ganbare!

i know that i didn’t try to study for my nihongo exam last december. my excuse? the previous year was difficult for me, emotionally and psychologically. but this year, it’s different.

i really want to pass the JLPT level 2 exam on december. so as early as i now, i’m already trying to study. one of the things that i’ve started to do is chat with my officemates. before, i only chat to minoda because she can speak in english.  but right now, i talk often to my officemates who can’t speak and understand english. i also watch japanese tv shows and read manga (matsuok-san, one of my bosses, lent me her son’s Naruto manga). one of these days, i want to start with the kanji and the vocabulary.

my uncle also gave me an advice on studying. he said that i could try to read books. i already started doing this, i bought a japanese version of “The Little Prince”. I’ve read the english version, and i think, the translation of the book is meant for children so i thought that it would be easier. but i’m still on the 1st page of the book. it’s really hard, since every unknown word that i encounter, i need to search it in my dictionary. and of course, since the japanese characters are written top to bottom, i’m not sure where the word begins and where it ends. really difficult, and i need to have a lot of patience on this.

my goal is to finish studying my september, so i could start my review on october. hope i could follow this schedule. Ganbarimasu!

serious

you want to know how serious i am in studying nihongo? i’ll tell you…

•  i bought an electronic dictionary last year. it’s been quite helpful especially when i need to translate something.

• i bought a Nintendo DS Lite and a kanji exercise software two weeks ago. been trying the exercises almost every night.

• i started reading a Japanese manga, without any translations. and also, started to read a pocket book, also written in Japanese. (hope i could read and understand these.)

• i started watching Japanese television programs, to train my ears in hearing Japanese words. not only the comedy ones, but also Japanese dramas and English movies dubbed in Japanese (my tv is not bilingual so even if i want to, i can’t change it to English).

•  i requested a Kanji dictionary in Kumon. hope i could memorize those kanjis.

now, i just hope that i could make and follow a study schedule. Ganbarimasu!

Out-of-Sequence Update: San Kyuu Nihongo Noryoku Shiken

San Kyuu Nihongo Noryoku Shiken means Japanese Language Proficiency Test for Level 3 … woah! that’s a mouthful..hehehe.. Just JLPT level 3 is fine..

We took our JLPT last December 4 at Meijo University here in Nagoya. I wasn’t prepared for that exam. We arrived here in Japan two weeks before and we still were in the adjustment period. So I wasn’t in the mood(?) to study for that.. And the weird thing was, I wasn’t that pressured or panicky or anything.. I just felt.. blank… careless?… indifferent?.. I don’t know.. Well, that exam’s important for our employment. So I should really be doing something/anything to review and study. But I didn’t. Well actually, I did opened my reviewers inside the train going to Meijo University and the testing room minutes before the start of the exam. hehehe.. Crammer talaga! hehehe.. At this time, I could now feel the pressure to pass the exam.. hehehe.. And to think that the night before, I didn’t studied anything. All I did was to talk to my batchmates in the Yokohama and Philippines. We’re asking each other who studied and who didn’t.. Guess almost all of us didn’t.. hahaha..

The exam was okay.. Well, I was somewhat expecting a more difficult one, but I’m glad that it wasn’t. As far as we’re concerned, it wasn’t that difficult.. Maybe being here in Japan gave us a little more edge that those back home.. We somehow got used to the way Japanese talk, so the listening wasn’t that difficult. Regarding the vocabulary, it’s a good thing that I could still remember some. hehehe.. Buti na lang! (^_^) hehehe..

There’s a light shower that day.. So it is very cold. And since we only had sandwiches for lunch, we decided to eat at Yoshinoya. It’s beside the subway station so it’s very convenient. The food was delicious (especially if you’re hungry) hehehe.. After eating, we went to Sakae. Arthur wants to go to Top Camera to canvass for a tripod. We also went to YahooBB to surf the net. And guess what? That net’s free! Yup.. No fee for the internet. Where in Manila could you find something like that? hehehe.. Anyways, we just stayed there for an hour and then we went home.

Eventhough the exam, in my opinion, was easy, I still hope that I pass… And I also hope that I get a high score.. I don’t know.. Maybe I just want to know if I did remembered the concepts that I learned in class.. And there’s also a side of me that wants to prove something to myself, to my family and to our company.. Or maybe, I just want a bigger allowance.. hehehe..

Well, I’ll just hope and pray that I pass.

another sensei is going home…

umuwi na si kosaka sensei sa japan. grabe, si sato na lng maiiwan sa amin.. anong mangyayari sa amin?? hehehe.. don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with sato sensei, it is just that another friend is leaving and we will definitely miss her. haayyy… so a day before her flight, we had dinner with her, her sister, pacita, sato sensei, thyra and me at kroc grill at greenbelt. masaya naman, though mejo osoi si sato sensei. after the dinner, we had our pictures taken. kosaka sensei have a polaroid camera, so 6 pictures with different poses ung ginawa namin para lahat kami merong picture. ang saya namin. ang kulit kasi ni sato sensei, kahit na she’s not feeling well that night.

after nung dinner, hinatid na nina kosaka sensei and pacita si oneechan. tapos kami nina sato sensei and thyra, naghanap kami ng ice cream. while going to landmark to look for an ice cream parlor, sina thyra and sato sensei nagbabatukan. hehehe.. kakatawa silang tignan! kasi babatukan ni sato si thyra. tapos gaganti si thyra. sbi naman ni sato, di daw dapat siya batukan ni thyra kasi sensei daw siya. si thyra naman, sasabihin naman niya, older siya kay sato kaya ok lng. hehehe.. riot talaga itong dalawa na to! after eating ice cream, pumunta kami sa may fountain sa greenbelt to wait for kosaka and pacita. and then kuwentuhan lng.
grabe, ma-mi-miss ko itong si kosaka. she made kanji easy to learn and easy to remember. sabishiii…

uuwi na siya…

one of my senseis, kazumi yoshida, will be going home to japan today. 230pm ung flight niya. i called her this morning to say goodbye. sobrang ma-mi-miss ko siya. she is my favorite sensei cause she is good in explaining things. and she became one of my friends, game siya lagi…eeee… honto ni kanashii… sabishii…
but i think, i hope she will come back….

nihongo training

our nihongo training ended officially last april 29. it ended with a small celebration. actually that’s the date that we took the exam. after that, the staff of that company (mktao int’l trading) treated us for lunch. after that, we said our good byes to the staff but not yet to our senseis since we will be heading for puerto galera the next day. but that’s another story.

so what happened in our exam? hmm… supposedly we would know our score at puerto galera. but since jpi (our company) said that they’re the one who will be giving the results, we learned it 3 days after. the result: i got 347/400! it is a high score since the passing mark is only 60%. thank god! i am one of the highest. hehehe… sugoi ne?

after march 20…

madami na nangyari sa akin after this date. i already took the in-house jlpt exam for level 3. and we are already taking our technical training in alabang.i lost my phone(for those people who are trying to contact me… domo sumimasen!) we went to puerto galera.i bought a new phone and got myself a line. i now know PL/SQL and can speak in japanese. my family will (again!) move. i can’t remember how many times we’ve moved, but this time, this will be in mandaluyong.

maybe you’re wondering why i am just enumerating these. i want to tell you the details but as of now, i just want you to be updated. and now, i’ll start with my nihongo training….

nihongo training

haayy! it has been more than a month since i started my nihongo training. we started last january 19 at mktao intl. it is in cityland tower 1. well, we are 15 trainees, with only 3 of us girls. we have 3 senseis and all of them are japanese. ung isa nga doon, parang anime. hehehe.. itsura lang. i’ll try to upload a picture of the three. they are very amusing, especially if they are trying to speak in tagalog. tinuturan nga namin silang magtagalog. hehehe… as much as i am amused, i know for sure that they are also amused when they are seeing us trying very hard pronouncing their language. one of them has this “annoying laugh”. parang pang-asar lang. imagine, isang japanese anime character na tumatawa ng “hehehehehehe”. hindi sya tawa talaga.. pang-asar lng talaga.

well, last thursday, we had our level 4 exam. grabe nga e. hindi ako masyado nakatulog kasi nga kelangan mag-review. puyat ako the night before tapos natulog ako ng 1130pm. sobrang antok talaga ako nung gumising ako ng 3am. tapos tulog-review ung ginawa ko til 430am. then the morning, may bagong lesson sa bagong book. pang-asar talaga! daming kelangan i-review tapos may bagong topic na hindi kasama sa exam. haaayyyy….

to cut the long story, natapos ung mga exams namin. hehehe, nag-sayounara na nga ung ibang classmates namin kasi nga hirap nung exam. hehehe… then we treated ourselves to ice cream at mcdo. babaw lang pero knowing na natapos na ung exam, it is still very relieving.
i’ll update you next time about the result. bitin ba? hehehe….

s&t congress

hi! it’s been a while… well, i have been busy with my work. yup, i already have one. after so many exams and interviews, i finally decided to accept an offer. i already told you about jsys. and now i am studying nihongo in makati. yup, you read that right, NIHONGO. i have always been interested in nihongo. even before i was little. but before i go into the details of my nihongo training and my sensei, i will tell you first of the S & T congress held in la salle yesterday.

sir roger (my thesis group adviser) informed us of the congress a week before the submission of the paper. he already submitted an abstract and it was accepted so we have to do the final paper. there is some pressure into making that paper. i mean, time pressure. you see, me and my thesis partner both have jobs already. so we literally don’t have any spare time to do the paper. it was not my problem at first since i was not the one in charge of the documents, my partner was. but when i talked to her, she couldn’t do it, so i shouldered it. anyways, i did the paper and gave it to sir roger. sending it to him was also not an easy task. my modem is not working, my floppy drive is not working and i don’t have a cd writer. well, talk about hassle. what i did was to disassemble my pc, remove my hdisk and put it in my cousin’s pc. then, i emailed it to sir roger. i thought the problem was over. the next thing that i encountered was the problem of uploading the file. grabe!! ang tagal. after several tries, the file was already uploaded.

after some days, we learned that we are the one who will present our thesis. sabi ni sir roger, alis daw sya punta ng cebu and so we have no choice but to be there and present it. nawindang nga ako kasi may class ako that day. it was a wednesday and i thought u-break. buti na lang after 5pm. to cut the long story, we did present it and sir roger was there and not in cebu. sabi nga namin ni osy, kung alam lang namin na nandun siya, hindi na lang kami pumunta. hassle, sobra! and i even sacrificed my study time for that presentation. you see, my level 4 nihongo proficiency exam was on the following day. haaayy! at least tapos na ung paper…

yayaman ba kami dun sa ginawa naming presentation? baka hindi… magiging sikat ba kami? hmmm.. posible kung mapublish abroad… wala nga kaming kahit souvenir man lang. ni libreng meryenda wala. so what did we get from that presentation? wala..