Life in Japan

Hello there again.

Tonight I felt like sharing a bit about my life in Japan with you. I thought you might be interested in it, so here goes.

I've been living in Japan since the end of August, 2012. In order to graduate from my current university, I need to attend a university or language school in the country of the language of my course, which for me means I got to go to Japan. Sadly, I was at first told I wasn't able to go to the university and only after I decided on which language school I wanted to go to the teacher told me I had actually been able to go to a university after all. But by then I had already settled on going to a language school. Some may call me crazy, but it has its advantages.

(Re)learning concentration

Hello my Dears,

I have finally found the will to post something again. I still have a hard time realizing I actually passed. I don't think I will actually realize it until I have my first day of school as a Ninensei (second year student).

Even if I'm still in a bit of a cloud, finally having some peace and time for myself, I try to keep going with my studies. I need to keep repeating my Japanese (all of it) in order to not forget it during this summer holiday (I know I will) and to improve it (I really need to). But, I noticed I have a really hard time concentrating on one thing at a time!

Lately there are a lot of articles on how the internet screws and changes our brain. Articles like this one is an example of those articles. The point is: internet is shortening our attention span. The first time I read about this (about 2 years ago) I didn't believe it. I mean, why should I? I read the whole twilight serie, and the last harry potter book, in one week. But this year I started noticing, I could not concentrate on my homework, or my studies, for much longer then 30 minuts (and even that was stretching it). I get bored by long blog posts, when I'm reading fanfiction I switch from fanfiction to facebook to twitter to tumblr and back to my fanfiction. I've gotten so used to quick information, short messages and changing screens, that I have a hard time keeping to one thing at a time!

Within a year time I've shortened my attention span AND become a social media addict!

I'm sort of at a loss on what to do about this! And internet stop would be an idea, but everything I have is on the internet! e-mail (both personal and for school), msn (with my family), facebook (for friends AND school), school information, bank account, moving to a new room, we need the internet!!! Sure I still have my cellphone, but none of my friends call anymore! They use smartphones, so we use facebook and msn for that! I could send out letters, but as cute and fashionable old fashion it is, I will most likely get my very late response through mail, facebook or msn.

Being online less is an option, an option I'm trying, but what to do in the meantime?

So I have gone back to reading books. I've started reading books again before going to sleep, and I'm trying to read about an hour per day for now. Which I noticed already isn't quite as easy as it was a year or so ago. I keep wanting to check facebook and twitter and my e-mail.

But what else to do? So besides reading books I have started to do write in my dairy. I just start writing and continue writing until I have nothing to write about anymore, or until I feel content. I use it to release the thoughts in my head, and to concentrate on something! It is actually quite funny to do. I realize a lot of things while being busy with free writing. One of those things? My head is a complete and utter mess! One more reason to (re)learn to focus on one thing at a time.

The last thing on my list of "ways to (re)learn concentration" is a list of things I need to do for Japanese homework each day. 1 whole A4 page of kanji per day, and when I can do that without to much distractions, 1 hole A4 page of words per day, and so on. This way I keep busy with my studies and maybe expand my attention span again.

I want to (re)learn to concentrate for a longer time period, like I could do before I became a social media addict. If you have the same problem, if you have any tips, or just a comment, please leave a message!

Love you,

Chibi Ohimesama

(picture source: Tumblr.com)

Need for study....

Hello my Dears,

I want to start with a happy note: I PASSED MY JAPANESE SPEAKING RETAKE (and I seriously have no idea how). I'm super happy :D because this means I still have a chance. I'm on my way to my 4th blok period tests now. So I got 4 more Japanese tests to go. Which means that I have to study like hell!!

There are a lot of things I need to do: I need to study English, I need to study Japanese cultural knowledge and I need to study every aspect of the Japanese language we have had up until now. So that means I have to study Japanese grammar, Japanese Kanji, Japanese listening, and Japanese speaking. Thats a lot of studying, believe me on that.
I only have a few more days for everything, and I'm kinda freaking out. Okay, I'm really freaking out. I'm really glad I have my Japanese speaking test 2 weeks from now, instead of coming week. So I have more time for that. But I really just want to pass it all.

I really want to become a second year student. I want to have cute little kohai (students of a lower grade then me), and just really get to my goal! I want to stay and have fun with everybody, and feel like I'm finally doing what I like! Which is this study!!

But sadly, I get distracted really fast -I am, after all, typing this blog entry instead of studying, aren't I?- so I have to get rid of my distractions. How am I going to do this??? I'm going to cancel my number one distraction: The Internet.

After I finished this post, I'm going to exit my browser. So that means:
- No more facebook
- No more tumblr
- No more twitter
- No more blogging (after this one)
- Lots and lots of studying
- Small little fun breaks in between, but only when I finished a subject. And no longer then 10 to 20 minutes
- 2 or 3 big breaks of 30 to 60 minutes MAX

And I am going to try my absolute best!! I WILL become a second year student of the Japanese language!!

Please with me luck, cheer me on, and I will come back to you after my tests are over to update you on the end results!

Love you guys!!

Until next time

Weird things

Hello~

Today I have some weird happy things to post about. Weirder then normal? Well, yes, to some of you it might be weird.

I'm at the moment completely happy about my first time making~ *drum sounds* ~ Sprouts!
Yes, sprouts <3 Those greene little vegtebles so many people hate. I love them. And my very first time making them turned out great <3 they were yummy.

I felt good about making homework. I actuarly understood what the book said, which was great.

O and we had our first Kanji lesson today. Asusa-sensei is a great teacher. She teaches in a really fun way that makes you remember things way easier then the boring book stuff. I gave her muffins yesterday, as a thank you because she borrowed me her NaNa magazine. Which was a really great magazine. I love the Japanese fashion.

And~ I aparently gave a HUGE compliment to one of my clasmates. I was looking at the pictures in my Kera (June 2010) magazine and there was this one model that reminded me of that clasmate. So today I took the magazine with me and told that clasmate that model reminded me of her. She was totally hounered by it. Really cute <3. After that we started squeeling about all the cute cloths and hot/sexy/cute models in the magazine, haha.
It was fun.

And I should really be doing homework right now, haha...
Well I'll be off to do homework now.

*waves* Bai Bai

ChibiOhimeSama