Interlude 3: Tanjyoubi x Shuumatsu

I haven't written in a while, mainly because I've been so busy. Thursday was my first exam and - although I did very well on the written portion - I bombed the speaking. I think it was a combination of not knowing what to expect and the sensei typing out everything I'm saying (including the interjections) on a laptop as she's asking me questions. I was so nervous that I drew a blank...similar to what I guess most people would call "stage fright" although I never get stage fright on stage... and couldn't speak. The garbage Japanese that blurted out of my mouth at that point was completely incorrect, and I felt very bad after exiting the testing room and realizing just how badly I probably did.

So not only did I have a lousy test on my birthday, but the following conversation in class was about Japanese funerals - how ironic. Though I really shouldn't beat myself up too much about that test, I feel that as a 4-year student I should have done better. The important thing is that I know what to expect in a speaking test now and will be fully prepared. The biggest clue I could have given myself ahead of time would be to relax, gather your thoughts, and then speak. Don't blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind.

In the evening some friends met me for dinner, and we went to Aeon and had some delicious tempura and played around in the game center for a while. Not a bad way to spend my first birthday in Japan.

On Friday we reviewed the ~ba form, which is fortunately something I'm quite familiar with. There are many more exceptions to using it then I remember, though. I know all those exceptions are going to be on the next test. I have come up with a new gameplan for handling the material here. Even though most of it is going to be review, the fact of the matter is I need to come to class prepared to speak it. Thus I will be spending the majority of my time each morning before class doing preparations for the day's class rather than reviewing the material from the class before. I think this will make me more effective.

This weekend we went to Okazaki Castle and the culture center, where there are free conversation classes in Japanese for foreigners on Saturdays and Sundays. We did conversation drills in this lesson that were very similar to the ones covered in class, but at a slower pace. I will be attending these lessons weekly. I also took a few pictures at a cosplay event held in that same culture center today. Cosplay in Japan isn't as crazy as most people would have you believe - it's about on par with the stuff here. There was a really decent Zero from Code Geass and a clown on stilts, along with the usual assortment of catgirls and lolis. This evening I'm doing some preparation for tomorrow's classes and watching a few episodes of Japanese action shows and dramas. It looks like rain so it doesn't seem like a nice evening for going out.