Another Wedding, Running, and English Thoughts

Next July, two of my friends from Florida, Tyler and Mana, will be getting married in Tokyo. Mana's parents are Japanese and she has lots of family in the Tokyo area, so I believe the plan is to have the wedding ceremony in Florida, and then the wedding reception in Japan. The two were (are?) both active in the Japanaese Club and they credit me as the reason they met in the first place (aw, shucks).

Awhile back, I was asked to do an impossible thing. A Herculean task. They wanted me to come to Tokyo to MC the wedding in both English and Japanese.

I sat on it for a couple of months, but near the end of November, they needed of a decision. Leaning on the advice of local JET Vaughn who said, "sometimes it's good to play outside your comfort zone", I accepted. I think I have no idea what I've gotten myself into.

The only thing I have to go by is the MC I saw at the Okinawan wedding I went to, and I remember thinking, "they probably payed a lot of money for that guy".

But if he can do it, that means people are capable of MC-ing a wedding in Japanese, and since I am a person, I think statistics are in my favor.

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And in other crazy news, I've signed up for my first race in Nago. All 10K of it!

Before coming to Okinawa, I had heard about how a lot of people get into running here. I managed to avoid it until I went to go watch a race on Ie Island last April. Being surrounded by people getting ready to run, I began feeling like a fat slot for not participating. Then in November, I went to Iheya Island to sit around and drink and watch my second marathon. I felt like a fat slob after that too.

So in London, I bought myself a pair of size 14 (oh yea!) Asics Stratus. Japanese food plus doing basketball and karate every week has kept me in average shape, but it is now time to step up my game. I started training two weeks ago and I should be more than ready for the race in the beginning of February.

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I took the JLPT Level 2 on December 7th. Level 2 is infamous for the large jump in difficulty between it and the test I took last year, Level 3. Last year, I walked into the test thinking I was going to blow it out of the water and walked out worried that I just blew it because of the listening section. This year, I walked in thinking it could go either way, and I walked out with pretty much the same feeling. Maybe with a little more confidence on the passing though.

In 2010, they are changing the tests to a N1-N5 format (according to Wikipedia). I'm going to take N1 regardless of if I pass or fail this test. To me, why run a race over and over again just to achieve 2nd place?

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I have decided to officially revoke the 3 years of Japanese study I took at UF. Why? Because saying I studied for 3 years prior to living in Japan is a lie. When I met Yuka's brother in London, he was practically fluent in English. I asked him how much English he knew when he first moved there, and he said he had to start with his ABCs. Yes, I'm sure he knew his colors, some animal names, and could count to 10, but that's not knowing a language. In 4.5 years, he has reached a really high level of English communication. Part of it was that he was lucky enough to meet a guy who spoke 4 languages and told him that if he's going to learn English, he has to live English. That means English everything: TV, movies, books, friends, etc.

So then what did I learn during my 3 years at UF? I would say about 6 months worth of material. I'm picking that number based on the new English teachers that arrived in Okinawa in August. A lot of them knew no Japanese, and now they know about as much as I did coming in.

Also, the JLPT tries to determine your ability, not by the number of "years" you have studied, but by the number of hours you have studied. The numbers they use to separate you is retarded, but the idea is sound.

So at UF, I probably studied...8 hours a week...16 weeks a semester...2 semesters a year...3 years...768 hours! Wow, that's a lot! Now divide that by 24 hours a day and you get...32 days. So the equivalent of living in Japan a month.

So when people ask me, how long have you studied Japanese? I will now say (as of today) 2 years. With the goal of being as good as Yuka's brother is in English by the 4.5 year mark.

*Note: The teachers at UF are awesome. I'm blaming my work ethic and just trying to develop a more accurate picture of how much I have actually studied.

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And speaking of UF, it's so awesome to have been a part of the best university with the greatest football team EVER. A local JET who also went to UF and I are currently writing a childrens book of Tebow bedtime stories:

"And then with the other hand, he picked up the other team... and carried them into the end zone for a touchdown!!"