Starting in September I enrolled in a community Japanese class. There were 8-10 of us in the class. One other American, others from China, Korea, Indonesia, Germany, and Taiwan. I had never been in a second language classroom where the lingua franca was the target language. It made a whole new incentive to learn and speak Japanese.
Our teacher provided all of the materials. Mostly they were magnified pages from textbooks. But the pictures were simple enough to use in a beginning class. The class was every Thursday for 10 weeks. At 5000 yen for the course, it was cheap. But it could only be taken once. So make hay while the sun shines.
It was good for me to get out of the house and meet a new crowd of people. I have to admit that I was lazy in studying however. I'd write down the new words I'd learn and maybe the grammar point of the day. But between classes I had my own lessons to prepare and I didn't put in the time to improve. Being in a group class, I wouldn't have to take the spotlight and prove that I was learning. No tests or homework.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Cell Phone Mile Stone
September came with a flurry of work at school. I was pinching yen to make it to the 25th of the month, when I would get my first paycheck. I tried not to be emotional about spending all the money I would get. I only get paid once a month. I only went to essential places: grocery store, maybe out to eat twice, and traveled nearby. I could barely handle routine cash exchanges in Japanese.
I held off buying a cell phone right away because I thought I didn't have anyone to call. I starting collecting people's phone numbers and by the end of September, figured it was time. One Saturday, I impulsively went to a cell phone shop. The salesman explained the pre-paid market as being served by 3 companies, of which his was the smallest. So I went to the next biggest down teh street and bought a Japanese language only cell phone with camera.
I thought it would force me to learn Japanese because it was a vital function that I needed to perform. It ended up only forcing me to be confused! Every time I wanted to use a feature, I had to experiment with teh buttons and double back through menus to get the right thing.
I used it on a few trips, but gradually my use of it became less and less. My co-worker chastised me for not getting an English-menu phone. My ambitions were good, but I just didn't have the written language skill to sustain use of a Japanese language phone. It was a reality check for me. It was okay to function in my language for something while I was learning another one.
I held off buying a cell phone right away because I thought I didn't have anyone to call. I starting collecting people's phone numbers and by the end of September, figured it was time. One Saturday, I impulsively went to a cell phone shop. The salesman explained the pre-paid market as being served by 3 companies, of which his was the smallest. So I went to the next biggest down teh street and bought a Japanese language only cell phone with camera.
I thought it would force me to learn Japanese because it was a vital function that I needed to perform. It ended up only forcing me to be confused! Every time I wanted to use a feature, I had to experiment with teh buttons and double back through menus to get the right thing.
I used it on a few trips, but gradually my use of it became less and less. My co-worker chastised me for not getting an English-menu phone. My ambitions were good, but I just didn't have the written language skill to sustain use of a Japanese language phone. It was a reality check for me. It was okay to function in my language for something while I was learning another one.
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