JET translation and interpretation course – day 2

today was the most intense day i’ve ever had!

there were 5 classes of 1hr 10min each, with 10min break in between. 2 classes in the morning beginning at 9.25am, lunch from 12 to 1pm, then 3 classes ending at 5pm. i never studied this hard even as a full time student!

today was 2 periods of self-introductions, my tutor’s self-introduction, and listening to this speech made by the president of a private girls’ school on her school’s education policy. all of them, naturally, involved translation from english to japanese and vice versa – it was very brain-draining work.

i got over the fact that my japanese is the lousiest among my class of 17 people pretty quickly – no point being troubled over something you have no control over, rite? besides, all of them have been learning japanese for longer than i have – most majored in japanese at university, many started learning from high school, 1 or 2 started from junior high and 1 of them even began at primary 6. on the other hand, i only had 2.5 years of japanese class at uni, so i think i’m probably excused for having a far lower standard.

the problem therefore was first concentrating for the entire day – zoning out for a moment will result in information lost, and many a time we’re called on randomly to interpret a piece of information, so we all had to pay attention throughout the day.

the other extremely challenging aspect is the sheer amount of vocabulary being introduced! i know very little vocab and am rather weak in that area. so it makes things extremely difficult in following what is happening, cos the tutor says something and i have to scramble to check my dictionary to find out the kanji for it or make out the meaning. it’s also a test of how quick my fingers are at typing in a word whose japanese equivalent i want to find – its a race against time to check the word before its your turn, or before the next section of the tape is played again.

he introduced, today, a lot of words related to education. i whinged about to the many new words to E, to which he replied that i’m here to learn, so i ought to take advantage of it. i suppose that’s true – at any rate, i certainly dont think that this seminar sucks or i’m really wanting to go home or that i’m going to break down in tears anytime soon, which is good. haha. it’s definitely more stimulating than being in school, although i’m not sure if i will be feeling the same way tomorrow, after another day of this. :P