~School and Class Life~
Before classes began, there were interviews held with many students being screened for the class. They were screened to allow the teachers to assess by their personalities whether they would be able to commit to an intensive class.
I was working a lot at the time and forgot that I was working on the day of my interview, as I remembered, I was rushing over to the university, but I realised it was too late and my interview had already passed. I was so upset, I thought I'd lost my chance. But I pulled myself together, called up the teacher and explained what happened, she said she was happy to reschedule the interview.
I was so nervous in my interview, I wanted to speak Japanese to them, but then I didn't know how they'd take it or whether they would accept me into the course or not. So I stuck to English and tried my best to answer questions quickly. I still don't know why they picked me.
Class began in March 2013, and I met the students I'd be doing class with. At first there was around 18 of us. We all got along alright, there was quite a mixed group of people, some a little older, some fresh out of high school, some with jobs, some without, some studying for work and others who seemed confused as to why they were there.
Due to the intensive nature of the class, it felt like being back in high school again, and though I didn't mind, it clearly showed it was taking its' toll on some other students who struggled to get out of bed in the morning, or weren't used to having to study outside of class too. I'd never really studied outside of class either, but in 2013 I changed so much. I was studying everyday after class and on weekends whenever I could. I'd do revision as well as pre-study the week before we'd start a new chapter, I'd already be studying the next chapter. That was the only way I could keep up.
The class was really unique, we'd practice pronunciation and speaking so much in class. It really felt like what a language course should be. We had the opportunity to practice conversing and even in during class, if we had a question, asking in Japanese was encouraged too! Though, sometimes I felt like the only one who'd try...
We also had frequent visitors sessions with Japanese students from English language schools in Melbourne, our very first visitors session was with students from a high school in Japan who had come to Melbourne for a short time. We would play language games and chat and try to practice English and Japanese with each other. It was a really great experience and I met some really lovely people through the visitors sessions!
I was working a lot at the time and forgot that I was working on the day of my interview, as I remembered, I was rushing over to the university, but I realised it was too late and my interview had already passed. I was so upset, I thought I'd lost my chance. But I pulled myself together, called up the teacher and explained what happened, she said she was happy to reschedule the interview.
I was so nervous in my interview, I wanted to speak Japanese to them, but then I didn't know how they'd take it or whether they would accept me into the course or not. So I stuck to English and tried my best to answer questions quickly. I still don't know why they picked me.
Class began in March 2013, and I met the students I'd be doing class with. At first there was around 18 of us. We all got along alright, there was quite a mixed group of people, some a little older, some fresh out of high school, some with jobs, some without, some studying for work and others who seemed confused as to why they were there.
Due to the intensive nature of the class, it felt like being back in high school again, and though I didn't mind, it clearly showed it was taking its' toll on some other students who struggled to get out of bed in the morning, or weren't used to having to study outside of class too. I'd never really studied outside of class either, but in 2013 I changed so much. I was studying everyday after class and on weekends whenever I could. I'd do revision as well as pre-study the week before we'd start a new chapter, I'd already be studying the next chapter. That was the only way I could keep up.
The class was really unique, we'd practice pronunciation and speaking so much in class. It really felt like what a language course should be. We had the opportunity to practice conversing and even in during class, if we had a question, asking in Japanese was encouraged too! Though, sometimes I felt like the only one who'd try...
We also had frequent visitors sessions with Japanese students from English language schools in Melbourne, our very first visitors session was with students from a high school in Japan who had come to Melbourne for a short time. We would play language games and chat and try to practice English and Japanese with each other. It was a really great experience and I met some really lovely people through the visitors sessions!
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| I have no idea how this pose started!! I'm the one in the Rilakkuma jumper~ |
I did unexpectedly well throughout the year, I only did Certificates I, II and IV due to money problems I had to skip Certificate III, but for Certificate I, I scored 99/100, Certificate II 96/100 and for Certificate IV 94/100!! These sort of scores I had never achieved in my life!! I was never really good at much in high school, and I only did well in the two subjects I cared about which were media studies and theatre studies. But never would I get near perfect scores for the whole term! I was delightfully surprised at how well I did and it pushed me to study more and more outside of my Japanese classes.
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| I'm the one with the short brown hair, black shirt to the left of the girl with the white dress!! |
I looked forward to class everyday. It was what was keeping me going last year, the teachers were great, my friends were so lovely and I was enjoying learning what I had dreamed of learning since primary school! My high school and primary school only taught Italian and after discovering anime in primary school, then starting to watch it in Japanese in high school, I thought it sounded beautiful and wanted to learn it myself. But I couldn't do that at my schools, I got a taste of what it was like when I moved schools for a month in my final year of primary school. But I couldn't settle into that school so I had to move back and endure learning Italian. As lovely a language as Italian is, what I really wanted to learn was Japanese. So I was really sad that I couldn't learn it in high school. In its stead, I did home study and learned via the internet and watched lots of anime, movies, dramas and listened to lots of music, I also watched a lot of videos on YouTube that taught rules and such about Japanese.
I looked forward to class every day because it was what I had been dreaming of for years, and was so glad that I finally got to learn properly.
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| All of us being crazy after a visitors session. I'll never forget how much fun I had last year. |
