First week at school
Door: Laurens
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Laurens
25 September 2016 | Japan, Osaka
Hey everybody!
It's been a while :P So, my first week at school is finished! I've had most of my classes, though still 3 new ones coming week (assuming no classes are canceled this time).
Wednessday I had kanji class. The uni put me in level 3, so that's where I started. Then halfway through the class you could switch levels, so I decided to check out level 2. Afterwards I decided to ask on Monday if I could be placed in level 1, because both 3 and 2 are waaaay over my head!
Thursday I had my first grammar class, or Intensive Japanese. This will be tough, but managable I think. This week this was also the only class to give homework, which I just now finished. Afterwards I went to the Global Lounge and played cards for about 2 hours with 2 to 3 Japanese students. Needless to say, I enjoyed this very much XD It was very interesting to see Japanese students interact with each other. Sometimes also very difficult to understand them, because they speak realy fast and only pronounce about half of what they say sometimes! Add Kansai dialect to that, and I'm sometimes a little lost :P
Friday my first class was Speaking & Listening, my final language class. This too will be managable I think. Our teacher is very nice, and apparently has a name that most Japanese people misprounounce, because the way you read the kanji is very unusual XD
After that I had Government and Politics in Japan, my first class in English. The teacher started the class by introducing herself and her academic background. I think she puts most teachers at The Hague University of Applied Sciences to shame! :O Studied at several Ivy League universities in Japan and the US, while in the US covered the White House and the DOD (Department of Defense), and probably more that I don't remember. This was deffinitely also the most interesting class I've had so far. For our mid-term exam we have to make a policy proposal to our teacher, while pretending she is Prime Minister Abe XD
My last class on Friday was Japanese Psychology. This class will also prove very interesting I think. We are possible the last class the teacher will teach at the uni, by the way, because he might be able to get his dream job somewhere else starting next semester.
So yeah, most classes were really fun and interesting, and I very much look forward to the classes that I haven't had yet!
On Saturday I went to a Book-off with Zack and Jay from my dorm. We took the bus there, only to find out it was the wrong book-off! We still went inside, but Zack and Jay both wanted to buy guitar strings and this one was too small to sell those. After we were finished looking around, we walked to the right on in about 30 minutes, seeing a lot of residential Takarazuka. This book-off was huge! It sells manga, books, CD's, DVD's, Blue-ray's, games, vacuumcleaners, TV's cellphones, guitars, keyboards, you name it! And luckily, also guitar strings :) Incidentally, I bought my 2 first manga books at this book-off! I have to keep it small, due to lack of suitcase space, but I figured 2 should be managable. I look forward to reading them! :D
Finally, today, I went to Kobe with Sarah, Richard and Shun, the guy form the GS network (Global Student) who also helped us get our commuter pass and register our adress and things. We saw a lot of awesome things there! First we went to a beautiful starbucks, where we also played cards for a while. then we went to a neko (cat) café! They were all so adorable! Although not all of them seemed equally interested in all the attention that was being bestowed upon them :P Afterwards we went to Kobe tower. Right nearby there was some sort of dance-off going on, which was very impressive to look at! Next we found a place to sit down to rest and play more cards :P And before dinner we played some billiards! 600 yen per person for 1 hour, not bad I'd say! But dinner was the reason we went to Kobe in the first place! Because we had Kobe beef for dinner! And it was sooooo gooood! :D Hard to describe but deffinitely unique and absolutely delicious!
All in all I had a wonderful first week at school, and I look forward to whatever may come my way during the rest of my stay here ^^
Good night!
PS:
It's been a while :P So, my first week at school is finished! I've had most of my classes, though still 3 new ones coming week (assuming no classes are canceled this time).
Wednessday I had kanji class. The uni put me in level 3, so that's where I started. Then halfway through the class you could switch levels, so I decided to check out level 2. Afterwards I decided to ask on Monday if I could be placed in level 1, because both 3 and 2 are waaaay over my head!
Thursday I had my first grammar class, or Intensive Japanese. This will be tough, but managable I think. This week this was also the only class to give homework, which I just now finished. Afterwards I went to the Global Lounge and played cards for about 2 hours with 2 to 3 Japanese students. Needless to say, I enjoyed this very much XD It was very interesting to see Japanese students interact with each other. Sometimes also very difficult to understand them, because they speak realy fast and only pronounce about half of what they say sometimes! Add Kansai dialect to that, and I'm sometimes a little lost :P
Friday my first class was Speaking & Listening, my final language class. This too will be managable I think. Our teacher is very nice, and apparently has a name that most Japanese people misprounounce, because the way you read the kanji is very unusual XD
After that I had Government and Politics in Japan, my first class in English. The teacher started the class by introducing herself and her academic background. I think she puts most teachers at The Hague University of Applied Sciences to shame! :O Studied at several Ivy League universities in Japan and the US, while in the US covered the White House and the DOD (Department of Defense), and probably more that I don't remember. This was deffinitely also the most interesting class I've had so far. For our mid-term exam we have to make a policy proposal to our teacher, while pretending she is Prime Minister Abe XD
My last class on Friday was Japanese Psychology. This class will also prove very interesting I think. We are possible the last class the teacher will teach at the uni, by the way, because he might be able to get his dream job somewhere else starting next semester.
So yeah, most classes were really fun and interesting, and I very much look forward to the classes that I haven't had yet!
On Saturday I went to a Book-off with Zack and Jay from my dorm. We took the bus there, only to find out it was the wrong book-off! We still went inside, but Zack and Jay both wanted to buy guitar strings and this one was too small to sell those. After we were finished looking around, we walked to the right on in about 30 minutes, seeing a lot of residential Takarazuka. This book-off was huge! It sells manga, books, CD's, DVD's, Blue-ray's, games, vacuumcleaners, TV's cellphones, guitars, keyboards, you name it! And luckily, also guitar strings :) Incidentally, I bought my 2 first manga books at this book-off! I have to keep it small, due to lack of suitcase space, but I figured 2 should be managable. I look forward to reading them! :D
Finally, today, I went to Kobe with Sarah, Richard and Shun, the guy form the GS network (Global Student) who also helped us get our commuter pass and register our adress and things. We saw a lot of awesome things there! First we went to a beautiful starbucks, where we also played cards for a while. then we went to a neko (cat) café! They were all so adorable! Although not all of them seemed equally interested in all the attention that was being bestowed upon them :P Afterwards we went to Kobe tower. Right nearby there was some sort of dance-off going on, which was very impressive to look at! Next we found a place to sit down to rest and play more cards :P And before dinner we played some billiards! 600 yen per person for 1 hour, not bad I'd say! But dinner was the reason we went to Kobe in the first place! Because we had Kobe beef for dinner! And it was sooooo gooood! :D Hard to describe but deffinitely unique and absolutely delicious!
All in all I had a wonderful first week at school, and I look forward to whatever may come my way during the rest of my stay here ^^
Good night!
PS:
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