Saturday, April 22
Entering the Jap realm..
OOh..finally..the start of my journey to a promotion from a bilinguist to a multi one..
(What about my Cantonese..?? -__-''')
Seems like I've lost touch with what you called the most basic ettiquette of classroom behaviour..or rather classroom necessities to complement the behaviour..I went to class without anything to take notes..??! No proper pencil case, no note pads..no erasers..no rulers +_+
Needless to say..the short notes and broken English-form of Japanese were all scribbled onto whatever spaces I could ever find on the textbook..with pen and pencil circles..cancellations..underlined slanted lines..esterisks..etc etc..
*Tsk tsk tsk*
Though fun..
It's not that easy too..
Given that we have lived a quarter of our lives using the international language..
I have to get used to the pace of the class fast..raised my ears up straight similar to that of an "i nu" (dog) to adapt to the muffled and strong-accented voice of Kyooshi when she speaks English..
But when you hear her in her mother tongue..
It only makes you feel like wanting to know more about this beautiful language..
*****
“What have I put myself into..??”
The class started with the most basic of all languages..
Numbers..
I thought I enrolled the wrong class when the whole class started chanting:
"Ichi, ni, san, yoong, gou, loko, nana, hachi, que, juui.."
Isnt this supposed to be an elementary class..??
So as Kyooshi commented..yea..the class is good with numbers..I muttered under my breath.."Yea right.."
Then we practised around the desk..
"Hajimenmashite..June desu..Onamaewa..?"
"June san wa..dozo yoroshiku..onegaishimasu.."
And so the question carried on around the desk with heavily English accented trying-to-sound-Japanese Jap..
I was beginning to get the kick of it..then came a second set of notes..=X
For a long time..
I havent gotten that feeling of dread when you know kyooshi was going to ask you a question to which you may not be able to answer in front of the whole class..
The familiar chill shot down my spine..and palms turned cold..
Weird..I'm now grown up and shouldnt feel this way..hmmm...this time..
"Doko e ikundeska..?"
Going to places of interest never seemed so difficult to answer until now..
We moved on to the art of Hiragana..here comes more head churning moments..trying hard to match which symbol belongs to which pronunciation..@_@
Gosh..and we have to learn how to memorise..read..write..according to the
"Periodic Table" of Jap mastery(mystic writing)..
Immediately..the thought of getting a small squared exercise book crossed my mind..back to basics..where we first learnt to write Chinese characters..
I was actually quite motivated by that..^,^
At the end of our lessons..
"Owarimashoo.."
Kyooshi said Sayonara to me..I vividly remembered I had to return her greetings..
But..what was that.."Shit....something" word??
Then Dear reminded me..
"Shitsureeshimasu.."
Honestly speaking..
Chinese is more difficult..
If I could conquer my mother tongue reasonably well..I dont see why I cannot for Jap..
The bottomline for me..
I am determined to make it work..
*****
irony @
3:50 PM
