10/13/2018 0 Comments Been a MinuteHowdy Weebly World, been a while huh?
This will mark my first entry while I am abroad in Japan at the Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, also referred to as NUFS. I flew out of LAX airport at the end of August, but I have had quite the time adjusting and getting settled, as well as getting a hang on how classes are here that I hadn't found the right opportunity to get this train rolling. Meaning this might end up being a real chunk of text to sort through as so much as happened since I first got here! My flight to Japan was a bit on the rocky side to say the least. Flying from LAX to Narita airport went nicely, where once I landed I was to transfer to a different flight that would take me to Chubu Airport in Nagoya so students from NUFS would be able to chauffeur me to my dormitory, the International House (I-House). BUT! My luck had dwindled after hitting Narita as a typhoon was coming in causing my flight to Chubu to be cancelled. Ultimately leaving me with two options; either wait potentially up to 24 hours for the typhoon to pass in order to be able to take a different 1 1/2 hour flight to Chubu, or I could get to NUFS all on my own via the ever popular train systems of Japan. I was already exhausted from my flight to Narita that I ended up choosing the latter option instead of waiting around for a different flight. Looking back on it now, the excursion to get to NUFS was honestly very straight forward; take the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya station, from Nagoya take the Higashiyama subway line to Hongo station, and from Hongo station take a bus to Itaka Ryokuchi bus station and make your way down to I-House! Unfortunately, in all my exhaustion I did not get off at Hongo and ended up taking the subway line all the way to the end, but from that station I was able to get a ride from a taxi to I-House. In the following weeks I had some time to get acclimatized to my new environment. The students who have been here since the spring semester prior to my own arrival are referred to as our Senpai and all of us newbies are the Kohai, and during these introductory weeks for us the Senpai showed us all around the local area. They introduced us to the closest convenient stores and showed us which restaurants are the best to go. All is well when it comes to the few classes I'm taking. I came to NUFS with the intention of only taking the semi-intensive curriculum that is offered as well as a culture course here and a reading class there. Once registration opened up I flipped my decision around completely. I am now currently taking the intensive curriculum for my grammar course, as well as required kanji class. The one culture course I was hyped up to take filled up too quickly and I was unable to register for it, so to look on the lighter side of the situation at least I have more time to dedicate towards keeping up with the fast pace of my intensive grammar class. I think I will cut things there as I feel I'm sort of rambling at this point, so I promise to return soon!
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Similar to the cultural learning strategies, I found myself already knowing of many of the strategies that were listed. A few that I had not taken into consideration prior to taking this class were "14. Pay attention to when and how long people tend to pause" and "15. Pay attention to the rise and fall of speech by native speakers-the "music" of it". I had never thought that learning strategies could get so specific! I will definitely use these two strategies in particular while I am studying abroad.
A good majority of the cultural learning strategies I found myself to be already familiar with and use them in many situations. The only strategy that I found myself not being completely comfortable with was #42 "Join clubs or organizations to meet people who have interests like mine". Although I have been described as having a very outgoing and bubbly personality, I am a very introverted person and I do not particularly find myself wanting to join clubs or organizations. However, hopefully going to Nagoya will break me out of such a rut.
2/21/2018 0 Comments Long/short term goalsShort Term Goals:
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