Eeeeee.... I need to try to be more diligent about posting.
Life here has been pretty non-descript. Lots of training for work, though. I've had two training sessions in the last week, one for a new program called "Chibiko Kids Club." That one was kinda bizarre - it's a program for children between the ages of 2-3. For me, if I had a child that age, I'd be focusing on their main language rather than trying to confuse them with another one. I mean, if the kid comes from a mixed background (one Western parent, one Japanese parent), okay. But in that case, it would be more natural to introduce the language at home. In the last few days, I've had two completely unrelated incidences of Japanese adults telling me that Japanese children were nigh incomprehensible. Anyway, the program is a lot of singing and dancing and jumping. Mandy, who is much more genki than I, is much more suited to it.
I started a language exchange two weeks ago. Basically, I have a Japanese friend who gives me a Japanese lesson, and I in turn give him an English lesson. It's very fun, though I'm a horrible student. Languages haven't really been a strong suit for me since high school, and Japanese words seem to be exactly the wrong shape to fit in my brain. But I can say things like "My name is Aimee (last name), please call me Aimee." And "How much is it?" And "I'm 22 years old." And "I like strawberries." And "I am so lazy!" Another Japanese friend has helped me figure out my name in kanji. (In Japanese, there are really 4 types of writing. Romanji (using roman letters), Katakana (phonetic alphabet for writing foreign words), Hiragana (phonetic alphabet for writing Japanese words), and kanji (symbols that represent ideas, full words, sounds, names). Normally, I use my name in katakana if anything: エイミー. We decided that the best kanji for my name (meaning wise) is: 絵依美. My friend says it means something to the effect of "lives in a beautiful picture." It seems like a nice name meaning for an artist.
I don't have much to write about, though...
Posted by Aimee at February 11, 2005 12:40 AM