The Road Less Traveled

JLPT Completed: Our Journey and a Reality Check?

Monday, December 8th, 2008 by Rintaun | Uncategorized

So I’m done with the JLPT. Yay! It was rather hectic this morning. Just about immediately after I posted my previous entry, I met up with everyone to walk to the station together. But Mike still needed to go the the convenience store (conbini in Japanese), to get breakfast and lunch, so I tagged along with him. This meant we were going separately from everyone else.

Well, after that we got lost walking to the train station, and didn’t catch a train there until about 8:05. We were supposed to catch the one at 7:43 or 7:54, so while we were running a bit late, the test didn’t start until 9:45, so we were still okay. Well, then we were talking and not paying attention, so we missed our stop, by 3 stops, and had to switch trains to go back. This turned out to be just the beginning of our problems.

Now we were running even later, but we were still okay. We still had the biggest stretch of our trip to go. We got on the subway at Ozone (the stop we originally missed) just fine, rode to the next stop, Heian-dori, and proceeded to switch lines to the final, longest leg of our trip, and even though I say longest, it’s only supposed to be about a 25 minute ride. We weren’t sure we were in the right place (it turns out we were), so we missed a train and had to wait 15 minute for another one. We finally figured out, after asking one of the station attendants, that it WAS the right place, and got on the next train. At this point, once we got to our stop, we would be running late, but we would still make it, barely.

Then our train reached its last stop… 3 stops too early. And so we had to get off and wait for the next train to come that was going all the way to the end. So 10-15 minutes later, it came, we got on, and arrived at our final destination, Tagatajinja-mae, at 9:43. That, my friends, is called cutting it close. Especially because from the station, it’s a 15 minute walk to the test site. So we started walking as quickly as we could to the test site. But because of all the stress, not just of the impending test and being so late, Mike developed a fever and couldn’t walk too quickly.

Making a long walk short, we entered the test room at 9:59, 14 minutes late and 1 minute before the doors closed permanently, the instructions for the test were over, and the test actually began. Which was actually lucky for us, because we thought it actually STARTED at 9:45!

The day, honestly, went pretty quickly. Not really sure what to say about the test other than that it was really hard. I do feel pretty good about how well I did though. I think the listening part was the easiest. Now I just have to wait until mid-February to get my results. Thanks to everyone who wished me luck, prayed for me, etc! I really appreciate it. Now on to the future again.

Last year, I sat down and figured out exactly what classes I needed to graduate. Well, when I did that, I was still considering dual-majoring in Computer Science and Linguistics; honestly, it was what made me decide to stick with a single major, since I don’t want to (or have the money to) stay in school for an extra 2 years. I know I put together another one with just Linguistics, but I can’t find it. Anyway, Friday night I sat down and figured out again just what I need to do to fulfill all my requirements and graduate.

And it turns out that unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to do it in a year. That really sucks, because I would’ve liked to be able to be done after one more, but I did also find out that it’s not going to take me two years, either. All I need is a year and a quarter. It’ll be a pretty hectic year and a quarter, but it’s definitely doable. Winter quarter last year was just as hectic for me, and I got a B+ and B- in the classes I didn’t care about, and A’s in the two I did. And pretty much, 2009-2010 year consists of *all* Linguistics courses, with a couple cake science classes mixed in. (Yay for “The World of Plants”!)

So without further ado, here’s my (tentative) schedule for the next year, for those who are interested. I’ll probably have 1 or 2 credits of independent study stuff in either Linguistics or Japanese, too. It goes (CourseCode) (Credits) (Course Name).

Fall 09-10 (18)
LING475 4 Theories of Language Learning
LING460 5 Phonology
CHEM121 4 Principles of Chemistry I
PBIO100L 5 The World of Plants

Winter 09-10 (18)
LING480 4 TEFL Theory and Methodology
LING495A 2 Directed Research
LING485 4 Historical Linguistics
LING280 4 Language in America
JPN341 4 Business Japanese I

Spring 09-10 (18)
LING482 4 Materials in TEFL
LING410 3 Language Teaching Practicum
LING495B 2 Directed Research II
PSY221 5 Statistics for Behavioral Sciences
JPN338 4 Spoken Japanese I

I also have 3 other course I have to take, which are going to end up getting shoved to that extra 2010-2011 Fall quarter. They’re not even Linguistics courses, which sucks, but they are required for graduation. I’m not even 100% sure what they’re going to be, as which ones are offered changes pretty drastically each quarter.

So there you have it. That’s the story of my day today and my future at OU. Luckily when I get back, I’ll be a Senior, and so I’ll be among the very first to be able to register for classes.

Anyway, it’s now 1:30am, and my little anti-nap is just about over. (I slept from 7:00 to 12:30, I’ve been up since then and am now going back to sleep). So see you next time, bye~

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