Infrequent Updates

I'm not sure what it is, but I just don't fell like blogging these days. Even when I find myself with free time, it is difficult to sit down and do anything like this. And the more time that goes by, the more I have to try and pack everything into one entry -- or at least remember the notable things that have happened since last writing.

The photos are coming, as soon as I can find the time to work out how to get them from my phone to my computer at home.

School is school, and sitting in the office hasn't changed. I am still studying Japanese and living each day as per normal. Everyone is gearing up for Christmas and this month has gone pretty fast. Just over a month and we will be in the next decade. Contemplate that for a minute.

Mika and I went for a walk yesterday, and I kept coming back to the issue of learning Japanese. It has been a real struggle for me to motivate myself to actually study effectively or consistently. Renshuu.org has been a great help, as it is an interesting way to see what I remember. The way it is set up, where it tracks your review progress, is interesting enough to keep me coming back regularly.

Reviewing vocab -- the English meaning, kanji characters and pronunciation -- is about the highlight of my Japanese study. Sure, I delve into whichever chapter I am currently studying, from time to time; but I just feel as if I am not getting anywhere. It's been an uphill struggle the entire time since I began studying 14 months ago (from September last year, when my first JET-based study book arrived).

Part of me really wants to improve and be able to have a conversation in Japanese, if not be able to read and speak to people to improve more and more as I absorb more of the language. But the difficulty of it all, and having to read things over and over, only to not have them make sense or see how to utilise them, or even remember how they should be used or what they mean, has dissuaded me from getting enthusiastic enough about learning the language to really make good progression.

Things just do not make sense. The whole structure of it is so alien and the thinking behind how to say things doesn't even make sense to me. But I will keep trying and keep slowly making my way through my textbook, and keep coming back to review words and their kanji and what they mean.

I don't do enough speaking or listening practice. I think that's pretty obvious. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I don't ever see the opportunity to. Japanese TV? It's really boring and pointless. What they show on TV doesn't interest me. It all seems so foreign and uninteresting and doesn't make sense at all.

Speaking to people? I try to do this, but if they ever respond -- which of course is a pretty normal thing to do -- my brain freezes as I struggle to pick out the words that I know. And even recognising words doesn't really help, as I don't know the form, the tense, or the context within which they are being used. Not to mention that I have absolutely nothing to say to people to begin a conversation -- and blurting out random sentences from a textbook would only make people think I've lost my mind, I think.

That said, there have been the occasional times when I've been able to involve people in what I am struggling to grasp. And I do ask people -- especially JTEs at the junior high schools I teach at -- to explain things to me, or to check my attempts at Japanese sentences, or even to just try and elicit a response from them so that I can better understand what it is that I'm learning and practising and trying to embed into the language centre of my brain.

It's not all negative. I don't want this to be a gripe post about the near impossibility of learning the Japanese language. Perhaps I am just not happy with how seldom I tend to practise speaking and/or listening to the language. When you live in a country where the language is different to your own, you are supposed to have more opportunity to learn the language. But that just hasn't been the case here. After 15 months, there is so much beginner stuff that I just don't know, and it is frustrating week after week to not make any progress, or to make progress and then realise that I've forgotten what I should have learned, or don't fully understand it.

There was a festival in Nakamura from Sunday. Why it wasn't happening on Saturday didn't really make sense to us, but we found out that it hadn't started when we went into the city then. It was nice to go over and do some shopping, though.

Yesterday was a public holiday. We just stayed at home while Eddi's grandparents took her over to the festival. It was simply a lazy day for us. I even baked cookies from some cookie dough I had made the previous day. :)

So we have a four day week, I don't have Taisho chuugakkou today because Kitazoe-sensei is away, and I don't have any school on Friday. It's a good week!

Well, back to my headache-inducing studies / internet browsing. ;)

Peace.

Timotheos

Holy Birthday Barbecues Batman

On Friday, I spent most of the morning preparing for school in the afternoon. It went really well -- both preparation and classes. I actually made a whole lot of flags and cards with flags and country names on them. It allowed for a fun, card-exchange game with the kids that practised "I am from...", as well as a bit of geography.

Mika and I took Mei-chan for an English lesson (after okonomiyaki for dinner) on Friday night, and afterwards we did a whole lot of baking for Eddi's birthday. I made a chocolate fudge cake frosted with delicious chocolate icing, and Happy Birthday written with yellow white chocolate icing. The cup cakes turned out pretty nice, too. So much sugar!

On Saturday, I spent the morning doing my own thing (*cough*playing WoW*cough*), then Mika, Eddi and I went to K-town. We met Mika's brother and family, and some ex-neighbours of hers, and had a barbecue at the park. It was a beautiful day and was good fun.

Somehow, we managed to send Eddi off with her uncle to stay with her cousin for the night. So Mika and I were able to spend time together. XD We watched a movie at my place and just had a relaxing time.

Mother's Day
Sunday morning saw us head into K-city, to attend the pentecostal church there. We spent the afternoon child-free, which made it easy to go shopping. Furniture stores, Aeon mall and Starbucks were our main points of interest. All in all, it was a nice afternoon, and I know that Mika appreciated the break.

We had dinner with Katsuhiko -- Mika's brother -- and family, at a kaitenzushi restaurant. We left the city quite late, so weren't back in Taisho until late. What a weekend. :)

On Monday and Wednesday mornings I taught at K-town shougakkou, and on Wednesday afternoon it was Tokawa.

I was very tired on Tuesday. so it was good to have a bit of a break between my chuugakkou classes. That night, I just watched stuff and had my regular prayer group / Bible study meeting. Mika and I didn't see each other at all, for the first time in three weeks -- since we started going out. And I lived to tell about it! :p

Also on Monday and Wednesday, we went for our usual runs. It has been lovely weather all week and running feels so good (despite how hot it is getting). Oh, and I went to the dentist yesterday, for what has become my usual monthly checkup.

Today, Shouwa chuu have some sort of field trip for the students, so I have been in the office all day. Yet again, it is beautiful outside. Would be nice to go for a run, but I have my couch arriving after work, and I want another day of just staying at home, relaxing (after a hard day's thumb twiddling...).

Peace.

Timotheos