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.
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