皆さん、久しぶりですね。

ちょっと忙しいし、怠けたし、このブログを無視しちゃいました。

So what have I been up to? Last I wrote, I was on a two-month school break. In my second to last post, I listed a selection of books I wanted to study from during the break. To my surprise, I finished almost all of them. I was planning to write a small review of each of the books, but since I don't think anyone would care, I'll leave it at this: they're all good books (especially 外国人のためのケータイメール＠にっぽん) except for one: にほんごチャレンジ３級[ことばと漢字]. The book isn't as good as it could be. It has a few mistakes that should've been caught before it was published, and the definitions of words could've been better, perhaps more detailed, since the entire book focuses on vocabulary.

Other than that... what did I do? I can't remember much. It feels like so long ago. I went to Hokkaido, which I might've already written about. I went to the YouTube Hanami party in Tokyo, which was very tiring to get to and from but very, very fun. My boyfriend and I did a few things around the city before he moved away for his new job. Now I don't see him very often, and when I do, it's hard on the wallet.

I spent most of Golden Week, which was a few weeks ago, with my boyfriend at his parents house. That was fun. It was nice to be able to spend so much time with my boyfriend and not have to worry about cooking food or doing dishes or cleaning. Plus, it's nice to spend time with Shinichi's parents now that I'm able to use and understand Japanese better. I've improved my Japanese and they've started to speak more clearly (meaning they tone down their dialect), and with those two things, we can communicate. :)

I'm about two months into my last semester in Japan. I'm starting to put on the breaks and getting ready mentally to go back home. Some days I'm excited to go back home, other days I don't want it to happen. As hard as this year has been, next year will be hard too. Reverse culture shock, being away from my boyfriend again for at least nine months, an overly-busy class schedule, figuring out what I'll do after I graduate. Graduate school applications are due in November and December -- AHHH!! I'm stressing myself out -- I should stop.

Anyway, I'm about two months into the semester, and my Japanese language class is about two weeks from being halfway over. We'll be starting a new textbook then. Two textbooks in one semester -- it's hard for me to believe. We go so quickly that I know I'm not remembering everything I should. When I first got to Japan and started Japanese classes, we went through all of Genki II in half a semester. My home university took a year to go through it. But there are still some things in Genki II I don't remember, mainly vocabulary. I'm using smart.fm to help get my vocabulary (and kanji) to where they should be.

But this is all very boring. I'm not sure why I'm writing a blog entry now and about these things.

I've realized my study abroad experience has become exactly the same as my senior year of high school. I transferred to a new school that year, going from a tiny private school to a HUGE public school. I knew nothing about how the school ran. Apparently I had my own email address through the school. No one ever told me. I read the handbook cover to cover a few times, and I knew everything it said, but there was still so many things about the school that everyone else knew.

Also, I knew no one. I had always lived in the city where the public school was, but I had gone to another school thirty minutes away from where I lived. Anyone I knew lived over there. My new school was full of rich and stupid Valley Girl snobs, the kind of people I hate.

On the first day of school, I did make a friend: a loner named Chris who liked anime and other nerdy things. For a while I hung out with him and his friends, but even though they were nice and I liked them, I didn't fit with them, and I started spending less time with them.

After that, I spent all of my time alone. I didn't talk to my classmates, and they didn't talk to me. After school, I would look back over the day and count how many times I talked. Usually it was only a couple a words, at the most a few sentences. I usually only talked to answer the teacher.

I got into the habit of spending my lunch break one of two ways. Sometimes I would sit in my car and listen to the radio while I ate my lunch. Even though it didn't take me long to eat, I would stay there in the car until it was time for class. I usually put the blinds up, both because it's always hot and sunny in California, but also because it made me feel closed-off and safe. I know, I must be a mental case. Anyway, when I didn't do that, I would spend my lunch break in the library doing homework, and then I would eat my lunch (which was usually only a sandwich) later on the drive home.

Anyway, I told you all of that because it's all happening again. I know next to nothing about how the school runs, basically because of the language barrier. I do talk with my classmates a lot more than I did with my high school classmates, but it's still not much. If I have to stay on campus for lunch, I eat a bento quickly where there aren't a lot of people around, and then I hide out in the computer lab until it's time for class. As soon as classes are over, I go home. I don't go to parties or other outings, mainly because I'm not invited but also because I usually don't want to go. I'm alone except for when I spend time with my boyfriend.

It's pretty sad, and it depresses me to know that, even though I'm older now, I'm still reacting to a situation the same way I did three years ago. But I'm okay with all of this. If I really wanted to change the situation, I probably could. The truth is, I don't mind being by myself. It's so much work to hang out with other people, and it usually doesn't feel worth it to me, especially if I don't fit well with the other people.

Well, that's a look into my mind and my experience, I guess. I'm not sure how to wrap up this post, so let's just end it.

Spring Break Plans: Japanese Review

So, my first semester in Japan has ended, and I now face a two-month vacation. Fearing that I will spend the next two months how I usually spend my weekends (alone in my apartment doing nothing), I have set a few goals for the vacation time. One of the biggest goals is to finish the following books.

1. Genki II and A Course in Modern Japanese: Volume Two
I've read both of these already (one was my textbook part of this semester), but I want to make sure I learn everything I can from them. There are still a lot of grammar points and kanji I learned once but don't remember now.
Both textbooks teach basically the same things, but since each book explains things differently, it has been helpful to use both of them. This is something I recommend to other learners: learn from more than one creditable source. The more ways you have things explained to you, the better you'll comprehend them and be able to use them.

2. パターン別日本語能力試験３級徹底ドリル３級
This is an all-around prep book for JLPT 3, but I mainly got it because it has a listening section, and I desperately need to improve my listening (and speaking, but that I can't do with a book...).

3. にほんごチャレンジ３級[ことばと漢字]
This is also a book to help study for the JLPT level 3, but the one before looked more like a testing tool, and this one looked more like a teaching tool. I got this one to increase my vocabulary and kanji.

4. 外国人のためのケータイメール＠にっぽん
I found out about this book from the JapanNewbie interview with @sandkatt. It's really, really helpful with colloquial Japanese, and it's written in easy foreigner Japanese, so even I can read it. I think it's a gem. I'm halfway done with it and want to finish it over the break.

5. Catchy Japanese Phrases
A small book of everyday phrases I should probably already know. I just realized it's published by the same company that published Genki. That has no significance, but I wanted more text to take up space with. :)


And the reading begins... now! :)

Progress and Celebration

皆さん、明けましておめでとうございます。

I'm just now noticing how much my Japanese has improved since I've been here. It hasn't felt like a lot because every day I'm exposed to Japanese full-force, nonstop, and I'm always struggling to understand. But the past couple of days I've been going back to listening exercises I did right before I came here, and while I used to think they were too fast and difficult to understand, now they sound overly slow and easy to make out. What an awesome feeling knowing I have made progress in the three or four months I've been here and that I'll keep making progress. I look forward to speaking with my Japanese professor from my home university when I return, even though that won't be for another six months. Holy shit, six more months.... It's both a long time and a short time.

Anyway, this is all I have time to write. The end of the semester sneaked up on me, and I find my to-do list growing longer every day.

Oh, but I will tell you this: I'm participating in a 成人式 (coming of age ceremony) on 成人の日 (Coming of Age Day), which is next Monday! I'm so excited. I have a beautiful furisode to wear, and I'll be going with my boyfriend and some of my friends. How many foreigners can say they participated in 成人の日?? :O

One Week to Go!

I received more information about my upcoming year in Japan! Yayyy! I emailed the university and (politely) reminded them that I leave in a week, and they sent me all the information I'd been waiting for. :)

I've been assigned a studio apartment in a building about three kilometers away from campus. I have some issues with the distance (I'm used to living right on campus), but, to be honest, living in a cramped Japanese apartment is a dream I've developed over the past year, and I'm so glad I'll be able to experience it. I'm even looking forward to commuting on a bike... once I get over initial fears of 1) navigating a bike on streets (cars are big and metal and scary!), and 2) navigating a bike on the left side of streets ("OMG, all my knowledge of how to legally move on a street is now backwards!") I also have the option of taking the 地下鉄 (ちかてつ, subway) to school, but right now I'm partial to investing in a 自転車 (じてんしゃ, bicycle). It seems like the price of a bike and occasional maintenance would be a lot less than a year's worth of daily subway tickets.

I want to say more about the apartment, but I'm sure it's just a standard apartment, haha. I can't stop myself from saying this, though: I'll have a TV! I grew up having a TV in my bedroom, but I lost that luxury once I got to college. So, after two years of missing all my favorite shows (except one: LOST), I'm excited to once again have my own TV, even if all but a few of the shows will be in a language I don't understand well. :P

My level of Japanese comprehension is low, but I've made sure to review Japanese this summer. I've actually been studying a lot, so please forgive me while I toot my own horn for a little bit. I've been reviewing vocabulary, grammar, and kanji every day. Unfortunately, my speaking and reading (outloud) abilities have gone downhill, but now I know all but six of the vocabulary words in Genki 1. I know that's nothing to people who have studied Japanese longer, but I've been worried about not testing into the level of Japanese I should be in. Someone who studied abroad last year told me he tested into a class way lower than his actual level. (But I don't know how much he reviewed the summer before he went and if that could have affected his results.)

Speaking of studying Japanese, here's a website recommendation: readthekanji.com. I love the site. It's such a great way to learn and review kanji. They're broken up into the JLPT levels, and it's great motivation to look at your stats and see the number of kanji you know grow. Okay, I'm sure I sounded really nerdy just now....