統計、授業の感想など

Hey there, こんばんは！

I miss writing those motivational posts on learning japanese and that apply for everything, but it's not about that that I'm writing today. Actually, I want to get back to writing those posts after being here for a while, I'd say within 2 weeks or so, and then I shall get back to them if I'm inspired.

These are the things I'm going to talk about on this post

1. Study statistics
2. Life in Japan

統計 or statistics, for those who happen not to be able to read

This is the first time I'm actually going to compare statistics on a post, because I haven't seen them for a while.
And still haven't... First, you probably will notice that I haven't added much in the past month. The main reason is because I was making the arrangements for Japan and did not wanted to get overwhelmed with the amount of reviews after arriving. In my first week here I probably also did not add much, since it was all new (and it obviously still is, at least outside of my area). But without further ado, let's check'em out.

カードの合計数： 11312
ファクトの合計数： 11312

カードの習熟度
復習期間の長いカード: 9786 (86.5%)
復習期間の短いカード: 1526 (13.5%)
まだ見ていないカード 0 (0.0%)

The last time I posted statistics was on the 28th of August, and I had the following number:

カードの合計数： 11098   

This means that In the past month I added 214 cards. Not much. Cards don't necessarily mean words. Per card I have between 1-5 new words, so I can't never really know for sure the amount of vocab I know. Not going to the "Life in Japan" section.

Life in Japan

sleep, food, tiredom
A few things I noticed after getting here. I don't know why, but in Japan, I get really sleepy, many, many times. I know this happens to me after lunch, but I feel that way so many times a day since I arrived and have no clue on why. I'll assume its due to the changes in the environment. Japan is really hot (getting cooler gradually though). 
Also, I have to go buy food many more times I used to in Portugal, because here the freezer is shared and I can't have it all for me, of course. And because japanese food comes in smaller amounts. It's actually pretty cool, because if you feel you want to eat something that day, you actually can. But not me, I just suck at cooking (I can cook, but it's 面倒臭い) and end up just making udon or soba with some vegetables and meat in like 5 minutes. But seriously, I ought to start cooking something else because I'm sick of udon, like seriously. Eating out would be ideal, but its expensive on the long term. Eating out on the 食堂 can easily get more expensive than actually eating out. And besides, I'm really けち and tend to only spend money on things I actually need so that I can save money for special things I might want to buy in the future.

And I lost myself here. I was talking about sleep. was I not...?

Anyway, as I was saying, having to be constantly going out to fill the water bottle, to buy milk, to buy bread and to buy the rest might actually have some influence and making me more tired. 
And now I actually have classes, and have been reading more in Japanese so yeah. 

Now changing the subject and moving out of the food and 睡眠 universe. I shall continue the challenges talk later.

Classes、授業
Besides the mandatory japanese classes (読解、文書力、速読、聴解、文法、and other I actually don't know the main skill that's being developed because in the first class we had to make a "test" on how skillful we are with microsoft office and email in japanese) I have classes on japanese culture. To be able to "graduate" I need to have at least 8 credits from classes on culture. Each class has 2 credits. I'm taking the following culture classes (今日は科目の選択の書類を出したばかりだから・・・・)

日本の宗教 
The class on japanese religion seems really interesting, I already studied the content, but now, studying in Japanese, things actually stick better. I was actually going to chose the N1 preparation class instead, but the content of this class is far more interesting, and the content will change next semester so...N1 study I can do it by myself.

日本の歴史・文学 
Well. History is not my thing, but I'll do my best. The teacher didn't really explain the content, but I chose this one because what was in the description of the subject was interesting. So, hope! And since now I'm going to study everything in japanese...not only I'm memorizing history, as I'm memorizing vocab and practicing sentence structure. 

日本の経済・経営 
This is the teacher's last semester teaching. He's really kind and was always talking about Portugal in the first class. This class is more related to the ways the japanese act (business culture I guess).

囲碁 
I decided to take this class because not only I'm interested in getting a game hobby, as I'm interested in the fact that you pass the subject just by showing up. Besides, it's a board game! Who doesn't love board games?! The rules aren't that hard (so far at least). And to have this subject in the CV is always interesting, at least from my point of view. (yes! I'm a CV strategist)

日本の社会・文化 The teacher is from Osaka (actually, most of the japanese I met so far are from Osaka, teachers included), from Kyoto, so far only two, and it's the lady owner of a takoyaki place nearby and the other my 聴解 teacher. Anyway, the teacher is really funny, and speaks in dialect. And pays dinner every friday to students at the cafeteria. 

I'm afraid I might get overwhelmed with the amount of work, but I just need to study everyday and I'll be fine. Problem is, I might have to sacrifice some social life (I'd do it anyway, cafe here is really expensive, and my social life is basically cafe with friends and going to the mall). Still can't talk much about the classes, because most of them were mere introductions, but these are my thoughts so far.

So, I'm actually taking more credits this semester than those I'd need to graduate. But you know, subjects content will change next semester so I need to take as much classes I'm interested as possible. No one said it was going to be easy, it's not easy (I think), but it's doable. And I'm here for that matter. I have classmates who chose the JLPT practice class, the 囲碁 class and a class on martial arts, so they pretty much will only study japanese. せっかく来たくせに・・・・ 

And I was just talking to some friends on skype for almost an hour and lost time and lost my ideas, so, hum, yeah.

お休みなさい。

(edit: I intend on giving 感想 on the japanese classes too and how I feel speaking in japanese only. ...But now I can't because time is short)