Japanese Lessons
I've been settling into Shizuoka pretty well, and have met lots of friendly people. I went to my first proper Japanese lesson yesterday. I went in full of enthusiasm, though I became a little concerned when I saw that the textbook was entirely written in Japanese. Nevermind, it was only level 1 beginners Japanese, and I'd been learning some basic Japanese characters and words over the last few months. However I became alarmed when the teacher started giving the lesson entirely in Japanese! I managed to understand about half of what the teacher was saying and my mind raced to keep up with the class. The lesson turned out pretty well though, because the teacher was very patient and used lots of pictures as examples. Hopefully I'll learn faster because of the total immersion, and given that the students were from all over the world it's impractical to teach Japanese in English. They were all very friendly, and the fact that some don't speak English means I get to practice Japanese even more.
posted by Ben at 10:13 pm
3 Comments:
Do you know My.Bicycle?
It sounds like you guys are in the same field; I thought you might find Brian interesting.
Good luck with the Japanese! It seems daunting, but it is so consistent; grammatically it's much cleaner than English. And learning to write hiragana and katakana is fun.
Hi Ben,
Ha ha, yes; learning a second language... well, if my experience is anything to go by, you'll struggle along, wondering if it's ever going to sink in, then one day it'll all click. Might be good to bear in mind during the tougher times!
As a Brisbaner about to spend a few days in Tokyo (on my way elsewhere) I enjoyed reading what you had to say about your time there. Hope it all goes well for you in Shizuoka.
Hi Indri, I don't know MyBicycle, but I'll check it out! Thanks for your comments, I really think it's going to be interesting learning Japanese. Although there are some strange inconsistencies, it does seem like a very logical language.
Hi Suzette, it's a small world hey? I used to live in South Brisbane before coming here. Japanese is a bit of a struggle, but using a little every day really does seem to help it sink in. I can't wait till I can hold a decent conversation. Sometimes when I'm drifting off to sleep my mind is buzzing with Japanese words, so hopefully it means they're embedding themselves in my brain.
Cheers,
Ben
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