opinios

Oh my god I can't believe how much friggin' study I have done this week. Honestly, I think the local Jonathon's family restaurant staff were getting ready to set up a bed in the corner of the room to call my own. Today I put in a very studious 10 hours - from around 10am to about 6pm solid (with Kim joining me for lunch and some question-answer time), and then I went back again in the evening for another couple of hours.

I'm almost excited about this stupid exam tomorrow. Excited about the fact that it will be over, regardless of how I go. Excited about the prospect of doing something in my spare time that doesn't involve committing strange characters and stranger grammar patterns to memory. Playing my bass, reading books (so much to catch up on!), doing some drawing, redesigning opinios, going for a swim! All of these things have suffered in my dedication to passing this damn thing. And for what really? A while back I was thinking of maybe teaching Japanese in Australia, but my heart is basically set on the graphic design/web design stuff, so if I do pass then it won't really mean anything career-wise.

But it will for me. I've basically been working all year for this thing, so fingers crossed. Yes I will be a bit disappointed if I don't get over the line. But I'm also realistic that I will be very close to that line, dangerously close. If I don't pass then the thought that I have learned all this useful Japanese will not really be enough to console me. But the fact that I will know that I couldn't have done any more will. I took this whole week off work and immersed myself in Japanese. I'm as well prepared as I'll ever be.

But I still have that clock to beat in the reading/grammar section. A friend Mark suggested that I tackle the grammar questions at the back of this section first as they are easier. But unfortunately as of last year the format has changed and the reading comprehension questions are worth more. I just have to plough through as fast as I can. I'll tackle it as it comes.

The listening in past exams was easier than I thought. I suppose it's obvious but I guess my ear for understanding spoken Japanese really has improved. It's weird when something like that takes a jump but you don't really notice it. And I did another last minute cram of the kanji that is on the list that I know I have problems with. I don't know where I would be without that Heisig kanji book that I mentioned a while back. Once this is over I have grand plans for a kanji resource web site based on the stories I came up with for the book. I am aware it is nerdy but I can't wait to get that all up and running, will be a good chance to teach myself how to interface PHP to a MySQL database.

Fingers crossed. Good luck everyone else out there sitting the Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken tomorrow!!! Gambarimashou!!!