Foreigner Registration, Conversation Partners, and other such things
I don't have anything "big" going on this week/weekend, but life is interesting nonetheless. (It always seems to be when one is living in another country.)
This week, Shaina, Mallory, and I turned in our paperwork for foreigner registration cards (also known by some students as "gaijin cards" -- gaijin is a shortening of the word for foreigner, gaikokujin; gaijin is not exactly an insult, but its connotations are not necessarily positive either). This is a very important thing to do for any foreigner living in Japan for more than 90 days. Foreigners (so I've heard) are routinely stopped by Japanese police, and if they cannot provide their passport or their foreigner registration, they will be apprehended and may even be (!!!) deported. I don't know about the deportation bit (since after all, anyone attending JCMU is not an illegal immigrant), but students have been stopped in the past, so it's important to carry the foreigner registration card at all times. Also, I think it might act as proof of identity/address/studenthood and thus allow access to student rates, etc. So come February 8, I'll trek back to Hikone City Hall to pick mine up.
I met my Japanese conversation partner this week as well. JCMU offers both Japanese classes (for students like me) and English classes (for Japanese students). The conversation partner program allows students from the programs to meet up and practice each other's language. My conversation partner, Nakagawa-san (-san is an honorific something like Mr./Ms./Mrs. In Japanese, honorifics are almost always used; -san is a basic, polite honorific), is taking an English class that meets Monday and Thursday nights. So, on Monday night before her class, we sat down in Apple Hall (that's part of the academic building) and introduced ourselves briefly, and tonight, after her class, we talked again. Nakagawa-san is a very nice woman in her early thirties. She studied English while in school (like pretty much all Japanese students) but hasn't had much practice speaking it. She got married last year (or the year before?) and her husband also comes to the classes (they are a cute pair, I have to say). It's hard to say much else about her since our conversations have been very short and stilted so far. Her English is very understandable, but, like me with Japanese, there are enough gaps in her knowledge that she is very hesitant to speak. I have to wonder how my stunted Japanese sounds to her! We managed to more or less understand each other, but some things were very hard to explain (for example, I tried to say that I've studied Japanese for two and a half years, or 5 semesters at school, but trying to explain it in semesters completely confused the matter!). But she was very sweet, telling me my Japanese is good (which is pretty much what any Japanese person will tell any foreigner who can speak Japanese at all -- I'm not trying to be modest here, it's the truth!) and saying that she would like to become friends. I hope for the same, even if I still feel nervous about our next meeting since I will again have no idea what to talk about.
Things have been fairly quiet otherwise. When I came to Japan, there were still/already flowers blooming on bushes, even though the temperature has been in the 30s and 40s. Since then, there's been a bit of snow that hasn't stuck -- until today. It snowed all day long, and it's finally piled up on the ground. I'm sure it's just a few inches, but even so it seems big. This is probably because my bike is my main mode of transportation. The winds here are worse than the snow (at least, I can't imagine much worse than the winds), but I doubt that snow would help. Thankfully, I don't have any planned outings in the next few days, and from what I've heard, the snow doesn't stay long here. As long as I'm in my room near my lovely space heater (small heaters are popular in Japan since there's no central heating), I'll be just fine.
Japanese Level 2 (my class) has been going well so far. Up until this week, we were just doing review of the material from Genki I, the textbook they use here for level 1 students. Now we are moving on to Genki II. Since my college used a different textbook series (Yookoso!), my knowledge base is slightly different. Thus, I'm very thankful that we've reviewed; much of the material is the same, but there were a few new words and slightly different grammar patterns from what I had learned. I think I can expect the same from Genki II -- a mix of old and new. And I have to say, reviewing the old is vital for learning a language. There's so much that I've forgotten from my 1st and 2nd year of study in Japanese, and this is helping to bring it back.
If anything in this entry sounds odd or awkwardly worded ... I suppose I should say, I feel as if my English has become somewhat odd and awkward since coming to Japan. Thinking in different language is very important for language study, but it can be a bit disorienting! Nevertheless, I will persevere :) And I will also try to write here often, because as much as I want my Japanese to improve, my English is also very important to me as a writer *ha ha*
じゃ、また ね! (Well, until next time!)
This week, Shaina, Mallory, and I turned in our paperwork for foreigner registration cards (also known by some students as "gaijin cards" -- gaijin is a shortening of the word for foreigner, gaikokujin; gaijin is not exactly an insult, but its connotations are not necessarily positive either). This is a very important thing to do for any foreigner living in Japan for more than 90 days. Foreigners (so I've heard) are routinely stopped by Japanese police, and if they cannot provide their passport or their foreigner registration, they will be apprehended and may even be (!!!) deported. I don't know about the deportation bit (since after all, anyone attending JCMU is not an illegal immigrant), but students have been stopped in the past, so it's important to carry the foreigner registration card at all times. Also, I think it might act as proof of identity/address/studenthood and thus allow access to student rates, etc. So come February 8, I'll trek back to Hikone City Hall to pick mine up.
I met my Japanese conversation partner this week as well. JCMU offers both Japanese classes (for students like me) and English classes (for Japanese students). The conversation partner program allows students from the programs to meet up and practice each other's language. My conversation partner, Nakagawa-san (-san is an honorific something like Mr./Ms./Mrs. In Japanese, honorifics are almost always used; -san is a basic, polite honorific), is taking an English class that meets Monday and Thursday nights. So, on Monday night before her class, we sat down in Apple Hall (that's part of the academic building) and introduced ourselves briefly, and tonight, after her class, we talked again. Nakagawa-san is a very nice woman in her early thirties. She studied English while in school (like pretty much all Japanese students) but hasn't had much practice speaking it. She got married last year (or the year before?) and her husband also comes to the classes (they are a cute pair, I have to say). It's hard to say much else about her since our conversations have been very short and stilted so far. Her English is very understandable, but, like me with Japanese, there are enough gaps in her knowledge that she is very hesitant to speak. I have to wonder how my stunted Japanese sounds to her! We managed to more or less understand each other, but some things were very hard to explain (for example, I tried to say that I've studied Japanese for two and a half years, or 5 semesters at school, but trying to explain it in semesters completely confused the matter!). But she was very sweet, telling me my Japanese is good (which is pretty much what any Japanese person will tell any foreigner who can speak Japanese at all -- I'm not trying to be modest here, it's the truth!) and saying that she would like to become friends. I hope for the same, even if I still feel nervous about our next meeting since I will again have no idea what to talk about.
Things have been fairly quiet otherwise. When I came to Japan, there were still/already flowers blooming on bushes, even though the temperature has been in the 30s and 40s. Since then, there's been a bit of snow that hasn't stuck -- until today. It snowed all day long, and it's finally piled up on the ground. I'm sure it's just a few inches, but even so it seems big. This is probably because my bike is my main mode of transportation. The winds here are worse than the snow (at least, I can't imagine much worse than the winds), but I doubt that snow would help. Thankfully, I don't have any planned outings in the next few days, and from what I've heard, the snow doesn't stay long here. As long as I'm in my room near my lovely space heater (small heaters are popular in Japan since there's no central heating), I'll be just fine.
Japanese Level 2 (my class) has been going well so far. Up until this week, we were just doing review of the material from Genki I, the textbook they use here for level 1 students. Now we are moving on to Genki II. Since my college used a different textbook series (Yookoso!), my knowledge base is slightly different. Thus, I'm very thankful that we've reviewed; much of the material is the same, but there were a few new words and slightly different grammar patterns from what I had learned. I think I can expect the same from Genki II -- a mix of old and new. And I have to say, reviewing the old is vital for learning a language. There's so much that I've forgotten from my 1st and 2nd year of study in Japanese, and this is helping to bring it back.
If anything in this entry sounds odd or awkwardly worded ... I suppose I should say, I feel as if my English has become somewhat odd and awkward since coming to Japan. Thinking in different language is very important for language study, but it can be a bit disorienting! Nevertheless, I will persevere :) And I will also try to write here often, because as much as I want my Japanese to improve, my English is also very important to me as a writer *ha ha*
じゃ、また ね! (Well, until next time!)