yatta!
I managed to place up one class into J5, the Japanese language class I assumed I would be in to start with. It's still remedial but reassuringly less so. I start next week.
On the other hand, my kanji reading class promises to be entirely too difficult. I'm supposed to know about 90 more kanji than I do before taking the class but since I have one more week to drop I figure I'll hang on as long as possible before giving up. Before today I thought I would be find just sticking it out in the class but today's class proved I vastly overestimated myself. I *really* want to learn new kanji, especially because my language classes will be review until the end of this semester. I don't want to feel like I'm not learning anything new, even if I am reinforcing my language foundations.
Even so, I may accomplish more doing independent kanji study than I would in this class. I just may not have the grammar and comprehension skills to progress in this class; not to mention that my grade will almost guaranteedly be a C or D. The thought of a poor grade (albeit my first), doesn't bother me because the class is only 1 term long (not even the whole semester) and only a 1 credit class. It may not even transfer back to the UO. If it does, I imagine one pathetic credit will have negligible effect on my grades for what I might learn from it. Hmm. Tough call, ne?
Despite settling into classes, I have to admit that I'm still mighty fed up with the scholastic bureaucracy at Waseda. To begin with, that placement test was total crap. Secondly, they're entirely uncooperative at taking feedback or accomplishing accurate placement. Thirdly, even in remedial classes, the teachers give no real idea of testing material or review and then proceed to, for example, test on obscure kanji writings which we HAVE NOT LEARNED. It makes me livid. And also upset because when I become frustrated with my language teachers or language classes, I become upset with learning the language itself.
Some times I feel pretty proficient at Japanese. For example, I can usually understand spoken conversation very well except in the instance that someone is asking me a complex direct question... then my brain freezes up. But I can't really read, write or speak very well. It's rather bothersome. The remedial classes will help with writing and speaking but I need something to supplement my reading ability, which is why I'll opt either for this masochistic kanji class or for independent study from my children's kanji book or somesuch.
I had a lovely evening after class going to Chinzan-so (four seasons) gardens with two of my classmates for a class project. We're looking at Edo-era architecture in moden Tokyo so we were assigned to walk through the gardens of the Four Seasons Hotel (*****), a very historical and beautiful area, as well as the nearby Shin-Edogawa Gardens. Luckily for us, our "spot" is only about 5 minutes from campus. Very convenient. In the failing evening light, we walked all around Chinzan-so Gardens, the site of an old daimyo (feudal lord) residence for research. Because the gardens are now on hotel property, they are very well mantained and protected. In the inner garden, there are many traditional statues, shrines and enclaves dating back to the Edo area.
It's an extremely beautiful place that's also amusing to see in contrast with a modern five-star hotel. The Four Seasons is also famous for weddings and has something like 11 banquet halls and seven CHINTZY restaurants (like $50 tempura) on garden grounds. There's even a traditional Japanese seven-course meal restaurant that starts at around $180. We were quite impressed.
However, by the time we got around to going to Shin-Edogawa Garden, the gate had closed, so we decided to go back there for lunch tomorrow after class. I suppose I'll have lunch in the park, go to the gym, go home to change and eat dinner and then go to the club in Shibuya with the preppy people. We'll see how that goes.
I had a lovely evening with the family despite being tired. Dad likes wine (yay, happy Kat!) so they of course dosed me up, which didn't help at all. ( I'm so gonna get fat here... =X ) He also offered me and some of my friends the option to work for him during a two-day festival in Shibuya on November 2nd and 3rd as English information services and announcements. Should be about $200 apeice. Sounds like fun and a great experience to me!
We all talked a lot about classes and language, and I made plans with my host mom to go get my Gaijin card and open a bank account next wednesday. We decided to go sightseeing in the yuppie Ginza district afterwards since I haven't been there yet (and I'm SURE my host mom doesn't want to go to Harajuku... hee). I really do love my host parents. It's great to talk with them and laugh about language differences. Sometimes I wish they wouldn't default to English so much, but I think they like to practice as well. It's not really a problem. I'm just glad for their support in everything I do. Host mom says she'll definitely help me with Kanji if I want it!
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