Tuesday 14 September 2010

Nihongo FIGHTO

Having neglected my studies for the past year, I decided last week that it is about time I get back on the bandwagon and start properly studying Japanese again.

It is easy to not study here- at school I am either too busy or too bored to look at Japanese and there is no chance I am going to do anything productive after work. Also, with no goal and being quite thoroughly sick of studying non-stop at uni, it all came to a halt fairly swiftly after arriving in Fukushima.

But, BUT, I am giving myself a goal. It comes in the form of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Anyone who has lived in Japan or has studied Japanese will already know about it, but, for those normal people who read this blog (Mum), it is a test that can be taken for non-native speakers to show how good your Japanese is.
This winter, I am going to take level 2 (one being the best, five the worst). I should have taken level 2 two years ago when I was still in Yokohama but at the time I didn't really see the point. Now I am having to re-learn everything- kanji, grammar, vocab. Everything. Damn me for being lazy. DAAAAMN.
It is going to be a lot of work but I am forming a study group to keep myself motivated and, well, I don't plan on failing, even if passing doesn't look too likely. It is a rather tricky little test.

On the positive side of things, starting to study again has reminded me of how much I enjoyed doing Japanese in the first place.


Other things I am keeping myself busy with: applying for post grad (I want to study Chinese, why am I still doing Japanese?! Haha, good question), Fujet (though after our trip canyoning it has been a tad quieter for me), hmm, that's it actually.

Sorry about the dull post- it reflects my mood!



Thursday 9 September 2010

English Speech Contest

I won!


By I, I actually mean my student but since I am the native speaker I think I can take credit for at least 75% of the win. Let's ignoring the fact that I was away for half the summer so the only real job I did was pick her. And that most of her competitors sounded like they had stones in their mouths, were robots or had lisps. We rocked and nothing anyone says will change that.
On a slightly (and only very slightly) more impressive note, she is the first student in this school to win the original speech part of the competition ever. I should have a picture of me holding the trophy framed in gold and hung by the principal's office. Only that would do justice to my marvellous teaching skills.


We go to the prefectural competition next week and if we win that then onwards and upwards to the country wide one. She really wants to win, too. Which is strange as I have spent the past year trying to install a feeling of apathy in my student so they don't cry when they lose.

Fingers crossed that we win!