Sorry about how irregular and late my blogging is already; it seems that even though I have only been here for two weeks my little schedule book is quickly filling up and finding time between studying Japanese, going out with all the other international students and harassing Japanese people to write my blog is really difficult.
This week is the second week of lessons at Yokohama and I think I am getting used to the regime already. Luckily for me, because Yokohama is a national university, the timetable isn't so difficult and quite different from the stereotypical view of Japanese working hard at all hours of the day.
University is a three year holiday for Japanese between the hell of Cram school when they are in High School and the ridiculous pressure of joining the working world. It's not so difficult for us international students on our year abroad; the 'Joy program' that we partake in here is nicely renamed the 'enjoy program'.
On the second day of being at Yokohama we were all forced to take a placement test... it was awful! From the test I got placed in an intermediate group which I was quite disappointed with to be honest but I gave it a chance and went to the first class anyway.
The class was horrendous- I had studied everything before in my first year (Kanji, vocab, grammar etc.) so was incredibly bored and inspired to complain about the level I had been put in. Anyway, it turned out that I had been marked down for the harder class as well (probably due to Maria, the exchange girls from Sheffield that was here last year) so I was allowed to change classes no problem.
The harder classes are so much better. They are actually challenging and even though I don't understand anything at the beginning I know what is going on by the end of the (1.30 hour long!!!!) class. Other than Japanese lessons I do some random modules taught in English which are very similar to those back at Sheffield so they are nice and easypeasy but difficult to stay awake in.
In my time off I either come back home and study Japanese as I'm quite behind after not doing any work all summer or go for lunch, dinner with friends.
I can see already that it is very easy to get into the habit of not speaking Japanese and clinging together with other international students so I am going to make an extra effort to meet more Japanese people and chat pointless crap.
That is a picture of my lovely little box room! I hated it when I first moved in because it was so empty and boring but I have bought lots of random stuff for it so it feels much more like home. The best buy is my massive rug so it feels like I have a carpet and can sit comfortably on the floor. Just need to buy more mugs so I can have people over for tea now...
Righto, I'm off to see Chris in Tokyo now, I promise I will write more often in the future!
No comments:
Post a Comment