Time sure flies, it’s already been more than a month since I returned to Japan for the next semester, the dreaded mid-terms are drawing near and about 2 months later I’ll be on the plane back to Singapore… >.<
Following up from the last post about me whining about how I feel so homesick, and this post about me wanting to skip a level of japanese from Level 2 to Level 4, I’ve done/failed to do the following things:
1) I’ve failed the test to skip a level of Japanese, which places me in Level 3. =/
2) …but my Japanese writing has improved thanks to my awesome dormmate Yukiko! (who lives in Sendai and THANK GOODNESS she survived the earthquake!)
3) I am now an official member of an a cappella circle in Waseda
…and…
4) I am now part of the executive committee in the Singapore Students’ Association (Japan) (SSAJ)
…Which sorta makes me a busy busy girl this semester! xP
First with the Japanese. To skip a level, I had to take this test admistered by the Japanese-as-a-foreign-language Department in Waseda, and the results of the test would determine my level of Japanese! So I took the test and got a score placed in Level 3, which means I’m not eligible to skip a level. xP But I’m not complaining. Actually I’m kinda glad that I didn’t skip a level ‘cuz there are soooo many words to learn in Level 3, like practically 50+ phrases to memorise the classes with tests on words and phrases (and classes are 3 times a week) and 10+ grammatical structure to memorise for grammar tests. AND there’re tests conducted in every lesson except for the lesson I deliberately skipped because that’s the only class with no test for the entire semester heh heh. So, still many things to learn, and Japanese still progressing! And the funny thing is, there were supposed to be 9 students registered for the class, but apparently 4 of them withdrew because of the earthquake, and 1 got transferred classes. Which leaves the 4 of us with the teacher. Well, 3 of us usually because there’s always one of us who decides to skip the lesson (but i’m a good girl I only skipped one!)… AND the lesson where I decided to skip, 3 of us simultaneously decided to skip that class, leaving the korean dude making desperate calls to ask where we were and he’s stuck with a private tuition with the sensei. HAAHHAHAHA that was epic. That poor, poor dude. >.< 
Hiragana! Did I improve did I improve? I did righttt? =D All that writing practice sure pays off! (Like my best friend always say, I’m soooo shameless sometimes xP)
The top one’s my handwriting from before the I left Japan for Singapore, the bottom one I wrote it just now! Okk, maybe not so much difference. xP Hmm…
And now I’ve finally joined a circleee! So I’ve joined an a cappella circle in Waseda, and more than once I find myself feeling very thankful that music is such a universal language; with a music score, anyone in the world is able to read music would be able to sing together. (: I’m the only gaijin (or foreigner) among the 50 odd freshmen, and honestly besides the singing part I’m not exactly having the best time of my life with my current level of Japanese. Understanding Japanese in text is one thing, understanding Japanese SLANG is another thing. >.< And they speak soooo quickly… For the first few freshmen orientation practices that I have attended, we were given a score and we had to choose a part to sing, and in the end we were split up in different a cappella groups to perform the piece in front of everyone. The seniors from the circle would then give comments on our performance (which I can’t understand 60% of the time). AND before each performance we had to introduce ourselves in Japanese which I was more nervous about than the actual singing but it turned up alright i guess… >.< And after that there’re announcements in Japanese (well duhh everything’s in Japanese since it’s a circle in Japan) which I was trying very very hard to grasp the keywords… Plus regular emails in Japanese I’m trying hard to understand (most of the time I resort to turning to my friends who are fluent in Japanese to translate parts I don’t know and help me to answer mails for now. Seriously, lifesavers!) The people I turned to (kinda desperately in an enthusiastic manner) for help were sooo nice and tried to help me answer something in Japanese and tried to explain to me although they themselves could hardly speak a word of english. After all these freshmen orientation practices, we are supposed to form our own a cappella groups to prepare for a concert in late this year. So far I’ve heard many people have formed their own groups, but I haven’t because no one asked me and I just don’t know who to turn to lol. But I guess it’ll be ok because I’m not bad in singing or anything so they probably wouldn’t reject me if I asked to join their group where there’s a vacancy. But there’s this feeling that all the help I have got is only when I ask for them; the Japanese wouldn’t come up to me and offer me help or initiate a conversation with me… =/ Just shy I guess? Ah well nothing I can do except try my best! If my Japanese and understanding of Japanese culture every progresses from this club this should be an interesting experience… =P
The last significant update of the month would be that I’ve been appointed as the Excutive Secretary of the SSAJ! *clap clap* 
So so much to do, so much to learn from all the other big brothers and big sisters in the committee… I wouldn’t elaborate much about what I do except for having this stack of emails that I need to check and follow up on a daily basis but it’s going to be a great learning experience! And we’ll be organising lotsa fun Japanese activities which means more things I can blog about! xD
Phew, a loooong update! Thanks for reading folks! (:
It’s gonna be one tough semester ahead, but I’m a pretty optimistic person so I should be able to get out of this semester in one piece! >.<
