To make up for my previous drought of blogging, I will now commence to overwhelm this blog with posts! Todays topic: in the classroom.
To begin with, on the second day of school orientation (which was also only my third day in Japan) all the ryougakusei aka foreign exchange students had to take a Japanese placement test. This consisted of multiple choice, writing, and an oral test. Based on these results we were placed in one of four classes:
A: Begginers
B: Elementary
C: Intermediate
D: Advanced
I was lucky enough to just get into the C-class, but I am struggling to keep up and learn more every day. So far I have managed just fine and have learned a lot since I started taking classes. Interestingly enough, the Begginners class is all men and the Advanced and Intermediate classes are all girls with one lonely (or lucky) guy.
My schedule is different everyday of the week. Besides Language classes I have two other Japanese culture classes: Japanese Performing Arts and Japanese Film. Below is my weekly schedule:
MON: 9 am - 11:10 am Grammar Class with Fukui-sensei. Every Monday I have a kanji test, usually on about 20+ kanji.
12:50 pm - 2:20 pm Japanese Performing Arts with Guillnard-sensei. In this class we learn about different stage acting, music, costume, and the history of performing arts. The best thing about this class is the field trips! I have learned a lot from Prof. Guillnard, who is from Switzerland. He is the only professional foreign Biwa player (four string guitar-like instrument) in Japan and has lived here for over 20 years.
TUES: 9 am - 11:10 am Hands-on Japanese with Masada-sensei. Usually watch and rewatch short sections of the famous Japanese anime film "Spirited Away". While watching we have to fill in the dialogue word for word on worksheets. This is one of my favorite classes because it is interesting and I feel like I learn a lot from it.
WED: 9 am - 11:10 am Grammar Class
12:50 pm - 4:00 pm Japanese Film with Yuko-sensei. Film class is usually fairly interesting, but unfortunately is not good and conveying her knowledge to us. Our class is really large and she struggles to manage it. I don't feel like I have gotten too much out of this class, but I have watched a lot of movies from Japan and feel more cultured!
THURS: 9 am - 11:10 am Hands-on Japanese. Usually we write a short essay on a given topic, take turns on giving speeches, or interpret and read aloud news articles. The last is the most difficult because of the amount of difficult kanji (chinese characters) we have to read.
12:50 pm - 2:20 pm Japanese Performing Arts
FRI: 9 am - 11:10 am Grammar Class
And there you have a rough synopsis of my school life here! Outside of class we hang out a lot at the Kokusai Center aka International Center lobby and go shopping or eating out. On Tuesdays I only have a morning class so I usually try to go home early and do laundry, clean my room, get caught up on homework, etc.
Well, thats all for now folks!
