Well it has been a long time since I last updated, and I am once again in another country. At the moment, and until sometime in January I will be in Japan. I didn't know if I would renew my subscription or not, and I let it slide for a while since I wasn't all that interested in the pics anymore, and didn't really want to be associated with that kind of thing, but here I am in Japan, and failing to jounral, so I figured I might as well turn it around, since I would hate to miss out on remembering this in the future. I guess the membership is cheap anyway.
Anyway, Tokyo is ludicrously expensive. I am trying to live cheaply, but everything here costs money. Meals, even those cooked at home, can costs around $2.50 minimum and if you eat out, even at a school cafeteria, you are looking at 4-5 dollars. And that is just food. I ran through a 50.00 subway card pretty quickly, despite having only bought it a month ago, which is depressing. Luckily I have an 800 dollar a month stipend from the school I am atending, but I still run through it relatively fast. I naively assumed that I would be able to save a good chunk of it and buy a new computer with the money I saved. How impossible that seems now.
My father asked me how being a student at Bunkyo Daigakuin was, here was my response:
I wish i could continue my study of the Chinese language here, but I inquired about the feasability of such an option, and it was unfortunately not possible. One of the few options I have for learning ANY Chinese here at all is A. Find a Chinese girlfriend (Already in the process of pursuing this option, long story ensues. A chinese student from Beijing is here at Bunkyo Daigakuin who is a Japanese studies major who speaks excellent Chinese/Japanese/ as well as english, and is smart and cute to boot, she seemed to be interested at a weekend retreat we went to, I have her e-mail and phone number) or B. Go to the Chinese language part of the "Chat lounge" which I already participate in, and pray that this Chinese speaker can speak english and not only Japanese/Chinese. I am wondering if I should just have you mail me over my Chinese language texts and I can try to continue my studies in private, or with the help of some Chinese speaker... in the rare event that I find one (or if the Chinese girlfriend thing works out, god willing) Anyway, on to the topic of how it is to be a Student here at Bunkyo.
The classes here are all pathetic. In America, these classes would be so worthless they would not exist, or if they did, they would be a high school level class, definetly not a college level course. I talked to my host family about this, and my host student seemed to express that this was the norm in Japanese schools. I asked how much homework she had every day, and she replied that she only had homework once a week. I was astonished. I explained that in America I have around two hours of homework a day, excluding reading. It was her turn to be astonished. I then explained that the papers we are required to do for our classes here in Japan are ludicrously short, some being only 1 page, some 3-5 pages, and that one could not even make a decent arguement in such a short time. Etc, etc, etc. She then said that since she will be a senior next year, she will only be required to attend class only TWICE a WEEK. I could scarcely believe this, as her english (she is an english communication major) is extremely poor. It really is almost laughable, considering this is her major. Her english skills are maybe 1-2 semesters better than my Japanese proficiency, and I am clearly not a Japanese major. At this point I began to wonder how the Japanese manage to keep their economy afloat with such a ridiculous educational system. I came back after the home stay to hear another student from our trip explain that a biology major she had met only went to class a SINGLE time a week for 5 hours. Surely we assumed they would have to do some massive report between classes, but they only did a lab report IN class. In america, in my elementary biology class, we went to class every other day, and had a four hour lab every week, in which we had to write an complete an extensive lab report. How the devil does Japan accomplish anything?
The chinese girl I mentioned earlier, who is a Japanese studies major, speaks english at a level that is far and beyond any of the students I have met, and she isnt even an english major!
I have met other "english majors" in the chat lounge (where some of us go to speak english with the japanese girls) who can barely struggle out a few sentances, and one of them was a senior. How could she possible get a job with such incredibly poor english??? Its simply ridiculous.
Anyway, back to our classes. They are so simple it is ridiculous. In a way, this is good, because the instructors english is atrocious. When they lecture the class, we are only able to understand probably 30% of the lecture. How are we supposed to learn anything from the teachers in a situation such as this. There is one class, "Japanese performance arts," where the teacher is absolutely incomprehensible. If we want to ask a question, we have to write it on a piece of paper and submit it to her, so she can translate it and then answer it next class, in equally incomprehensible words. Absolutely worthless. Hold on, I will get an assignment sheet that she handed out in class and transcribe her exact words. "Please choose and write a theme about the portion which got interested about the matter treated in the lesson." Does this make any sense whatsoever to you? Its laughably bad english, almost as if she tried to use big words to seem more intelligent, or used the yahoo translator to try and communicate. Perhaps she is an excelletnt teacher in Japanese (we might understand more of her lesson if she spoke in japanese), but even if this were true, she would ask more of us as students. Her length requested for her assigment is "collect into two sheets in the paper of A4 size." Oh and the "presentation place is a school-affairs group." whatever the devil that means. In another class, a teacher assigned us a paper where the only specifications were: "Theme: Japanese cool, 1000 words." We weren't very inspired. We asked for more specifics, but she was unable to read her own writing in english, and then claimed that nothing was due at all, but then after I became extremely surprised, she then said something was due (despite she cancelled class on that date.) I handed in a report on "Japanese cool," which was frustrating to write because I had no idea what the hell we were supposed to write about, and contained only opinions on what i presumed we were supposed to write.
Our only good class is taught by a professor from America. The class is Japanese literature. He assigned us four books to read over 3 months. I read them all in the first two weeks. Apparently he has also become part of the Japanese educational system as well. The books were interesting, but now I unfortunately have no more Japanese books to read. I have fallen back on the books I brought along, but I only have three. Perhaps I would like you to send my Chinese books along, if you are able to find all of them. The sad thing is, if we were in America, we probably wouldn't even like that literature class, but thank god, the teacher can speak english perfectly, after all he is American. Therefore, it is our favorite class.
The sole exception to the shitty classes that we have is our Japanese language class. It is the only class where we are learning anything. However, if we were in America, the class would be moving twice as fast. And since we have two Malaysian guys in the class who can't write Katakana and Hiragana, we are doing sort of remedial Japanese. The homework that we are assigned can be completed in less than 5 minutes after it is handed out. The tests we are given can be completed without even thinking, and the quizzes we are assigned (where the teacher says something in Japanese and we are to write it out in Japanese) are comically easy. So much so that we asked if we could take all of them at once, but that was a no-go. In our assigments, to drop the hint we could move a little faster, we filled in all the Kanjis where they had written hiragana. Evidently they didn't take the hint, but we did get a happy flower on it when we got it back. I think I have gotten one answer wrong in the entire class so far. Thankfully, after much coaxing, we have finally started to learn some Kanji's ahead of schedule. It is the only class i have hopes for.
Our program director isn't exactly the brightest either. He attended a couple of our classes, but then became bored and refused to attend them anymore. (Possibly because they are complete wastes of time, at least he has the option to not attend, we are forced to attend these wastes of time) The most pathetic thing is that he is not taking any japanese language class whatsoever, which caused me to lose any respect I may have had for him. Evidently they gave him an office for some ridiculous reason, even though his input has no meaning and he cannot even try to communicate in their language. He only teaches one class, and that is for us, and it is also pretty worthless. We have had to write one paper for it, which was easy. I wrote it on the perverted Tokyo Games show. Bleh.
The only way we learn anything from our classes is by reading the handouts we are (hopefully, but not often) given.
What else is there to say? Perhaps the interactions with the student body are what study abroad programs is all about, because it clearly isn't academics. I have decided to join a multitude of clubs, but unfortunately tea ceremony conflicts with one of my worthless classes, so i am unable to attend. I was hoping to get to drink free, HOT, tea. (The Japanese seem to hate hot tea, and hate tea that doesn't come in bottles. Even in two restaurants we have had cold, bottled tea. Or we are only served water, not tea, that was always served free in China.)
Despite how this may sound, I still have hopes that this will be a worthwhile experience. Talking with the students is fun at least, and it gives us a chance to practice our japanese on a daily basis, anyway, thats all for now."
Well, thats all for now.
Anyway, Tokyo is ludicrously expensive. I am trying to live cheaply, but everything here costs money. Meals, even those cooked at home, can costs around $2.50 minimum and if you eat out, even at a school cafeteria, you are looking at 4-5 dollars. And that is just food. I ran through a 50.00 subway card pretty quickly, despite having only bought it a month ago, which is depressing. Luckily I have an 800 dollar a month stipend from the school I am atending, but I still run through it relatively fast. I naively assumed that I would be able to save a good chunk of it and buy a new computer with the money I saved. How impossible that seems now.
My father asked me how being a student at Bunkyo Daigakuin was, here was my response:
I wish i could continue my study of the Chinese language here, but I inquired about the feasability of such an option, and it was unfortunately not possible. One of the few options I have for learning ANY Chinese here at all is A. Find a Chinese girlfriend (Already in the process of pursuing this option, long story ensues. A chinese student from Beijing is here at Bunkyo Daigakuin who is a Japanese studies major who speaks excellent Chinese/Japanese/ as well as english, and is smart and cute to boot, she seemed to be interested at a weekend retreat we went to, I have her e-mail and phone number) or B. Go to the Chinese language part of the "Chat lounge" which I already participate in, and pray that this Chinese speaker can speak english and not only Japanese/Chinese. I am wondering if I should just have you mail me over my Chinese language texts and I can try to continue my studies in private, or with the help of some Chinese speaker... in the rare event that I find one (or if the Chinese girlfriend thing works out, god willing) Anyway, on to the topic of how it is to be a Student here at Bunkyo.
The classes here are all pathetic. In America, these classes would be so worthless they would not exist, or if they did, they would be a high school level class, definetly not a college level course. I talked to my host family about this, and my host student seemed to express that this was the norm in Japanese schools. I asked how much homework she had every day, and she replied that she only had homework once a week. I was astonished. I explained that in America I have around two hours of homework a day, excluding reading. It was her turn to be astonished. I then explained that the papers we are required to do for our classes here in Japan are ludicrously short, some being only 1 page, some 3-5 pages, and that one could not even make a decent arguement in such a short time. Etc, etc, etc. She then said that since she will be a senior next year, she will only be required to attend class only TWICE a WEEK. I could scarcely believe this, as her english (she is an english communication major) is extremely poor. It really is almost laughable, considering this is her major. Her english skills are maybe 1-2 semesters better than my Japanese proficiency, and I am clearly not a Japanese major. At this point I began to wonder how the Japanese manage to keep their economy afloat with such a ridiculous educational system. I came back after the home stay to hear another student from our trip explain that a biology major she had met only went to class a SINGLE time a week for 5 hours. Surely we assumed they would have to do some massive report between classes, but they only did a lab report IN class. In america, in my elementary biology class, we went to class every other day, and had a four hour lab every week, in which we had to write an complete an extensive lab report. How the devil does Japan accomplish anything?
The chinese girl I mentioned earlier, who is a Japanese studies major, speaks english at a level that is far and beyond any of the students I have met, and she isnt even an english major!
I have met other "english majors" in the chat lounge (where some of us go to speak english with the japanese girls) who can barely struggle out a few sentances, and one of them was a senior. How could she possible get a job with such incredibly poor english??? Its simply ridiculous.
Anyway, back to our classes. They are so simple it is ridiculous. In a way, this is good, because the instructors english is atrocious. When they lecture the class, we are only able to understand probably 30% of the lecture. How are we supposed to learn anything from the teachers in a situation such as this. There is one class, "Japanese performance arts," where the teacher is absolutely incomprehensible. If we want to ask a question, we have to write it on a piece of paper and submit it to her, so she can translate it and then answer it next class, in equally incomprehensible words. Absolutely worthless. Hold on, I will get an assignment sheet that she handed out in class and transcribe her exact words. "Please choose and write a theme about the portion which got interested about the matter treated in the lesson." Does this make any sense whatsoever to you? Its laughably bad english, almost as if she tried to use big words to seem more intelligent, or used the yahoo translator to try and communicate. Perhaps she is an excelletnt teacher in Japanese (we might understand more of her lesson if she spoke in japanese), but even if this were true, she would ask more of us as students. Her length requested for her assigment is "collect into two sheets in the paper of A4 size." Oh and the "presentation place is a school-affairs group." whatever the devil that means. In another class, a teacher assigned us a paper where the only specifications were: "Theme: Japanese cool, 1000 words." We weren't very inspired. We asked for more specifics, but she was unable to read her own writing in english, and then claimed that nothing was due at all, but then after I became extremely surprised, she then said something was due (despite she cancelled class on that date.) I handed in a report on "Japanese cool," which was frustrating to write because I had no idea what the hell we were supposed to write about, and contained only opinions on what i presumed we were supposed to write.
Our only good class is taught by a professor from America. The class is Japanese literature. He assigned us four books to read over 3 months. I read them all in the first two weeks. Apparently he has also become part of the Japanese educational system as well. The books were interesting, but now I unfortunately have no more Japanese books to read. I have fallen back on the books I brought along, but I only have three. Perhaps I would like you to send my Chinese books along, if you are able to find all of them. The sad thing is, if we were in America, we probably wouldn't even like that literature class, but thank god, the teacher can speak english perfectly, after all he is American. Therefore, it is our favorite class.
The sole exception to the shitty classes that we have is our Japanese language class. It is the only class where we are learning anything. However, if we were in America, the class would be moving twice as fast. And since we have two Malaysian guys in the class who can't write Katakana and Hiragana, we are doing sort of remedial Japanese. The homework that we are assigned can be completed in less than 5 minutes after it is handed out. The tests we are given can be completed without even thinking, and the quizzes we are assigned (where the teacher says something in Japanese and we are to write it out in Japanese) are comically easy. So much so that we asked if we could take all of them at once, but that was a no-go. In our assigments, to drop the hint we could move a little faster, we filled in all the Kanjis where they had written hiragana. Evidently they didn't take the hint, but we did get a happy flower on it when we got it back. I think I have gotten one answer wrong in the entire class so far. Thankfully, after much coaxing, we have finally started to learn some Kanji's ahead of schedule. It is the only class i have hopes for.
Our program director isn't exactly the brightest either. He attended a couple of our classes, but then became bored and refused to attend them anymore. (Possibly because they are complete wastes of time, at least he has the option to not attend, we are forced to attend these wastes of time) The most pathetic thing is that he is not taking any japanese language class whatsoever, which caused me to lose any respect I may have had for him. Evidently they gave him an office for some ridiculous reason, even though his input has no meaning and he cannot even try to communicate in their language. He only teaches one class, and that is for us, and it is also pretty worthless. We have had to write one paper for it, which was easy. I wrote it on the perverted Tokyo Games show. Bleh.
The only way we learn anything from our classes is by reading the handouts we are (hopefully, but not often) given.
What else is there to say? Perhaps the interactions with the student body are what study abroad programs is all about, because it clearly isn't academics. I have decided to join a multitude of clubs, but unfortunately tea ceremony conflicts with one of my worthless classes, so i am unable to attend. I was hoping to get to drink free, HOT, tea. (The Japanese seem to hate hot tea, and hate tea that doesn't come in bottles. Even in two restaurants we have had cold, bottled tea. Or we are only served water, not tea, that was always served free in China.)
Despite how this may sound, I still have hopes that this will be a worthwhile experience. Talking with the students is fun at least, and it gives us a chance to practice our japanese on a daily basis, anyway, thats all for now."
Well, thats all for now.
Such a shame about the Japanese educational system. I've never heard that before.