Yesterday’s Japanese class introduced 75 new words.  I know this because I diligently typed them out last night in horror as I watched the list of words I’m supposed to know get longer and longer.  I don’t know how to learn this many new words and if I think too hard about it I panic and don’t believe it is possible. But I do appear to be retaining words.  Much as I dislike having tests on a Friday they are certainly showing me that I am remembering what I have been taught during the week.

The lessons can be boring.  One of my classmates was complaining to me about the speed of the classes as he would like things to move faster.  I wouldn’t.  It is true that it’s tedious listening to 15 people recite in turn the same sentence patterns over and over but this constant repetition does appear to be working.  Things that I used to find very hard in sentences, like selecting the correct particle, are not even things I think about any more.

The classes aren’t completely dull, after all we have a room full of people trying to learn to speak a language.  Between ridiculous role playing and making silly mistakes things can become fun.  My favourite mistake from yesterday was referring to my husband as my prisoner – the joys of lengthening a vowel by mistake.