How Time Flies (a.k.a 日本語の手紙）

皆さん、こんばんは。


大学で勉強している専門は日本語なので、今日のポストは日本語で書いてみます。


Facebookで言ったとおり、日本人の千々岩先生は、先週の土曜に帰国なさいました。今までも、そんな感じがしないです。「また、あした会おう」、「先生が少しの時間だけ行ってきます」などの気がします。


さっき、Windows Live Messengerにロギンしました。そのメッセンジャーのプローフィール写真が、この一年ぐらい変えていないことは気づいたばかりでした。その写真は僕とJ.yoさんのしゃしんです。去年、千々岩先生と一緒に、初めての観光した時に、先生がその写真を撮ってくれました。
「ウワッ、もう一年か…ホントだ」と思いました。一年は、スッゴク早かった。千々岩先生と観光したばかりだと感じます。


考えると、この一年に、その写真を撮ったから、たくさんのことが起こりました。撮った時に、J.yoさんと付き合い始めたんです。あと10日だけ、一周年です。日本へ行けるのは全然思えませんでした。今年の7月に、大阪へ行くつもりです。
千々岩先生と一緒に観光したばかりと感じてますが、土曜日に代わりの甲田先生と観光する予定です。


ただ一年だけでも、こんなたくさんの事が起こった。


この一年前に撮った写真を見て、ちょっとなんか寂しくなります。なぜですか？ただ一年だけでも、千々岩先生はトッテモ良い教師だけでなく、みんなにとっても、大切な友人になれたからです。そんなに大切な友達が遠いところへ行ったら、確か寂しくなります。ですから、また大阪で会えるように、僕もみんなもガンバリマス！




ではまた。
ゼット・ヴァレンタイン


P.S
甲田先生も、友人になれること、お楽しみに！笑

Recap (aka Letter #1, 2012)

Greetings, and salutations,

whatever that means.

As always, it's been a long time since my last post, and obviously much has happened since then. That being the case, there are a few things which I would like to mention, or at least attempt to, in somewhat reverse-chronological order.

Back when I was still active here I used to have this thing where I numbered each post (or letter) in the title, as above. Obviously it's been ages since I did that, and frankly I'm too lazy to open my previous posts and do a headcount of which letter this is. Therefore I've decided to restart the numbering based on what year it is. As you can see this is my first letter of 2012, hence the above title. As before, not all posts will be explicitly given a number designation, but I will try and keep track of these things.

I may or may not have mentioned this, but I'm currently attending college (university, whatever you wish to call it. There isn't much distinction in my mind), majoring in Japanese language and culture. Last December, I took the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) along with my girlfriend and one of my best friends.

For those of you who are wondering, The JLPT is basically Japan's TOEFL test. Under the current system, it is divided into 5 different levels, N1-N5, with N5 being the lowest, and N1 the highest. We took the N3 test this time, which, aside from being a formal way of saying you might survive day-to-day life in Japan, is a requisite (am I using that word correctly?) for graduation. Fortunately I passed. Not with flying colors, but I passed. What that means to me as a job-seeker is that if I apply for work in Japan or at a Japanese-owned company, chances are I could get somewhere between entry- and lower mid-level positions, IF I'm deemed good enough. Something like that. I'm just drawing my own conclusions here, so people with more experience on the matter may wish to bash my skull in.

On the subject of Japan, our university has this exchange program (though as far as I know, it's not an 'exchange' per se as we don't really receive students) with a language institute in Japan. The headmaster (I think he was) was kind enough to come here to Indonesia and explain the program for those of us who were interested, which definitely included yours truly. The problem of course being financial in nature. As of this writing I'm still in negotiations with my mother and am keeping my fingers crossed.

I have the preview for this blog open in the next tab, and frankly I wish to do something about the design. However I've never been particularly good in either technology or aesthetics, so I'm not sure how to make that happen. Suggestions, anyone?

I suppose that's it for now; if I go any further I might as well start writing an autobiography. Don't forget to check my friend's blog (for those of you who missed the link it's http://jellyjyun04.blogspot.com/ ). It's in (somewhat broken) Japanese, which really has me thinking about doing a Japanese post as well, for practice.

Hope to see you again soon!

Sincerely,

- Zet Valentine

P.S

Experimenting with font sizes, tell me how it is in the Blahbox or comments section please.

Culture Shock (aka Face Value)

One of my teachers (professors, lecturers, whatever) recently mentioned in class some cultural differences between the Japanese (and most Asian countries) and the West. One that particularly caught my interest was the way westerners are quite straightforward, while most Asians work their way around criticism.

Afterwards, a friend of mine mentioned her discomfort at how another friend of ours liked to hug, poke, and do other things that would get her (the other friend) killed if she (still the other friend) did it to me. I told her that if she doesn't like it, then just say it. Her response: "gak enak", as in she didn't want to offend her. Which led me to ask, "WHY?"
Because she didn't want to offend her. Because she didn't want to offend her. Because she was still considering her (again, the other friend's) feelings.

Right. So it's okay for HER to poke, hug, tickle, and otherwise ANNOY THE HELL OUT OF you, but you don't want to tell her because you're afraid you'll hurt HER feelings? Suit yourself.

In any case, I told her (and yet another friend who was there listening) that if they had something they held against me, they had better tell it to my face rather than talk about it behind my back. That was, after all, what we were doing, albeit unwittingly. What kind of friendship would last if bast on such a lie, anyway?

But seriously now, our people seem to be obsessed with so-called "formalities"; if you do something to offend someone, they could hold it against you forever. Truth be told, I really don't understand that line of thought. Personally, I prefer the "I may not like you, but that doesn't mean I can't work with you" policy. Personal relationships should be personal, professional relationships should be professional, and neither should affect the other.

Not to say that I'm devoid of sentiment. Of course I'll be offended at first if you tell it to my face. But I can get over it and really appreciate the fact that you came forward about it, rather than to keep it a secret.

I'm guessing that some, if not most of you go with the so-called "Asian" line of thought. I'll be perfectly clear that I'm not telling anyone to do things my way, nor am I claiming my way to be the right way. I'm just merely expressing my opinion. If you don't like it, it's perfectly fine; we just simply need to agree to disagree, because sometimes it's really impossible to ask others to see things your way. That's why it's important for me to try to at least understand where you're coming from, and respect where you stand, rather than make you do things my way.

Think about it.

Considerately,
-Zet

First Week of College (aka Late Adjustments)

Yep, I just finished my first week of college life, which is unfair to some of you, my friends, I know, but hey, I don't set the dates. Anyway, I'm totally exhausted right now, largely due to the fact that I still haven't fully adjusted to the pace of college life. I went to my friend's place yesterday, and his mom said that I lost weight! For those of you who know me, if it's true then it's a scary thing indeed.
Funny feeling, having the freedom to set your own schedule. Fun, and at the same time it's scary, because one slip and it's practically over.

I could bore you all by sharing what I've been doing the past week, but I won't. Instead, I'll bore you by telling you the things that I need to get done:

1. Get my toilet fixed. It's somewhat faulty, the water won't stop running after I flush it.
2. Do something about the extra laundry. My, erh.. boarding house? (dunno the english word for "rumah kos") does laundry for 1 outfit per day, any more than that we'll have to figure out for ourselves.
3. Sationery. Probably the most vital thing any student from any level would need, and I forgot it.
4. Food. There aren't any decent places to eat around my place. Seriously. There are some, sure, but I'll have to walk like 10 minutes to get there.
5. Time management. Something that I've never been good at so far, but I'll have to be capable of now. I'm taking a few clubs and extra-curricular activities, so I'm hoping to "learn by doing" so to speak. *crosses fingers*
6. Assignments. Yep, just because college started later for me than you guys, doesn't mean I have less assignments. (The quality/difficulty of the assignments, though, I can't say)

Funny thing, ever since college started I feel that I've gotten slightly better at small talk/socializing. That means I've gone from "MUTE" to "Talking, almost". It's a small step, sure, but it's still something to be proud of, isn't it?

Well, I think there's still more nonsense to talk about, but I'm too tired to talk about it. Bedtime for me. See ya.

Regards,
-Zet

Home At Last (aka Letter #15)

After a long (and I do mean LONG) week, I'm finally back home. Where've I been, you ask? College orientation week. 6 days of doing absolutely nothing but sitting down in a classroom with 60 other people (give or take) listening to lectures and talks about the Do's and Don't's of college life. My butt's still kinda sore from all that sitting.

To boot, I think I'm down with a bad case of the flu. Slight fever, aching joints & muscles, sore throat, classic flu symptoms, right? Already went to the doctor, got some meds, should last for a few days. I'm feeling better already, though only slightly.

To count my blessings, though, I only caught it yesterday, which was AFTER orientation week. Sandra caught it during the last two days. She managed to make it through, of course, and I'm so very proud of her for that. :D Girl, you rock my world.

Will post more meaningful things after I'm healthy.

Regards,
-Zet