Turned in my last report, and recovered from a few sleepless nights of writing it. Now that I look back at my studying at Aoyama, I am incredibly thankful that I moved up a level in my Japanese. I am quite sure I would have quit early had I stayed in level 2. While level 3 was a bit higher than my own level, it has made my Japanese (and more importantly my attitude towards it) much, much better. While I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn, if I didn't dive in and bite the bullet, I think I may have even quit Japanese altogether. I was really getting discouraged and depressed for a while, going over the same Japanese I learned over a year ago, while watching all of my borrowed money slip away. I made a lot of good friends, and that helped, but my Japanese was at the heart of my worry. I'd recommend anyone who is considering or going through a study abroad to jump a level even if its too hard, and just do your best and push yourself and see if you can keep up or at least get the gist of what's going on. Thats what I did this past semester and I would not have it any other way now. Im much more at peace with myself now, knowing where my mental limits are and just to know what it feels like to push them, its really satisfying. Yeah, it was a lot of studying and sacrifice (which is the major reason my website has not been updated once this semester) , but the rewards of being able to read signs, comics, basic books and even some more advanced stuff like newspapers, is worth every bit of sleep I lost cramming my brains out.
The teachers and courses were awesome too. In the first semester, I was really upset with the relatively slow pace of college courses here in Japan, but in the higher level where I was straining ever class to understand what was going on, it was a life-saver. I had plenty of time to hide in the library with my laptop and several dictionaries and just plug away at the kanji until I got what was being said. While my grades took a beating which will inevitably hurt my GPA and possibly my financial aid and chances of getting more scholarships, I don't really care. I can speak and read Japanese on a decent level. I am quite sure I wouldn't be saying this had I stayed in level 2.
Push yourself, its worth it.
As for everything else, I have lately been taking more photos with my cell phone since getting a good size SD card for it. I've also been shooting medium format with my new Holga (thanks Santa!), but those shots will not likely be up until I get back to the states and find a frugal way to scan them. From now, its 2 months of freedom in Japan (yay!). Only bad thing is Im having a hard time finding a decent job, and therefore am now living off of the good nature of my parents. Thank you!!
So I'll be doing as much photography and development of my site as I can bear. Of course I'll be studying Japanese, but I have neglected my photography and web site for far too long (forgive me!).
Stay tuned, Im going for DAILY updates to make up for my neglect.
FORGIVE ME! And enjoy my website
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