Study Rant, Exploring the subjects.

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Uwaah….it's almost two months ago that I've had my first course of Japanese….

In the first journal I posted about studying Japanese, I mentioned bewilderment and amazement and the feeling as if it's not real.
Well, it's still there, but now it's more because of the pace this study has; every week we have to memorise around 30-40 kanji ( the readings, stroke order, meanings and recognising), read some shitload of academic articles about culture and history and the likes, learn grammar particles, particles!) and words… They don't really give you time to breathe, it's just workworkworkwork…
Never in my life have I worked more than in these 2 months, not even in my final year ( which isn't that difficult because I did next to nothing for my finals…), and it's kind of tiring…
Usually, I get home at about 18.00 every day, and leave the next day at 08.00. Which isn't that bad…but I'm exhausted by the end of the day, not used to the tempo…
All in all; it's a very very busy study. Not only you have to read much, but do and hear and listen much as well. Because there's so much to do, you kind of get lost about what you have to do for when…
In the beginning, it was kind of depressing to see how other people around me already adapted so well, and could speak/ read Japanese so quickly…
But slowly, I'm noticing that I'm starting to get by, and things get more clear every day, which is very good. I'm kind of patting myself on my shoulder, and starting to believe that maybe I'll be able to pull off passing my first year if I work hard. :heart:

Last time I promised to talk a bit more about the subjects I have. The subject I have are divided in two 'kinds' of ways: Courses and Working groups. The courses are basically us sitting down and listening to the professor where the working groups are us sitting down but actively practising and discussing stuff. While with courses, we sit in big conference halls with everyone present, the workgroups are split up in groups between the 7-20, to make conversation easier.
Each course or workgroup is two hours long, with a 5 min break somewhere roughly in the middle.
This semester I've got 7 subjects :
:bulletpink: Kanji
:bulletpurple: Grammar
:bulletblue: Texts
:bulletblack: Conversation and Listening
:bulletwhite: Japanese Stories
:bulletred: Premodern History ( to 1868)
:bulletorange: Area Studies

:bulletpink: Kanji

Well, as you might have guessed ( no way!), this course talks about…well, Kanji. Not in the sense that we sit down and practise, but in the sense that we sit down, and listen to our professor talking about curiosities of Kanji; like the Chinese and the Japanese readings of a Kanji, or the radicals; very simplified kanji that add meaning to a combined kanji.  
By this system, you can guess the meaning of most kanji by recognising parts of it.
This course mainly tells us about things like this. We also have to do a little test at the beginning of the course to prove we're not ditching the course and we've done our homework.

:bulletpurple: Grammar

This subject also kind of speaks for itself; at this course we sit down, and listen to our professor telling us about a certain grammatical topic. Not all are pure grammar though; he also pays attention to honorifics and ways of speech and things like that.

:bulletblue: Texts

Texts is practising making sentences, translation to and from Japanese and writing and recognising Kanji and Kana.
This is also the toughest workgroup; all the things we learn at the courses come together in this workgroup, meaning that we have to do LOTS of homework for it.
We also practise a but of talking in this workgroup, even though that's not really needed for this workgroup. It's basically the professor asking questions ( 'what did you do yesterday?') and one of us answering ( 'after course I went home with the train and did my homework till 2 am')
This is the only subject that we have twice a week instead of just one.

:bulletblack: Conversation and Listening

As the name says; we practise speaking ( formal speech, informal speech, way of indirect talking, intonation, emphasises, pronouncement etc), and listening. The latter by listening to Japanese speakers and answering questions about what they're saying.

:bulletwhite: Japanese Stories

To be very honest, I don't really know what this course is about. It resembles most to a course explaining the way of thinking about art, culture and society in Japan, about Japan. Up until now, we've covered post-modernism in Japan, the integration of 'kawaii' as an export product etc etc etc.
I think it is very interesting; I'm much fascinated by the way people and society works, and although I don't really understand the goal of this course, I like it.

:bulletred: Premodern History

Like the name says, he teaches us premodern history, or, Japanese History to 1868. Meaning all history until Japan 'opened' his harbor to the 'Western' world, and the Meiji Period begun.
I think it's pretty interesting, being a total History and Culture nerd XD
For this course, we have a midterm exam and an essay which is due the end of the semester. The midterms went very well, and I'm secretly looking forward to the essay XD

:bulletorange: Area Studies.

Again, a course, and again one that isn't entirely clear as to what the meaning really is ^^" It's a bit 'putting Japan in perspective with the world'. We learn about ways of looking at other countries ( Orientalism), and every now and then we get a course in Islamic ( or rather the relation between the Islamic middle east and the ( generally) Christian west).
To be honest, I find this course REALLY interesting, because I'm always curious at learning about new cultures and religion, and I love analyzing relations between countries/cultures/ people.
The only thing that is meh about the course is that the courses themselves are very messy; the ( two) professors who give this course are both not specialized in this subject, and basically are just told to give it. Although it's clear that one of them really is a great talker and teacher, it's not his 'thing'. And the other clearly really knows what he's talking about, but not really 'how' he should phrase it…
But, I love the subject. It's very interesting, and makes me want to buy books of 60 bucks about how to view a country. :heart:

This week was my midterm exams-week, and I was kind of stressing before it, both nervous and anxious about how the exams would be. I had Area Studies and Japanese stories, both on the same day and although I didn't really had the feeling I'm understanding those subjects, the exams went VERY WELL. I have to wait for my grades, of course, but I really thought they were really easy… But maybe I just did something horribly wrong XD

Anyway, this is it for this time, because this journal is getting way to long! ^^" I'm sorry! Next time I'll try telling some about the professors and how a daily life looks like…

Thanks for reading, feel free to ask away any questions you might have :heart:

Huggles!:kitty:

:plug:
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Comments5
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cazmanian-devil's avatar
Nice!! glad you like the study so much. I myself enjoy it really much.
Really nice summary of what the general concept of the study is about :)
By the way, let me guess what book you wanted to buy: the origins of the modern world by Robert Marks. (I say so because I'm thinking about buying it, or at least borrowing it from the library).

Good luck with the study! :sushi: