日本、世界のおもしろい自動販売機 & Reflection 9

これは日本の面白い自販機の一つです。これでＴ－シャツや靴下を安く買えます。スポーツセンターにありますので売り上げが高いと思います。便利な物ですね！

1. We learned about Japanese vending machines, which are awesome.

2. Probably the reading. I always like those.

3. Doing all the homework, including making my own test.

4. Learning to write all the kanji for the test.

5. Study!

6. I used to have a hard time understanding ほど, but I found that if you replace it with the word まで it makes perfect sense. While まで can't technically be used in many of the situations, the English translated meanings are similar, so it works for me. I think I was confused because the translation "to the extent" sound weird when you substitute it into the sentence. Once I replaced it with made I began to understand its meaning, and now I understand it. Chapter 10 helps a lot too because they use ほど like crazy for some reason.

Reflection 8

Last week we had a discussion with Japanese students about the Japanese educational system. Overall, I think it went quite well. I was able to ask all the questions and follow-up questions without too much trouble. The only problem was my group had several questions that were similar, so we tended to step on each others toes a lot, but I was still able to use the answers to their questions, so I guess that worked out. I didn't have too much trouble reading the questions, but I was so nervous that any extra questions that weren't written down were very hard for me to say. I also didn't understand the vast majority of what was said: the problem was not the words/grammar used, but rather the speed. I understand spoken language very slowly, and it's much worse when I'm nervous. Despite this, I was able to get the main idea of what was said and fill in the blanks of what I didn't understand with context. Since my issues were primarily skill-based, I can't really say I would do anything different.

Reflection 7 + 教育制度について

1. We learned about the new grammar for Lesson 9. We also started watching the 狂言.
2. Reading the lesson, definitely. I find it very interesting, and I also like to translate stuff.
3. Learning the 漢字 for the quiz, definitely.
4. Same as always, learning how to write the new 漢字.
5. Study, practice, etc.
6. While I do understand it for what it means, whenever I read 思うように～ない, it seems like it should be saying that the speaker expected it to not happen. For instance, the example in the book "人の前では自分の考えが思うように言えない", means something like "unlike how I had wanted, in front of people I am not able to speak my thoughts". But to me it seems like it is saying "as I had expected, in front of people I am unable to speak my thoughts." I'm not really sure why it means what it does, so I guess I should just memorize it.

The Japanese education system is pretty interesting. If I'm understanding correctly, it was originally a relatively rigorous system that required lots of studying and resulted in overall good results from the students, but was causing a lot of pressure on the kids and taking away their free time. The government then decided to redo the entire system by making things easier and giving kids more room for creative growth, but it ended up lowering the performance of the students (wasn't that result obvious? How could they expect to keep the same good results with less effort from the students?) due to major flaws in the curriculum. As a result, colleges and high schools that had more advanced curriculum became famous, which made good companies want to hire their alumni more, which made more students want to go there. Since there were so many students who wanted to enroll and they needed to maintain their elite status, they made really difficult entrance exams, which required students to spend time outside of school studying to get in. This caused the growth of 塾, and created an environment in which students were spending all of their free time studying so they can get into a good middle school, which in turn will help them get into a good high school, which will help them get into a good college, which will help them get a good job. This means that their future is somewhat decided at the middle school level. The ironic thing is that the education overhaul was designed to give kids more free time, but it ended up creating an environment in which they had even less. Assuming that 塾 are private and not government run, it did then create a new market, which is probably the only plus I can think of about the whole thing. Also, The 四当五落 thing is awful. Plus if the students are anything like me they'll forget all the information they gained as soon as they get into college, making the whole thing pointless.

Reflection 6

1. We learned about the new grammar and I learned that きのこ means mushroom and not a sapling.

2. Probably the dialogue.

3. Finishing the accursed photo story.

4. Remembering to get my questionnaire done.

5. I don't know, write myself a note maybe?

6. Nothing's that difficult this time, but I do like 以外. It's nifty, and it makes perfect sense when you think about its kanji.

総理大臣

Reflection 5 + 狂言的な物語

1. We learned about 狂言 and various other Japanese traditional performing arts.

2. The Three Little Pigs story thing.

3. Doing the kanji quiz and getting my first 100% of the semester (thank you for not taking off points when I wrote あ wrong).

4. Writing my story and getting it done before Thursday. The questionnaire should be pretty easy.

5. Sit my butt down and get to work!

6. I'm not having any real problems with grammar right now, but I do rather like 逆. It's cool.



総理大臣

主人公：総理大臣と書記

日本の総理大臣はスピーチをする。作りたくないので、書記に作らせる。総理大臣は東大の出身者で、難しい漢字と言葉を知っているはずだと思っている書記は複雑なスピーチを作る。ツピーチの時、総理大臣はスピーチを読めなくて、ばかみたいだ。書記は助けてみるけど、総理大臣はすぐに再び続けないようになる。とうとう、書記は総理大臣の代わりにスピーチをする。後で、総理大臣は辞任し、書記は新しい総理だ人になる。めでたしめでたし。