Monday, December 1, 2008

support

So the reason I haven't written an entry in a month is that I have been pretty busy trying to cram every little thing I can before the Japanese Language Proficiency Test coming up this Sunday. And almost going crazy. I've now given up on trying to squeeze new things into my head and just concentrating on reviewing the grammar points and kanji and have practically given up on learning anymore vocab and idioms. The way I figure it is, in all three of the past exams that I've done I've gotten 80 percent or more right and the part that I'm screwing up is the vocab one, which, luckily for me, isn't worth that much. And most of the other mistakes I make are stupid ones (note to self: read the question carefully).

If (when?) I pass this test, I have someone to thank for it. No, it's not God. And it's not my mama. Nor is it all my fans out there. I'm saving that speech for when I win the Nobel prize in the bullshitting category.

Seriously, the person I would thank is my boyfriend, Lorne. Without his support and his pushing me to study, I probably would've procrastinated even more.

Example:

The conversation we had Sunday after waking up at noon. We had planned on waking up at 10 ish to get a nice productive day in - gym for both of us, laundry and Christmas shopping for him, and studying for me.

Lorne:
What time is it?
Me: 12:15.
L: ...Shit.
Me: [hatching up a fun plan for the day] I know! How about this? Since it's already so late, let's just skip the gym and I'll come shopping with you. [grin]
L: [horrified look on his face] Absolutely not, babe!
Me: [thinking: hey, I know I'm a pain to go shopping with, but ouch!] You just rained on my parade...
L: Sorry hon, but you've gotta study today! We'll go for lunch together, but then you are going to study for your test.
Me: [thinking: dammit, I know he's right...but shopping and curry in Ueno would be so much more fun...] *Sigh* OK, babe...I know, you're right...


So, we went out for lunch together at a new curry place by his place (by the way, not bad, but not as good as the one we usually go to) and I went home to study.

And it's not just him supporting me. I think I do the same for him too. At least I try to. At the moment, he's working four nights at a part-time job on top of his full-time job and band practice. So, I'm doing my own thing on weeknights and I make sure that I mail him at least once a day, usually with girly emoticons like love hearts and music notes. It's not much, but I hope it makes his otherwise hectic day and night feel a little better.

Sometimes, however, selfishness rears its ugly head. (It's just as unsightly as jealousy, only a different colour). And it's these times that I have to learn to take a step back and reassess the situation. Support. That's what I have to do.


ps. A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. No returns.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

いよいよ試験だね~。
解ける問題だけ確実に解けば、多分大丈夫だよ!
頑張ってね。

花子

Scott said...

If you haven't gone through a listening practice test yet, it might be worth going through once or twice (to get the feel of how the test goes), but probably not more than that. To be honest there just isn't a very good way to study for it and your listening is good enough. I can't remember if there was assigned seating or not, but if not, try to get a seat near the front of the room. I remember being in the back and having some trouble hearing.

I know I'm repeating myself here, but definitely focus on the grammar. That's the meat of the test, brings in the majority of the points, and is the easiest to get royally fucked on. If you have the grammar down really good, you can afford to fuck up the other sections quite a bit and still pick up enough points for a passing score.

In short, focus on the questions you think you have a possibility of doing good on, and get your points from there. There are a lot of stupid hard question formats in there that just aren't worth the effort overall when you look at the big picture.

Oh, it's pretty easy to get frustrated while your taking the test, but remember, even if you don't know the answer to a question, even just being able to strike out a choice is significantly raising the probability of a correct one, and these little things add up. Don't kill yourself over not knowing answers, because, well, there will be a lot that you won't. Strike out as much as you can, make your best educated guess, and just keep moving.

Maggie said...

花子 - ありがとう!頑張るからね!解ける問題が沢山あるといいね(笑)。

Scott - I have done a few listening tests from the past exams and I've been getting around 90 percent of the questions right. There are just a random few that I've got no clue what the answer is! There is assigned seating, so nothing I can do about that. Though I think that you can tell the proctors if you can't hear well from where you are sitting.

I'm pretty confident with the grammar section, so fingers crossed!

I'll just be glad when all this is over and done with and I'm celebrating with steak and mashed potatoes! :)

Anonymous said...

You are giong to pass! I just know it! And all because of YOUR hard work, no one else! GAMBATTE!!!!
Lorne^_^

Maggie said...

Lorne - Thanks! Well, now it's over I'll just wait and see whether or not I've passed. And you totally deserve a "thank you"! :)