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Fail!

So I totally failed my placement exam. For a few days I pleaded with my professor to let me into the class, but after thinking about it I realized I'm not ready. I went to the teacher before she could reject me!

I was too busy to study for this placement exam and I'm too busy to be in the class. My whole schedule is out of whack. The teacher in charge of the exam told me that people in my program say they are too busy all the time. I've been bummed about this for a while, hence me not posting about it until today.

Well, rest assure, I am now thinking of summer language study in Japan. I''m applying to some scholarships and looking over some kanji books. It's so boring and I'm trying to find some blogs that will spice things up, but it takes me so long to read these blogs (that sounds so horrible because in time I know I will get quicker). I'm taking Japanese and Chinese history classes though, so... it's reminding me how much I've got to get back on track!

Closed Mondays

Closed Mondays like a museum. My very own Japanese language museum.

j/k, j/k I'm just paying tribute to Reference Library - which has nothing to do with Japanese learning (笑).

Tests!

How pathetic that I've only posted 9 posts for 2009. To my defense, I didn't take any Japanese classes, nor did I go to Japan.

In one week I have a placement exam for my class. I'm a bit nervous because I haven't written Japanese in a while. I haven't had time to crack open any books either. I have to draft an essay that I'm totally not ready for.

Reading Japanese Online, let's make it happen 2010

Out of chance, I stumbled upon a Japanese knitting blog called witch's knitting room. It's a blog I saved onto my googleReader ages ago. Since this person posted I was triggered to try to read it. After moments of frustrations and that usual "wtf what do all these things mean" moment - I then put their blog into rikai.com (a great blog that gives you pop-ups when you scroll over the kanji).

I could read the sentences phonetically, but it took me a couple of reads to actually know what this person was saying. Then when I read the comments I could swear the first comment was really mean. I thought this was odd because in English craft blogs we never hate on bloggers. I realized that I'm not getting something. I'm not ready yet to read this blog.

I tried looking for a blog that had both Japanese and English, but the one I knew about called To Darrin Hudson from way back when as well - moved! and the site it moved to no longer has these translations. Also rikai.com can't translate non-Japanese blogs. It seems like it has to be Japanese, not an English one that has Japanese on it.

I got frustrated, tired and went to sleep. Nevertheless one good thing came out of this encouraging blog reading session. My resolution to begin reading blogs in Japanese. They intimidate me so much. Seeing a million katakana strewn across a webpage makes me cringe. It makes me feel like I'm looking at a jpg., not text.

I want to make it my new year's resolution because resolutions are empty promises anyway (j/k, j/k). No, but seriously, I'm gonna make it happen.

Now, if only I can make my upstairs neighbor stop playing some weird musical music so I can concentrate. On Japanese of course.

Nobody Knows Review

The other day I had time to comb Netflix's watch instantly. I hear the movies rotate. I actually wanted to watch Thank you for smoking, but it was no longer on watch instantly (sad kanji character here- I haven't seen that yet so I don't know which character to use and will hold back for now). Thank you for smoking was directed by Jason Reitman who recently did Up in the Air. There's my public health plug because that's what I'm studying these days.

Nobody Knows was on it (笑). I didn't watch it again, so I can only tell you my overall impression and not the details. I didn't watch it again because there were so many movies I had not watched, which I reviewed on my other blog.

My overall impression of the movie was - so this is what Japan is like. So people aren't perfect (and I don't mean that in any condescending way). The main character was so good and one of those kids you knew would be god looking when they were older. I think that always helps. It revealed a side of Japan that I was never privy to see - I guess not many are unless they are in Japan.

I highly recommend it. It will make you cry, but make you feel more in tune with Japan. I get a similar feeling when I read Haruki Murakami. Even though his stories are more fantasy like. Give it a try. Tell me what you think.

I'm Back and Just in time for Turkey day

Alright, after a long hiatus I am back and no longer that anonymous. I've linked this blog to my blogger profile. You can see what blogs I'm following and my second blog about clothing.

Why am I back you ask? Well due to a number of twists and turns in my life, I am yet again embarking on structured Japanese learning. As long as I pass the placement exam at school I will be taking Japanese 4th level II! I left off taking 4th level I.

I wish I could just advance to 5th level, but alas that advanced course is apparently harder than the hardest class you have ever taking in your life (i know - scary). I have to take a separate placement exam for that class and it's apparently hard, like people who've lived in Japan reading Japanese for a substantial part of their life take that class. I talked to the teacher for Japanese 5 to see how hard it would be to test into it and ask what the requirements were for getting a certificate for Japanese to accompany my graduate degree. It was unclear whether I have to place into level 5 or in order to "pass level 4" which is what I need for this certificate. The level 5 teacher didn't answer my question about what I had to do and I wasn't sure if it was my bad Japanese or her bad English that messed up our conversation (this happens more often than not).

Since I don't have the self confidence or where with all (see no self confidence) to take level 5 or even try to pass the placement exam, I've decided to continue taking level 4. This means I am BACK! I will update you on how I'm studying, what I'm finding in terms of Japanese movies, podcasts (yeah, go to work on that) and studying tools.

This is mainly to get through what is going to be a tough time this coming semester. Because face it. Really learning a language, not just learning it to say you learned it is hard, mega-hard and sometimes even mega-mega hard.