Am taking an intensive course in intermediate Japanese. Just through my second day and it is kicking my ass. Doesn't help that I had to move over the weekend, I suppose.
Class begins at 8:30, but I've had to wake up with the morning light somewhere between 4 and 6 AM because I forgot my clock, and so have found myself napping off and on during the evening. And, being semi nocturnal, that's been a huge change for me.
Tack on the fact that nothing was working when I got here--my key was the wrong one, my card hadn't been activated (in like 3 different areas each with their own office), my computer account was dead, my own computer was (and still is) in pieces, my Japanese was rusty as fuck, and my pocket was all but empty.
Ah. And when I say I'm out of practice, I mean it's been years since I really used my skills in anything serious. I can hardly keep up with the basic characters in a full paragraph, much less the more complex Chinese ones.
The course I'm in is graded so that scores in the 90s all count as some kind of 'A', down to a 3.5. After that, each percentage point lower gets me a tenth of a grade point lower. In order to get a grade which will allow me to continue on in my studies, I'll need to get 80%, which is worth a measly 2.5 grade points.
We cover each chapter in 2 days, with a 'review' on the third. There's a quiz every day, and a three chapter test every two weeks. We have essays to write, presentations to make, etc. And each chapter covers something like 80 new phrases and 90 new Chinese characters. ... Shindeshimau.
Class begins at 8:30, but I've had to wake up with the morning light somewhere between 4 and 6 AM because I forgot my clock, and so have found myself napping off and on during the evening. And, being semi nocturnal, that's been a huge change for me.
Tack on the fact that nothing was working when I got here--my key was the wrong one, my card hadn't been activated (in like 3 different areas each with their own office), my computer account was dead, my own computer was (and still is) in pieces, my Japanese was rusty as fuck, and my pocket was all but empty.
Ah. And when I say I'm out of practice, I mean it's been years since I really used my skills in anything serious. I can hardly keep up with the basic characters in a full paragraph, much less the more complex Chinese ones.
The course I'm in is graded so that scores in the 90s all count as some kind of 'A', down to a 3.5. After that, each percentage point lower gets me a tenth of a grade point lower. In order to get a grade which will allow me to continue on in my studies, I'll need to get 80%, which is worth a measly 2.5 grade points.
We cover each chapter in 2 days, with a 'review' on the third. There's a quiz every day, and a three chapter test every two weeks. We have essays to write, presentations to make, etc. And each chapter covers something like 80 new phrases and 90 new Chinese characters. ... Shindeshimau.
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