Steve's Japanese blog: WVU Study Abroad Process

Monday, February 7, 2011

WVU Study Abroad Process

So. In five weeks, I'll be on a plane headed for Japan. At least I hope. I've never received any paperwork at any point during this process that said, "Congratulations, you're accepted!" or anything like that. They have a Certificate of Enrollment that they're mailing so I can get my visa, and they want me to arrive at a certain date, so I guess I'm accepted, but the idea that they could still somehow just say no and I've wasted an entire semester thinking I was in... It makes me nervous and a little angry. If this doesn't work out, I'll explode like an atom bomb on everyone who dropped the ball and convinced me to risk this on something that wasn't as certain as I was told... OIP has problems. Students need more feedback. Not to mention other students getting important forms months late after initially having no legitimate paperwork available to them as I've heard has happened...

At least it all seems to be working out. 中部大学へゆこう！

Also, I've been looking at maps of the area and formulating a zombie invasion escape route. There is some nearby farmland which connects to a large forest/mountainous region within 2km. Could make it there and be relatively safe. Getting the girlfriend from 金城学院 down the highway, however is another story...

1 comment:

UnknownFebruary 10, 2011 at 4:53 PM
Let me know when you come up with a decent scheme for an escape route/hiding spot. We're probably going to be bringing Lauren with us if she's not a zombie. =)
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Things that have helped me.

Anki - A flashcard system for which you can make your own cards, and which will show them to you just before you're likely to forget them.

Fluent in 3 Months - Benny the Irish Polyglot travels the world learning all sorts of languages to fluency in just 3 months! Visit to learn his secret and what is his current mission is.

AJATT.com - Much like Benny the Irish Polyglot, but focused on Japanese. Attitude, dedication, and immersion are everything. Don't forget fun!

thejapanesepage.com - A forum for learning Japanese. Since it's become huge, I don't really go there anymore, but I still recommend it as a good jumping off point.

guidetojapanese.com - Famous Tae Kim's. This has been an excellent resource for grammer like, ten years, and is now expanding into a guide for Learning Japanese in general. He builds the language from the bottom up, instead of from the outside in. Excellent.

jisho.org - A dictionary that takes Jim Breen's WWWJDIC and makes it much prettier and easier to access. Search by Japanese, English, or Kanji by radicals. NOW WITH STROKE ORDER!

nihonjin - Better than anything or anyone else, they are experts at the language and can help you with anything, as long as they can communicate with you well enough.

classes - While classes helped me make some progress at first, the overall effect has not been great. We parted at odds. Did get me into study abroad program, though.

jdictionary sentence parser - Type in a sentence or even just a bunch of words and it will break them down and define them. Very handy when reading, as it is much quicker than looking up every word alone. Helps a lot with slang and colloquialisms.

readthekanji.com - A kanji quiz site that shows you a kanji or combo in context and asks you to provide the reading. Costs $10 for a lifetime account to go past JLPT4, but I found it worth it.

Anime - or anything subbed or with a translation. It takes lots of vocabulary and grammar to be able to pick sentences apart audibly, but feels really cool when you get there. It's like a fun, ongoing test of your listening comprehension.

Manga - Manga flows like real conversation, so you learn how people talk, and instead of just having the English, you must find it for yourself. This encourages passively learning new words and being more adept at doing so.

TimWerx.net - I've never used this site directly, but whenever it comes up in the google results, it's been a gem.

Google - If your google-fu is strong enough, you can find almost anything. Sometimes the most frustrating problems are solved by the simplest and most obvious searches that you just didn't expect to work.