Let me summarise the last 2-3 months succintly for you. In December I took the JLPT2. I failed. Not all that bad given that if I had had suffienct sleep before hand I stood a good chance of passing it. I can now pass it with ease so it looks like the re-tests in July are going to have me aiming at level 1 and failing miserably (no point taking level 2 if I KNOW for sure I can pass it...right?).
The winter semester here was basically nothing but study. Too much snow (they measure in feet instead of cm!!) to move around. I foolishly spent my Christmas studying so I could skip up into a higher class...the class then proceeded to kick my ass and basically stole all my sleeping time. Some times I would go two days with 3 hours or so of sleep. Finally it's over and I have a month of holidays.
However it's not really "over" as my host institution still wants me to sit their exam even when I am in Japan so I have plenty of revision to do for that.
TBH at this point I am sick and tired of Japanese. I don't enjoy studying the increasinly obscure and pointelss stuff my teachers want me too. Sure I can read a newspaper article in Japanese about politics or economics...but that is meaningless in real-life. The moment I try and converse...I can't. I don't even understand half of what Japanese people say! And the worst bit is that they assume that because I a thousand odd written squiggles that I understand their hissing and gaggle...I don't!!
Last semester I took it all upon myself to learn Japanese and failed quite epically. This semester I placed some faith in these intensive classes and did the learning the way my teachers wanted: I did their stupid homework, I went to their stupid classes and I studied for and took their stupid tests. In the end though I feel no closer to understanding Japanese. Sure, I understand more complex and pointless hoo-hah than before but in the end none of that really matters. I mean seriously, who the hell cares about politics and economy? Especially when the average Japanese person is a child until their hit their late 20s/early 30s...you may think I am exaggerating but it's true; Japanese people are very childish until much later than their western counterparts.
TBH I am also sick and tired of trying to make a breakthrough in relations with the Japanese students. It takes 10x the effort to make a friend with a Japanese person than say with a Korean, American or even a fellow British person...10x the effort and no extra reward. Japanese people are inhenrently exlusionary which makes getting to know them difficult (anyone who has studied "uchi/soto" will understand what I mean)...why bother making friends where the majority national trait is to exclude even amongst other Japanese?
At this point I think I am going to take a break from studying Japanese and do as little as possible. Maybe focus more on getting better at Street Fighter 4. My Saturn USB controller should be arriving soon and then I can really get training.
In short. Japan still sucks. But at the very least the weather is getting nicer these days.
Only 4 more months to go and I can finally get the hell out of here.
