The DL on School-Related Matters

Okay, I'm back for post number two. I'm sure you've all been eagerly anticipating it, and it won't disappoint. That is, unless you wanted me to talk about something other than school. Don't worry; as it turns out, one of my academic obligations is doing Judo.

First off, the classes themselves. After the language placement test and interview, I was placed in C-class, with A-class being the lowest and E the highest. BUT, D and E classes are actually intended for fourth and fifth-year Japanese students, so I'm actually in the highest of the three third-year classes. Not bad for someone who didn't study all summer.

Japanese class is tough; in addition to two hours a day of in-class instruction and daily quizzes, each of us has two separate (mostly) out-of-class projects to do. First is a group project on "world problems," where we do research on, explain, and propose solutions to, our chosen problem. In Japanese. I have no illusion of being able to understand and solve major world problems in English, let alone Japanese. Anyway, my group's chosen problem is gender discrimination in Japan.

The second project is one in which we work personally with the teacher to try to achieve our own individual language goals. I have chosen to translate Japanese poetry. I've done some work on my first poem, and I'll probably post my translation attempt here once I've finished it. It's quite enjoyable, actually.

In addition to Japanese, each KCJS student takes two Japan-related classes in English. I chose "Japanese Civilization" and "Japanese Theater," both taught by the same professor on the same day. I'm learning a lot from those, especially the civilization one. Everyone in the theater class gets free tickets to a bunch of plays around town -- we attended a Noh (a style of traditional theater) performance just last weekend.

In addition to the bona fide classes, each student also has to decide on something to do as a Community Involvement Project. I chose Judo. As it turns out, the most convenient place for me to learn Judo is at a nearby police station. So I'll be biking to the police station every Monday and Friday night to get tossed around by Japanese people. I went to my first class this Friday, but that's a story in itself, so I'll start a new post for it.

P.S. I've added captions to most of the pictures I posted on Facebook the other day, so if you've already seen them, but would like to see the director commentary, take a second look.