This is a Warning

Two days ago I received a call from the test center during my absence. I have already written about it in another article, Confusion, but here is a summary for those who haven’t read it. I was informed that something went wrong with my application, and when I tried to call and ask what the problem was, the person on the other end of the line couldn’t help me. Luckily I sent another mail asking what exactly went wrong, and yesterday I received the answer. One of the problems was that the pictures were missing, which they warned me about in the invoice. After looking into the envelope, they found them, which solved problem number one. The thing with the pictures was only a personal problem. But the other is a common one, I want to warn all of you about.

新完全マスター読解

Today I started working with this book, and I plan to work through 1 lesson per day. Today, or rather yesterday, I finished the first lesson. Contrary to my expectation it is not very difficult at　all! The first lesson was about comparing different things. There are 3 reading sections in the beginning, with a longer explanation on the opposite page, which is followed by 4 additional reading passages. All of them are approximately 500 characters in length according to the information in the introductory part of the book. Before working on the problems, I decided to set a time limit of 5 minutes per question. It turned out that this was enough to read and comprehend the passages, to read the 4 answers once more, to answer the questions, and still have two minutes before the time limit was up.

Confusion

Two days ago I handed in my application. It took only one day to reach the test center. Today I received a call from the test center which I couldn’t answer personally. I was out almost all day. When I got home I was told that something in my application was wrong and I got worried. The first thing I did was to call the test center. The person answering my call was a foreigner and very hard to understand. He asked me for some course number, or application number, which I didn’t have or know. So we agreed that they would call me back. During the time of my wait I checked my inbox and found a bill, which only added to my confusion, after reading it.

CorePlus is History

As of today the JLPT1 word list in my corePlus deck is history. This was the last part of this deck I was planning to learn and review, and also the biggest, with roughly 3000 words. So much for this deck with once 25705 cards and now only 16284 remaining cards. And now, what …? It is exactly what I wanted to reach, I reached it, but I’m not happy about it, not one bit. Maybe I got so used to learn that it doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. The little successes that kept me going even in times when I had difficulty understanding the material I was learning with. Maybe it’s because it is because the little successes, and sometimes also the big successes aren’t needed anymore? It is just that I miss the feeling of having achieved something difficult.

Quiz Show

There are several ways and directions to learn words in Japanese. Many people prefer to review their cards from English to Japanese, and from Japanese to English, but only in the beginning. In its place steps a sentence to have some context. Pure word lists are also in order for some, but considering that one has to learn thousands of words, this becomes troublesome. The review in all cases is either Kanji -> Reading -> Translation, or Reading -> Kanji -> Translation, or without any translation at all. Once a translation is no longer needed, the direction in which the reviews take place are Word -> Sentence -> Kanji -> Reading -> Sentence. The definition in Japanese is probably just another element, and not a single card in the direction Word -> Definition, which is logic. Who would ever want to learn definitions for thousands of words?

Stupeur et Tremblements

Stupeur et Tremblements is a movie from 2003. It tells the story of Amelie, who takes on a job as interpreter in a Japanese company, and her downfall. Everything she does, she does wrong. Instead of obeying her bosses every command, outspoken or not, she speaks up. Instead of keeping quiet while serving coffee, she speaks with the clients, and causes them to leave. Instead of learning her job, the Japanese way, she only does what she was told. A true disaster, not only for her, but also for some of her colleagues. She thinks her direct boss is her friend, because she talks to her, while in reality she only keeps a 先輩・後輩 relationship, and treats Amelie badly.

Travel Schedule

Next year will be my first visit to Japan. Since it is never too early to plan ahead of time, I decided to write something about my plans for next year. The most likely dates of my visit are from September to January, or from October to February. In this time I plan to make a round trip, with my first stay in Nara, then off to 長崎, 九州, 広島, 京都, and　新潟. The visit to 新潟 would be in February, in case I decide to go between October and February. At that time there is a festival there called 豪雪JAM. From what I have seen it is exactly what I like, crazy guys playing crazy music on a snow stage.

Watching News

There are several Japanese news sites out there on the net. NKH3, FNN, and ANN are three news websites I use on a day-to-day basis in this order. The reason is that NHK3 is the most easy to understand, and to speak and read along, while the reporter speaks. The FNN reporters speak a little faster, but still in a speed it is rather easy to speak along, and get what they are saying, without having to look anything up if it is just for listening and watching. The most difficult of the three is by far ANN. Their reporters are speaking incredibly fast, and I can’t speak along and read along, until I have watched the same spot for three or four times. Here is a comparison between the three, so you can see which is easiest to understand, and which you can follow best.

JLPT Hauntings

Tonight I had another one of those weird dreams. It was a day or two before the actual JLPT started. My city, in which the dream JLPT should be held, is only 5 km. away. I made my preparations for the big day, but forgot one thing, and that was the 2HB pencils, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener. No problem, because I knew there was a store on the way and I have my driver stop by to let me off there. The actual day of the JLPT came, and I was waiting outside my house, for my driver to arrive. There was also another Lady, probably in her 60s. I didn’t know her but she, too, was planning to take this test. As did some others who sat in the car. Incidentally, two of the other passengers also forgot to buy their writing utensils, and when we arrived at the store we got off together. The place the JLPT was held was within walking distance, so the driver could park the car in the garage and we would meet in the building.

[Day 5] Kanzen Master

The fifth day of working with 新完全マスター2級文法 is over, and I really come to like this book, it is great. The results of the short tests after every lessons on the other hand are not particularly good. For most of the lessons I got more than half of the answers right, but I hate to have the other ones wrong for two reasons. The first is that I look at the 4 possible answers, take into consideration what I just learned, and choose the wrong one. In most cases the reason for this is because one of two possible answers appears to be correct, the differences are very small, but only one is correct. After checking the answers in the back of the book, and after re-reading the sentences I got wrong, it is clear why my choice was wrong.