JET Translation and Interpretation Course – days 3 to 5

surprisingly, the 2nd day of the seminar was the worst day. things got better after that, probably because i’d given up putting pressure on myself trying to do well in class and just relaxing and going with the flow.

i think the material covered in the days after werent as difficult either. most of the activities centred on this dialogue session between 1 japanese and 2 australian university students, and covered a range of issues like religion, learning japanese, perceptions of each other’s countries, etc.

also, for the morning of the 4th day, we took turns making a short speech or translating, and i luckily was selected to translate from japanese to english. and for the morning of the 5th day, we had mock panel discussions, and all i did was speak in English :) no doubt i didnt get to practice as much, but the pressure involved! phew. i’m happy to have escaped it, in a way.

it was nice being at the seminar. upon returning to osaka, it felt like i’d been on holiday for a week, even though i worked harder there than i would have if i’d stayed here (the high school students are having exams, which means no classes too). it was like going back to school too – sit in class, and then socialise outside of it.

also, it was definitely enjoyable chatting with the other JETs from other parts of the country; some of them are quite cool people! i was surprised though, by the number of asian-canadians i met there – many of those i hung out with are asian-canadians (originally from hong kong or taiwan mainly). perhaps those of asian descent hang out with others like them – there were definitely a lot more white people there!

now it’s back to reality – preparations to go home and to continue with the next 2 books of the course! acck.

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

JET translation and interpretation course – day 1

today begins the first day of the 5-day long JET Programme Translation and Interpretation Course seminar. the entire seminar is conducted at JIAM, the Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities. it’s in Otsu City, located in the south of Shiga prefecture and only 15 minutes away from Kyoto station.

the rooms are nice enough, with a desk, table lamp, tv, lots of storage space, toilet and sink and several mirrors. the food isnt too bad either – we got a prepaid card with money that should cover almost all our meals here.

the difficult part and most stressful aspect is the Japanese, however.

oh my.

the first shock actually was coming here and discovering that there’s A LOT of us – 143 in total, with more than 90 people being in the English course (there’s a Chinese and Korean course too). and somehow everyone seemed to know at least someone else, so it was the whole thicken up your skin and talk to people kind of thing again.

i suppose though, that for that so long as you have a thick skin and dont think too much, you’re gonna be fine. what is difficult however, was the fact that everyone here has really good japanese!

they started off by giving us a whole tonne of materials completely in japanese, and everything after lunch – 4 hours of it – was conducted in japanese too. it wasnt as bad as it could have been, to be honest, but wow. it required A LOT of concentration.

the worst is the japanese standard. apart from there being lots of CIRs, some of them are so good that they sound perfect in japanese and understand way way way more than i do. some people were chosen from the audience to translate stuff, either from English to Japanese or vice versa, and their standard completely blew me away.

how do people get so good?!?!

 

i have one complaint though, which is that the internet here is very wonky! at the moment only msn is working – i cant see any websites on my internet browsers, although it worked for a while on 2 separate occasions earlier this evening. so i’m not quite sure what’s happening either. beh.