My Japanese in Real Life...

I can speak some Japanese. My standard though, is far from fluent or native. When I left my Japanese class in September 2002, the text book I was using was given a grade of Intermediate 1, after having finished two books graded Beginner 1 and 2. But somehow I don't feel "intermediate". I still feel like a beginner. It's really no fault of my teachers, it's just that I felt the school could probably have given my last text book a grade of Beginner 3 or something. At least I could feel I was just right where I belonged.

I mean I could carry a reasonably good conversation in slow basic Japanese and I know quite a number of very common nouns, verbs, and adjectives. But whoever it is who is speaking to me in Japanese would have to speak slowly, like how my teachers did. I was in fact, the top student in all three of those Japanese modules that I did in the first three quarters of 2002, with an average mark of 95%. Not bad at all you'd say. Yeah, well, not bad for a person of my standard. I don't think it's actually right to say that I can't speak Japanese, because the fact is I can, it's just not up the standard that I would love yet. The thing is, when I watch Japanese programs, be it the news, serials, or animes, most of the time I can't make out a single thing they're saying. The problem is probably I don't know enough words yet, and my brain still needs ample practice regarding the catching of words in a normal, un-slow, Japanese conversation.

Now the funny thing was the conversation between my teachers and us (the students) during those times when we used to go for outings together. We've actually been to the Bon Odori festival, been out for a game of pool, been out to dinner, and even went for a karaoke session together, but the conversation was always very superficial. I've got to say I've always enjoyed these outings though (for some reason!). A typical conversation between the teachers and us students would be something like this.

"Sensei wa Midvalley de poo-ru o shite imashita ka?" (Teacher, have you ever played pool at Midvalley?)
"So, shite imashita yo!"(Yes, I have!)
"Dare to?"(With whom?)
"Tomodachi to."(With a friend.)
"Oooh."(Nod of head).

And that would most probably be end of conversation. I mean if we're as proficient in Japanese as we were in English, we'd most probably have pressed "sensei" for an elaboration, like, is that a friend from work? I mean it's just normal for conversations to go on further from there, isn't it? Another example.

"Sensei, Dou-youbi wa watashi tachi issyouni ban gohan o tabemasen ii desuka?"(Teacher, would you like to go with us for dinner on Saturday?)
"Dou-youbi wa dame yo."(I can't make it on Saturday.)
"Ah, doushite? Isogashii?"(Ah, why? Are you busy?)
"So."(Yeah.)

And that, would most probably be end of conversation. You would have expected us to push on and ask "sensei", well, what is that you'll be doing? Can't you postpone it or something please? Well, we would really have loved to press on, but we're just inadequate.

I guess that's probably the reason why my teacher stopped writing e-mails to me. Because I'm just not proficient enough! My relatively meagre Japanese knowledge just didn't provide me with enough avenues to understand her expressions, and to make it worth her while to continue to reply to me. Much like a goldfish swimming in a small glass bowl. That is all there is that we can write to each other. Our e-mails to each other were never bigger than the size of 2 kilobytes. How're you, what're you doing, where are you now, are you busy...I mean life is much more than just those few questions, isn't it. In other words, she got bored (tsumaranai!).

I guess I'll be happy to see her again. Heck, I'll be happy to see any of my associates from my Japanese class and my Japanese student again. It's been quite a while, coming to 2 years in fact, that I haven't seen any of them. Maybe in the summer...but big maybe.