授業

The following entry recounts experiences of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I've done little beyond going to lessons, but they have been vaguely interesting, so I thought I'd write about some of the content. In addition to the usual reading comprehension and new grammar points (or expressions practise as it's known this year) this week we have been learning about こおわざ(kotowaza), 慣用句(kanyouku) and 四字熟語(yojijukugo), to which I'll give the shamelessly lazy translation of sayings, proverbs and aphorisms. I like these kinds of lessons when one can learn bits and pieces that make one's Japanese sound more natural, and knowing them does come in useful! Barely had I stepped out of my lessons on Wednesday when I found myself reading some manga, one of these phrases popped up, and I was delighted to understand it. In an attempt to make all this a bit clearer to you, dear readers, here's some examples.

• 豚に真珠 (buta ni shinju) - literally translated, something like "a pearl necklace for a pig." Used to imply a gift is too good for someone, that they won't really appreciate it. Only used for definite, physical gifts, for abstract things it's 馬の耳に念仏(uma no mimi ni nenbutsu), "Chanting the Name in a horse's ear."
• 猫の手も借りたい(neko no te mo karitai) - "I'd also like to borrow the cat's paw." For when you're madly busy and would gladly accept any form of help.
• 八方美人(happou bijin) - "Eight-way beauty." Someone who seems to have no flaws and is always nice to everyone, a bit like the English "too good to be true."

On Wednesday I noticed that the class seemed rather few in number. I think there's something like twenty people in IJ600, and since we get split up into different sections, and 'flu is going around at the moment the result is some very small classes indeed. In this case I was also struck by the variety of nationalities - one Thai, two Chinese, one Vietnamese, one English (obviously), one from Singapore and two Americans (one from Hawai'i, I'm not sure whether to count that as separate or not). The next day, however, the class was rather large as one of the teachers had come down with influenza and the two sections had to be merged. Things can change so fast.

I went jogging on Thursday afternoon, which turned out to be a bad idea. The problem lay not in my level of physical fitness - I'm not sure about distance but I stayed out longer than I used to in England and at generally the same pace - but rather that I thought I could get away with going out without a scarf or similar item. Cold weather + insufficient clothing + asthma + misunderstanding of how the heater in my room works = unhappy Cal with a bad chest. It had more or less recovered by Friday afternoon, though.

Speaking of Friday afternoon I had my first "Japanese Art and Culture" lecture (3.15-5.30, not the best way to kick off the weekend, one may argue). First impressions... it may be an interesting course (for the first lesson it was just some background info about Bakumatsu and Meiji era, i.e. the start of "modern" Japan), heavier workload than I imagined (though to be honest I was imagining just one presentation and one essay), and the teacher seemed a likable chap. And he has documentaries, interviews etc for use in class on video tapes! I was surprised at how retro and nostalgic this form of media storage seems to me.

A busyish weekend ahead, need to write a speech, research and put together a presentation, miscellaneous bits of homework and a meal engagement on both Saturday and Sunday. Allons-y!

Japanese Snacks Vol. 10 - Reduced sushi. It gets reduced to half price or
thereabouts at 8.30, making it an attractive alternative to making dinner.