help them out; there aren't any english speaking students on campus besides the boys from New Zealand. It would be a good experience for them, and I get to make some friends.
This past Tuesday I helped them with their pronounciations. They were doing something called "shadowing" which was reading an english text along with a tape. As they read, I would mark words on my copy of the text that they didn't pronounce right (i need some colored pens, man. o_0 All I had was a pencil, pen, and highlighter. There was like seven people). I don't really like the shadowing idea because it doesn't seem veryy useful. All of them of course were missing a few sentences here and there, and 2 boys actually only got like...2 sentences in. One of the boys has very good pronounciation, but the tape was just too fast; I'd probably even have trouble keeping up with it. Luckily, they scrapped the tape idea. (yayz!!)
It's so funny because I read the text twice out loud for them. Both times, I could sense a feeling of awe in the room, and after I finished everyone clapped. I love the comment a girl made the first time they did that. "It's her country's language". My point exactly, lol! But I appreciate it nontheless. ^o^
Wednesday - Wednesday is fun Japanese language class! It's fukushima sensei's class, and it is fun! She's a short lady with too much energy, and her students are the same way. She's always joking people, teasing the loud Chinese girls, or hitting someone. It's too much fun; I'd never skip her class. I usually can follow along with what we're doing in there.
After lunch is my tutoring session. Yeah, basically the people in the exchange office could tell I needed help, so they got me a tutor (yayz!) . She's a very nice, friendly Chinese girl. She's also good friends with one of the best Japanese language teachers in the school. I meet with him during 4th period, and he teaches me grammar. Then, I meet with her 5th period, and she helps me with Kanji.
Thursday - Thursday is my second fun day because I have basketball class again. ^_^V But that of course is 4th period...after my dreaded Japanese class. It's another one of those "Let's do random subjects for the sake of Japanese learning" classes. It focuses on reading...which is why it's my "dreaded" class. See, there's this little thing called kanji which actually isn't very little. In fact, it's about 2,000 characters if you want to be considered litterate. I only know about 200. Nuff said. It's my dreaded class. ^_^V yayz!
Later in the day is the second meeting of the week for English club. Last week, they watched the second half of a movie and had a deep disscussion about death. No, really. They did. The movie was about a woman who was going to die in 3 months. The questions were "If you knew you were going to die in 3 months, what would you do?", "If you knew you were going to die, who would you tell?", and "Do you want to know when you are going to die?". I felt it was a deep conversation, but I guess anything dealing with death usually is.
Friday - Friday...I HAVE NO CLASSES! 3 day weekend every weekend! And the first person to think "O, good, you can use that day to study" gets slapped with a wet fish.
I'm sure you noticed I didn't talk about dance club. That's because I quit. For good, this time, and, unlike the other foreign students who have joined and quit, I will have no trouble eyeballing any of the members I may happen to bump into on campus. That is if they even bother to look at me.
I'm realizing the dance club is just a bad place to be. My friend who I had come with the first time (and hasn't gone back since then) didn't have a very good experience. I could tell the night she came she wasn't very good friends with anybody, and she gave it up so easily. This is someone who's been in there for months and showed me pictures of a trip to the beach with them. Today I talked with a girl from Vietnam who had joined; she quit because she couldn't make any friends.
That's basically the reason I left. Coming back the second time I realized what made me leave the first time. The fuinki stinks! Fuinki(sp?) by the way means atmosphere in Japanese (and I can't help but laugh when I hear it). I forget whether or not it's young people talk or an actually word, but, either way, I've got better things to do then stand around and be ignored by everybody. Yes, I basically was ignored the two times I came back. Even one of the boys who told me to come back didn't talk to me. When I say not talk to me, I mean he actually looked at me then looked away. It was in a shy sort of manner, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was just too scared to talk to me when he was by himself. But he's not the only one I'm thinking of, so it doesn't matter.
Yeah, so here's an update on my daily life over here. First of all, the set up of this school is basically...like high school. We even have (omg) a bell. Yes...a bell...in a college. I remember my reaction on the first day of school which was something along the lines of "o_0 nanda sorya!". There are 5 90 minute periods (yes...omg, there are periods) per day with a 50 minute lunch break after 2nd period. The set up of classes is weird because each class only meets once a week. I don't know what the minimum amount of classes are, but I'm only take 6 (technically 7). All my classes, except sports class, are foreign students only classes.
Mondays- Monday is fun day because I have basketball class 4th period, but that comes after my 3rd period Japanese language class. Boy, it's loads of fun when my teacher asks me to read aloud. I basically have to pause every other word, so she can tell me the readings for the kanji. yay! I'm also behind in the homework because I have to translate it before I do it. But before I do that, I have to translate the text. Then of course after that, i have to figure out what the heck I'm suppose to do because it's all stuff I haven't learned yet. what fun! ^_^V
Tuesday - Tuesday I have the ungodly hour in the morning 9:20 class. It's not really a Japanese language class because we don't actually learn the language. I think we do random subjects in there like writing reports on recycling. Now we're writing a report on food.
Later in the day is my english class. I'm not signed up for it; I just show up every week because my korean friend, who is in there, told me to come. The teacher is American and really fun; it's probably one of my favorite classes. The people are pretty lively, and, despite the fact that it's an english class, I actually get to practice my Japanese a lot. Right now, we're doing skits in english, and I'm in a group with my Korean friend. She came up with the story. It takes place in an airplane. Basically, a terrorist hijacks the plane and forces the pilot to go to Hollywood because she wants to kill her former boyfriend, Brad Pitt, for cheating on her. Yep, pretty imaginitive, my friend. The script is funny; I'll post it sometime.
Then after that, I have english club. Yes, english club. Which, again, despite the fact that it says "English", I still get plenty of Japanese practice. I figured I'd join just to help them out; there aren't any english speaking students on campus besides the boys from New Zealand. It would be a good experience for them, and I get to make some friends.
This past Tuesday I helped them with their pronounciations. They were doing something called "shadowing" which was reading an english text along with a tape. As they read, I would mark words on my copy of the text that they didn't pronounce right (i need some colored pens, man. o_0 All I had was a pencil, pen, and highlighter. There was like seven people). I don't really like the shadowing idea because it doesn't seem veryy useful. All of them of course were missing a few sentences here and there, and 2 boys actually only got like...2 sentences in. One of the boys has very good pronounciation, but the tape was just too fast; I'd probably even have trouble keeping up with it. Luckily, they scrapped the tape idea. (yayz!!)
It's so funny because I read the text twice out loud for them. Both times, I could sense a feeling of awe in the room, and after I finished everyone clapped. I love the comment a girl made the first time they did that. "It's her country's language". My point exactly, lol! But I appreciate it nontheless. ^o^
Wednesday - Wednesday is fun Japanese language class! It's fukushima sensei's class, and it is fun! She's a short lady with too much energy, and her students are the same way. She's always joking people, teasing the loud Chinese girls, or hitting someone. It's too much fun; I'd never skip her class. I usually can follow along with what we're doing in there.
After lunch is my tutoring session. Yeah, basically the people in the exchange office could tell I needed help, so they got me a tutor (yayz!) . She's a very nice, friendly Chinese girl. She's also good friends with one of the best Japanese language teachers in the school. I meet with him during 4th period, and he teaches me grammar. Then, I meet with her 5th period, and she helps me with Kanji.
Thursday - Thursday is my second fun day because I have basketball class again. ^_^V But that of course is 4th period...after my dreaded Japanese class. It's another one of those "Let's do random subjects for the sake of Japanese learning" classes. It focuses on reading...which is why it's my "dreaded" class. See, there's this little thing called kanji which actually isn't very little. In fact, it's about 2,000 characters if you want to be considered litterate. I only know about 200. Nuff said. It's my dreaded class. ^_^V yayz!
Later in the day is the second meeting of the week for English club. Last week, they watched the second half of a movie and had a deep disscussion about death. No, really. They did. The movie was about a woman who was going to die in 3 months. The questions were "If you knew you were going to die in 3 months, what would you do?", "If you knew you were going to die, who would you tell?", and "Do you want to know when you are going to die?". I felt it was a deep conversation, but I guess anything dealing with death usually is.
Friday - Friday...I HAVE NO CLASSES! 3 day weekend every weekend! And the first person to think "O, good, you can use that day to study" gets slapped with a wet fish.
I'm sure you noticed I didn't talk about dance club. That's because I quit. For good, this time, and, unlike the other foreign students who have joined and quit, I will have no trouble eyeballing any of the members I may happen to bump into on campus. That is if they even bother to look at me.
I'm realizing the dance club is just a bad place to be. My friend who I had come with the first time (and hasn't gone back since then) didn't have a very good experience. I could tell the night she came she wasn't very good friends with anybody, and she gave it up so easily. This is someone who's been in there for months and showed me pictures of a trip to the beach with them. Today I talked with a girl from Vietnam who had joined; she quit because she couldn't make any friends.
That's basically the reason I left. Coming back the second time I realized what made me leave the first time. The fuinki stinks! Fuinki(sp?) by the way means atmosphere in Japanese (and I can't help but laugh when I hear it). I forget whether or not it's young people talk or an actually word, but, either way, I've got better things to do then stand around and be ignored by everybody. Yes, I basically was ignored the two times I came back. Even one of the boys who told me to come back didn't talk to me. When I say not talk to me, I mean he actually looked at me then looked away. It was in a shy sort of manner, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was just too scared to talk to me when he was by himself. But he's not the only one I'm thinking of, so it doesn't matter.
posted by melissa @ 12:13 PM
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