My Japanese Blog

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Midterm Exam

I waited a little too long to start this blog. Procrastination is evil, I suppose. Anyway, the midterm exam 。。。とてもむずかしです。
I have been really freaking out about Japanese for the entire semester. It's difficult for me. Realllly difficult. And for some reason I've been really antisocial lately. That makes it even more difficult, because maybe if I studied with friends a little more often I would do better. In any case, I've decided to finally start a blog. Last night was great. I spent so much time studying, but I really enjoyed it, making some friends in the process. We're going for sushi tonight in celebration of the completion of the exam.
I know why I'm taking Japanese. I hope to learn the language, the culture, make friends, etc. But for a long time I forgot why I started to take it and decided to curl up into a ball of misery when I did badly on the tests. I have never put forth this much effort for a class (or for anything, for that matter) in my life. It can be really disconcerting to see so many people speaking effortlessly, but at the same, I realize that we all have different backgrounds. My pace may be slow, but I'm realizing more and more just how much Japanese that I actually know. It's wonderful... so exotic, different, exciting. It's incredibly challenging for me. When I went to see the speaker from Amherst College, she confirmed that Japanese is the most difficult language for English speakers to learn. It makes me... vaguely proud. I mean... I would not give this up for anything at this point. Even though I'm worried about my GPA. The math just doesn't add up right. I'm afraid that I might end up with a C or worse, even though I am doing the 2 hours per night and more... Everyone in family thinks I'm crazy for taking this. They say Spanish is much more practical. But I love learning this. I love going to class, even when I'm frightened of the quizzes because it's just so... great. I've learned so much more this semester than I did in all of last year. For the main part, that's because of Japanese.
I realize that this was a long, rambling blog. I was trying to fit an entire half of a semester into it I suppose. But hey... that's what's on my mind.