Buzi, Buzy, Busy

Was quite busy the last few days....

Wednesday, 3 Oct
Went to the 9am class for Oral Expression 3E. What a shock! The Sensei, after finding out that several of us did not do level 2 and came straight to her level 3 class, told us straight in the face that she strongly 'advice' us to go to level 2 instead. The way she put it across was by no mean rude, but it was very direct. The impression I got was that she do not want to help us (about 5 of us) to catch up, even when the class was less than 10 people.. To me, she was just being truthful and direct, but unfortunately way too demoralizing. Suddenly, I had no confidence in my Japanese skills, no matter how little I had in the first place.. :x

In the end I started to have doubts about taking any level 3 classes!! Struggling to find suitable classes, in the same time not wanting to go to level 2 classes, Kim-chan and me went to the Independent Learning class to check it out, since Alex was raving about it.. But in the end, the Sensei for Independent Learning too said that it would be rather difficult for us as the IL classes are for Level 3-4. This Sensei was so unlike that earlier sensei who just told us to drop her class as she would not want to teach us level 2 grammar.. At least she told us nicely and explained the reason why..

So we were undecided now.. On one hand, Alex said that the IL class is doable, while on the other, the Sensei said that it would be difficult.. After some discussion, we decided to take the IL class and the 3 of us can work together to catch up..

We then went to Kanji (for Kim-chan) and Oral Expression 2 (for me) after lunch. The Sensei for OE 2 was very nice and the class is manageable for me. I was torn again. If I take IL, I would have 6 Japanese classes all together without taking into account OE 2. Yet, I really wanted to take her classes as I could sense that she is a good and patient teacher. I will see how the friday Grammar 3 goes.. So headache... :x :x

Later at night, I went for the karate practice. And I got my result for the promotion exam. I passed!! So now I'm in Level 9, purple belt.. :) Well, at least 1 good thing happened today...


Thursday, 4 Oct
No class for me on Thursdays.. but today I had to go back to school for a 6pm workshop by my research lab.. I woke up around 10am.. did my laundry, watched some anime (Kekkaishi - 结界师) and went out to get my lunch.. Body was slightly aching, maybe due to the karate session the night before..

Reached school at least 40min earlier, which was okay with me.. I just sat at the sofa near the entrance and read up some Japanese grammar.. Then 10 min before 6pm, we were asked to go to a small meeting room. Mr Utsumi, ex-Sec Gen of ITU was to be giving some lecture. About 15 of my Sensei's students came for this workshop. It was a very interesting talk by Mr Utsumi. It was about the workings, dynamics and process of organising the World Summit on the Information Society. Just like any major world-wide conferences, there are many hidden hands manipulating the processes. Every country wants to further their own agenda thus jostling and positioning are the norm. But to hear all these from the person within the very organization that organized and championed it was a different experience. To say the least, this workshop opened my eyes on the workings of international relationships..


Friday, 5 Oct
Fridays are going to be my busiest day of the week.. I have 3 classes and 1 seminar from 9am to 9pm...

First it was the Grammar 3 class at 9am. The Sensei gave us a test during the class to check our grammar proficiency level. She wants to know if our basics (of grammar level 1 and 2) are good enough to take level 3. Out of 30 questions, I only managed to get 14 correct. She said that those scored 18 and above should remain in this class while those scoring lower should seriously consider changing to a lower level class. She told me that this class is doable but would be difficult, that I should think about taking this class..

Kim-chan and I had a discussion after the class. I told her that I do not mind taking this Grammar 3 class but I don't think I would be able to cope with the IL class for level 3-4. In the end I sticked to my original plan which is to take Listening 3E, Reading 3E (both of which I do not have much problem, yet), Pronunciation 3E, Oral Expression 2E and Grammar 3E. In this way, I would just need to work harder on my Grammar which is 'only' 1 level higher as compared to IL 3-4 which is more than 1 level advanced. I really wanted to take the Listening class as I want to improve my listening skills and at Level 3, it was at a comfortable learning level for me.. So in the end, both of us decided to drop the idea of going to IL 3-4.. And we also decided that we will meet up on Wednesdays to have our study group in the morning and after our 1pm class.

So in a way, I sort-of decided on my Japanese classes for this semester... :)

Prof. Kano's class was interesting and so was A.Prof Suganuma's. I think I will learn a lot from these 2 professors.. :) And I'm thinking of doing my theme research with them too.. After these 2 classes, it was my lab's seminar.. which ended at 9.10pm... Went to have dinner with Michelle, Shinta and Jim.. Didnt reach home until almost 12am.. Super tired...