Babelian Towers

I have been in Okazaki for 2 weeks now and had my first test today... Find out tomorrow what the results will be.

Despite the fact we are all here to study Japanese, except for a few European teenagers who were forced to attend by uncaring and cruel parents, we all speak English outside of class. Taiwanese students, French students, Spanish students, Portuguese students, Brazilian students, Chinese students, Swedish students, Austrian students, Slovakian students, and of course the Canadian, American and British students. And I can't help being impressed with these people who speak their own language, my language, and are now learning Japanese. I am also disappointed by how easily we all fall into the English trap, and feel ashamed when I do it too.

One of the students made his farewell speech today -- in Japanese naturally -- and at one point in the middle, he made a small stumble and said "sorry," but he wasn't even a native English speaker, making me laugh because he used sorry.

I have decided to attempt to read a book in Japanese. Rather than choosing a Japanese author, as I have read plenty of Japanese books translated into English, I am battling my way through Bridget Jones' Diary, The Edge of Reason. With my kanji dictionary and electronic dictionary close at hand, I get no further than 2 or 3 pages at a time, which makes my ambition wane, although I have been trying to prepare for a test, so I would like to point to that as my reason for falling slack. I have also been trying to read a "Film Comic" of Howl's Moving Castle, which Studio Ghibli released last year. It is much easier going, not only because there are pictures, but also because the kanji all have little tiny furigana beside them, so when I am lost for a reading, I don't have to spend 2 or 3 minutes searching for it.