Class! Posted on September 14th, 2010 by Jasmine Bernhardt

Class has finally begin! It’s still all in the introduction phase since it hasn’t exactly been a week yet, but everything is so interesting so far.

Aside from the intensive Japanese classes (which last about 2~3 hours a day, depending on the day) I’m taking four others– Japanese Culture and Art, Flower Arranging (or ikebana), Japanese Linguistics, and Observation and Analysis of Japanese Language Activities. I know that last one probably sounds a little strange, but it seems really interesting.

These classes, unlike the Japanese ones aren’t every day. In fact, they’re only once a week. I know you’re probably thinking, but how is that possible?! It totally is. Class is about an hour and a half and that’s plenty of time to go over lessons and stuff. It also gives me a lot of free time to study, explore, and just enjoy myself. It’s really nice.

But then you look at my tags and say, you’re in Japan, why are they giving you so much free time and why are they being so lax?! I know, you’ve probably heard of horror stories of Japanese high schools and exam hell and things of the sort. And just as it says there, all of those crazy strict things happen all throughout school leading up to the end of high school, when all that work finally pays off when one enters university. University in Japan is apparently much more relaxed than that of the US.

Classes for the Japanese students haven’t officially started yet, and two of the classes I’m taking are “open courses”, as in Japanese students will be taking them too. I can’t wait!