New Job and New Paper and New Words

Just an update of what's been happening the past coupla of weeks -- not much.

I have a job now, making around 23 USD an hour, working right now 3 hours a week but it will bump up to 5 hours a week soon. I'm working for a guy named Suzuki. So I'll give you a rundown of the first day of work -- Tuesday. I taught three "classes". The first was a one-on-one with this 30ish lady named Naoko. Her English was OK; I was teaching her the meanings of words like 'believable' and she was studying the relationships between noun-verb-adjective that have the same root -- such as 'believe', 'belief', and 'believable'. Next came three people who were pretty much beginners to English. Of course I still spoke English with them, but it was nice that when they would chat in Japanese I could hear what they were saying, and when they'd pause and say 'what could _english_word_ mean? could it mean _japanese_word_?' to themselves in Japanese, and I'd respond back, "Yes, that is the meaning." The final class is supposed to be two people, but Tuesday they were both sick, so I spoke in English with my employer's high school daughter for a while -- about her favorite movies, music, etc. She was surprised that I knew Azumi (あずみ), a recent Japanese movie with Aya Ueto in it. Additionally, we both struggled to remember the name of Zatoichi (座頭市 - sit,head,market/town), a recent movie with Takeshi 'Beat' Kitano (北野『ビート』武 - kitano "biito" takeshi). Then I got paid around 100 USD (I helped him out a bit online over Christmas break before the new year) and left, completely stunned at my quick income!

I have a Japanese Electronic Dictionary (電子辞書 - denshi jisho) now. It's a Canon G50. I recommend it to anyone looking for one. I bought it 150 dollars cheaper than retail! It even draws the kanji for me in case I don't know the stroke order!

So yesterday, I bought a case for it, so it doesn't get scratched or otherwise ruined. I bought a burnt orange one in honor of my home university -- the University of Texas. It even looks like a faux leather.

Anyways, I'll be coming home for a month (Feb 10 - Mar 10). I'm going to eat so much mexican food! Well, maybe I'll eat in moderation, so I can stay in the shape I am in now -- around 150 lbs and feeling great! Tennis club (Amuse Company) is fun, and the people there are nice, as long as it's not the weird ones.

So I am going to start a bit of a blog for foreigners trying to learn about American humor and culture. I am working on my first entry right now -- the entries will be weekly, following my viewing of the current Saturday Night Live episode. I have a friend here that I introduced to SNL (his English is great), and I was inspired by that to start writing here, because I realized that many people might view a few SNL skits and think they are making fun of foreigners, when many times they are not; the sarcasm is lost when crossing cultures.

My paper is due Monday for Japanese Literature. I'll make sure to get the full-text online for my three papers after the class ends -- my paper on how "new things make new people" with analysis of Tanizaki's Naomi (痴人の愛 - chijin no ai - A Fool's Love), the balance between society and the self with analysis of Oe's A Personal Matter (個人的な体験 - kojinteki na taiken - a personal experience), and the study of a typical shounen (少年 - few years - young male) story arc and archetypes found within, with analysis of Akamatsu's Love Hina (ラブひな - rabu hina) -- the current paper.

Well, I'm goign to go now, and work some more on the paper! Wish me luck! Oh, and if you have an RSS reader, you can receive updates to my website using the URL http://studyinjapan.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Oh, and some interesting vocabulary:
Prep School (elementary all the way up to get you into a certain university) -- エリート・コース - eriito coosu - elite course
slide (playground) - 滑り台 - suberidai
achievement test - アチブメント・テスト - achibumento tesuto

jumprope words:
criss-cross maneuver (cross hands in front of body but keep jumping rope) - あやとび - ayatobi
backwards jump - 後ろとび - ushirotobi
double-jump (twice under your body in one jump) - にじゅうとび - nijuutobi