Anything but

I have a lot of studying to do in order to finish my test for my Japanese correspondence course this Monday. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before, but the JET Programme offers a correspondence course at three different levels for learning Japanese. I’m of course, taking the beginner course. It consists of six books, each containing 20 lessons and a monthly test that must be completed and mailed by the prescribed deadlines. I was doing well with the course until Janice arrived. I found that I had very little time to study while she was here and I’ve been playing the catch-up game ever since.

This weekend was supposed to be about immersing myself in Japanese in order to cram, what I need to finish this test, into my head. I even came down with a bit of a cold yesterday, which I hoped would further entice me into staying at home and in front of my books.

Learning a language however, is not really something you can learn by cramming in front of a book – at least not for me. Until I get a chance to use what I’m learning, only then will it begin to stick. Talking to myself only gets me so far.

Inevitably, I found many distractions to occupy my time today. First, there was the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. This was a bit of a necessity for me, and I’ll admit that it was on my schedule for today – although it was a bit longer than I expected. Despite a day of tragedy, technical malfunctions, and protests, overall, the show was fantastic, with a few highlights being Katie Lang’s “Halleluiah”; the crazy punk-rock, lumberjack, celtic, fiddle-playing tap-dancers; and an amazing visual feast of lights and projected landscapes. My only disappointment was that I couldn’t quite here the Canadian monologue due to the Japanese commentary over top – and I wasn’t sure there was a malfunction at the end until Janice told me (again because of the commentary).

My brain actually had a difficult time trying to keep up with all of the languages during the ceremony. The show itself was bilingual in that it incorporated both English and French – and even a few Native languages as well, while the commentary over top for me was Japanese. At some points, I don’t think my brain was even registering the English that was being spoken because I was straining to try to listen to the French and the Japanese – or to at least distinguish between which was which as they all spoke over top of each other.

Anyway, once the ceremony was over, I had to head out to refill my kerosene at the gas station. It had snowed last night and there were still a few snowflakes in the air, and I thought that I had better get some photos of the neighbourhood while the snow’s still here. Another teacher had told me that this has probably been the coldest winter in ten years and that they don’t usually get this much snow.

After taking some photos, making a run to the supermarket, making dinner, and writing a quick blog, I think I only finished about 2 lessons of Japanese today. Hopefully tomorrow will fare better.