25th November 2004

ogenki desu ka. watashi wa Qin desu. dozo yoroshiko.

I juz had my 3rd lesson of Japanese. So far, i have been enjoying the lessons. Sensei wa very humourous desu. Even though watashi-tachi wa lousy at Japanese still, kanojo wa very patient. Sensei no namae wa Takahashi Misako desu. haha...shall stop using my not-here-nor-there japanese... haha... but is really quite fun and exciting to go to the class. Very happy to be learning new things again, sort of gives life a different meaning again! :)

Alrite, here's more abt my class, there are ard 12 people in the class. I jio-ed a friend to join oso, so i have companion... hehe...smart rite? Actually it's so that I will have someone to practise my japanese with. To effectively learn a language, I tink being able to practise speaking it with another person is important.. cuz pronounciation is a very important part of any language. However, it was sort of a wrong choice of friend though, not that he is SO lousy in the language! haha... he should be better than me cuz he have learnt it for a year before, this is sort of like a refresher course for him! hehe.. he's a wrong choice becuase i'm not really close to him. he's more of a fren's fren! haha.. so there is sort of not much chances for us to practise the language anyway... well, at least i have a companion for class, i guess and someone who 'chops' seat for me if i happen to be late (like today! y i was late is non of my own fault, this, i will try to rem to elaborate later....)

All the other gekusei in the class are female. Well, it's a jap class, wat do you expect rite? Actually there was another guy during the first lesson...juz that he seemed to have disappeared since then! wonder y... no chio girls in the class? :þ haha.. i wonder....?!?!?

I don't tink i can rem all the names of the people in the class yet.. but i shall try to name them...I tink there is a June-san, Rosalind-san (who juz joined us today), Corrine-san (Who's abit blur blur..hehe..), Woon-san (dun tink i spell correctly), and 3 more girls whom i can't rem the names...shall attempt to rem the next lesson...

June-san seems to have some background in the lang, so does Rosalind-san...though it's her first lesson. And she look like high-maintenance girl, fr her outfit to accessories.. interesting...

Abt the lessons, sensei was very nice and patient. Givng us excellent examples which makes us more clear about the lang and deepens our understanding. She also adds on phrases and words which are not in the syllabus but we might use in daily life or if we DO visit nihon. And if we do make mistakes when speaking in jap, she will make fun of us in a v cute way...which doesn't humiliate us, but encourages us to try again and work harder...at least it does work for me... I find that my interest in jap is increasing... very fun lang....but alittle confusing sometimes... though some pronounciation is similar to chinese, so i guess it makes jap alittle easier for me too? :) eg. weather in chinese is tian qi, in jap is tenki. abit similar ya? offhand, i can only recall this one.

I guess the most difficult part of the lang might be to memorize the writing part...we r currently only learning hiragana. For jap, thr's actually 3 system of writing, namely hiragana, katagana and kanji. I tink i'm making some progress...cuz i've been trying hard... and i even printed out the characters on paper to stick on the walls of my bedroom... hardworking ne! hehe.. :þ

Ok, tink it's abt enuff abt my jap class. Too excited..! :þ

now on to the late issue. Now that we got to this, i am fuming again! went out early to go to class early actually, and actually end up late! so irritating! I got to the interchange at 7.20pm. was thinking that I will catch the bus at around 7.25pm. But the bus never came, so I tot, perhaps I juz missed a bus...so I waited for the next bus... 7.30pm...7.40...7.45pm...7.50pm and the next bus is still not here??? SURE anot?? interchange leh...at a random bus stop on the road, i tink i can be more understanding if a bus is late. but interchange? aren't buses supposed to leave the interchange at a fixed timing? did that change or wat? and ok, even if that did not change? u mean the frequency of buses changed? 1/2 hr interval is ridiculous...!!! i got impatient at 7.50pm and walked off to hail a cab. There were no empty cabs on the road, so i went to the nearby taxi stand and goodness, there was a queue...all cuz of the rain! So there i was, left wif ard 5 mins to get to class but stuck in a cab queue. Did i step on some dog shit or wat? how come so unlucky? Ok, nm, i called a cab, the rest was more smooth-running after tt. but i was very pissed with the bus system. how can the bus drivers and the whole bus company be so irresponsible...? If someone who was supposed to be on duty is perhaps sick? or on leave? shouldn't someone be there to take over the shift? how can passengers be left waiting for 1/2 hr for a bus... and they have the cheek to say that they r improving their services.... and gonna increase fares again next year rite? goodness.... sigh....

wah...tt's a long para of complaint! haha.. now not so upset but spent $9 to get to class...maybe shld hv gotten a receipt and claim fr SBS transit? all cuz of them, i had to take cab to class ok! i so innocently have to fork out money... sigh...

ok, tink it's time to sleep leh.. almost 12 mn... though i'm on half day leave tml...still need ample rest... nitey nitez... konbawa...