I went to Namja Town in Ikebukuro yesterday. Man... that place is trippy. It's really hard to describe. Awesome place for a date, though. There's lots of game arcades and so forth, and a lot we didn't see. We mostly went to Gyoza Stadium, which had an overwhelming amount of different types of gyoza (dumplings); Ice Cream Castle (lots of ice creams/crepes); and a dessert place that was especially romantic with lots of little booths tucked away in corners, and two-person tables under fake trees with lights and fountains and so forth. My friends took pictures, I'll probably put them up when I see them. :p
Then back to the never-ending round of cramming and forgetting kanji and vocabulary. Ugh. I absolutely detest the Japanese language classes here. They're not at all conducive to actually learning Japanese, just stressing you out... My Japanese has gone downhill since coming here. *sigh* It's incredibly depressing, and my teachers back home are not going to be happy. =/
Showing posts with label classes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classes. Show all posts
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Classes have started. Dun dun dun.
Whew okay so I haven't posted in a while...
Things have generally been going well, hanging out a lot with the international students (I know, I know, need to hang out with Japanese students so I actually practice Japanese...) and finding Japanese food I like. Mmm, katsukari and katsudon and ramen.
Classes started yesterday and Japanese class is incredibly incredibly hard. D= 3 hours 3 days a week, teacher speaks no English and the textbook has absolutely no English either. (Word definitions? Grammar explanations?) I'm not understanding the majority of what the teacher says and I am very stressed. But I need the immersion and pressure to focus, I guess? I'd just prefer if my grade wasn't hanging on it.
I'm taking language in society and culture, which is a lot less interesting than I hoped it would be - mostly because the teacher, although his English is pretty clear (not a given in SILS despite it being an English language school) he is incredibly disorganized in his lectures. He jumped back and forth on his power point, lost his train of thought, and generally made himself hard to follow. I'm also taking a media studies class, with a focus on Western views of Japan in the 19th century, which looks to be quite interesting, and the professor (a guy from Manchester who has been living in Japan for 28 years) is awesome. So yay for that! Also taking a religions of East Asia with a focus on Hinduism, but I don't have that until Friday. No classes on Wednesday.
Tokyo is a very rainy place... over 3/4 of the days have been rainy. Ick!
Things have generally been going well, hanging out a lot with the international students (I know, I know, need to hang out with Japanese students so I actually practice Japanese...) and finding Japanese food I like. Mmm, katsukari and katsudon and ramen.
Classes started yesterday and Japanese class is incredibly incredibly hard. D= 3 hours 3 days a week, teacher speaks no English and the textbook has absolutely no English either. (Word definitions? Grammar explanations?) I'm not understanding the majority of what the teacher says and I am very stressed. But I need the immersion and pressure to focus, I guess? I'd just prefer if my grade wasn't hanging on it.
I'm taking language in society and culture, which is a lot less interesting than I hoped it would be - mostly because the teacher, although his English is pretty clear (not a given in SILS despite it being an English language school) he is incredibly disorganized in his lectures. He jumped back and forth on his power point, lost his train of thought, and generally made himself hard to follow. I'm also taking a media studies class, with a focus on Western views of Japan in the 19th century, which looks to be quite interesting, and the professor (a guy from Manchester who has been living in Japan for 28 years) is awesome. So yay for that! Also taking a religions of East Asia with a focus on Hinduism, but I don't have that until Friday. No classes on Wednesday.
Tokyo is a very rainy place... over 3/4 of the days have been rainy. Ick!
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