So 2 days ago was finally the day of the JLPT (Japanese language proficiency test), the test that's been the goal of my studies pretty much since passing level 3 of the test 1 year earlier.
I decided quite quickly to skip the level 2 and go straight for the most difficult level 1 test. It's been a really good way of motivating myself. Knowledgewise, the step from where I were by december last year until where I am right now is, if I may say it myself, freaking huge. But to achieve that I've practically been living a strictly disciplined Buddhist monk life the last 6 months. Waking up at 5 every morning, strict discipline, no blog updates, no alcohol and no sex.
....Ehm okay well that's not completely true, but I can say without exaggerating that I've been studying for about 8-10 hours per day for the last 6 months and about 10-12 hours per day pretty much 7 days per week the last 2-3 months. I guess it's because I'm that kind of person. Give me a challenge and I will do almost anything it takes to manage it.
I can honestly say that I've actually been enjoying it most of the time though. It's a nice feeling to notice how your brain quickly adopts to learning tons of new stuff every day. The problem now when the test is over is that I've fallen into some kind of weird anticlimax.
What am I supposed to do now with all my time when I don't have to study like a mad man? My brain's not used to not getting an overdose of information each day. I certainly do have tons of other stuff to do that I've put aside for many months because of my studies that I can take care of now, but it's quite simply more fun to have a goal to aim for and challenge yourself with. So in some strange way feeling kind of lost now the days after the test. It's also been a satisfying feeling over the last months how quickly I can catch up to the same level and even pass many of the Chinese and Korean students in my class, who not only comes from countries with similar languages (Korea) or already knows the kanji characters (China), but also have they been studying Japanese at university for 3-5 years, while I started studying from first beginner level slightly more than 1 and a half year.
About the test, I feel quite sure I managed to pass it, unless I messed up the columns on the answer sheets or something, who knows. The results are not made public until the middle of February and you're not allowed to bring the questions with you after the test, so it's a long wait. However the entire test and the correct answers were leaked on the Internet only a few hours after the test was finished, so had a look at it yesterday and tried to recall my answers to check up if I was correct or not.
I found the listening part of the test quite difficult, other than that the test was quite manageable I think. No part of the test was extraordinary difficult, it was pretty much in line with what I had expected. I'd say it was slightly easier than last year's test, which I did for practise about 3-4 months ago and failed with only a few points, which led me to make my monk lifestyle training even more strict.
Now it's just a long wait until the middle of February when I get the result, let's hold our thumbs that everything goes well!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Photos from the summer vacation
Did some travelling during the summer vacation in August.
Firstly, here's a few pics from the Iwate prefecture on northern Honshu (the main island of Japan).
All photos are clickable for high resolution. Photos may not be used for any purpose without my permission.
A famous cave called 龍泉洞, Ryusendo. Pretty cool stalactites huh? (thanks wikipedia for reminding me it's called stalactites).
Signs in funny English are always appreciated. Luckily they can be found at many places in Japan. Even in caves!
Because of the high humidity and hot summers, the greenery in Japan is just incredibly dense. Just have a look at that tree, there's not just leaves on the branches, the whole tree is covered with leaves. The greenery on Hokkaido is a bit less dense because of the colder and more dry climate, but still more dense than in Sweden.
In the foreground, my dad, who came to Japan together with my brother to visit me and do some travelling together.
An interesting car in Morioka, the main city of the Iwate prefecture.
Two boys on bicycles in Morioka.
From Morioka we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, the place where you will want to go to see the old Japan and visit lots and lots of temples and shrines. Here's one of the Buddhist temples and a more modern building in the background.
三十三間堂 The Sanjusangendo, a temple with 1001 Buddha statues lined up inside. Definitely a place worth visiting. No photos allowed inside the building. According to my brother, one of the monks inside the temple started hitting an old woman with a stick who didn't follow this rule.
My dad eating soba noodles. He clearly need to practise his slurping skills though.
Gion, the old parts of Kyoto.
Gion again. I have more nice, authentic looking where there are no cars to be seen. However I was really annoyed about Kyoto city allowing cars drive on these narrow streets with old houses packed with tourists. It's such an effective way to ruin the atmosphere that I just had to take a photo of it.
Gion, Kyoto.
Salarymen doing fishing after work.
Swedes eating their fill.
Number 1 selling sports bicycle at Bic Camera was a... Saab! Since when do they make bicycles?
Bamboo.
Kyoto station. Modern beautiful architecture in a city packed with old, beautiful temples and shrines.
The machine for cleaning the floors can be used in the stairs as well, how cool isn't that?
The Shinkansen.
Delays are unacceptable. We're setting off for climbing Mount Fuji, will upload photos from that adventure next time.
Firstly, here's a few pics from the Iwate prefecture on northern Honshu (the main island of Japan).
All photos are clickable for high resolution. Photos may not be used for any purpose without my permission.
A famous cave called 龍泉洞, Ryusendo. Pretty cool stalactites huh? (thanks wikipedia for reminding me it's called stalactites).
Signs in funny English are always appreciated. Luckily they can be found at many places in Japan. Even in caves!
Because of the high humidity and hot summers, the greenery in Japan is just incredibly dense. Just have a look at that tree, there's not just leaves on the branches, the whole tree is covered with leaves. The greenery on Hokkaido is a bit less dense because of the colder and more dry climate, but still more dense than in Sweden.
In the foreground, my dad, who came to Japan together with my brother to visit me and do some travelling together.
An interesting car in Morioka, the main city of the Iwate prefecture.
Two boys on bicycles in Morioka.
From Morioka we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto, the place where you will want to go to see the old Japan and visit lots and lots of temples and shrines. Here's one of the Buddhist temples and a more modern building in the background.
三十三間堂 The Sanjusangendo, a temple with 1001 Buddha statues lined up inside. Definitely a place worth visiting. No photos allowed inside the building. According to my brother, one of the monks inside the temple started hitting an old woman with a stick who didn't follow this rule.
My dad eating soba noodles. He clearly need to practise his slurping skills though.
Gion, the old parts of Kyoto.
Gion again. I have more nice, authentic looking where there are no cars to be seen. However I was really annoyed about Kyoto city allowing cars drive on these narrow streets with old houses packed with tourists. It's such an effective way to ruin the atmosphere that I just had to take a photo of it.
Gion, Kyoto.
Salarymen doing fishing after work.
Swedes eating their fill.
Number 1 selling sports bicycle at Bic Camera was a... Saab! Since when do they make bicycles?
Bamboo.
Kyoto station. Modern beautiful architecture in a city packed with old, beautiful temples and shrines.
The machine for cleaning the floors can be used in the stairs as well, how cool isn't that?
The Shinkansen.
Delays are unacceptable. We're setting off for climbing Mount Fuji, will upload photos from that adventure next time.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Sneezing in Japan
There's one thing that annoys me every time it happens here in Japan. When people sneeze. Not that they sneeze more than anywhere else in the world or sneeze in my face or anything like that really. Just the fact there's no word to say when people sneeze.
In Sweden people say 'prosit', which sounds like it comes from French or something, in English 'Bless You'. If I'm not mistaken there's some old belief that you're possessed by a demon/devil when you sneeze and someone needs to say these above mentioned words to help preventing anything bad from happening to you. Nowadays it's practically just used as a polite phrase.
In Japan, there's practically a word for everything, but no word to use when people sneeze. However, Japanese people in general insist on being very polite and show consideration for other people, so usually they just have to say something rather than not saying anything. This means when someone sneezes, 9/10 times their friend or person they're speaking to will say '大丈夫ですか' (daijoubu desuka) which means 'are you alright/okay?'.
Each time I hear it I find it more stupid. Why the hell would someone not be alright only because they just sneezed? Personally I sneeze every time I go out from a dark place and get blinded by the sun. I don't find it that dramatic. The next time I sneeze and someone asks me if I'm alright, I'll answer 'No, I guess not, after all I just SNEEZED so probably I've caught a bad case of lung cancer, but thanks for asking'.
Well, to not only be a whiner, I've decided to do something about this! I'm going to come up with some word in Japanese to use when people sneeze and see if I can spread the message. Anybody who reads this and speaks Japanese, why don't you give me a hand and figure out a good word to use when people sneeze and write me a comment!
About photos I promised to upload. Erhm well, they're on their way in a few days or so. When I've got time :P.
In Sweden people say 'prosit', which sounds like it comes from French or something, in English 'Bless You'. If I'm not mistaken there's some old belief that you're possessed by a demon/devil when you sneeze and someone needs to say these above mentioned words to help preventing anything bad from happening to you. Nowadays it's practically just used as a polite phrase.
In Japan, there's practically a word for everything, but no word to use when people sneeze. However, Japanese people in general insist on being very polite and show consideration for other people, so usually they just have to say something rather than not saying anything. This means when someone sneezes, 9/10 times their friend or person they're speaking to will say '大丈夫ですか' (daijoubu desuka) which means 'are you alright/okay?'.
Each time I hear it I find it more stupid. Why the hell would someone not be alright only because they just sneezed? Personally I sneeze every time I go out from a dark place and get blinded by the sun. I don't find it that dramatic. The next time I sneeze and someone asks me if I'm alright, I'll answer 'No, I guess not, after all I just SNEEZED so probably I've caught a bad case of lung cancer, but thanks for asking'.
Well, to not only be a whiner, I've decided to do something about this! I'm going to come up with some word in Japanese to use when people sneeze and see if I can spread the message. Anybody who reads this and speaks Japanese, why don't you give me a hand and figure out a good word to use when people sneeze and write me a comment!
About photos I promised to upload. Erhm well, they're on their way in a few days or so. When I've got time :P.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Spring holiday
Alright, now I'm having spring vacation for a few weeks, so by public request (erh well not really), I'm back with a new post!
If my English (and Swedish) seems to be getting worse, then that's probably correct. Seems to be forgetting alot of words lately. Studied the Japanese word for 'kitchen sink' a couple of days ago. I had the word in English and in Japanese in my book and in my electronic dictionary, but I ended up walking around a whole day trying to figure out what a kitchen sink (流し, nagashi in Japanese) is called in Swedish. Finally the word 'diskho' popped up in my head, should be correct, right?
Anyway, this starts to occur more often recently, I also notice that I've learnt the Japanese names of many vegetables and food products, but I have actually no idea what they're called in Swedish or English or if they can even be bought in Sweden. I've also become able to cook more Japanese dishes than Swedish. In other words, I lived with mommy before moving to Japan.
I was invited to a party last week and was asked to cook some Swedish food and bring. I couldn't think of any other Swedish food than pasta and meat sauce, pasta and tomato sauce and pasta and cheese sauce, which is not really Swedish food anyway, so I ended up cooking some Japanese food instead.
That's something else always occurring lately, I'll end up talking about food constantly. Possibly if I'd have a tv at home I've become brainwashed enough to start watching the 'food porn' that's always on Japanese tv. Ehm well not really.
If anybody's coming over to Sapporo, be sure to not miss out the soup curry, a local specialty here and possibly the most tasty stuff you can find on the planet. Spicy curry soup with vegetables and usually pork or chicken.
So what's been up the last months?
I've:
If my English (and Swedish) seems to be getting worse, then that's probably correct. Seems to be forgetting alot of words lately. Studied the Japanese word for 'kitchen sink' a couple of days ago. I had the word in English and in Japanese in my book and in my electronic dictionary, but I ended up walking around a whole day trying to figure out what a kitchen sink (流し, nagashi in Japanese) is called in Swedish. Finally the word 'diskho' popped up in my head, should be correct, right?
Anyway, this starts to occur more often recently, I also notice that I've learnt the Japanese names of many vegetables and food products, but I have actually no idea what they're called in Swedish or English or if they can even be bought in Sweden. I've also become able to cook more Japanese dishes than Swedish. In other words, I lived with mommy before moving to Japan.
I was invited to a party last week and was asked to cook some Swedish food and bring. I couldn't think of any other Swedish food than pasta and meat sauce, pasta and tomato sauce and pasta and cheese sauce, which is not really Swedish food anyway, so I ended up cooking some Japanese food instead.
That's something else always occurring lately, I'll end up talking about food constantly. Possibly if I'd have a tv at home I've become brainwashed enough to start watching the 'food porn' that's always on Japanese tv. Ehm well not really.
If anybody's coming over to Sapporo, be sure to not miss out the soup curry, a local specialty here and possibly the most tasty stuff you can find on the planet. Spicy curry soup with vegetables and usually pork or chicken.
So what's been up the last months?
I've:
- Been to Sweden for Christmas holidays and back. The most striking thing I noticed back in Sweden was the non-existing service. In Japan, as a paying customer, you're a God and will be treated that way. In Sweden, a customer is practically someone who comes in to the store and causes trouble by wanting to buy products, demand service and possibly even rude enough to ask different questions. Kind of hard to get adjusted to the Swedish service after living in Japan I think.
- Been slightly shocked by the amount of snow that's just been pouring in Sapporo constantly from November until the beginning of March. Finally most of it has melted now. The amount of snow that falls during one year in Stockholm was practically falling every week in Sapporo. Also slightly shocking to see (old) people's devotion to clear the sidewalks and entrance to their houses of snow every day. The Sapporo snow festival in February was very cool, I'll upload some photos from it next time. Also went skiing at Niseko, the most famous ski resort in Japan, last weekend and had a nice stay at an Onsen (温泉), hot spring bath, I'll post some photos from that as well, I promise. Well sorry I don't have any photos from the naked hot spring bath, but from the skiing.
- Managed to update my visa! Quite surprised they actually decided to allow me to stay in the country for another year, I thought I'd disappear somewhere in the bureaucracy or miss filling out one of all the piles of papers and get kicked out from the country.
- Been busy with studying kanji characters and word. Seems like that that's the big challenge now. What we study at school now is mostly reading texts. Carefully going through all the grammar and special expressions in the text in the book until hopefully at least the students that has been listening understands everything in the text. The actual reading and grammar feels like it's just getting easier and easier lately. Since we've studied all the essential basic grammar quite long ago already, it's just about adding similar expressions and different types of special expressions. Not that difficult actually. The challenge is the kanji and words that's increasing in a high tempo. Lately each chapter contains about 50-70 new words which we have 3-4 days to learn before we proceed to the next chapter with about the same amount of new words again. I certainly can't say that I manage to remember how to correctly use all the words right away and especially not how to write all the kanji characters. However, usually I can remember at least how to correctly read most of the kanji and words and understand the meaning of the words when seeing them in the text. I hope then they'll be stored somewhere in the back of my head and after hearing/seeing them in other contexts a bunch of times, I kind of get the correct usage of the words confirmed and become able to use them myself. At least that how I feel like it's working. I have kind of stopped thinking about how many kanji I've studied, the amount is not that relevant really. Because the kanji characters has tons of special readings and differing meanings from case to case, it's alot better to just try to see it as learning words, no matter if the word you're studying consists of kanji characters you've already studied or if it consists of kanji characters that are new for you, what's important is to remember how to read it correctly, the meaning and finally which kanji characters it consists of. I've found it to be an easier approach than trying to categorize the kanji 'one by one' in my head. This might have been a change in my head while getting more used to seeing and remembering the kanji characters though, I'm not sure. What's for sure though is that both me and Japanese people in general tends to forget how to write alot of kanji by hand, it's kind of quite enough to remember how to read them and the meaning of the word in a society where everyone writes on computers and mobile phones anyway.
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