It's that time of year again- 1 week until exams and I'm sat at my desk with exactly 0 lessons today. It kind of reminds me of when I was in 6th form and on study leave... perhaps if I'd have used that time for studying instead of splitting the day into little chucks (similar to how Hugh Grant uses his day in About A Boy...) then I'd be in a different place right now haha. I was well prepared for my day of nothing and brought my computer in today. I started off the day with some German studying. Since it is almost certain that I will be working for Europe's worst organised office, I figured that I should perhaps get the lingo down. (If one more person asks me if I've heard anything from them, I WILL scream..) At 8:35am I sat with a random GCSE German book I'd downloaded from the internet, and listened to an “absolute beginner” German audio lesson podcast. By 8:47am I had decided that German is too difficult, and everyone speaks English anyway so why bother breaking a sweat over it. I moved onto Chinese.
I've been studying Chinese with a private tutor for about half a year now. People say that it's a difficult language. They are lying. I guess it's the same with Japanese; people from home ooh and aah at me, saying I must be so clever because Japanese is so difficult. It isn't. But I'm not going to correct them, that would be foolish! I can only assume that it is the same case with Chinese. Granted, my Japanese knowledge helps immensely with the reading, but the grammar is a walk in the park. At university I also studied Chinese for a one semester. We mainly did pronunciation, and some conversational phrases. So, I'm not coming into this as a true beginner, but when I started I couldn't form any sentences other that “I am English, I am a teacher, I eat bread”. I'm not sure where I want to go with this Chinese jolly, but I would very much like to be able to speak (to an intermediate level) in Chinese and Korean as well as my Japanese, in the near future. I think if I'm honest it's for more superficial reasons more than for anything beneficial, but it would sure be nice to get job in an Asian country where I'm mixing with the three cultures. Maybe a buyer at a fashion company working in Asia.. that would be nice.
I worry about the year ahead. My one hour telephone interview with said disorganised office wasn't enough to give me all the information I need to put my mind at ease. I'm an organiser; I like to plan things, know where I'll be and where I'll live. I'd like to arrange things starting from now, really, but of course I am way ahead of myself. The German thing could be a problem. In every day life I think I could get by- heck, I know people who have lived, married even, in Japan for years and years but can't function in a simple conversation. If they can do it then I can too. But for things like finding a place to live, it's proving tricky with my lack of lingo. I can see myself being taken advantage of easily here.
I shall sign off here... I was rambling into a completely different topic so I'll make that into a separate post I think. I ought to get a Japanese post up too.. it's been a while...