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Yay for Japanese
I am apparently unable to read a registration notice and remember where and when my class is. And this is just one class! Last year's class was at a building that's part of the Harvard Divinity School (thus near Harvard Square). Since that class ran from 5:30 to 7:30, I took to leaving work around 4 so that I could comfortably be there by 5 (and I was usually there by 4:30, but that meant that I had time to look for a parking space, and to review my notes before class, and chat with people.) I was assuming that this year's class would be at the same time, so I left work at 4:10, and, on my way there, realized that I'd forgotten to check which room number to go to. So I called ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aleph_1 and asked if he could look it up for me. He did, and then pointed out that the class time was given as 7:35 to 9:35. Ack!
So I went home, planning to do some reviewing, and was sucked in by the Internet. My intent was to just use Google Maps to figure out the best path from home to class and back, but, well, other things popped up. I did discover that my house is noticeably closer to that building than my old apartment was--the one-way streets are a bit more in my favor now.
I got to the classroom around 7, and found three of my former classmates already there, so we talked a bit about how much studying we hadn't done, and I talked about buying a house. It turns out that one of them had made the same mistake I had and had actually gotten there around 5. Another person came in and asked if this was the Japanese class, and we said yes, and she introduced herself, and we started to introduce ourselves and had a discussion of how we only knew each other by last names, because last year's sensei was a firm believer in formality in class, and always had us addressing each other as last-name-san. Then our new sensei came in (somewhat early) and started distributing materials, so we settled down a bit.
Formal introductions in Japanese are always fun. Last year, we were required to stand up and bow at the beginning and end, but we don't seem to have to do that this year. However, we're asked to say more about ourselves than just our name and work/college status: what are our hobbies, what interests us about Japan and why are we taking this class. I gave a brief explanation of Worldcon, and mentioned that Japanese is also useful for watching anime and for my current job.
The review part of the class was somewhat painful. I'd spent a lot of time going over the kanji we learned last term, and that didn't come up at all. What did come up was a bunch of conjugation that's no longer instinctive; past tense is fine, but I didn't remember the て("te") form of of every verb (used in making requests), and I'm mixing up いきます("ikimasu") and きます ("kimasu"), which are "go" and "come", respectively, and about all of the rules for conjugating "kimasu" which is an irregular verb. There are mercifully few irregular verbs, but I really need to review my conjugations before Thursday.
Sensei went over all of the new vocabulary at the end of the class! That was very nice, and something that we never did last term. I hope this feature lasts--it was useful that she talked about the ways in which some verbs and adjectives would be used. (For example, もの("mono") and こと("koto") both mean "thing", but "mono" is used for tangible things, while "koto" is used for intangibles.) Last year we had to do our initial studying of new vocabulary by ourselves, and could then ask questions about the new words in class if there was time.
Next class: new vocabulary, talking about time and past experiences (like "I went to Chicago last year", and "when I was a child I had blonde hair"), and new kanji (which look like the ones for a bunch of verbs we already know.) Fun!
aleph_1 and asked if he could look it up for me. He did, and then pointed out that the class time was given as 7:35 to 9:35. Ack! So I went home, planning to do some reviewing, and was sucked in by the Internet. My intent was to just use Google Maps to figure out the best path from home to class and back, but, well, other things popped up. I did discover that my house is noticeably closer to that building than my old apartment was--the one-way streets are a bit more in my favor now.
I got to the classroom around 7, and found three of my former classmates already there, so we talked a bit about how much studying we hadn't done, and I talked about buying a house. It turns out that one of them had made the same mistake I had and had actually gotten there around 5. Another person came in and asked if this was the Japanese class, and we said yes, and she introduced herself, and we started to introduce ourselves and had a discussion of how we only knew each other by last names, because last year's sensei was a firm believer in formality in class, and always had us addressing each other as last-name-san. Then our new sensei came in (somewhat early) and started distributing materials, so we settled down a bit.
Formal introductions in Japanese are always fun. Last year, we were required to stand up and bow at the beginning and end, but we don't seem to have to do that this year. However, we're asked to say more about ourselves than just our name and work/college status: what are our hobbies, what interests us about Japan and why are we taking this class. I gave a brief explanation of Worldcon, and mentioned that Japanese is also useful for watching anime and for my current job.
The review part of the class was somewhat painful. I'd spent a lot of time going over the kanji we learned last term, and that didn't come up at all. What did come up was a bunch of conjugation that's no longer instinctive; past tense is fine, but I didn't remember the て("te") form of of every verb (used in making requests), and I'm mixing up いきます("ikimasu") and きます ("kimasu"), which are "go" and "come", respectively, and about all of the rules for conjugating "kimasu" which is an irregular verb. There are mercifully few irregular verbs, but I really need to review my conjugations before Thursday.
Sensei went over all of the new vocabulary at the end of the class! That was very nice, and something that we never did last term. I hope this feature lasts--it was useful that she talked about the ways in which some verbs and adjectives would be used. (For example, もの("mono") and こと("koto") both mean "thing", but "mono" is used for tangible things, while "koto" is used for intangibles.) Last year we had to do our initial studying of new vocabulary by ourselves, and could then ask questions about the new words in class if there was time.
Next class: new vocabulary, talking about time and past experiences (like "I went to Chicago last year", and "when I was a child I had blonde hair"), and new kanji (which look like the ones for a bunch of verbs we already know.) Fun!
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I got the icon from one of the Princess Tutu communities. (It's an anime about a duck, and ballet, and fairy tales.) This post's icon is what the duck looks like as a girl.