There's an ongoing debate in language learning (read: geek) circles over whether you should experience a massive amount of input before trying to say anything, or to start speaking as soon as possible. While I lean toward the latter, I have a feeling that they both meet somewhere in the middle. They both have good points, and I think they're just slightly mis-expressing the same thing.
So, the point on the side of NOT waiting that has bugged me throughout my entire shower time tonight is: how freaking hard is it so say "domo arigato"? I mean, really! EVERY American knows how to say "domo arigato"! I don't even know who Styx are, but I'm certain I knew those two words by the time I was nine!
So look! You can already speak Japanese! So why wait to use it if the opportunity presents itself? Wanna learn more? Here's how you ask for a hamburger: "han(like Han Solo)baww(like a baby)gaa(same thing) koo(like the clan)daa(like dog)sigh" Again,
Han (Solo) baww(ing baby) gaww koo(ky) daw(n) sigh
han baa gaa koo daa sigh
Then what do you say when you get your hamburger? Yes, it's
domo arigato (mister roboto)
See, this is all it takes to just get started! You can already order a hamburger! And quite often you can just swap the word for whatever you want with hamburger! And it all works the same! Words not working? Point at pictures! Use hand signals! Become a mime! Communicate!
You've been doing it for years. One new sentence won't kill you.
I mean, why, why on Earth would you wait to put this to use?
I was going to throw some background info on the debate down here, but I think the first two links probably cover it pretty well, and might even make my blog a waste of your time. Hmm...
Some sidenotes:
This is just sad. I hear he also did poorly in his first conversation (perfectly normal) after wasting 2 years of his life to "prepare" for that conversation.
And today, after writing a page long self-introduction (more than I've ever had to write) IN JAPANESE and WITHOUT A DICTIONARY, I took an interview IN JAPANESE, and after I left, I shied around the club fair before calling myself an idiot and going back and walking through the crowd to grab a bunch of flyers. I got to see lots of the clubs here and had a few interesting conversations. People were literally lining up to give me flyers. They do this to everyone, of course, but that's the thing! I was one of everybody! And as for the essay and interview, I just did what I could and didn't worry about what I couldn't!
And heck, my first week here, there was a day that was a national holiday (spring equinox), and I wasn't sure if dinner was being served or not. I could have either gone upstairs to the cafeteria to see, or asked the old couple that rule our dorm. I decided to throw caution to the wind and give asking them a go. I looked up what I needed to say, went up to the front desk, and just said it. Turned out dinner was being served. But asking about it was a thousand (at least) times more fun and rewarding than "just going to see for myself."
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Hidden Costs
Ok, so it's not a food post. This came up in a conversation with someone today and it seemed like a good time to write about it.
When you learn about study abroad programs at WVU, such as the one for Chubu, you are told that you pay tuition and board to WVU, and the student at Chubu pays theirs there, and then you just switch places. Well, it's not so simple. There are many hidden costs that WVU fails to inform you of. These things don't really worm their way to the surface until you're already in the process, sometimes very far in.
First, and most obviously, there are travel expenses. These include passport fees (roughly $130), visa application fees ($0 for US citizens, but the shipping is about $40), and of course, airfare (depends on your time frame; a round trip can be around $1500, but since I'm here for a year, can't get that; my ticket was around $1000, and probably will be on return as well, maybe as low as $750 if I buy it at the right time (who knows when?)).
Less obvious, but of which you are informed, is the international health/emergency insurance that WVU requires you to pay. This cost us $528. And we didn't find out about this until late November. I accepted the scholarship offer at the beginning of the semester in August, and didn't register for the spring semester at the beginning of November. And I hadn't even recieved any confirmation of acceptance yet!
About 3-4 weeks before I was to leave, I finally recieved an acceptance packet, which was pretty much just an invoice for ￥28,000. ￥20,000 of this is for "Administrative Fees" and the rest is for Insurance (Emergency and Accidental). The packet said to wire this before March 4th. WVU wasn't going to do it for me (as the packet suggested), so I had to do it myself. This cost (with the transfer fee) $350. Also, Wesbanco was unable to send it as yen, whereas PNC was able to convert it, then send it to protect it from fluctuating exchange rates. Since I've arrived, I've heard from Joe that the recieving bank also charges a transfer fee, so they don't even get all the money I sent, and I'll have to pay the difference the bastards at Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank took out, when I could have just carried it all over with me! I also have to enroll in the National Health Insurance plan, which costs ￥2,500/month and covers routine health/dental. That's three different, overlapping insurances now. All "required". I'll also have to eventually pay for "texts, materials, and fees for the Japanese Culture Class (estimated total: JPY48,000)." Though, that one isn't too surprising, tbh. Edit: I actually got a good bit of that back at the end of the semester.
On top of all that, there's day-to-day expenses, like food and transportation, possibly clothing and personal amenities. Breakfast and dinner are provided on weekdays, so food isn't a big deal. An electronic dictionary is recommended, most of which are like TI-83s: overpriced and outdated. I bought an ipod touch instead and got a free dictionary app (Kotoba). Now, it's a dictionary and much, much more(link to come). I've yet to get a cell phone, but I'll probably get the bottom-line, prepay plan of unlimited SRS for ￥300/month. I hate making phone calls anyway. I don't think we have to buy a lot of text books. I'm going to be traveling to Nagoya hopefully every weekend, so JR and Manaca (subway) card purchases are in my future. Prepay should suffice. It's about $10 there and back.
When you learn about study abroad programs at WVU, such as the one for Chubu, you are told that you pay tuition and board to WVU, and the student at Chubu pays theirs there, and then you just switch places. Well, it's not so simple. There are many hidden costs that WVU fails to inform you of. These things don't really worm their way to the surface until you're already in the process, sometimes very far in.
First, and most obviously, there are travel expenses. These include passport fees (roughly $130), visa application fees ($0 for US citizens, but the shipping is about $40), and of course, airfare (depends on your time frame; a round trip can be around $1500, but since I'm here for a year, can't get that; my ticket was around $1000, and probably will be on return as well, maybe as low as $750 if I buy it at the right time (who knows when?)).
Less obvious, but of which you are informed, is the international health/emergency insurance that WVU requires you to pay. This cost us $528. And we didn't find out about this until late November. I accepted the scholarship offer at the beginning of the semester in August, and didn't register for the spring semester at the beginning of November. And I hadn't even recieved any confirmation of acceptance yet!
About 3-4 weeks before I was to leave, I finally recieved an acceptance packet, which was pretty much just an invoice for ￥28,000. ￥20,000 of this is for "Administrative Fees" and the rest is for Insurance (Emergency and Accidental). The packet said to wire this before March 4th. WVU wasn't going to do it for me (as the packet suggested), so I had to do it myself. This cost (with the transfer fee) $350. Also, Wesbanco was unable to send it as yen, whereas PNC was able to convert it, then send it to protect it from fluctuating exchange rates. Since I've arrived, I've heard from Joe that the recieving bank also charges a transfer fee, so they don't even get all the money I sent, and I'll have to pay the difference the bastards at Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank took out, when I could have just carried it all over with me! I also have to enroll in the National Health Insurance plan, which costs ￥2,500/month and covers routine health/dental. That's three different, overlapping insurances now. All "required". I'll also have to eventually pay for "texts, materials, and fees for the Japanese Culture Class (estimated total: JPY48,000)." Though, that one isn't too surprising, tbh. Edit: I actually got a good bit of that back at the end of the semester.
On top of all that, there's day-to-day expenses, like food and transportation, possibly clothing and personal amenities. Breakfast and dinner are provided on weekdays, so food isn't a big deal. An electronic dictionary is recommended, most of which are like TI-83s: overpriced and outdated. I bought an ipod touch instead and got a free dictionary app (Kotoba). Now, it's a dictionary and much, much more(link to come). I've yet to get a cell phone, but I'll probably get the bottom-line, prepay plan of unlimited SRS for ￥300/month. I hate making phone calls anyway. I don't think we have to buy a lot of text books. I'm going to be traveling to Nagoya hopefully every weekend, so JR and Manaca (subway) card purchases are in my future. Prepay should suffice. It's about $10 there and back.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sorry for the wait! Let's see, first day...
The Next Morning
I had to go to some orientation stuff. Met some CUPS students, which probably stands for Chubu University Peer Support. They're basically supposed to take care of us, get us used to Japan, take us to see stuff, etc. After the overall boring process of signing some papers, getting our student cards, and having our passports photocopied, we got a tour of the campus. This would probably have been enjoyable if it hadn't been about 35゜ out and the wind hadn't been blowing much faster than would have been pleasant. The campus is a nice place. There's a big koi pond, and apparently if you kill one of them, the president will come to your home and murder you in your sleep (so I've heard?). There's basically a nice little area just dedicated to nature in the middle of campus. Well, while we saw everything we might end up needing around campus, we went in lots of circles, so I don't really remember where any of it is. I'll be figuring that out when I need to. We have maps.
At basically, the end of the tour, we went to a cafeteria that was open (it's still spring break here) and I got some curry udon. The only chopsticks available were plastic (which I HATE), so I had to struggle to eat the big, slippery, noodles with even slipperier chopsticks, and got to enjoy feeling rather dumb for most of my meal. But the cool part about the cafeteria (and a lot of places are like this it turns out) is that is has a display menu filled with real food just outside of it. Most meals in general are around 500 yen. However, I only had one ￥10,000 bill from the airport. I had someone take me for change. Couldn't understand a thing, so I just said thanks when I got my money. Now here's the real neat part. You decide what you want, you put your money in to this machine, select what you want, it gives you a ticket for it, which you take to the counter, give to the cook, and then they prepare it for you. That's another thing a lot of places do (esp. trains): use automated ticket machines. So so much restaurants, but a lot of these cafeteria-type places.
The Town
After eating, a few of the CUPS students took us into town to do some shopping and see what's around. Chubu University is on top of a hill, and as you leave the entrance, you see a plain, entirely covered in city, with more hills a few miles off. I'm glad to know mountains will never be out of sight. So we walk down, out the front gate, past all the bicycle parking, past the bus stop, down this road that hugs the hill, and into town. The shopping plaza that was our target was about a 15 minute walk, and had a 100円 store (Daiso) where I bought some replacement notebooks (I lost the one I was using just before I left), a used book store (Book Off), a used electronics store (Hard Off (yes, really)), a drug store (B&D), and a grocery store (Valor). It's interesting to note that all these places had the same atmospheres as their American counterparts, just a little more crowded. Valor felt just like a Kroger's, B&D felt just like a RiteAid, and Daiso felt just like Dollar General.
So I had about 5 free days after that before I had to do anything official. I was to receive my JASSO money on the 22nd and then go on some CUPS "International Exchange Event". Oh goodness, the suspense.
The Castle
Well, I spent those five days doing lots of general stuff. Usually went to somewhere every day. One of the first things I did was be taken to Nagoya castle by Joe. This involved a thrilling adventure taking trains both above and below ground. We took a half hour walk to Jinryo (along the river, kind of scenic), and got on the train. This again involved a ticket machine. You observe the map, find your destination (for which a price is displayed), put your monies in the machine, select the amount you want to be charged, and get your ticket. Then you put in this turnstile-like machine that punches a hole in it. Then, at the destination, you go out through one and it makes sure you haven't gone further than you've paid to go. We had to do this twice, because the JR rail lines, and the subway lines are managed by different companies/groups/whatever. So we make our way to the center of Nagoya, and stare at a map a few minutes to find the castle, discovering there was another subway exit just across the street from it. The castle was cool, but was apparently destroyed during WWII, and subsequently rebuilt. From the landscaping and the outside, though, you'd never know. I'm just gonna link to my flickr, because it was mainly an observational trip, and words aren't for much.
Hmm, that seems like a good stopping point for this post. Since the rest of what I did was mostly restaurants, I think I'll do a food post next.
I had to go to some orientation stuff. Met some CUPS students, which probably stands for Chubu University Peer Support. They're basically supposed to take care of us, get us used to Japan, take us to see stuff, etc. After the overall boring process of signing some papers, getting our student cards, and having our passports photocopied, we got a tour of the campus. This would probably have been enjoyable if it hadn't been about 35゜ out and the wind hadn't been blowing much faster than would have been pleasant. The campus is a nice place. There's a big koi pond, and apparently if you kill one of them, the president will come to your home and murder you in your sleep (so I've heard?). There's basically a nice little area just dedicated to nature in the middle of campus. Well, while we saw everything we might end up needing around campus, we went in lots of circles, so I don't really remember where any of it is. I'll be figuring that out when I need to. We have maps.
At basically, the end of the tour, we went to a cafeteria that was open (it's still spring break here) and I got some curry udon. The only chopsticks available were plastic (which I HATE), so I had to struggle to eat the big, slippery, noodles with even slipperier chopsticks, and got to enjoy feeling rather dumb for most of my meal. But the cool part about the cafeteria (and a lot of places are like this it turns out) is that is has a display menu filled with real food just outside of it. Most meals in general are around 500 yen. However, I only had one ￥10,000 bill from the airport. I had someone take me for change. Couldn't understand a thing, so I just said thanks when I got my money. Now here's the real neat part. You decide what you want, you put your money in to this machine, select what you want, it gives you a ticket for it, which you take to the counter, give to the cook, and then they prepare it for you. That's another thing a lot of places do (esp. trains): use automated ticket machines. So so much restaurants, but a lot of these cafeteria-type places.
The Town
After eating, a few of the CUPS students took us into town to do some shopping and see what's around. Chubu University is on top of a hill, and as you leave the entrance, you see a plain, entirely covered in city, with more hills a few miles off. I'm glad to know mountains will never be out of sight. So we walk down, out the front gate, past all the bicycle parking, past the bus stop, down this road that hugs the hill, and into town. The shopping plaza that was our target was about a 15 minute walk, and had a 100円 store (Daiso) where I bought some replacement notebooks (I lost the one I was using just before I left), a used book store (Book Off), a used electronics store (Hard Off (yes, really)), a drug store (B&D), and a grocery store (Valor). It's interesting to note that all these places had the same atmospheres as their American counterparts, just a little more crowded. Valor felt just like a Kroger's, B&D felt just like a RiteAid, and Daiso felt just like Dollar General.
So I had about 5 free days after that before I had to do anything official. I was to receive my JASSO money on the 22nd and then go on some CUPS "International Exchange Event". Oh goodness, the suspense.
The Castle
Well, I spent those five days doing lots of general stuff. Usually went to somewhere every day. One of the first things I did was be taken to Nagoya castle by Joe. This involved a thrilling adventure taking trains both above and below ground. We took a half hour walk to Jinryo (along the river, kind of scenic), and got on the train. This again involved a ticket machine. You observe the map, find your destination (for which a price is displayed), put your monies in the machine, select the amount you want to be charged, and get your ticket. Then you put in this turnstile-like machine that punches a hole in it. Then, at the destination, you go out through one and it makes sure you haven't gone further than you've paid to go. We had to do this twice, because the JR rail lines, and the subway lines are managed by different companies/groups/whatever. So we make our way to the center of Nagoya, and stare at a map a few minutes to find the castle, discovering there was another subway exit just across the street from it. The castle was cool, but was apparently destroyed during WWII, and subsequently rebuilt. From the landscaping and the outside, though, you'd never know. I'm just gonna link to my flickr, because it was mainly an observational trip, and words aren't for much.
Hmm, that seems like a good stopping point for this post. Since the rest of what I did was mostly restaurants, I think I'll do a food post next.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
First post from Japan!
Wow. I've been in Japan for a week, and I have been too busy doing things to come on here and write about them. I shall try to start from the beginning.
The Visa
I waited too long to send for my visa. Then I sent it to the wrong embassy (NY), due to me putting my home address as my grandmother's where I'd be staying for the time. Luckily, my grandparents mailed it out to the correct embassy (Detroit) the day it came back (one week before takeoff). However there was a misunderstanding and it was sent without the required prepaid return envelope. So we mailed them another one (at $18 each). My very helpful stepdad, Brian, called the embassy and got them to rush it through processing. It returned Thursday.
The Earthquake
The M9.0 earthquake hit just offshore of Sendai, Miyagi-ken, Japan at about midnight, that night. Needless to say, everyone was worried. I watched coverage of it ALL weekend on TV, BBC, and even NHK. I emailed Chubu University and a friend and was reassured that the area was safe. Viewing Google's data about the earthquake also revealed that the Nagoya area was virtually unaffected. I also called the airlines Saturday night and found that flights were running through the slightly affected Narita airport in Tokyo. There was no reason to not go at this point.
The Flights
I hate flying. I hate this security theatre. It stresses me out like nothing else for some reason. So I wasn't looking forward to the actual trip itself. A total trip time of 22 hours, layovers longer than 2 of the 3 flights, and 14 hours on the plane in the middle. Wonderful. Economy class, no less. Yes, I was really looking forward to this day.
Well, it did kind of suck, but the longest flight was only about 12 hours, and seats had TVs in the back of them, so I put on Deathly Hallows I and fell asleep until about hour 5. Food. Bathroom. Reading. Bruce Willis movie. Food. Bathroom. Reading. Boredom and anticipation. Landing. Ok.
"Cool", I thought. "I'm in Japan."
Well, no. The flight was slightly late, so there were attendants waiting to rush us through to our connecting flights. I had to run to immigration, baggage claim, customs, bad directions, 3rd floor, good directions, 1st floor again, check in anew, security, boarding.
I hate airports.
That bus drove us out to the plane and we boarded it on the tarmac like in old movies (Casablanca?). The rest is quite uneventful. Reading.
I should add that customs and immigration were pretty quick. I had nothing to declare, so they didn't even check my bags. Just made a little smalltalk, and sent me on my way.
The Arrival
Well, I landed, followed the signs (lots of English here (also pictograms)), got my luggage, walked out of the terminal and saw a couple of girls and a teacher-looking person waiting for me with a sign. Said hi, exchanged introductions, went to sit down and wait for incoming South Korean students. I exchanged my pocket money for yen at this point. Once the other students arrived, we went to look for some food around the airport. It was a big and pretty place. The dining/shopping area was outside the security area, so we could actually use it. I got an expensive little salad to take home in case we didn't make it in time for dinner.
We went outside and got in a waiting van. Long drive. At least an hour. But the ride was quick and smooth and somewhat scenic. We drove through the heart of Nagoya. Despite being one of Japan's largest 5 cities, the building's there aren't really as tall as you'd think. The highways were mostly raised above the city streets, narrow and kind of walled in. Nevertheless, traffic moved smoothly and quickly. People actually drive better here, despite the stereotype. (And they should! I have been told the process of obtaining a license (training, testing, registering) costs about $3000.)
Well, they drove us right to the dorm, where I met the somewhat elderly couple who oversee the building, the Gotos, and some other international students, mostly Chinese. They had saved me a tray from dinner, so I heated everything up and ate some. (I'll do another post focused on food later.) I set up my computer, met the other WVU student here, and got someone to log me into the network so I could use the internet. I think I did a few things on facebook and went straight to bed.
It is 1am, so I am going to go to bed and will continue writing about day 1 tomorrow.
The Visa
I waited too long to send for my visa. Then I sent it to the wrong embassy (NY), due to me putting my home address as my grandmother's where I'd be staying for the time. Luckily, my grandparents mailed it out to the correct embassy (Detroit) the day it came back (one week before takeoff). However there was a misunderstanding and it was sent without the required prepaid return envelope. So we mailed them another one (at $18 each). My very helpful stepdad, Brian, called the embassy and got them to rush it through processing. It returned Thursday.
The Earthquake
The M9.0 earthquake hit just offshore of Sendai, Miyagi-ken, Japan at about midnight, that night. Needless to say, everyone was worried. I watched coverage of it ALL weekend on TV, BBC, and even NHK. I emailed Chubu University and a friend and was reassured that the area was safe. Viewing Google's data about the earthquake also revealed that the Nagoya area was virtually unaffected. I also called the airlines Saturday night and found that flights were running through the slightly affected Narita airport in Tokyo. There was no reason to not go at this point.
The Flights
I hate flying. I hate this security theatre. It stresses me out like nothing else for some reason. So I wasn't looking forward to the actual trip itself. A total trip time of 22 hours, layovers longer than 2 of the 3 flights, and 14 hours on the plane in the middle. Wonderful. Economy class, no less. Yes, I was really looking forward to this day.
Well, it did kind of suck, but the longest flight was only about 12 hours, and seats had TVs in the back of them, so I put on Deathly Hallows I and fell asleep until about hour 5. Food. Bathroom. Reading. Bruce Willis movie. Food. Bathroom. Reading. Boredom and anticipation. Landing. Ok.
"Cool", I thought. "I'm in Japan."
Well, no. The flight was slightly late, so there were attendants waiting to rush us through to our connecting flights. I had to run to immigration, baggage claim, customs, bad directions, 3rd floor, good directions, 1st floor again, check in anew, security, boarding.
I hate airports.
That bus drove us out to the plane and we boarded it on the tarmac like in old movies (Casablanca?). The rest is quite uneventful. Reading.
I should add that customs and immigration were pretty quick. I had nothing to declare, so they didn't even check my bags. Just made a little smalltalk, and sent me on my way.
The Arrival
Well, I landed, followed the signs (lots of English here (also pictograms)), got my luggage, walked out of the terminal and saw a couple of girls and a teacher-looking person waiting for me with a sign. Said hi, exchanged introductions, went to sit down and wait for incoming South Korean students. I exchanged my pocket money for yen at this point. Once the other students arrived, we went to look for some food around the airport. It was a big and pretty place. The dining/shopping area was outside the security area, so we could actually use it. I got an expensive little salad to take home in case we didn't make it in time for dinner.
We went outside and got in a waiting van. Long drive. At least an hour. But the ride was quick and smooth and somewhat scenic. We drove through the heart of Nagoya. Despite being one of Japan's largest 5 cities, the building's there aren't really as tall as you'd think. The highways were mostly raised above the city streets, narrow and kind of walled in. Nevertheless, traffic moved smoothly and quickly. People actually drive better here, despite the stereotype. (And they should! I have been told the process of obtaining a license (training, testing, registering) costs about $3000.)
Well, they drove us right to the dorm, where I met the somewhat elderly couple who oversee the building, the Gotos, and some other international students, mostly Chinese. They had saved me a tray from dinner, so I heated everything up and ate some. (I'll do another post focused on food later.) I set up my computer, met the other WVU student here, and got someone to log me into the network so I could use the internet. I think I did a few things on facebook and went straight to bed.
It is 1am, so I am going to go to bed and will continue writing about day 1 tomorrow.
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