I am back to school life, started it two days ago. The school is called "Genki Japanese and Culture School" or "GenkiJACS". It's located in central Fukuoka, with tons of shops and places to eat nearby, so a great place for students.
On the first day we had a placement test. I didn't understand much of what was being said on the tape and accordingly couldn't reply to much in the test. Since I couldn't do that, I at least "translated" the questions into Hiragana and Katakana (the Japanese syllable scripts) to demonstrate that I master these. I got sent to a beginner class, but one that was already somewhat further in the book. Maybe that decision was wrong, I am really struggling to understand what is being said in class to be honest. I am writing out words from my dictionary like crazy and try to pick up as much as possible. I'll try it till the end of this week and if I get the impression that it's not possible to catch up I will go to a slightly lower level class. I am not used to suck so much at a language... I now spend my mornings at Starbucks studying for classes in the afternoon. But as I said, I do not just have to do the class homework, but also catch up with the previous stuff, that is 120 pages in the textbook. I am ambitious, but it might be too tough. So it's really not going to be a beach holiday or anything like that :-). Let's see...
The students come from a whole lot of different countries: US, Finland, France, Sweden, Korea, Australia, etc. Lots of them are in college, so people who really have time to spend a couple of weeks in a language school. The average age is probably early twenties, but there are older people as well, up to mid 50's. Quite a few students desire to learn Japanese seem to have been inspired by J-Pop, the Harajuku youth and Manga. The school also offers special courses that teach Japanese through pop culture (more for advanced students though). Especially the Finnish students are dressed up like Anime characters, similarly to Japanese teens who play dress-up in Harajuku and other places.
We're 7 in my class: Camille, a slightly lost 16-year old from France who stuffs sushi into her mouth during classes. Johanna, a cool 30-year old Swedish drama teacher. Robert, a McDo and KFC addict from DC. Alex, a pretty self-absorbed ("too sexy for my shirt") farmer boy from Indiana. Jon, a cute film student from NY. And Tamu, a giggly Finnish art teacher. It's fun to be with them, we have a good time in class and went for drinks after. Language level wise, Tamu and me would probably belong to a lower level class rather and Alex is too advanced. So we're probably going to be in different classes soon.
The teachers are really cool and fun. I especially like Takako, one of the grammar teachers. She laughs about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g and it makes here face look incredibly funny. You just have to laugh with her. What's funny also is that teachers are not shy to hit on students (which would be a reason to be fired in our world). Alex is definitely the goal for that in our class. We haven't had any male teachers yet, but I heard that one of them was recently making out with a student at a Karaoke bar. So pretty wild bunch our teachers :-)
Ok, let me get back to study a little...
On the first day we had a placement test. I didn't understand much of what was being said on the tape and accordingly couldn't reply to much in the test. Since I couldn't do that, I at least "translated" the questions into Hiragana and Katakana (the Japanese syllable scripts) to demonstrate that I master these. I got sent to a beginner class, but one that was already somewhat further in the book. Maybe that decision was wrong, I am really struggling to understand what is being said in class to be honest. I am writing out words from my dictionary like crazy and try to pick up as much as possible. I'll try it till the end of this week and if I get the impression that it's not possible to catch up I will go to a slightly lower level class. I am not used to suck so much at a language... I now spend my mornings at Starbucks studying for classes in the afternoon. But as I said, I do not just have to do the class homework, but also catch up with the previous stuff, that is 120 pages in the textbook. I am ambitious, but it might be too tough. So it's really not going to be a beach holiday or anything like that :-). Let's see...
The students come from a whole lot of different countries: US, Finland, France, Sweden, Korea, Australia, etc. Lots of them are in college, so people who really have time to spend a couple of weeks in a language school. The average age is probably early twenties, but there are older people as well, up to mid 50's. Quite a few students desire to learn Japanese seem to have been inspired by J-Pop, the Harajuku youth and Manga. The school also offers special courses that teach Japanese through pop culture (more for advanced students though). Especially the Finnish students are dressed up like Anime characters, similarly to Japanese teens who play dress-up in Harajuku and other places.
We're 7 in my class: Camille, a slightly lost 16-year old from France who stuffs sushi into her mouth during classes. Johanna, a cool 30-year old Swedish drama teacher. Robert, a McDo and KFC addict from DC. Alex, a pretty self-absorbed ("too sexy for my shirt") farmer boy from Indiana. Jon, a cute film student from NY. And Tamu, a giggly Finnish art teacher. It's fun to be with them, we have a good time in class and went for drinks after. Language level wise, Tamu and me would probably belong to a lower level class rather and Alex is too advanced. So we're probably going to be in different classes soon.
The teachers are really cool and fun. I especially like Takako, one of the grammar teachers. She laughs about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g and it makes here face look incredibly funny. You just have to laugh with her. What's funny also is that teachers are not shy to hit on students (which would be a reason to be fired in our world). Alex is definitely the goal for that in our class. We haven't had any male teachers yet, but I heard that one of them was recently making out with a student at a Karaoke bar. So pretty wild bunch our teachers :-)
Ok, let me get back to study a little...
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