Today we had 4 hours of orientation at the school. It was mostly about immigration stuff, and silly stuff meant for kids being away from home, or out of their country, for the first time. Just about none of it applied to me, although there were certainly some interesting things. For example, the slide show of last years student activities.
And probably the coolest thing of all - the simultaneous translations going on during the teachers speech. After each sentence, two advanced Japanese students (level 2 of 8 levels, 1 being the highest) and the admissions director, translated in Korean, Mandarin and English. The english wasn't meant for me, but for the single Phillipina in the classroom. So I got to listen to the Japanese, then the Mandarin. Sometimes I'd focus on the Korean, just for the fun of it. From this class, and from working a few desks down from a Korean at Boeing, I've determined that Korean will be pretty easy to learn after Japanese. The languages are very similar, except for the writing system.
As I mentioned before, there are 8 levels in this school. They give next level tests every 3 months, so it's supposed to be a 2 year program. The lowest level is 8. I was told they have levels 8 & 4 in the morning, and 6 & 7 in the afternoon. Anyway, I took the level test with all the new students yesterday. There were about 20 of us. Finally, today they announced the results. Two are in level 6, two are in level 7, and the rest are in level 8. I was in level 6. I guess I zigged where I was supposed to zig on the test. They took me aside and asked me if I could handle the kanji. They were stunned when I told them I already knew the joyo kanji (basic 2000 Chinese characters) to a certain extent, and I was able to convince them that the level 6 reading they had was reasonable for me. It's a big fear for them, because westerners often excel at speaking, but struggle with kanji. So I was very happy about being one of the top 2, but a little disappointed that they think I need 1.5 years of submersion to go. My estimation is 6-12 months of submersion, or 1-2 years of self study followed by 3-6 months of submersion.
Another cool thing that happened. When I first walked into the classroom yesterday, some Chinese girl essentially told me to move. I didn't understand why. So I moved. The room went hush when the only white person walked into the middle of the room. I later found out that chinese girl was the translator for the Chinese kids (I'm by far the oldest student; I think number two is 27) who were all sitting together in that part of the room. So that was yesterday, and everything was pretty tight and quiet. So today I decided to break the ice a little. During one of the breaks, when everyone was sitting very quietly, staring into space, I crossed the room and introduced myself to one of the Korean guys, in Japanese. Then I loudly introduced myself to this very cute Chinese girl, in Mandarin. It was hilarious. Every Chinese head was staring at me, jaws dropped in amazement. They excitedly started to talk amongst each other, but then the teachers came in and called the class to order.
After school, it was a beautiful day again, so I decided to go for a walk with Kana, one of my language partners, She is a very pretty young lady. She looks 20, but is in fact 30. I was shocked by that news. The picture doesn't do her justice. It was taken by a homeless guy, who was overjoyed to help us. Unfortunately, it came out pretty blurry. We went for a walk in the park, traded languages, and she helped me with some Japanese reading. The other picture is of grooves in the sidewalk. It took me a long time to figure out what they were for. Any guesses?
No comments:
Post a Comment