First Day of Class (1/7/13)

Hey oh y’all,

Welcome to Doshisha University!

Today was our first class. Muzukashikatta yo (it was difficult). Yeah. A year’s worth of Japanese class and the moment the sensei (teacher) walks it, my language quickly walks out.

I mean even my jikoshoukai (self-introduction) was choppy at best.

First day of school! The Stanford Center!

Sumi-chan is much better at speaking for some reason. Her jikoshoukai is pretty fluent, and she can keep a conversation going much faster. Pandas and their intuition I suppose.

Learning Japanese in Japan!

Today we learned kenjyougo (humble language). Whenever you are talking to a superior and you are referring to what you yourself are doing, you are supposed to lower yourself and raise the other person. Thus, there are multiple forms of the same verb. So for example, the verb “to go,” has 3 different words. The “normal” is iku – so jon-san wa ginkou ni ikimasu (John is going to the bank). The “polite” or sonkeigo version is irassharu – so buchou wa ginkou ni irasshaimasu (the department chief [since he deserves more respect] is going to the bank). And the “humble” or kenjyougo version is mairu – so watakushi wa ginkou ni mairimasu (I [humbly] am going to the bank).

Of course there are other grammatical ways to show proper respect. Unfortunately for me, the lazy language learner, I immediately default to the super casual, only used for family and close friends, requiring the least amount of intense effort form. While it’s not slang per se (there is Japanese slang which we’ll learn over time), it’s kinda the equivalent of using contractions and fragments when writing an academic essay (so using kinda in an essay is kinda like using the casual form for non-family/friends…not exactly the best way to impress people).

In some ways, this is probably why my “classroom Japanese” is pretty heta (poor). As I am talking to a sensei, I need to be polite. This requires more thought and complex conjugation, and so it comes out pretty messy.

But other than suffering a huge stumble fest in Japanese class, I did survive my first class, I did survive the awkward first lunch, and I even survived my first commute! All in all, not bad neh?

Let's eat lunch...wait not me!

Today we also met members of DESA – Doshisha Exchange Student Association. Basically they are the welcome club for the many foreign students who come to Doshisha. They gave us a quick tour and invited us to their meetings and party events! Hopefully we will meet many more students here!

Thank you DESA!

-DC