The Opera Populaire

Jakarta's gonna have a blackout tonight, the authorities of our apartment warned us. Strange hor, that they can warn us abt such thing in advance. Actually my dad wanted us to stay at Bandung tonight, esp oso becos there is now a highway that link Jakarta to Bandung, making the journey only 2 hours. But Mom and I dun wanna go. So I guess we'll just go out till late at night and then come home just to ZZZ. Heheh

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to talk abt my lovely time taking Jap in NUS. I had had a little bit of foundation, taking Jap for abt 2 mths in Sec 1 cos my PSLE results had allowed it. But I was a lazy kid back then and flunked my 1st ever Jap test with flying colors. So I discontinued. But interest struck back in NUS so I landed in the class taught by Guo Junhai sensei and Xia Qian sensei.

At 1st I dun like Guo sensei becos I thot he seemed very strict. Besides, how can a Chinese teach Jap well? But it turned out otherwise. Guo sensei was an endlessly interesting sensei, teaching us abt the interesting aspects of Jap way of lives, and culture as well as the language. Think he taught me that, to fully grasp a language means to appreciate the society that created the lang as well. He would show us beautiful postcards of Japan in the 4 seasons. Tell us stories of his time in Japan , studying Jap. Neither of my other Jap senseis or tutors did anything close to that, preferring to make us study by memorisation.

I used to substantiate my study of Jap by watching Jap dramas like Shota's Sushi, murmuring the words and phrases they uttered as I watched. My cousin's Jap galfren back then told his family that my Jap was good, very nice of her, but hehe dun think I'm that fantastic. I only got a B- at the end of tht 1st sem studying Jap. Think it was becos there were lotsa ppl w a backgrd in Jap taking it, making e bell curve very steep. I know of one guy, Chee Siang.

I haven't been keeping in touch w Chee Siang for a long time. We were very got yuan that sem and a bit beyond, cos for some reason we kept bumping into each other at the weirdest places. It was nice to talk to him. He told me that he wanted to go Japan free and easy, and I think his level of Jap shd make it very easy! Once, he let me cheat by looking at his answer during a spelling test, which I din do. Hahah...yes, my "morals" won't let me do it. Coupled with my time in hall, it was a fun time to learn Jap.

Yesterday, my mom asked me if I would like to learn or do something here so that I won't b so bored that I kept falling asleep in their office. I said how abt I learn Jap here. My mom thot it a good idea, but my dad made a quiet noise which I know was his way of saying that he doesn't like e idea. Ever since the Chinese protest agst Jap this year, plus some other personal prob that concerns a Jap, my dad, a China nationalist to the core of his being, has been very unhappy w e Japs in general. Well, I dunno, see how it goes.