さあ・。。。ひさしぶりですね。。。

Long time no see. Was studying like a madman for the JLPT Level 3 Test on 7th of December. And now once again i’m playing the waiting game, as everyone else who took the test. Got mixed feelings about this years JLPT. Though i found the kanji and listening part very fair, almost a bit easy, it was part three grammar and text understanding that got me contemplating. The funny thing is that this year i was through with the third part rather fast, so fast actually that i kept pondering for about 30 minutes on the last question of the last text. Although i understood the most part of it i couldn’t really figure out the progress of booking the conference rooms, for each room. And as i learned later from friends who took the test with me, the answer i choose was only half true. damn ^^

As of now my subjective opinion is that i won’t pass because my score is lacking like 10-20 points or more.

That is why i bought some Daruma figurines as good luck charms for passing the test =P

Each time i took the JLPT test, i take pictures of how my desk looks like when studying, what i do right after i get home from the test and thought i’d share them with you. You might notice the advancements to both my Desktop Setup and my Gaming Rig ^^

JLPT 4 PrepDesk (just my Kanji studies, not pictured the huge mountains of preparation sheets :p)

JLPT 4 After (kept the game closed ’til the test was over)

JLPT 3 PrepDesk (aforementioned preparation sheets..)

JLPT 3 After ( there’s nothing like pizza and “kirin” beer and a good game of gta4 after a japanese test ^^, more on the TF busts later)

It’s become quite an revolving procedure to play games after i get home. That’s mainly because i won’t allow my self to watch tv, play video games, watch anime or any other sort of fun activity orz.

Also i take the week before the test off of work and just study,study, study…

Did any of you take the Test? If so, which level and how did you fare ?

Came across this when i was browsing fuckedgaijin.com a few days ago. This is maybe a perfect example for one of the typical japanese cliché. Even though this American “gaijin” speaks almost perfect japanese, judged by his appearance and English greeting, all Japanese people around treat him as a non-japanese-speaking person.

This is especially true to all kinds of western looking gaijin.

In a German book called “Darum nerven Japaner” by Christoph Neumann (which has also been released in Japanese and English), i read that even though one may speak perfectly fine japanese, and ONLY speak to them in japanese, they may always try to answer to you in english because they think you’re an english-only speaking person. That may be a kind of narrow minded pre-judgement coming from me because i never experienced it myself, but i think that Christoph Neumann is right on what he reports. There are a lot of other curiosities hidden in that book and i definately recommend it to anyone who’s interested in visiting/moving to/working in Japan.

Anyways, this was only meant to be an explanation why i wanted to post that Shin Chan episode. Thought it would be a good example on the stumbling blocks you may encounter when visiting/moving to/working in Japan. Maybe i should ask my Japanese class teacher on that topic when i get to it and see what she has to say about it.

konban wa!

Yeah..so, my continuative japanese class started two weeks ago. Fun times, especially with the new group of people i’m studiying with. I really have to devote myself more to studying so that maybe this year i can excel in the one thing that i enjoy the most at the moment, which is learning and the practical use of japanese to read magazines for example.

For that matter i decided in january to make use of the revolving magazine subscriptions that j-list offers. I personally choose the “Hir@gana Times” which is a great introduction to everyday written japanese magazine articles. It basically features articles about random stuff that happen in japan, like matsuri, explanations about why the japanese rooms are reffered to in tatami measurements or gaijin business start-ups for example. All the articles written in proper english and japanese(hiragana/katakana/kanji with furigana) with the 1:1 english translation underneath, so you can get an understanding of how sentences are supposed to be understood when read in japanese. ’cause as you may or may not know the grammar is a little different from english/german in regard to how sentences are built. The articles are really easy to understand even if you are a beginner to japanese.

The second magazine subscription calls for a tidbit more knowledge of the japanese language, especially so in the kanji region – Newtype Magazine. Newtype really is something else. You get tons and tons of information about new upcomign anime releases, interviews with the creators and lots of gimmicky stuff delivered with it like calenders, exclusive posters, keychains, dvds and so on. Since i don’t have the time to look up the internet for all the new information that is there on that subject, i decided to at least be a little more up to date through setting up that magazine subscription. As i said, this is something else. Newtype is completely written in japanese (there’s also an american version Newtype USA, but it’s just not the real deal…) with no furigana or english translations whatsoever. Ok, some series names are written in english but that’s about it.

Even if you don’t really know enough japanese to read it fluently, i would recommend it anayway for the huge load of information, great picture quality and goods that come delivered with it like the aforementioned DVDs (anime releases 2008 preview on dvd for example).

That’s one personal milestone i wan’t to achieve this year. To be able to at least halfway translate those articles from Newtype magazine. And last but not least i recommend for any japanese learner out there, read, read, read. And read loud what you read in japanese. The more you practice it, the easier it will get over time. That’s what i discovered in this saturday’s class. In my first japanese class i was barely able to read one word without stopping and thinking which hiragana/katakana symbol it was, and now i can read sentences almost without hesitation (if furigana is provided of course ;P).

How often and/or long do you practice japanese a week?

Woooooohoooooo! ^^ Finally, after about 2 months of waiting/pondering, i received my certificate on this wednesday. For passing this test you needed a score of 240 / 400 and i got 289 / 400. Some may say, that was close but i think i have a good stand with 49 points above the passing score.

Finally, at last something that i worked hard for pays off. Three months (starting on august actually but really sat down to do it in september) spending 3 hours almost everydayself studying kanji and grammar and taking lessons on saturdays were totally worth it. As i saw the reinforced envelope i was 80% sure i passed but nothing can replace the feeling to pull out the certificate and going over your test scores Which is funny because at my local test center (where i also take my minna no nihongo lessons) they told us that we would just receive either a congratulations note and the certificate or a note that’d say Hahaha you lose Mr. Bond!

Thanks go out to my teachers at my local test center, unicom, white rabbit press, bonjinsha and thejapanesepage.com.

Although most participants may say that the 4th level is the easiest, i’m still pleased with my results. Moving on to the 3rd level test this year. Ganbarimasu!

Came across this whilst rummaging through the play-asia PS2 catalogue. Made a bargain on ebay and received it about two weeks ago. So i had no real intention like “OMGMUSTHAVEWTFBBQ”. And maybe that’s what keeps me from getting angrier by the day about this game.Well, i guess i shouldn’t be getting angrier since i was just misguided by thinking this could be a cool action adventure…but that’s what happens if you don’t read descriptions like the one on the play-asia site. It’s actually a text adventure for Playstation2 withfoll voice support of the original voice actors from the anime. Realta Nua is the sequel to the long available ataraxxia.

Why do my hopes always get crushed when i buy a game that’s anime-, or in this case eroge-visual-novel themed. I was hoping for some action by running around in a beautiful 3D environment, becoming a proper Master and joining the Holy Grail Wars by thursting Saber or any other Servants into battle. But, no… i get another graphic novel. Serves me right.

But don’t get me wrong. The game has beautiful visuals and the voice acting is another bonus for fans of the previous game. Just not my cup of tea i guess. Since i haven’t had the time to powerlevel my japanese yet and am still waiting for my results of last years Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4, i’m not too content with what’s going on in the game.

I said another graphic novel. Yes that’s right, i bought the special edition as you ca see from the pictures, which came with a gashapon of Saber and a PlayStation Portable Fate/stay Night game which i think happens to be another graphic/text. I dind’t get really far into it since i lost interest after about 15 minutes of clicking me through in the hope that something action-y happens…I guess a more detailed review will follow later this year after i gained more japanese vocabulary/kanji.

And here i resent to you the Saber gashapon figure that came with my copy of the game:

So, this is a brand new start at blogging. Was doing this on a rented server with my self-run wordpress but ran into too much issues with server updates and sql errors and the like. So now i’ll try it anew through wordpress directly.

So…what’s this all about? I guess like all bloggers about pretty much their hobbys, obscurities of the net and the like. Thinking about throwing in a comic maybe, but that will take a while longer.

So…what is happening exactly? Will talk about anime i saw, figures( a little), transformers, video games, my japanese learning experience, random stuff.

Hope i’ll be getting any readers through dannychoo.com where the idea came to mind to create a complete new blog with stuff i actually like and want to say.

Enjoy your visit and see you around (hopefully ^^)