Thursday, April 08, 2004
Random thoughts
4/8/04
Random thoughts on various topics
Lirbraries:
I just got a notice from the Austin City Library that one of my holds is available for pickup. I was doing an internship in Austin last summer, and must have put that book on hold, expecting it to come in the normal timeframe (defined by Madison Public Library standards, of course). Since then I've forgotten all about it. I don't know if this was just bad luck, or if the Austin system is always so slow (it wasn't a new book or anything like that; I'd read it in middle school or high school), but if this is the typical time then I'm glad I live in Madison.
Classes:
I registered for fall classes at the UW today. It's an online registration system, which is convenient for me since a paper or phone system would be a hassle to try to use from Japan. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what classes I want/should take next year, and I've been spending quite a few hours looking over course descriptions, timetables, and asking people for information and advice (special thanks to Dan and Joel for their input). One of the classes I was thinking about taking was closed the day before my registration period, and since it had a whole bunch of free seats in it right before it closed I'm guessing they canceled it due to low enrollment. It's hard to try to get input from people and professors when I can't go and talk to them. Also, the tentative course offerings list that my department publishes is only available in paper form, so I don't know if the classes I want/need to take in the spring will be offered then. I also can't talk to other students (in my classes, that is) and ask them about classes or professors or workloads.
On top of this, I have to figure out what to take here this semester. Classes started this week, and I had my first lectures this morning. At lunch I found out there's a Neural Networks class that Haesung and Lane are thinking about taking (or auditing), and since I've been considering taking that class back home to fulfill my advanced elective requirement I may try to go to that. It's taught in Japanese, and we missed the first lecture (it was on Monday!), so I'll likely only try to audit it. This would mean I still have to take it when I get back, but I'll probably have a much easier time when I do (assuming I can get anything out of the class here).
Thirdly, there's evidently a Ping Pong class that Haesung is planning on taking. I haven't played that for months (it doesn't seem to be as popular in Japan as I thought it was), but I think that would be quite a bit of fun. If she figures out what to do to take it, I'm fairly sure I will take it as well.
Finally, in addition to the JYPE (the exchange program I'm in) classes AND the special Japanese language classes that are offered, there is another set of Japanese language classes they have here. These classes only have Japanese course descriptions, so I've been slowly reading through those to try to figure out if I should take any of those. One thing I noticed is that I can read/understand much more of it that I expected to, and I'd probably have to attribute that to the Kanji class I took last semester. I still don't remember much of the Kanji, but I have the general impression of what many of the characters mean, and I've gotten good at reading sentences that contain Kanji I don't know (most of the example sentences had Kanji that I should have known but didn't). Part of it might also be me reading Kodocha (a Japanese comic book series) and playing .hack (a PS2 game) in Japanese.
Improvement in Japanese:
We took the placement exams for the Japanese language courses yesterday, and the results were posted this morning. Last fall I placed into tentative level 4, and this time they put me into tentative level 5. Basically, the tentative part means that I can take the classes at that level, but might need to take some of the classes at a lower level. This is annoying to me, because it tells me that my skill is unbalanced, but not how. I'm afraid that due to not having any real Japanese classes for a year before coming to Japan left me with a lot of holes in my ability. I've forgotten parts here and there, so there's some very basic stuff that I don't remember any more, but I'm also able to use much of the more advanced stuff. I saw this very clearly on the test, which was split into sections of various difficulty levels. On all the sections there were questions where I said, "I used to know this, but have no idea now," and sections where I said, "I've never learned that," but for the most part I feel like I knew the answers to most of the parts of most of the sections. This placement exam unfortunately doesn't really come with any feedback other than the level, so I have no idea what areas of my skill were solid and what areas are below level 5. At least I've improved :)
Typing:
I hadn't really noticed it before, but the speed I can type at has gotten quite fast compared to what it used to be. I had no idea this was the case until sometime during my travels when I was typing something up and one of the guys made a comment about how fast I can type. At the time I thought, "I'm not sure what he's talking about. I don't type all that fast," but now that I think about it I really do type much faster than I used to. Part of that is probably because I've done so much typing in Japan, due to my blog and IM. I can now type at a rate that's definitely faster than the rate I can write at, which wasn't the case before. I also used to use the mouse to go back and make corrections when I made a typo because it was faster, but now I find that I can delete and retype a word or two much faster than it would take to use the mouse to go back and make corrections. Whee.
Gummy Bears and Grapefruit:
Yesterday I stopped by the university co-op store on Aoba-yama (the Engineering campus) and was surprised to find that they were selling gummy bears from Haribo (we had these in Germany quite often). The packages were in German, and there was a sign next to them saying (I think) that they were being sold here by the request of the customers. I also finally found Gatorade in Japan. Unfortunately, all they had was bottles (I like the powder, but I haven't really seen many powdered drinks in Japan), and even more disappointingly the only flavor they had was Xtra. I like the Lemon-Lime. Anyway, I bought the thing (for about $1.40 I think) and was disappointed yet again to find out that "Xtra" was just a fancy way of saying "grapefruit flavored." As you may or may not know, I'm not a fan of grapefruit. It's one of a small number of citrus fruits that I don't like. I should have guessed that it was grapefruit though, since the Japanese seem to love grapefruit. All of the sports drinks that I've had in Japan have been grapefruit flavored. I actually didn't think it tasted any different from the Pocari Sweat (or however you spell it) that I drank at the Moritas when I was sick around New Year's. Also, at most of the restaurants I've been to, if they have more than one kind of juice on the menu (which usually means they have a whole 2 kinds!) the second kind is almost always grapefruit. Some catered events I've been to have had only grapefruit in the juice selection. For the curious, the other common kind of juice is orange juice, which I like quite a bit, but which gets old after a few months of drinking nothing but that and water.
And since I have nothing more on my mind at the moment, I'll leave you with the comment that the other night I was flipping through the channels on TV and happened to find "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex." I've already watched the fansubs, so I probably won't stay up past midnight (I think it was at 1:20 or something crazy like that) to watch it, but nonetheless it was interesting to see. Just more proof that Sendai is a backwater in Japan.
Random thoughts on various topics
Lirbraries:
I just got a notice from the Austin City Library that one of my holds is available for pickup. I was doing an internship in Austin last summer, and must have put that book on hold, expecting it to come in the normal timeframe (defined by Madison Public Library standards, of course). Since then I've forgotten all about it. I don't know if this was just bad luck, or if the Austin system is always so slow (it wasn't a new book or anything like that; I'd read it in middle school or high school), but if this is the typical time then I'm glad I live in Madison.
Classes:
I registered for fall classes at the UW today. It's an online registration system, which is convenient for me since a paper or phone system would be a hassle to try to use from Japan. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what classes I want/should take next year, and I've been spending quite a few hours looking over course descriptions, timetables, and asking people for information and advice (special thanks to Dan and Joel for their input). One of the classes I was thinking about taking was closed the day before my registration period, and since it had a whole bunch of free seats in it right before it closed I'm guessing they canceled it due to low enrollment. It's hard to try to get input from people and professors when I can't go and talk to them. Also, the tentative course offerings list that my department publishes is only available in paper form, so I don't know if the classes I want/need to take in the spring will be offered then. I also can't talk to other students (in my classes, that is) and ask them about classes or professors or workloads.
On top of this, I have to figure out what to take here this semester. Classes started this week, and I had my first lectures this morning. At lunch I found out there's a Neural Networks class that Haesung and Lane are thinking about taking (or auditing), and since I've been considering taking that class back home to fulfill my advanced elective requirement I may try to go to that. It's taught in Japanese, and we missed the first lecture (it was on Monday!), so I'll likely only try to audit it. This would mean I still have to take it when I get back, but I'll probably have a much easier time when I do (assuming I can get anything out of the class here).
Thirdly, there's evidently a Ping Pong class that Haesung is planning on taking. I haven't played that for months (it doesn't seem to be as popular in Japan as I thought it was), but I think that would be quite a bit of fun. If she figures out what to do to take it, I'm fairly sure I will take it as well.
Finally, in addition to the JYPE (the exchange program I'm in) classes AND the special Japanese language classes that are offered, there is another set of Japanese language classes they have here. These classes only have Japanese course descriptions, so I've been slowly reading through those to try to figure out if I should take any of those. One thing I noticed is that I can read/understand much more of it that I expected to, and I'd probably have to attribute that to the Kanji class I took last semester. I still don't remember much of the Kanji, but I have the general impression of what many of the characters mean, and I've gotten good at reading sentences that contain Kanji I don't know (most of the example sentences had Kanji that I should have known but didn't). Part of it might also be me reading Kodocha (a Japanese comic book series) and playing .hack (a PS2 game) in Japanese.
Improvement in Japanese:
We took the placement exams for the Japanese language courses yesterday, and the results were posted this morning. Last fall I placed into tentative level 4, and this time they put me into tentative level 5. Basically, the tentative part means that I can take the classes at that level, but might need to take some of the classes at a lower level. This is annoying to me, because it tells me that my skill is unbalanced, but not how. I'm afraid that due to not having any real Japanese classes for a year before coming to Japan left me with a lot of holes in my ability. I've forgotten parts here and there, so there's some very basic stuff that I don't remember any more, but I'm also able to use much of the more advanced stuff. I saw this very clearly on the test, which was split into sections of various difficulty levels. On all the sections there were questions where I said, "I used to know this, but have no idea now," and sections where I said, "I've never learned that," but for the most part I feel like I knew the answers to most of the parts of most of the sections. This placement exam unfortunately doesn't really come with any feedback other than the level, so I have no idea what areas of my skill were solid and what areas are below level 5. At least I've improved :)
Typing:
I hadn't really noticed it before, but the speed I can type at has gotten quite fast compared to what it used to be. I had no idea this was the case until sometime during my travels when I was typing something up and one of the guys made a comment about how fast I can type. At the time I thought, "I'm not sure what he's talking about. I don't type all that fast," but now that I think about it I really do type much faster than I used to. Part of that is probably because I've done so much typing in Japan, due to my blog and IM. I can now type at a rate that's definitely faster than the rate I can write at, which wasn't the case before. I also used to use the mouse to go back and make corrections when I made a typo because it was faster, but now I find that I can delete and retype a word or two much faster than it would take to use the mouse to go back and make corrections. Whee.
Gummy Bears and Grapefruit:
Yesterday I stopped by the university co-op store on Aoba-yama (the Engineering campus) and was surprised to find that they were selling gummy bears from Haribo (we had these in Germany quite often). The packages were in German, and there was a sign next to them saying (I think) that they were being sold here by the request of the customers. I also finally found Gatorade in Japan. Unfortunately, all they had was bottles (I like the powder, but I haven't really seen many powdered drinks in Japan), and even more disappointingly the only flavor they had was Xtra. I like the Lemon-Lime. Anyway, I bought the thing (for about $1.40 I think) and was disappointed yet again to find out that "Xtra" was just a fancy way of saying "grapefruit flavored." As you may or may not know, I'm not a fan of grapefruit. It's one of a small number of citrus fruits that I don't like. I should have guessed that it was grapefruit though, since the Japanese seem to love grapefruit. All of the sports drinks that I've had in Japan have been grapefruit flavored. I actually didn't think it tasted any different from the Pocari Sweat (or however you spell it) that I drank at the Moritas when I was sick around New Year's. Also, at most of the restaurants I've been to, if they have more than one kind of juice on the menu (which usually means they have a whole 2 kinds!) the second kind is almost always grapefruit. Some catered events I've been to have had only grapefruit in the juice selection. For the curious, the other common kind of juice is orange juice, which I like quite a bit, but which gets old after a few months of drinking nothing but that and water.
And since I have nothing more on my mind at the moment, I'll leave you with the comment that the other night I was flipping through the channels on TV and happened to find "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex." I've already watched the fansubs, so I probably won't stay up past midnight (I think it was at 1:20 or something crazy like that) to watch it, but nonetheless it was interesting to see. Just more proof that Sendai is a backwater in Japan.
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