Last night I dreamed that I signed up to take a Japanese language proficiency test, and when I finally went to take it, I didn't know any of the answers. So I decided to just take the test with me and study it for next year.
It was pretty humiliating, in the dream, but I managed to keep an outward smile.
Then, this morning, oddly, I find a new comment on a post from a year and a half ago.
I searched for Japanese classes back then, and listed the only ones I found in that post. The commenter suggested that I check the Yellow Pages and local community colleges.
I guess she couldn't tell from my post that I had done that already.
But hey, a year and a half has passed, I thought. Maybe things are different.
So I checked. ASU doesn't have anything. Neither does USC Aiken. (These schools would probably argue that they are not community colleges, but you have to at least admit that they are very small.)
Here's a list of all the "colleges" and "universities" I could find in the area. None of them has any courses even remotely related to Japanese. Many of them don't have any foreign language courses at all. Augusta Technical College; Troy University; Savannah River College; Paine College; Brenau University; Southern Illinois University Off-Campus-Fort Gordon; Central Michigan University Off-Campus-Fort Gordon; Georgia Military College Augusta; Summit Christian College; Voorhees College; Piedmont Technical College; Cambridge College-Augusta
So no, Karen, I don't live in an area with good educational resources, stuff beyond business, health, and trades.
I used to.
Oh well.
The closest real schools are the University of Georgia, 2 hours away, Georgia State University, 2 hours away, and the University of South Carolina's main campus in Columbia, an hour and a half away.
UGA has many, many different Japanese language courses, including your standard Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced, plus Business Japanese, Intensive Japanese, Directed Study in Japanese, and Readings in Japanese Literature.
GSU has Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced, with Intensive versions of each of those, plus Intermediate Composition and Conversation, a Pronunciation Clinic, an Intensive Grammar Review, Japanese Language and Society, Reading and Writing in Japanese, and Business Japanese.
USC has Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, and Japanese for Business.
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3 comments:
Hey, thanks for commenting in my blog. I followed your link and it looks like I'll have to spend some time perusing through here :-)
What level of proficiency would you be testing at?
My first trip through college the Japanese department professors found out that I am half-Japanese and can speak it semi-fluently so they had me enroll in some of their courses and test at level 3 profiency. I passed that fairly easily (though without the classes I wouldn't have done so well with the kanji) but the next year when I tried for level 2 I fell a bit shy of passing.
Kanji is my great weakness, my archnemesis. Granted it wasn't the only thing holding me back -- not studying Japanese since I was in the 9th grade didn't help, but I like to blame it on the kanji X-P
haha :D
To be honest, I don't think I'd even pass the lowest level...I took two years of Japanese back in college, but my last class was five years ago, and the only "studying" I've really done since has been occasionally reading a textbook, watching a lot of anime, and listening to a lot of Japanese music. :>
That's why I really wish there was someplace I could go locally to brush up and continue my studies. It's really hard to self-motivate. I haven't been successful at all.
I think kanji is everyone's nemesis :>
You're welcome for the comment :) I've seen you comment over at the Masthead, and today I thought I'd check out your blog. Pretty neat--I've been reading it off and on all day :) (I'm home sick today from work, so it's good to find something cool to read!)
I read somewhere not terribly long ago that watching anime and reading manga was actually a good supplement to Japanese studies. The reasoning was that while textbooks teach you proper grammar, spelling, and whatnot the manga/anime teach you more common and/or popular words, phrases, and uses. So, maybe you're not ready to jump into taking the proficiency test but it does still count as study :-)
I keep meaning to actually hit the books or maybe even sign up for classes too. It seems a waste to me to only be semi-fluent in one of my native tongues. But, like you said, it is really hard to self-motivate. Especially when there are about a billion other things I otherwise am doing or want to do.
Thanks again for checking out my blog, glad you enjoyed/are enjoying your time there :-)
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