trial & error

i received a "B" on the oral presentation, along with teacher comments. my strong points included all elements of a well-delivered speech (volume, speed, etc). my weaknesses had to do with my level of preparedness. because i couldn't interview 村松先生 [muramatsu-sensei] until sunday evening, i only had one day to write and memorize the script (and prepare a powerpoint presentation). next time, i'll do everything i can to commit my speech to memory.

my test score from last friday was subpar, but i'll redeem myself this friday. i lost valuable points to silly mistakes, such as rushing and carelessly confusing chinese characters with japanese kanji.

classes have been manageable and extremely interesting. i can honestly say that the four hours of instruction is often over before i realize it. (and then, it's lunchtime!) yesterday, fourth period was spent writing new lyrics to the song ありがとう [arigatou] using targeted grammar points. then, 高橋先生 [takahashi-sensei] played our new song on his guitar while 田中先生 [tanaka-sensei] sang it---it was hilarious and so entertaining. another day, we read a short manga and learned some examples of 擬音語 [giongo], or japanese onomatopoeia, which is heavily prevalent in the language. earlier that same day, we learned popular japanese abbreviations (as used in IMs, texts, etc) and created some of our own. the class' favorite was unanimously JBB, or じぶビ [ji-bu-bi], short for じぶんのビールを持って行く, the equivalent of our b.y.o.b. ^_^