A month without blog updates? Perish the thought!
But seriously--I can't believe I haven't blogged in 2010. It's time to change that, even if it's a lackluster effort.
I don't feel so bad about not updating my blog. It's not that I've grown apathetic--I've just become so obsessed with studying Japanese that all my non-teaching time at work (between 2 and 4 hours per day) is devoted to grammar and kanji study.
First, let me announced that we've decided to stay for a third year. Since Mia's going to need a heart procedure in the next year or so, we wanted to make sure that we were covered by insurance. It's hard to believe that we've re-contracted, especially considering how a couple months ago there was an almost zero-percent chance we'd stay. Stef has had some experiences out here that have made life a bit easier on her. That's not to say that it's easy to be away from family, but it's definitely more palatable. I'll let her tell everybody about those experiences in her blog. I'm extremely excited to stay, and have redoubled my efforts with the language in hopes of really solidifying my skills.
Stef was speaking with a lady who said that she doubted if I'd be able to achieve fluency in Japanese in 3 years. She hasn't really heard me speak, so I can't blame her for saying that. And truthfully, while I would say that I already do "speak Japanese", I haven't yet achieved what I would call fluency. But I see no reason why I won't be totally fluent after another 18 months in Japan. I'll surely have passed level 2 of the JLPT, if not level 1.
Many people consider themselves fluent in Japanese if they can hold natural conversations. But they may not be able to carry on a functional conversation in polite Japanese. I can already speak polite Japanese and am well on my way to speaking decent slang. Also, I want to be able to read 2000+ kanji without straining. Many conversationally fluent people are lost if they have to read something written in kanji. I'm more than halfway to my goal of 2000 kanji, and find my reading comprehension improving exponentially.
My dreams are flooded with Japanese. I wake up in the middle of each night and have grammar coursing through my brain. I repeat the phrases and grammar over and over in hopes that I'll remember to write them down or study them in depth the next day. I usually remember.
I recently visited a website that talks about turning every aspect of your life into some Japanese experience. People who frequent this site and buy into the theory spend hours each day watching anime and reading Japanese comics. I don't have time for this, especially since I have a family to tend to. Furthermore, I really don't care about anime or comics. Instead, I spend hours a day at school trying to have conversations with my coworkers, eavesdropping on all their conversations with others.
I try to read every symbol I see, and I'm constantly engaging my brain, asking myself how I'd say something in Japanese. Stef will often catch me muttering, only to realize that I'm speaking to myself in Japanese. On my bike rides to and from work, I drill difficult grammar structures and words that are hard to say. It's scary enough that a gigantic foreigner is riding around on a girl's bike with a basket. The fact that I'm talking in circles to myself makes me that much more frightening.
I've also been teaching the young men at church. The lessons are stressful to prepare, but extremely rewarding. I find myself consulting my dictionary less and less as I read through the teacher's manual. Compared to when I first started teaching, my Japanese is leaps and bounds ahead.
Dad's coming out to visit us for a few weeks. I'm very excited. We're thinking of visiting Osaka and Kyoto, along with some places that are closer to Imabari. He's coming in the beginning of March and staying until the beginning of April. I'm excited to have him come.
Then, in May, Mom and Rory are coming to stay with us for a couple weeks. We don't have many plans yet, other than fishing out by Uoshima with Azuma-san. We still need to see if that's a possibility. If not, I'm sure we could find some way to set up a fishing trip.
As a side note, I'm thinking of changing the name of my blog, and buying a domain name to go along with it. The reasoning behind this is that everybody already knows that Axel is better than Skate, and so nobody will ever go to a site that apparently doesn't contain any new information. I'll keep you posted.
