Goodness, it's been a while since my last post...sorry! I've been really really busy recently, and to be honest will be busy until I leave Japan (which is in three and a half weeks...blimey!)
Something definitely of note to blog about is the Leeds exam, which I sat on Monday, 7th of May. It's the biggest assessment of our year abroad in Japan, and it was compulsory that we pass it if we were to go onto the third year at the University of Leeds.
For the exam, we had to learn hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kanji compounds (words made from various combinations of Chinese characters), as well as a fair bit of grammar. The exam itself was pretty hellish. For the first section we had to write the kanji for various readings, and then write the readings for different kanji compounds in the second section. Each of those was worth 20%. After that, we had to translate ten Japanese sentences into English; worth 30% overall. The final section, also worth 30%, was an essay which we had to write in Japanese (we could choose from three titles).
If I'm honest, I left the revision a little late, but after a few weeks of intensive cramming, I managed to scrape a pass. Most people seem to have passed, but a few didn't quite make it. They'll have to study pretty hard over the summer, and then they'll have one more opportunity to pass it in the resit in September. If they don't pass it then, they won't be able to progress to the third year, and will have to drop out. I was really worried about not passing, so it was such a relief to find out that I had made the grade. Even so, as I didn't exactly do spectacularly well, I'm going to have to study a fair bit over summer anyway, just to make sure I stay on top of everything. But anyway, my resounding thought after the whole Leeds exam ordeal is just....phew!
In other news, this Sunday my friend Rachel, with whom I used to live during the first year of university, will be flying out to visit me in Tokyo! I'm almost wetting myself with excitement (this is hyperbole; my actual bladder control remains uncompromised). She'll be staying with me for nine days...and only leaving Japan a week and a half before I do...the end is very much in sight!
James
P.S. I'm aware that my comment on bladder control sounds extremely Alan Partridge-esque. I can only apologise.
