Orientation

I've been in Japan for one week and two days now. This first week has been an orientation week and we will be starting classes on Thursday. It has been an orientation week on several levels: getting around, knowing university expectations, and familiarizing ourselves with the accommodation situation, in my case a home stay.

I'll suppose I'll start with academics. We had our first day at KGU on Monday and right from the get-go we had a placement test, no putting it off. Registration for classes would be impossible without knowing the results, so it is understandable. Plus, we had all summer to prepare for the placement test so it was now or never. I learned that the international students numbered 101 from 23 different countries, so we didn't all test together. We were separated into groups A, B, C, and D, and separated further A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, etc etc. After meeting in the main room of Building G, we divided into two, in my case: Groups A and C in the same testing room. I imagined this was to separate the Japan and East Asia Study group and Language Intensive group, but there was still a mix (probably not exactly even numbers either).

The first half of the test tested Grammar and Reading as well as Kanji. We were directed to do these sections as we wanted, so I started with Kanji. It turned out that I knew a mix of Kanji, some in earlier sections, some in later sections; however, there was a lot of Kanji that I had never seen before. Not only that, but interesting testing scenarios I hadn't thought of like: What is the opposite of each kanji? 高い (high) to what? It was a way I hadn't been tested before for Kanji and proved to be interesting. The Reading and Grammar section went pretty well I think. It tested particles, using the correct forms of verbs, and filling in the blank with the correct term. The first two sections weren't so bad, but the last section was far beyond my capabilities. I think there was around 33 questions for the final section and I answered around 4 (We were told not to guess).

We had a small break after testing those sections and afterwards we tested for writing and essay as well as the Interview. Since I was the first person in A-3, I went to the interview almost immediately after starting this half of the test. The beginning of the interview was very basic. I planned on using humble form in regards to myself (like でございます instead of です and I did just that and I was quickly told to switch to be more casual. That was good I thought, but after the simple questions I was given a prompt. A very simple prompt "Why have you chosen Japanese as a foreign language to study?", but the fact they asked me to talk about that for a minute made me freeze up a bit. I sort of stumbled and bumbled my way through my answer, I recounted the history of my Japanese studies, starting from my introduction to the language to the determination to study it until I became fluent. After that, another prompt! Hoo, boy! This one was a role play in which I wanted to borrow a book from the teacher. I think that one went better since it was a bit formulaic. Finally, the interviewer noted in Japanese, "You do realize Japan is different from anime and manga, correct?" That made me question the whole reasons as to why I began Japanese studies since the way he phrased it made it seem like a silly starting point for language studies, but I answered more or less, "Anime is a reflection of Japanese society. While there is a lot of exaggeration and things that aren't quite true in it, there are some things that are an accurate portrayal." We bid each other well and I proceeded back to the room.

The writing section was short, twenty sentences that had a certain structure with a free-form fill-in-the-blank. That didn't go too well. There were sentence endings that I had simply never seen before as well as beginnings of sentences that I had never seen before. I felt as if I filled several blanks with more or less the same concept. The essay section had three different prompts in which we had to pick a side. I chose the prompt that said, "Which is better for watching movies? In the theater or at home?" I picked the side at home arguing that recently people are inconsiderate of others at the movie theater, but I only know that is the case with America. I felt like I repeated the word movie theater too many times to make up for the required 400 character count. Then just like that, the test was over.

While I had to wait several days to find out the results, you get the pleasure of reading about it and finding out right way. I placed in Japanese Intensive Track 3A-3B. The lowest section is Pre1A-1B and the highest section is 6A-6B, so I was pretty pleased with the results. I was told that I would have to work on grammar and kanji as these areas were the lowest scored areas and I was suggested that I could do Kanji at the 2A-2B level, but I declined, determined for consistency. I'll just have to double my efforts with Kanji. There were others that just accepted that they didn't place as high as they hoped and there were some that cried. I was glad that the placement test was behind me now.

We got our student ID's after the test and we met our Nihongo partners. I was supposed to have two, but the other cancelled sadly (it was a girl, too). My Nihongo partner took me to Takarazuka city hall to help me get my address registered as well as get my health insurance. I cannot emphasize enough the sheer amount of walking that took (walking to KGU also takes a lot of walking). Registration was pretty painless and I think I surprised my Nihongo partner by how much I knew on my own. He was very impressed with my Kanji. The second day, he took my on a campus tour. We talked about many things, but notably, I talked about Kabuki  a bit and I did my impressions of Kabuki actors, which was pretty fun.

The home stay has been going well. I was worried since I am a fincky eater and my host mother has held no regards for my comfort zone, but it has been okay and better than expected. I've eaten a lot of things I wouldn't have normally eaten and enjoyed it a lot more than I would have expected. There have been many vegetables I haven't ever eaten before that have been fine (there have been some that weren't so good, but I managed somehow. Curse you, potatoes!). I adjusted pretty quickly to life in this host family, but I have had some bumbles recently. First, I was late for dinner one night by about ten minutes and I don't think they were too pleased (especially since it had turned out the grandmother had shown up for dinner). I was encouraged to go to my room after dinner, which made me feel isolated and out of place, but they said it was okay. Then, I forgot my key on a night on the town, which meant they had to leave the door unlocked. Finally, I left the other day while my laundry was drying and did it rain? Of course it did. They moved my clothes into the attic and not only that, they folded them up before I awoke. I've felt indebted to them, so I've been trying to help out when I can; however, my help has been denied in many cases. I don't want to feel useless.

As for getting around, that has been pretty easy. I got around easy enough in Japan two years ago with even less language knowledge and this has been cake compared to then. I don't feel too confused, but the commuter pass system is still a little odd to me (I think I've got it down now...I think). I've been to this grand mall Nishinomiya Gardens three times so far, and I've bought around $100 of merchandise from there (I've since stopped hopefully) and I've eaten there two times, fried pork cutlet with curry and rice in both cases. I also had a fruit drink from this one shop and I've got a point card with them, so I'm hoping to go there in the future.

I've also got a Japan pre-paid phone from Softbank, so I can communicate with people here now. Now, I'm just waiting for classes to start on Thursday. There is an optional orientation session on Tuesday for setting up wi-fi and how to join clubs or circles that I am going to and Monday and Wednesday are rest days. Monday in particular is a national holiday for the elderly.

What else? It takes around eight stations and two trains as well as 1.25 miles of walking to get to school. We eat something sweet and drink green tea after dinner while watching whatever is on TV every night, which is something I have enjoyed greatly. There is one show in particular that is a medieval Japan drama that I like very much, I still don't know the name of it though.

That's all for now I think! Thanks for reading!

(I felt compelled to get to bed right after writing this, so there might be spelling and grammatical errors. It took longer than expected to type out)