[Learning Languages] Time~! Yay!!

I’ve just finished my exam last Friday and am now officially free, at least till next Feb. It’s quite scary to think about the time I have now and how I can use it constructively. (YOLO~ hahahahaha~) I’m now in the midst of getting back to the old life I had before I started my semester in July. Hmm, I’m not too sure whether I like to say I want to get back my old life entirely cos I am going to incorporate sociolinguistics (yay! how I love thee!!) into my current life.

I have to admit that there were a couple of sacrifices I had to make when it comes juggling a full time job with a part time postgraduate. Basically, I felt that I didn’t have much of a personal life, no language learning, no translating, no running, no relaxed reading and blah. I find it a real challenge to manage my time between my work, school and people for this semester. I did realise that I am the sort who likes hanging with different friends and all, and am the sort who needs lots of personal time. So, there you go, I had almost no time for others and myself, except my work and school. Well, having said that, I’m not saying that I’m not enjoying myself with sociolinguistics since I was really having a great time during my semester.

And as at this point of time, I’m adjusting my body clock to normal schedule~ LOL~ so many days of lack of sleep have converted me to an owl~

Sociolinguistics

Having started out with no idea what exactly sociolinguistics was, I think I just jumped into it, thinking that it’s a compulsory unit that I need to take. However, the energy from my lecturer/teacher was simply fantastic. That energy has great spillover effects and I ended loving the unit for what it is. Yet, I didn’t think it was going to be demanding. Hahaha, I think I underestimated this unit.

I think I’ve mentioned it in my past entries but I think I wanna to bring it up again.

My first assignment required me to do a 500 word summary of say, a 40-50 pages research study from an academic journal. I had some hair-pulling experience with it and seriously had no idea why in the world I had to do that. Nonetheless, thank goodness, 無事に終わった～ Then before I knew it, I was into doing a research survey of presenting my data and analysis in 2200 words. If I’m going to say that doing the summary was a hair-pulling experience, this was worse (haahaahaa~ I’m laughing as I am typing this). Even though this is the case, it was good fun to really get to collect the data and presenting them. Of course, I really did learn to get to the point by this assignment. And the last assignment which is probably the most challenging got me to do many things I never thought I could. I’ve just got my feedback for this assignment like 1-2 weeks ago and this is really the assignment I really want to rework on, knowing that I could have approached it in a easier to understand manner for the reader.  Well, this is in fact one of the things I’m looking to work at for this period of time, even though I’m not going to submit it to my lecturer/teacher. Yes, you can go judge me as crazy but hey, it’s really something I want to do after knowing that I didn’t do well in some areas and I can only say that I really love sociolinguistics to this extent that I want to do it again. Well, and finally for my exam. To be honest, I felt that I didn’t do well in it. Hahaha~ that weird feeling of not knowing what you are doing… Hmm~ nonetheless, I’ll get to know my results in like 2 weeks so I’m going to take it easy till then~ Yet I do have many other things sociolinguistics I wanted to do but I’m not going to say them yet until I start doing them. Woohoo~

Well, let’s go back to other things about languages.

Japanese

I’ve just completed watching 熱海の捜査官. It’s only 8 episodes and it’s not all that new, done in 2010? I love watching quirky Japanese stuff (and several other genres as well) and this drama falls in that range. When I mention quirky, how can I not mention オダギリ　ジョー　The first quirky drama that I watched him was 時効警察. It’s a hilarious drama with a fantastic cast. Though hilarious, it has a very intelligent plot, always requiring its viewers to rewatch scenes to catch the essence of things mentioned in the drama. Well, 熱海の捜査官 works in the same way too but darker (I love dark materials!) but I can’t say I want to recommend that here cos not everyone appreciates the sense of humor and plot. It does not have a good looking cast, nor manga-like storyline, rather it requires lots of attention by the viewers to pick out the details, and the humor is quirky and nuanced so heh, if these qualities do not fall in your range of Japanese dramas, I would suggest you give it a miss.

熱海の捜査官

Anyway, if you are like me, who like quirky Japanese stuff, I would suggest you check out the dramas and movie, 時効警察 and 転々

時効警察

They are some of the funniest, quirkiest  Japanese stuff I’ve watched.  By now, you would have realized that オダギリ　ジョー starred in such dramas and movie. He is REALLY good when potraying quirky characters, yet having said that, he is a REALLY good actor, and if you are into the Korean pop culture, you might have some impression of him acting in some Korean movies, like Dream and My Way. So in any case, if you are looking for some good Jap actor to watch, I would recommend you check out the movies he acted (some had in fact said, he’s the Japanese version of Johnny Depp).

Anyway, watching the above drama was a good way to end my hiatus with Japanese. It was good for me in a way that I watched something I really enjoy. I’ll be starting to seeking for more Japanese drama to watch and reading the Japanese stuff I want. So I think it’s time I pay the Japanese bookstore a visit!

Other languages

I have to admit that I have not started on Korean as yet. I’m trying to get my momentum to learning languages. Hopefully, I get back on track REAL SOON!

I’ve just finished a piece for my volunteer translation. It’s good to get back to Chinese stuff again. And it was even better to translate an editorial of the lastest American election. Lots of interesting opinions usually arise during elections so I find it enriching to learn the various Chinese technical terms. I do feel REALLY rusty in translating but am hoping to do more pieces to make up for my lack-ofs for this period of time.

I admit to slacking and reading things that are highly irrelevant to learning languages  (like English novels – adult and children during the 2 days of slacking). Due to the long break I’m going to have, I’m seriously considering going away to a country that does not use English as her first language cos I’m greedy to pick up a new language n learn more about a new culture. Any recommendations?

I hope that I’ll get back on this space real soon with more things for everyone.

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