Today’s weather started off cloudy and ended up raining by the end of the day. Luckily I had a spare umbrella in my bag and didn’t get too wet going home.
Four classes today, with another four tomorrow. These two are my busy days, but after that it’s easy. Today’s classes went really well. My students were really into answering questions today, and the only thing slowing them down was the freezing temperatures in my classroom.
Mr. Hayashi also helped me out with a Japanese lesson. He estimates that I am reading at the junior high school level now. I would disagree with that – junior high school students know more kanji than I do, and they probably read a lot faster. We did translations today, and it went pretty well. Going from Japanese to English is a lot easy than the other way around!
After school I met with Tsuji-san, and we practiced for her upcoming stint as a STEP test interviewer. She’s really nervous about it, but I think she’ll do fine. We talked about lots of possible problems and things to look out for. She had an interview today for a new job at a children’s school. If she gets the job we’ll probably have to end our conversation practice sessions, which would be too bad. The job would be really good for her, though.
I came home and had an official looking envelope in my mailbox. It was the test result for the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam I took back in December. Good news, I passed! I did better than I expected, with an 81% overall. I thought I bombed the listening section, but I got 72% there. I aced the kanji section with 97% – wow! The next step is to study for the second level. It’s a big jump from three to two, and I’m not sure I can study enough to pass at the end of the year. I’ve got lots of other things to worry about this year, like getting married and lining up a career after JET. My goal is to pass level 2 this year or next. With a level 2 certification it can really open doors to jobs in Japan.
I did some rice, kimchee, and sushi for dinner tonight, and spent some time on the phone with Antoine. He had lots to talk about and we chatted for 72 minutes according to the timer on my phone. We’re planning a poker night on Thursday night, so I’m sure we’ll have lots more to talk about then.
