Elementary Japanese

Today in class we had to give a conversation performance presentation in front of the class. Honestly, I didn’t study much. I started a new job and have been so focused on mastering hiragana that I fell behind on what we were currently studying. That being said, I was able to complete it. The performance made me realize just how far I have to go. Although class has only been in session for a few weeks, I feel like I should know so much more. I can’t help but feel a little discouraged after the performance, but this just means I have to work that much harder to succeed and do well on my TOEIC test in December.

Tokyo est. 2019

 

I have some friends that live in Japan. They recently told me that fall in Japan has gotten a lot hotter than it normally is. Sometimes the weather is 90˚F! (This is a lot like Oklahoma, actually.) However, the winter it’s roughly 45-50˚F. While it’s still a year away, I’ve been wondering just how much I should pack. I will have to pack for roughly 3 seasons: Summer, Fall and Winter. I don’t know about you all, but I’m not trying to manage 3 suitcases in the airport. At all. I’ve been thinking about just shipping my clothes, but that seems like it could get pretty pricey. I could just shop for clothes online and have them shipped as needed, but that will also get expensive. Then there’s the problem with getting it all back home.

Any ideas?

Learning Hiragana

Memorizing hiragana has been somewhat of a struggle for me. I took a personal day today to catch up on school work, mainly Japanese though. I’m finally to a point where I can read hiragana without romaji.

*tip: if you learn only from romaji instead of hiragana/katakana, your pronunciation will be off

Studying Abroad

I’ve decided recently to minor in Japanese (my major is software engineering.) I’ve always had a fascination with japanese culture (not just anime!) since I was young. A recent hobby of mine has been watching vlogs of students who are studying abroad there. Watching this made me realize just how much I wanted to do the same. Luckily, my university has two sister schools in tokyo, Rikkyo and Meiji.

In order to be accepted, I have to take a japanese language proficiency test on December 6th. I need to get at least an N4 on it. The grading is a bit different. N5 is the easiest and N1 is the hardest. Hopefully I’m able to learn enough to pass by then… I’ll apply when I get my results in March, and then I will be notified in July if I am accepted. If I am, I will leave September 10th to begin my 6 month long journey! This pretty much means that for the next 3-4 months, I will be studying my ass off… 🙂