We've finished our first week of school. I've gotten over the initial disappointment of doing poorly on my entrance exam. Reading and writing I did great, hardly missed one. My speaking exam was horrendous. As a result, they put me back a few chapters from where I've progressed with my tutor. Right after the exam was over, they dropped me into an ongoing class. I took my seat and everyone introduced themselves in Japanese. I did the same. There are seven of us at the moment - an Australian, American, two Germans, a Swiss, and a Mexican. It's an interesting approach - the schedule changes every day and every two hours you get a different teacher. I think I had about six different teachers so far. They all have one thing in common - they don't speak a word of English and you're not allowed to either. We speak a lot - we write a lot - we have a lot of homework every day.
Every Thursday night you check your schedule for the following week. Next week I mostly have morning classes. There are 4 hours of class every day and I also signed up for 5 hours a week of conversation, in which 2 or 3 of us talk to each other and the teacher without any books. Dodo is in the absolute beginners class and doing well. Her classmates are all in their 20's. She is picking it up very quickly. Very competitive this girl of mine.
I can already tell the difference in a week. Listening to and being forced to talk for twenty five hours a week in addition to living in the country and having to read and speak Japanese every day makes a big difference, as you can imagine. It's way more fun than I expected. I am using a lot more kanji already and am beginning to enjoy using it. Even on my homework I write with as much kanji as possible even though it's not required at this point.
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