While I can say "I got accepted to another scholarship!", it's not that big of a deal this time. It's not like it's a 3 year all expenses paid scholarship like last time, but still, it's fun!
I applied for the Google/Udacity developer scholarship just for fun because someone had linked to it on facebook. I signed up thinking that all you needed to do was show your interest, but as it was you also had to state why YOU would be "worthy" of the scholarship.
When I got that far I thought, well I am not worthy so I should just make that clear. So I wrote a bit about myself just saying that I am a student very interested in web developement and the likes. And that they shouldn't give the scholarship to me since there are people out there who deserve it more/need it more than I do.
With this I thought for sure that I would not get the scholarship, so imagine my surprise when I saw the "acceptance letter" in my mail today. I don't know who saw my application and thought it "stood out", but thanks, I guess. Though I am now thinking they probably had an algorithm or something sorting through the applications rather than actual human beings, and that's how mine somehow slipped by.
Anyway, it seems like this scholarship is for 3 months of free courses on the Udacity website, within your chosen field. (I chose android developement).
I don't really know what to expect, or if I will be able to complete the courses while being a full time student. And it might not be the most extensive scholarship in the world, but I am excited!
Pretty sure they will have more of these scholarships coming out, so if you like web developement/ android developement and are a beginner, be sure to apply! (Cuz you might get it even if your application is crap!)
Oct 30, 2017
Oct 6, 2017
Just an update. Assignments, uni-confusion and a bit of Japan!
I am still having a lot of fun at university, the only times that are hard are when we have assignments. Because I go through them, feel like I will fail and then freak out and start working like crazy to get it done.
So our last programming assignment I actually finished on my own in just a few hours, since I was so scared of not making it in time, haha.
This time, for our third assignment, me and my partner finished it today basically, which it several days before the deadline.
This time I didn't work with the same person as I worked with before, and it was a completely different experience. For this assignment, with this partner, I was the one how knew the least and had to be taught how to do a couple of things. So I feel like I learned a lot by working with this partner, even though they drove me up the walls some times, haha.
Now the only assignment we have left is a math assignment about statistics. And while I think statistics seems like an interesting topic, I did not understand anything that the teacher covered during todays lecture about it. So I've got my work cut out for me to try to figure it out...
We've got tests coming up soon, which is pretty nervewracking, and for the math test we have had discussions with the teachers about if we can bring calculators to the test.
When they finally got back to us about it they told us that the only calculators we are allowed to use during the test are "Chalmers approved" calculators: Casio FX82 Texas TI30 and Sharp ELW531.
But those three types of calculators don't exist anymore, they were being manufactured in like the 1970's!
So now the teachers are trying to find a way to allow us to bring other types of calculators similar to the ones above. But the teachers don't make the rules, so it is still not certain wether other versions of these calculators will be allowed.
Thing is, I bought a really expensive and good calculator just for this course, and now I'm not even allowed to use it! Which is a real bummer.
And another thing: the program is technically not a program at Chalmers university, but Gothenburg university, but the program is kind of mixed. It's like a hybrid thing connected to both Chalmers and university of Gothenburg, so we have to abide by Chalmers rules even though we aren't Chalmers students on paper.
This mixed thing with this program is a bit strange though. I feel like I am attending 2 universities at the same time. Right now it feels more like I am attending Chalmers, since all our teachers are from Chalmers, and we have access to all the Chalmers buildings (since we got the Chalmers keycard). We eat lunch in the lunch room for Chalmers students. We follow Chalmers rules for examinations, and so on.
I think for other courses in the future we are going to have teachers that are from the university of Gothenburg, but so far we haven't.
I think many students are as confused as me about the situation. Many people in my class have bags and umbrellas and such with the Chalmers logo on it, which I find pretty funny.
Anyway, like I said, I am having a lot of fun at this program. And just as I thought, the international setting suits me really well. It's so much fun to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories! Many of the people I've met and become friends with have actually lived in Sweden for years and do speak Swedish to varying degrees.
They all have different stories of how they ended up in Sweden, and it's all very interesting to hear.
One pet peeve of mine though is hearing people speaking English with a Swedish accent. There are of course many Swedes in our class too, and some of them have really heaving, cringe-worthy accents, haha. Maybe I am just being picky and annoying, but I really wish people would work more on their accents, so that they don't sound like complete shit. (sorry) ^^'
Oh, and one last thing, in this post without a general theme: I have met many people now that are interested in Japan (surprise, surprise!) and they all get super surprised and jealous when they find out I've lived in Japan and can speak Japanese.
When you've lived in a country for a few years, and it becomes your normal life, you kinda forget that there are people out there who have big dreams of living exactly that life. And that become so amazed to hear about it.
So now I've been asked a lot of questions about Japan, and the language, and I find I can't answer all of them. Since I haven't spoken Japanese for so long, my vocabulary is smaller than it used to be. Today I realized I had forgotten the word "kyoka" and had to look it up. The word was on the tip of my tongue but I just couldn't get it right.
My Japanese is not completely gone though (yet), around a week ago I called up my friend who still lives in Japan and we talked for an hour, all in Japanese. I was so happy to get confirmation that I could still do it.
There are not a lot of chances here to get to speak Japanese! The people I have met who like Japan and wanna go there don't speak the language, although some of them are learning it they are not near speaking level at all.
It's kinda sad, because I don't want to forget this language. I love Japanese.
:)
So our last programming assignment I actually finished on my own in just a few hours, since I was so scared of not making it in time, haha.
This time, for our third assignment, me and my partner finished it today basically, which it several days before the deadline.
This time I didn't work with the same person as I worked with before, and it was a completely different experience. For this assignment, with this partner, I was the one how knew the least and had to be taught how to do a couple of things. So I feel like I learned a lot by working with this partner, even though they drove me up the walls some times, haha.
Now the only assignment we have left is a math assignment about statistics. And while I think statistics seems like an interesting topic, I did not understand anything that the teacher covered during todays lecture about it. So I've got my work cut out for me to try to figure it out...
We've got tests coming up soon, which is pretty nervewracking, and for the math test we have had discussions with the teachers about if we can bring calculators to the test.
When they finally got back to us about it they told us that the only calculators we are allowed to use during the test are "Chalmers approved" calculators: Casio FX82 Texas TI30 and Sharp ELW531.
But those three types of calculators don't exist anymore, they were being manufactured in like the 1970's!
So now the teachers are trying to find a way to allow us to bring other types of calculators similar to the ones above. But the teachers don't make the rules, so it is still not certain wether other versions of these calculators will be allowed.
Thing is, I bought a really expensive and good calculator just for this course, and now I'm not even allowed to use it! Which is a real bummer.
And another thing: the program is technically not a program at Chalmers university, but Gothenburg university, but the program is kind of mixed. It's like a hybrid thing connected to both Chalmers and university of Gothenburg, so we have to abide by Chalmers rules even though we aren't Chalmers students on paper.
This mixed thing with this program is a bit strange though. I feel like I am attending 2 universities at the same time. Right now it feels more like I am attending Chalmers, since all our teachers are from Chalmers, and we have access to all the Chalmers buildings (since we got the Chalmers keycard). We eat lunch in the lunch room for Chalmers students. We follow Chalmers rules for examinations, and so on.
I think for other courses in the future we are going to have teachers that are from the university of Gothenburg, but so far we haven't.
I think many students are as confused as me about the situation. Many people in my class have bags and umbrellas and such with the Chalmers logo on it, which I find pretty funny.
Anyway, like I said, I am having a lot of fun at this program. And just as I thought, the international setting suits me really well. It's so much fun to meet people from all over the world and hear their stories! Many of the people I've met and become friends with have actually lived in Sweden for years and do speak Swedish to varying degrees.
They all have different stories of how they ended up in Sweden, and it's all very interesting to hear.
One pet peeve of mine though is hearing people speaking English with a Swedish accent. There are of course many Swedes in our class too, and some of them have really heaving, cringe-worthy accents, haha. Maybe I am just being picky and annoying, but I really wish people would work more on their accents, so that they don't sound like complete shit. (sorry) ^^'
Oh, and one last thing, in this post without a general theme: I have met many people now that are interested in Japan (surprise, surprise!) and they all get super surprised and jealous when they find out I've lived in Japan and can speak Japanese.
When you've lived in a country for a few years, and it becomes your normal life, you kinda forget that there are people out there who have big dreams of living exactly that life. And that become so amazed to hear about it.
So now I've been asked a lot of questions about Japan, and the language, and I find I can't answer all of them. Since I haven't spoken Japanese for so long, my vocabulary is smaller than it used to be. Today I realized I had forgotten the word "kyoka" and had to look it up. The word was on the tip of my tongue but I just couldn't get it right.
My Japanese is not completely gone though (yet), around a week ago I called up my friend who still lives in Japan and we talked for an hour, all in Japanese. I was so happy to get confirmation that I could still do it.
There are not a lot of chances here to get to speak Japanese! The people I have met who like Japan and wanna go there don't speak the language, although some of them are learning it they are not near speaking level at all.
It's kinda sad, because I don't want to forget this language. I love Japanese.
:)
Sep 17, 2017
Studying, and even more studying
It's been about a month since I came to came to Gothenburg. Time has moved incredibly fast.
So far we've had 2 assignments, and they really haven't been fun, since they've been both difficult and stressful. I'm sure the upcoming assignments will be even worse.
Even so, I've had lots of fun in the Software Engineering and Management program so far. Apart from the assignments, things have gone really well so far, and I've met some really nice people to hang out with.
Right now we are going through one math course and one programming course, and I found out a few days ago that people have been contacting teachers about the math course, saying how sucky it is. People seem to think that it is too difficult, too fast paced, and that mostly because we don't have enough math help sessions. So if you don't know what you're supposed to do in math, and can't find help on the web or from a classmate, you are probably gonna be stressed.
While I do believe we need more math helpsessions, and that a few other things about the course could be improved, I think this it's been fine. It's not bad enough for me to feel the need to complain. Well, at least not yet.
I have enjoyed most of the topics we've covered in math so far, and feel like they will help in the future with programming. I only hope that the next 2 assignments wont be as difficult as the first one...
Anyway, like I said, so far so good at this program, atleast for me.
On to other matters. I ordered a second hand macbook air and it works just fine and I really love it. It's great not to have to bring my 17.3 inch monster laptop to school anymore. At the same time the 12 inch screen of the Air is not too small.
All in all a good buy, even though I am not a mac person!
I wanted to write a blog post to write an update on what I am doing, but really I haven't been doing much. Most days I've been studying from morning til night, and I am not complaining, apart from the assignments it's been fun and I don't mind studying. I actually thought it feel more tedious than it does, so that's good.
Recently I've had atleast a few days where I've felt relaxed enough to do something other than studying. So I've been watching some TV and drawing again. It's been a while. Now I just gotta make time for writing every day, which I haven't really been doing since I got here.
As of now I feel optimistic about passing the first 2 courses, and I hope that I will keep working hard and stay on track!
So far we've had 2 assignments, and they really haven't been fun, since they've been both difficult and stressful. I'm sure the upcoming assignments will be even worse.
Even so, I've had lots of fun in the Software Engineering and Management program so far. Apart from the assignments, things have gone really well so far, and I've met some really nice people to hang out with.
Right now we are going through one math course and one programming course, and I found out a few days ago that people have been contacting teachers about the math course, saying how sucky it is. People seem to think that it is too difficult, too fast paced, and that mostly because we don't have enough math help sessions. So if you don't know what you're supposed to do in math, and can't find help on the web or from a classmate, you are probably gonna be stressed.
While I do believe we need more math helpsessions, and that a few other things about the course could be improved, I think this it's been fine. It's not bad enough for me to feel the need to complain. Well, at least not yet.
I have enjoyed most of the topics we've covered in math so far, and feel like they will help in the future with programming. I only hope that the next 2 assignments wont be as difficult as the first one...
Anyway, like I said, so far so good at this program, atleast for me.
On to other matters. I ordered a second hand macbook air and it works just fine and I really love it. It's great not to have to bring my 17.3 inch monster laptop to school anymore. At the same time the 12 inch screen of the Air is not too small.
All in all a good buy, even though I am not a mac person!
I wanted to write a blog post to write an update on what I am doing, but really I haven't been doing much. Most days I've been studying from morning til night, and I am not complaining, apart from the assignments it's been fun and I don't mind studying. I actually thought it feel more tedious than it does, so that's good.
Recently I've had atleast a few days where I've felt relaxed enough to do something other than studying. So I've been watching some TV and drawing again. It's been a while. Now I just gotta make time for writing every day, which I haven't really been doing since I got here.
As of now I feel optimistic about passing the first 2 courses, and I hope that I will keep working hard and stay on track!
Sep 3, 2017
First week at the "Software engineering and management" program in Gothenburg
The first week has gone by and I was kinda surprised to realize that it had only been one week, not longer. Maybe because we've done so many things already, it feels like it should've been longer than a week. So let me tell you a few things about the week.
New program:
This program has existed for several years, but we are the first students that will take this years program, since it has been remade. We wont have all the same courses as students in previous years, and hopefully this remade program will be structured even better than how it was before.
The math:
When I first came here I was a bit worried about how well I was going to do in the math course, and of course since we've so far only covered the very first topic of the math course (which was "Automata"), it's still to early to say if I will fail or succeed in it. But, atleast it started out well.
The school gave us a video to watch about automata (dfa's to be specific), and I didn't understand anything. I tried looking in the book, but still didn't get it. So instead I went to youtube and found a bunch of videos on the topic that explained stuff in a way that I could understand.
So the next day when I came to school I was actually the one helping a fellow student understand some of the concepts, which felt good for someone with such low selfconfidence in their math-skills such as me.
So atleast this week, math has been fine, and it has even been fun! Automata is really interesting.
The programming (Java):
The programming course has also gone fine for me. I am really happy that I at least have some experience with programming in Java. Since I am not sure how well or fast I would be able to grasp some of the concepts if they were explained to me here.
I feel like I am not a very fast learner when it comes to some things, so it has been really good for me to come prepared.
This week in programming we used things like String, int, char, Scanner etc. Basically just very easy programs where the user enters some input and we give back an output.
Next week we will start doing loops and stuff like that.
About the computers:
It's only been a week, but so far I like the school and the campus. The only downside is that we have to bring our own laptops to the lectures and study-sessions. We need them mostly for programming, but also for math since they post exercises online.
So for the past few days I've been breaking my back carrying my 17.3 inch 3+kg asus laptop around, along with other things that we need to bring to school. It's okay, I can manage it of course. But since it is not ideal, and not something I wanna do for the next 3 years, I decided to buy a smaller laptop.
I hope in a few says my second-hand macbook air will be at my door, so I can leave my asus at home. Macbook is new to me, and I don't like the OS that much since I don't really know how to use it. But I think it is quite impossible finding anything slimmer than a macbook air, so it was my number 1 choice!
About the name of the program "Software Engineering and Management":
I chose this program because I want to learn programming, also, the international setting of it really interested me. Meeting people from all over the world, speaking English and all that, is really fun!
But even though I felt like I did a TON of research about the program before choosing it, turns out I did not understand everything about it after all.
Its's called "Software engineering and management", which I thought meant "The engineering and management of software". But no. The "management" part does not stand for the management of software, but for the management of people. They will in this course teach you how to be a manager (basically the person in charge of the team) as well as software developer.
Therefore we will also have many courses that aren't necessarily related to programming. Which is fine by me though, since those courses also sound interesting!
Anyway I am going to wrap it up here since this post is long! Let's hope next week is as good as this one was, and that my second-hand macbook wont be a piece of crap (cuz I can't afford a new laptop)!
New program:
This program has existed for several years, but we are the first students that will take this years program, since it has been remade. We wont have all the same courses as students in previous years, and hopefully this remade program will be structured even better than how it was before.
The math:
When I first came here I was a bit worried about how well I was going to do in the math course, and of course since we've so far only covered the very first topic of the math course (which was "Automata"), it's still to early to say if I will fail or succeed in it. But, atleast it started out well.
The school gave us a video to watch about automata (dfa's to be specific), and I didn't understand anything. I tried looking in the book, but still didn't get it. So instead I went to youtube and found a bunch of videos on the topic that explained stuff in a way that I could understand.
So the next day when I came to school I was actually the one helping a fellow student understand some of the concepts, which felt good for someone with such low selfconfidence in their math-skills such as me.
So atleast this week, math has been fine, and it has even been fun! Automata is really interesting.
The programming (Java):
The programming course has also gone fine for me. I am really happy that I at least have some experience with programming in Java. Since I am not sure how well or fast I would be able to grasp some of the concepts if they were explained to me here.
I feel like I am not a very fast learner when it comes to some things, so it has been really good for me to come prepared.
This week in programming we used things like String, int, char, Scanner etc. Basically just very easy programs where the user enters some input and we give back an output.
Next week we will start doing loops and stuff like that.
About the computers:
It's only been a week, but so far I like the school and the campus. The only downside is that we have to bring our own laptops to the lectures and study-sessions. We need them mostly for programming, but also for math since they post exercises online.
So for the past few days I've been breaking my back carrying my 17.3 inch 3+kg asus laptop around, along with other things that we need to bring to school. It's okay, I can manage it of course. But since it is not ideal, and not something I wanna do for the next 3 years, I decided to buy a smaller laptop.
I hope in a few says my second-hand macbook air will be at my door, so I can leave my asus at home. Macbook is new to me, and I don't like the OS that much since I don't really know how to use it. But I think it is quite impossible finding anything slimmer than a macbook air, so it was my number 1 choice!
About the name of the program "Software Engineering and Management":
I chose this program because I want to learn programming, also, the international setting of it really interested me. Meeting people from all over the world, speaking English and all that, is really fun!
But even though I felt like I did a TON of research about the program before choosing it, turns out I did not understand everything about it after all.
Its's called "Software engineering and management", which I thought meant "The engineering and management of software". But no. The "management" part does not stand for the management of software, but for the management of people. They will in this course teach you how to be a manager (basically the person in charge of the team) as well as software developer.
Therefore we will also have many courses that aren't necessarily related to programming. Which is fine by me though, since those courses also sound interesting!
Anyway I am going to wrap it up here since this post is long! Let's hope next week is as good as this one was, and that my second-hand macbook wont be a piece of crap (cuz I can't afford a new laptop)!
Aug 25, 2017
"First day" of university in Gothenburg, Sweden
Today was the introduction day for everyone at my program. We got to register ourselves to the program, which is something you have to do in order to keep your spot. That was a lot easier than I thought, it was literally just stating your name and showing some form of ID and then they checked your name on a list.
I think in total we were about 60-70 people there, from many different countries. And for this program they usually allow 80 people in to begin with, knowing that a lot of people are going to drop off.
We actually got a reminder from our future math teacher that there were around 600 people who applied for this program and around 200 of them placed it as their first choice. Which means there are now around 150 people waiting as "reserves", to enter this program in case someone decides to drop out. So if you start the program and soon start thinking that it wasn't really that interesting, you should quit as soon as possible and let someone else take your place, since there are people waiting to do it.
That same teacher, who seems to be a very good lecturer, also talked about how difficult the program is going to be. More so than previous years, since it's been revised. And said that we probably wont be prepared for it, and that it would probably be a living hell at least for a while.
It's a known fact (at least in Sweden) that people drop out of university programs all the time, because they thought it wasn't for them or because they just couldn't handle the pressure. So many popular universities take in more student than there are places really, since many of them drop out.
I expect that before the end of this year our "class" will be a lot smaller than it is now.
I am just hoping that I am not one of the people who drop out because they couldn't handle the pressure. This is something I am worrying about already and our courses haven't even started yet!
Anyway, I shouldn't dwell on that too much, I know. It's difficult not to though, since I want to succeed so bad but lack confidence in my ability to do so.
Change of topic (before I get too depressed).
That teacher ALSO said that if you aren't a native English speaker you shouldn't think that you are good at English. Probably because the textbooks might include a lot of difficult words. Even so I can't shake the feel that my English abilities are up to the task, and that I will be fine.
There were on the other hand some other students, I just overheard them speaking to someone and it seemed like they didn't even understand the questions asked them. How will people like that make this program with such poor English skills?
This is, after all, an international program where everything is in English.
If I do well and pass all exams and get to stay in this program, I guess I will see how well (or not) these people do. I wish everyone the best of luck, especially myself since I might need it the most! (Insert sad laughter).
---
To do list for university for myself:
Go to all lectures
Do all assignments
Ask lots of questions if you need help (to teachers as well as other students)
Make a study schedule and study during set periods of time (ex 8 - 16 daily)
Stick to the study schedule!
Pass ALL exams on the FIRST try, you don't want to ruin your life with re-exams!
Be THE BEST! Don't just pass (which means study your ass off and don't be a lazy s--t)!
Look back on this list and see how well you followed it. Failure is not accepted!
"Your own worst enemy is yourself."
I think in total we were about 60-70 people there, from many different countries. And for this program they usually allow 80 people in to begin with, knowing that a lot of people are going to drop off.
We actually got a reminder from our future math teacher that there were around 600 people who applied for this program and around 200 of them placed it as their first choice. Which means there are now around 150 people waiting as "reserves", to enter this program in case someone decides to drop out. So if you start the program and soon start thinking that it wasn't really that interesting, you should quit as soon as possible and let someone else take your place, since there are people waiting to do it.
That same teacher, who seems to be a very good lecturer, also talked about how difficult the program is going to be. More so than previous years, since it's been revised. And said that we probably wont be prepared for it, and that it would probably be a living hell at least for a while.
It's a known fact (at least in Sweden) that people drop out of university programs all the time, because they thought it wasn't for them or because they just couldn't handle the pressure. So many popular universities take in more student than there are places really, since many of them drop out.
I expect that before the end of this year our "class" will be a lot smaller than it is now.
I am just hoping that I am not one of the people who drop out because they couldn't handle the pressure. This is something I am worrying about already and our courses haven't even started yet!
Anyway, I shouldn't dwell on that too much, I know. It's difficult not to though, since I want to succeed so bad but lack confidence in my ability to do so.
Change of topic (before I get too depressed).
That teacher ALSO said that if you aren't a native English speaker you shouldn't think that you are good at English. Probably because the textbooks might include a lot of difficult words. Even so I can't shake the feel that my English abilities are up to the task, and that I will be fine.
There were on the other hand some other students, I just overheard them speaking to someone and it seemed like they didn't even understand the questions asked them. How will people like that make this program with such poor English skills?
This is, after all, an international program where everything is in English.
If I do well and pass all exams and get to stay in this program, I guess I will see how well (or not) these people do. I wish everyone the best of luck, especially myself since I might need it the most! (Insert sad laughter).
---
To do list for university for myself:
Go to all lectures
Do all assignments
Ask lots of questions if you need help (to teachers as well as other students)
Make a study schedule and study during set periods of time (ex 8 - 16 daily)
Stick to the study schedule!
Pass ALL exams on the FIRST try, you don't want to ruin your life with re-exams!
Be THE BEST! Don't just pass (which means study your ass off and don't be a lazy s--t)!
Look back on this list and see how well you followed it. Failure is not accepted!
"Your own worst enemy is yourself."
Aug 11, 2017
Going to visit my student room
I found a student room pretty quickly, which was a big relief, but I was still worried of course. I am just the kind of person who worries a lot even in situations others probably wouldn't worry!
The plan was for me to take the car there with my dad to bring all my stuff on they same day as I would move it, but that didn't really work out.
Instead my mum gave me a ride a few days ago to leave all my stuff, even though I wont be moving in for another 2 weeks. We packed the whole car full of stuff and made the 7 hour ride down to her sisters house where we spent the night.
The next day we took the car out for another 2 hour trip to the student house, and during this trip I was super worried things would just turn to shit. What if we had been played and there was no room for me? What if the house/room was super run down and gross? What if the area sucked? What if the other people living there would seem rude?
But of course, none of those things happened! The house and the room exists and I have keys to both now. The house is in a really nice area, and close to the bus station, food store (and a candy store, oh yea), nice park etc etc. The people I met seem super nice and I like the house and the room and the garden, the area, and everything.
This is a real house in a suburbian area, so it doesn't feel like it's that close to a big city, which I kinda like. It feels a lot like home with the nice green surroundings and the small city center.
The inside of the house and my room is a bit old, and my room needs some new paint. But that's okay, as a student I don't expect 5-star living conditions. It still looks a lot better than my corridor room in Japan, and I still really enjoyed that place.
So all went well, we left the stuff, bought a really nice office chair at a nearby second hand store, ate a good meal at a restaurant and returned to mums sisters house to eat dinner.
I didn't get a chance to visit Gothenburg this time, so that will be my mission next time. And next time I will be moving in once and for all into my student room, and start my studies. And now, since I am not constantly worried any longer, I look forward to the move.
The plan was for me to take the car there with my dad to bring all my stuff on they same day as I would move it, but that didn't really work out.
Instead my mum gave me a ride a few days ago to leave all my stuff, even though I wont be moving in for another 2 weeks. We packed the whole car full of stuff and made the 7 hour ride down to her sisters house where we spent the night.
The next day we took the car out for another 2 hour trip to the student house, and during this trip I was super worried things would just turn to shit. What if we had been played and there was no room for me? What if the house/room was super run down and gross? What if the area sucked? What if the other people living there would seem rude?
But of course, none of those things happened! The house and the room exists and I have keys to both now. The house is in a really nice area, and close to the bus station, food store (and a candy store, oh yea), nice park etc etc. The people I met seem super nice and I like the house and the room and the garden, the area, and everything.
This is a real house in a suburbian area, so it doesn't feel like it's that close to a big city, which I kinda like. It feels a lot like home with the nice green surroundings and the small city center.
The inside of the house and my room is a bit old, and my room needs some new paint. But that's okay, as a student I don't expect 5-star living conditions. It still looks a lot better than my corridor room in Japan, and I still really enjoyed that place.
So all went well, we left the stuff, bought a really nice office chair at a nearby second hand store, ate a good meal at a restaurant and returned to mums sisters house to eat dinner.
I didn't get a chance to visit Gothenburg this time, so that will be my mission next time. And next time I will be moving in once and for all into my student room, and start my studies. And now, since I am not constantly worried any longer, I look forward to the move.
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| Random inspirational quote found on google! |
Jul 21, 2017
What it takes to learn a language
I recently ordered some korean manhua (7 volumes) straight from South Korea, in korean. I bought them mainly because I loved the artwork. But now that I got them and saw that there were 4 books I have yet to read, I realized that I can't just look at these books, I have to read them! And they aren't available online in english yet, who knows when they will be since this isn't a very well known series.
So I started trying read this manga by using google translate and other korean dicitinaries and such. I could already read hangul (it's super easy, which is awesome) so reading it wasn't a problem really. The problem was understanding it, which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought.
I thought I could put some words into google translate and understand a sentence, but NO! 90% of the time that does not work at all.
There is probably only one sentence so far that I have been able to translate into a flawless and fully understandable English sentence. Most other times I can pick out the words in a sentence if I am lucky, but still not be able to make any sense of the sentence.
This makes me realize how much Japanese I actually know. The fact that I can read Japanese manga and understand everything now seems quite awesome.
One thing I realized pretty quickly when translating sentences from korean to english was that it was hard to know where a word ended. For example "Pirul" translated as "blood", but I later learned that blood is just "Pi", and rul is a particle (like the Japanese particle GA if I remember correctly). Still it got translated as only "blood". This happened all the time, so to actually know where words end and particles etc start, I had to go on to learn grammar instead of just words.
It would seem like grammar is king, if you don't know the grammar you wont understand the sentence even if you might know the nouns or verbs etc in it.
So I started looking up grammar when I had the feeling I had encountered it. For example, i, ka, rul, nun, e ke, etc would pop up all the time and I began to get suspicious. Turns out they are all particles!
Like I said it has been a lot harder to try to read this korean manhua than I thought, and it will take forever for me to make sense of it. BUT! Atleast I know Japanese and that has truly been very helpful.
Korean sentences are pretty much structured like Japanese ones (Subject, Object, Verb-style) and they use particles in pretty much the same way. I just have to remember that "un/nun" is "HA(or wa if you please)" in Japanese and then I know how to use it.
It's easier to translate from Korean to Japanese and vice versa than from/to English.
Also the two languages share many common words, and those are always nice to come by.
So, how many years will pass before I understand what's written in this korean manhua? Not sure, but one day I hope to get there!
So I started trying read this manga by using google translate and other korean dicitinaries and such. I could already read hangul (it's super easy, which is awesome) so reading it wasn't a problem really. The problem was understanding it, which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought.
I thought I could put some words into google translate and understand a sentence, but NO! 90% of the time that does not work at all.
There is probably only one sentence so far that I have been able to translate into a flawless and fully understandable English sentence. Most other times I can pick out the words in a sentence if I am lucky, but still not be able to make any sense of the sentence.
This makes me realize how much Japanese I actually know. The fact that I can read Japanese manga and understand everything now seems quite awesome.
One thing I realized pretty quickly when translating sentences from korean to english was that it was hard to know where a word ended. For example "Pirul" translated as "blood", but I later learned that blood is just "Pi", and rul is a particle (like the Japanese particle GA if I remember correctly). Still it got translated as only "blood". This happened all the time, so to actually know where words end and particles etc start, I had to go on to learn grammar instead of just words.
It would seem like grammar is king, if you don't know the grammar you wont understand the sentence even if you might know the nouns or verbs etc in it.
So I started looking up grammar when I had the feeling I had encountered it. For example, i, ka, rul, nun, e ke, etc would pop up all the time and I began to get suspicious. Turns out they are all particles!
Like I said it has been a lot harder to try to read this korean manhua than I thought, and it will take forever for me to make sense of it. BUT! Atleast I know Japanese and that has truly been very helpful.
Korean sentences are pretty much structured like Japanese ones (Subject, Object, Verb-style) and they use particles in pretty much the same way. I just have to remember that "un/nun" is "HA(or wa if you please)" in Japanese and then I know how to use it.
It's easier to translate from Korean to Japanese and vice versa than from/to English.
Also the two languages share many common words, and those are always nice to come by.
So, how many years will pass before I understand what's written in this korean manhua? Not sure, but one day I hope to get there!
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