For some reason the comments my teacher made to us yesterday (see previous post) really got to me. Given she`s for all intents and purposes functionally monolingual, I really don`t think she had the right to make any sort of negative criticism of other peoples proficiency in what is for most of us a 3rd language. And that comment about 2 years being a long time to study a language; I`d love to see how she would cope with only 2 years of French or German courses and then being dumped in one of their Universities...
I told some of the other students here who`ve already spent a semester here about this. (southern hemisphere academic years are the other way around from ours; it fits better with their seasons...). Apparently this teacher is pretty famous for pulling all kinds of similar crap.
I have to admit to being really, REALLY touchy about anyone suggesting that I havn`t worked hard at learning Japanese. Given I`ve had a full time physics degree to occupy myself with the last 2 years and have had to put up with all kinds of BS from that department*, I`d consider my present level of Japanese to be well above expectations. Give anybody else the workload I`ve had over the past 2 years (especially last year) and see how well they do.
*I`m not going to elaborate on that, I don`t really want to fully detail my contempt for my home department here, or we`ll be here all day and I`ll get depressed at having to go back at some point
Moan over.
Happier stuff:
We had a speaking placement test today. I was given 3 pictures to talk about. They were a bus, a train and a plane. I ended up rabbiting on about Cathay Pacific`s in-flight menu...
Another one of these odd little things about Japan that I`ve taken a liking to: You can leave anything ANYWHERE and come back a few days later and it will be exactly where you left it. Not only that, but sometimes somebody will put a cover over it if it`s outside so it doesn`t get wet (I saw one with an umbrella left over it). I`m a bit worried I`ll get too used to this and get back to the UK and lose all my stuff in a week. Actually, that`s worry No.2, No.1 is that I`ll insist my shop assistant carries my purchase out of the shop for me and hands it to me at the door...
And my talking dog hasn`t yet arrived from Softbank (my mobile phone company) :-(
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