LANGUAGE: New Kanji, new language study methods

 I wish I had thought out how to show language studies this well at the beginning. Even though it's starting late in the game, in the entries I will show the characters I learn and vocabulary that goes along with them. Remembering the vocabulary does better to reinforce learning the character over simply trying to remember a character and its various phonetic readings.

点- Point. Burn, be lighted. Turn on (a lamp). Catch (fire).

Words: 点火-tenka- ignite. 点字-tenji- Braille. 点灯-tentou- light (a lamp).

虐- Oppress, tyranize over.

Words: 虐待- gyakutai- treat cruelly, mistreat. 虐殺- gyakusatsu- massacre. 残虐- cruelty, atrocity, brutality.

歪- Be distorted/warped. Distortion. Be strained, warp. Strain, deformation.

Words: 歪む- yugamu- be distorted/warped. 歪める- yugameru- distort, bend. 歪む- hizumu- be strained, warp. 歪- ibitsu- oval, elliptical; distorted, warped.

虚- Empty. Vain, futile. Cavity, hollow, hole.

Words: 虚実- kyojitsu- truth or falsehood; clever fighting, using every strategy. 虚栄心- kyoeishin- vanity.

虞- Fear, concern, risk.

Words: 虞れ- osore- fear, concern, risk.

虜- Captive, prisoner of war; barbarian. Captive, slave.

Words: 虜- toriko- captive, slave. 虜囚- ryoshuu- captive, prisoner (of war). 捕虜- horyo- captive, prisoner (of war).

疑- Doubt, distrust, be suspicious of. Doubtful, suspicious.

Words: 疑似- giji- (suffix) suspected, sham, pseudo-, dummy, simulated.

膚- Skin.

Words: 膚色- hadairo- flesh-colored. 

々- Kanji repetition symbol.

Words: 人々-hitobito- people.

色- Color. Erotic passion.

Words: 色っぽい- iroppoi- sexy, seductive, fascinating. 色気- iroke- sexiness, sexuality, amorousness, romance. 十人十色- juu-nin-to-iro- to each his own. Tastes differ.

Kanji count: 680

Report on Japanese Campus Life

 Below is a report that I wrote (very belatedly) for the international division of the University of Hyogo. It basically echoes what my last two reports on school life and the Folk Song Club say but in more succinct terms. Enjoy.

Blake Foster

Campus Life In Japan

First of all, a self-introduction- my name is Blake Foster, an exchange student from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in the United States. Every year there is an exchange between Evergreen and the University of Hyogo which I have been fortunate enough to be a part of. When I decided to go on this exchange, I had little expectations as to what Japanese college life was all about. I had heard the typical things, of course: students drink a lot and go to class less, and everything is generally more loose and carefree. While the same could be said for many colleges throughout the United States, the culture that lies within the Japanese college system stands apart in several ways. Because Japanese students spend six years of middle and high school preparing rigorously to enter a university, the feeling of liberation upon finally entering college makes it a different experience from college in the United States. The clubs and club circles, the way classes operate and how students spend time on campus all create a unique cultural atmosphere.

What initially caught my attention when arriving at the University of Hyogo was the clubs and club circles. As the Spring semester was just getting started, new students were getting a welcome from various club representatives around campus. Many of these students greeted me and asked if I was interested in joining their clubs circles, from sports clubs such as martial arts and skiing/snowboarding, to music oriented clubs such as the hip hop/street dance club circle and Folk Song Club, among others. Since my interests were in music, I agreed to sign up for a mail list with the Folk Song Club. The amount of time and energy (and money) that the students of the Folk Song Club spent on attracting new members was certainly unlike anything I had seen on campus in the United States. Members of the club put on several shows that were usually followed by going out for drinks (nomikai), treated free of charge by the club for potential new members. I learned that other clubs hold similar events in order to attract new members, making the process a lot more involved than simply posting up flyers about club activities around campus, which is often the extent of what college clubs do in the United States. I decided to join the Folk Song Club at this point, which would be the beginning of an ongoing experience that has taught me a great deal about Japanese campus life.

In the Folk Song Club there are different levels of interest in the musical aspect of the club among its members. While everyone shares a common interest in music, some members are more comfortable simply taking part in the social aspects of the club rather than becoming a more skilled musician. I have found that this trait exists in many other clubs at school; for example, students who take part in the ESS (English Speaking Society) Club might not necessarily be interested in seriously learning English as much they are in the atmosphere of the club and having a social network in the club at school. The Folk Song Club differs in this way from the other, similar music club at school, the Keiongaku Club, which tends to have a more serious focus on playing music rather than having music as a method of socialization. With a club like Folk Song, members can take part at their own pace, making it less stressful than more serious-minded club activities, particularly sports clubs; the relationship between senior and junior (senpai and kouhai) members is also much more lenient compared to many other clubs, making it a very popular club at the University of Hyogo. In spite of these traits there are still many members who take music very seriously and the club culture itself very seriously, in that it takes an important place in their lives. This aspect of the Folk Song Club and the overall college club culture in Japan became more clear to me during the school festival in early November (Gakuensai). After the school festivities on the first day of Gakuensai there was a drinking event that took place for former members of the Folk Song Club to come and meet current members, particularly the next new leaders of the club (club leadership typically changes after Gakuensai in November). Former club members as old as thirty and above, with careers and families, showed up for the drinking event. This showed to me that college clubs remain significant for many Japanese far beyond graduating university. Club members develop long-lasting relationships with each other, some even ending up marrying through the romantic relationships they developed through the club. By taking part in the Folk Song Club, I was able to witness this special kind of culture in Japanese colleges that does not exist on the same level in the United States.

While taking part in the Folk Song Club has left the strongest impression of Japanese college life during my exchange, I have of course learned a lot through actual college classes. The classes I take at the University of Hyogo are either with regular students or with other exchange students, particularly classes for learning Japanese. The regular classes I take are usually conducted in lecture halls with a large number of students, except for classes like Chinese Communication or Intercultural Communication which are held in smaller rooms with less students. This is similar to how classes are conducted at my college in the United States. The way that lectures are conducted, however, tends to differ from lectures at the Evergreen State College. Many of the classes I take at the University of Hyogo have a very traditional structure in that the professor's lecture presides over the students, holding a place of academic and intellectual authority; in the United States there are universities that are tend to do the same. However, at the Evergreen State College, a liberal arts college, classes are somewhat different in that the professors are on a more equal level with students in terms of how lectures and seminars are operated. This blurring of the line between teacher and students has its benefits and drawbacks, just as the more traditional system of lectures has in Japan. Because the current generation of Japanese students operate differently in terms of what they respond to in classes, nonstop, authoritative lecturing can sometimes fail to hold the attention of students. This particularly holds true for classes that do not take regular attendance of students and rather award credit on a testing basis; students have little reason to fully attend lectures or even show up for class. Attendance tends to feel stricter in the United States, while many classes here in Japan feel much more relaxed in terms of regular class attendance. Classes that regularly take attendance are often more full each class, but the lecturing style of these classes play a big part in how attentive the students are. From what I have seen, professors that make an effort to communicate with students rather than just giving lectures often yield more energetic and attentive classes. As modern Japanese students seem to be more individualized, this style of teaching seems to be more stimulative and effective. In terms of classes for foreign students, the Japanese classes are often taught to teach foreign students economic terms so that they can perform better in regular classes. Though my studies here at Hyogo do not pertain to economics, these classes still teach useful Japanese and offer a chance to view how foreign students learn and what their opinions are.

Outside of classes, life at the University of Hyogo is not all that different from campus life in the United States. One major difference, however, is how students get to school. In the United States there are vast parking lots for the cars of students and faculty, while at the University of Hyogo there is far less parking space. Even in American high schools there are parking lots for students because cars are the main method of transportation. In Japan college students often commute by train, bus, or motor bikes. In the morning this allows many students to travel together and see each other on the way to campus. This creates a more recognizable campus community than in the United States, where students tend to come to campus as individuals, while in Japan there is a more definitive group atmosphere on and off campus. This feeling of community extends to how lunch periods operate, in that a majority of students eat together at the campus cafeteria. Many students also eat in different areas on and off campus, which is similar to and more common at the Evergreen State College in the United States. One key difference in how students spend time together during lunch periods is how students group themselves. Students of the same class levels, clubs, gender and race often tend to eat together rather than intermixing with other students regardless of these differences. These types of divisions also exist at the Evergreen State College, but the divisions feel more defined in Japan, specifically in terms of class levels, gender and race. From my experience, it seems more comfortable for Japanese to eat and socialize with members of the same class level, club, sex or race to eat and communicate together; nonetheless, many Japanese and foreign students intermix regardless of these social divisions.

Campus life in Japan is generally easy-going and relaxed, more so than the United States. The emphasis on club activities and loose nature of classes creates the impression that Japanese campus life is a time for enjoyment more than it is for studies. This system has its drawbacks as employment in Japan becomes more and more difficult, even with a four-year degree from a university. At some point, the Japanese college system will undoubtedly have to evolve in order to suit Japan's changing culture and society. In spite of these issues, Japanese college life stands as an important period of Japanese life that I am fortunate enough to have experienced. The club activities in particular have given me the chance to build strong relationships with Japanese students that will surely last beyond the length of my one-year stay at the University of Hyogo. I look forward to the rest of this exchange in Japan and learning all that I can learn about Japanese college culture.