Back to Class

Today was the first day back to class after winter break. It feels really weird not starting off with a new semester. It is back to the same old boring classes. First of all it was pretty tough getting up at 7:30 again. I have gotten used to sleeping in until noon lately. The commute was packed as always and once again I got shoved off the train at Meidaimae. I knew that it was not going to be a good day.

At Shinjuku I had to walk a kilometer to get to my station. The train I caught went all the way to "New" Shinjuku station which only has 2 lines going to it, and not the one I want. I somehow managed to get to class on time, although I was sure I would be at least 5 minutes late. Japanese class was the same old stuff. I have begun to realize how much I miss Kishi Sensei back at my home University. After thinking it over a little bit I figured out why I do not learn anything in class. It is pretty simple really, and most of it is not the teachers fault. My class is for whatever reason split into 2 sections: beginner and intermediate. The beginner people fail every single test that our teacher gives them. It doesn't matter if it is kanji, grammar, vocab, or even oral, they just simply cannot do it. The intermediate people always get A's on all their tests, do their homework, and have no problem speaking in class. We are being held back! Next semester I will not take it if I have class with the same people. I will move one way or another.

For my Genji class I decided to try out the Sidensticker translation. As to why I did not sample all the translations at the beginning of the semester is beyond me. I quickly found out that this translation is much much easier to understand. All the characters have a constant name throughout the book (instead of being called by their rank) and the language is much simpler. I was tempted to go back and read Genji from the beginning again, but I don't think I have enough time between now and the end of the semester. Our teacher also was kind enough to push back our essay originally due Thursday to next week. Yes!

Finally, in my song class I learned that we had a paper due today. That's right, a paper due the day we return after our 2 week long winter vacation. He cannot possibly expect quality work from us. I knew there was a paper due "sometime in January" as according to his last lecture, but had no idea that it was the day we came back!!! Needless to say that just threw off the rest of my night. I am currently procrastinating on doing it as I am not sure how much (if any) credit he will give to papers being late. Teachers here seem to be really strict about that. Also, I think half the class was absent today as well. I wonder why?