Term Three

It's been a long time since I posted anything here, which I feel quite bad about. It's always in my mind, but last Semester was so busy, and then I was working at Cadbury World again over the month-long Easter holiday and had a grand total of 4 days off! I also turned 20 earlier this month, and it still feels very strange when I tell someone my age.

I was in London last weekend because my Mum ran the Marathon, which was an absolutely amazing experience, I was so proud of Mum for doing it! While I was there, I spoke to some of my Mum's friends who said they had been checking my blog to see if I'd posted anything new. I suppose that's spurred me on to write something!

First of all, my exam results from the exams in January were okay. I got a mixture of results across my core modules and electives, ranging from 2:2 to 1st. But of course Japanese is the important one! I got 69%, which is 1% off a 1st. I didn't find this at all annoying, because I honestly was expecting a 2:2 at best. I was so happy when I saw that mark - it gave me a boost of confidence that I think I needed, because up til then I'd been wondering if I really belonged in Intermediate Japanese.

After the results, Semester Two went well, with nothing special to report. We continued working through the textbooks in Japanese, which are:

短期集中初級日本語文法総まとめポイント２０ (Tanki shuuchu shokyuu Nihongo bunpou sou matome pointo 20) - basic grammar
日本語中級Ｊ３０１ (Nihongo chuukyuu J301) - grammar
みんなの日本語初級II漢字英語版 (Minna no Nihongo shokyuu II Kanji Eigo-han) - kanji

And now I'm in Term Three, which is still part of Semester Two, but it's just split in half by the Easter holiday. The next set of exams is the final lot this academic year, and they are 18th May til 5th June. Unfortunately, my 6 exams (which seems to be more than anyone else has!) are spread right across those dates so I can't get them all over with at once! But I suppose it's less stressful to have gaps in between them.

This time round, I have a Japanese oral exam, so I'll be studying hard for that, as speaking and responding is my weakest point! The oral exam involves us giving a short individual speech in front of two teachers, who then ask questions afterwards. We're familiar with this format, because we've done two mini-speeches before, but they were only worth 5% each, rather than 20%!

Yesterday we had another Study Abroad Meeting, and we met a third year student who went to my Japanese University, the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo, and had the opportunity to ask all the burning questions we had.

The academic year finishes straight after exams on 5th June, and then I'll be back in Birmingham, hopefully to work at Cadbury World again, because I love that job! There's one final Study Abroad Meeting in June, but I'll get the train up for the day for that. Then, if all goes well, I'll work right up to the end of summer, which is when I'll be flying back to Tokyo!

But, first things first - exams!!