Course begins!

Yesterday the school started again after two weeks of spring holiday. Before the B course ending our class had already made multiple guesses how the school would deal with when forming C classes. The fact was that there had only been two B classes, but there was enough teachers to teach three C classes and the teachers had been complaning about the B class sizes, so it was kind of obvious they would probably divide us again. The classes had been divided earlier too when my class proceeded from A class to B class (when I were not there), but that time people who came to Japan together, were let to be together. So that's what we guessed that would happen.

But it was the opposite of that. Yes, we were divided to be three classes like we guessed, the class size is now approximately 13 students for each intead the old 20, but they really split us. Not a single person who became better friends with anyone was maintained together. Me and Mikko too, were put on different classes. During the first day you were able to sence the tence feeling, everyone were little bit shocked I guess. I thought there was good and bad sides. Bad maybe that the bonding was already done, so it is kind of hard to form again "us" spirit for gymnastic events and so when you competite against your old class (also it seems that the B2 class I was in had more strong "we" spirit than any other class). But good side is that when the class size is muh smaller, there is more opportunities to speak out in the class and of course, get to know new people.

Yoshida institute as a building is very small and thus some of the classes are in a separate building behind the main building. I was first little bit sceptical since I never had been there in the river side class rooms. And it was also common knowledge that river side classes became more isolated, since those students never had enough time during breaks to come all the way up to the main building. So in this point it was even more clear that the old classes were broke down completely (only one class from three new C classes was on the river side). When I first stepped in the class room, the floor was full of fallen sakura flowers. It was much smaller than the class room we had before, but there was much more light. It is litterally right next to the Kanda river, really beautiful place. Even though yesterday was rainy, it was still warm enough to keep the door open during breaks. After school we all still met in school front, so now it just seems more like Finnish high school when you have different courses and meet up with your friends after school.

Otherwice studying in the C class seems much like B class. Some teachers have changed, but some of the old B class teachers are still teaching my C2 class. Then again Mikkos class don't have all the old ones mine class does. I'm kinda looking forward to see how different our classes are, since already after first day we receaved different homework even though we of course have completely same schedule, books and study program. ^^ New things in the schedule are speech contest in the end of the class, double emount of kanji tests and sports event in May. What I am not looking forward is to try to beat my B class score, but hey, everyone has to have goals!

Shinagawa

Busy time and Namahage!

So the weeks have been rolling very fast. In school we have done already our second mid-term exam and I'm really happy with the results. There is basicly only one mid-term exam and two kanji tests before the final exam and end of the B course. I have been studying so much, but also meeting plenty of new people. With some I have done language exchange between English and Japanese, but with some it ended up being English only. My last two weeks has been so packed with meeting people, doing homework, reading to tests and trying to get even some sleep that I have practically spent two weeks in Tokyo without doing anything without a plan.

But this weekend has really been a highlight. Friday I went with my classmates to local izakaya and we had lots of fun time together. It was also super nice to get to know the people little bit better (even though through speaking rehersals in school we all know who in class loves beer, who hobbies photography, who enjoys anime the most and who sleeps over 10 hours in a day ^^''). It was my first real izakaya experience and it was nice, but also very much more noisy than I would have ever thought ^^ The food was good and company better, so the whole experience was really nice.

Today I went with Mikko and one of my language exchange partners to a Namahage restaurant. THAT was an intresting experience! Namahage is Akita prefectures special monster, who during New Year goes from door to door in Akita prefecture, searching families with small children. I thought is was a little bit like Santa untill my friend told me that the goal is to find small children and scare them so bad they will cry. More they cry, luckier they are next year! So, in this restaurant there was a few children and the Namahage monster came to visit us! Poor children I have to say, they really cried and one girl kept saying "gomen nasai, gomen nasai" all over again while crying when Namahage came close to her. Poor thing! But for us adults it was really entartaining and the Namahage also knew what the Finnish sauna was and asked from us why Finnish people bath in snow after sauna. ^^'' The food was also absolutely amazing, we boiled it ourselves. It was Akita prefectures speciality Kirintanpo which was a mix of Japanese mushroom, vegetables, chicken and speacial rice pipes. Also dessert, "grandmothers" special ice cream was so oishii!

Oh and almost two weeks ago here also was raining snow! The trains didn't stop though, even our teachers told that would probably happen. It was very shot time fun, becouse even the snow stayed in the ground for like.. couple of hours, after that it turnd out to be slush and raining snow to be sleek. But I took some very nice pictures from the near by Shinto shrine. :3 I also went first time after 2012 to sing Karaoke. We found a really nice Karaokekan from Koenji, the view was a really nice plus side of the place.

Mata ne ~
ps. here is very much pictures for you from all around Tokyo! And of course, Namahage!

Koenji & Snow

West Shinjuku

Namahage

Welcome to School!

For all of you thinking to apply to a language school in Japan, I warmly recommend reading this no matter where you are coming from. For everyone else, sorry, this is probably very boring post. ^^

My school started Monday 5th of January 10am. We were handed a personal information form to fill in with a number in a corner. I was number 6. a Teacher guided us to a classroom where we were able to sit wherever we pleased. After a moment the teachers started calling out numbers starting from one taking two people at the time. Most of the students hadn't even arrived yet. I was called out pretty soon and it happened to be the interview test part. Of course I knew the interview would be held in some point, but it really came surprisingly fast. I went completely locked and when the interviewer spoke only japanese I jammed completely. My name? What was it again...? It went badly, but I wasn't luckily the only one.

The seriously surprising part were the classes. This is the part I want really to all of you applying to study to take a good look at, because this is where I was most surprised. I originally made my plans in order to apply to intermediate class in Yoshida Institute. In class levels that would have been the class D (starting class is A). So when we originally had checked the levels and books, we should have been able to go to D class. Maybe with few kanji less than them, but otherwice. Now to the truth. It doesn't go like that. The courses are much harder than what it seems in the paper.

We made an entrance test after the teachers had explained the rules of the school. Teachers had decided a test for you by the interview and what you had told them (how many kanji, how many years, how many books...). I was able to do the B-C test. Aaand it happened to be pretty tough one. We had one hour time and the test was 6 A3 pages long, I barely made it till the end. So be very realistic when setting your goals and understand that the language schools here gets after a some point very surprisingly hard (Basically in the swich between beginner and intermediate, intermediate students are already super talented). After the first shock I'm verry happy with my class.

My result was in between so I was able to decide if I wanted to go to A or to B class. I decided to pick out the B, but there is a condition to success well in the first grammary test held approximately 2 weeks after study begins. If you don't they will move you to A class no matter what. The school also has an ability to deport you from the country if they feel that you are not suitable to study Japanese. Of course that is a supreme matter and that would mean that if you cannot learn even hiragana and katakana in certain time (it was a quite long time tough, months or so), that would happen. (The school also tells that they will call to our parents if our attendance rate is falling, which is quite hilarious from a Scandinavian point of view.)

Also the Go!Go!Nihon doesn't really take any part for the course picking. The school didn't really relay on any information we had last year given to Go!Go!Nihon and it didn't affect on our entrance exams in any way. So I could have been telling to Go!Go!Nihon that I'm advanced leveller and it wouldn't really had made any difference. So don't take any pressure about the level you pick for them.

We started from the Minna no Nihongo book 1, chapter 20 in the B class. The speed is really nice, I really like the teachers. They only speak Japanese in the lessons and we have at least half of the 3 hours we sit in class speaking with each other and for the whole class. We study only 4 kanji in a day (with kanji I'm very much ahead, but it's nice to review these). Our class is pretty big compared to others, we have 22 students. About 1/5 is swedish, 3/5 from another Asian countries 1/5 is other European or USA/Canadian. I really like our class, people are really nice there! And so many languages are spoken there aside Japanese.

Oh and rules are pretty strict in here. Two times 15 minutes late is same as not showing up at all once. And for every time you're not showing up, you loose 3% (or more possibly if it happens all the time, I'm not really sure about this) from your finale course score. The score is build up from attendance, tests in a mid-way and home work = 300 points. And with the final exam total 300 points. So the complete total is 600 points. You have to score over 60% to be able to make it to next level. And if you wish to continue your visa (in order to continu studying here), your attendance rate has to be over 80% (so if it lows 3% everytime you're gone, count from that). And if you wish to continue to a "real" higher educational school, the attendance rate has to be over 90%. However, if you have influenza and paper from a doctor for it, it doesn't affect your attendance rate.

Our school is really lively and it is really easy to chat with other students from other classes too. I have already made friends with some people. Classes from A to C all study from 13:20 to 16:40 so it's pretty easy to meet people from levels close to yours. (D to advanced are studying at morning from 8am)

Here is some pictures from the park close to our school
and from Takadanobaba, where our school is.

Mata ne~