I haven't really had time for much of anything lately because of this group project we are doing at school. It's getting very tiring and even though we have a deadline in 2 days for an 18 page report, I am the only one who has contributed to this report so far.
I've reminded my team mates to do it 2 times now, and they always say they will, but have yet to take action to their words.
Now, I have pretty good team mates. There are 2 loafers, and one person who wants to work but doesn't really have the skillset yet to be of much help, and 2 other people have have been working really hard. And then there is me - the only person so far who has cared about things like management and documentation.
I am scared that in the end I will be sitting here finishing our 18 page document on my own. And that's not the only thing we have to worry about. There are so many things we have to finish in a matter of days now, and even so I am the only one at school working!
Yesterday I even got a little frustrated about it, because I felt so alone, and I know that there are those 2 loafers in my group that are just riding on the backs of the people that are driving the work forward (which right now seems to for some reason have boiled down to me mostly, especially since I've since the beginning taken on a strong management position in the team).
I already decided that I shouldn't care about this, and just let it go whatever happens, but sometimes you can't just ignore the fact that these people will pass the course by doing nothing, because me and a select few other people are sitting day in and day out working on this project for them.
This project has had me go haywire a couple of times, I had a little breakdown once and almost had one again this morning, and I know one other person in my group has experienced the same thing. And in most of the other groups too, the people who are actually working are working so hard that they at one point break down.
Meanwhile other team members are just chilling, not answering messages or anything. Some of them are even going out to bars, drinking and having fun while their team members are still at school, trying to earn their mark.
Sometimes I wish I could just give up, but I am not one to let my team down. For the few people in my group that actually care about doing a good job and not letting others down, I have to keep going, because I don't want to let them down.
Also, if there is even a small chance of getting a higher mark, I am going to try to grab it, even though in all honesty, things are looking very grim right now, and I have accepted the great possibility of merely just passing at this point.
May 16, 2018
Apr 15, 2018
Learning Korean in Sweden
At the end of 2017 I started looking for Korean classes in Sweden, I thought maybe I could take some university course in Korean (granted it was in Gothenburg, or an "internet-only" course), but lo and behold there were none available.
So I started a Korean course elsewhere (not at a university), which means it costs money, but not really all that much money, I suppose. One other downside other than the money issue though is that it is very slow paced, with only 1 1.5 hour lesson a week.
I've been going to lessons on Mondays now and it's been mostly very good, and I really like the teacher and her teaching style. She speaks a lot of Korean to us, even if we are total beginners, and it reminded me of my Japanese classes in Japan, where the teachers only spoke Japanese to us. It really helps you learn much quicker.
We aren't very many people in the class, last Monday I think we were only around 6 people, and I think less than 20 are signed up to the course in total.
It's mostly girls, and a few boys. Most of the guys in the class I am pretty sure are gay, haha. I am not sure why the Korean language seems to have attracted mostly gay guys, but maybe they too (like the girls), are interested in the boyband aspect of Korean culture.
At the beginning of the first lecture we all had to tell the teacher and the class why we were interested in learning Korean. I was the only one who said that it was because I wanted to study/take a master there. Now, I know that might not happen, I might not get a scholarship or maybe I will change my mind, but it was my main reason for starting the language classes, or atleast what got me to finally take the step to do it.
Most other people said that they wanted to learn the language because they like Korean dramas, or the music or the food, the culture etc (which I like too of course), but it kind of surprised me since I was expecting to hear a bit more diverse set of answers.
Anyway, like I mentioned, the classes are good. My only complaint would be that I haven't gotten to know any of my classmates.
When I was learning Japanese in just the same way as I am learning Korean now, I quickly became friends with a lot of people in class, which made classes that much more fun. We could talk and make jokes and all that, and feel like we were learning together. The friendships didn't become lasting after classes ended, but I still like that they happened.
I would like to get to know people in my class more, and I hope that will happen when we get to do more speaking, because so far we've mostly studied the writing system.
On the subject of speaking, last Monday we did have our first speaking session. Sadly, as mentioned, we were only 6 people, but it was still a lot of fun. I got to hear people's accent, which was really good, since it made me realize that I am not the only one struggling with the Korean accent and way of speaking, and also that my accent isn't bad compared to some people.
Why isn't my accent as bad as some of the other students? Because I've been practising using one of the books I bought from Japan, which is all about speaking (and speaking out loud). This means that my effort working with the book has payed off.
Some people in my class are really shy though, and do not want to speak at all, and if the teacher presses them too much they get angry and she has to back off. It's sad, because this way they will never learn the language, but I also feel bad for them of course, I know how they must feel. Hopefully as time progresses, they will get more comfortable in the classroom setting and be able to do more speaking.
Ah well, I should get back to school work now. I also need to prep a bit for Monday's Korean lesson, wish me luck!
So I started a Korean course elsewhere (not at a university), which means it costs money, but not really all that much money, I suppose. One other downside other than the money issue though is that it is very slow paced, with only 1 1.5 hour lesson a week.
I've been going to lessons on Mondays now and it's been mostly very good, and I really like the teacher and her teaching style. She speaks a lot of Korean to us, even if we are total beginners, and it reminded me of my Japanese classes in Japan, where the teachers only spoke Japanese to us. It really helps you learn much quicker.
We aren't very many people in the class, last Monday I think we were only around 6 people, and I think less than 20 are signed up to the course in total.
It's mostly girls, and a few boys. Most of the guys in the class I am pretty sure are gay, haha. I am not sure why the Korean language seems to have attracted mostly gay guys, but maybe they too (like the girls), are interested in the boyband aspect of Korean culture.
At the beginning of the first lecture we all had to tell the teacher and the class why we were interested in learning Korean. I was the only one who said that it was because I wanted to study/take a master there. Now, I know that might not happen, I might not get a scholarship or maybe I will change my mind, but it was my main reason for starting the language classes, or atleast what got me to finally take the step to do it.
Most other people said that they wanted to learn the language because they like Korean dramas, or the music or the food, the culture etc (which I like too of course), but it kind of surprised me since I was expecting to hear a bit more diverse set of answers.
Anyway, like I mentioned, the classes are good. My only complaint would be that I haven't gotten to know any of my classmates.
When I was learning Japanese in just the same way as I am learning Korean now, I quickly became friends with a lot of people in class, which made classes that much more fun. We could talk and make jokes and all that, and feel like we were learning together. The friendships didn't become lasting after classes ended, but I still like that they happened.
I would like to get to know people in my class more, and I hope that will happen when we get to do more speaking, because so far we've mostly studied the writing system.
On the subject of speaking, last Monday we did have our first speaking session. Sadly, as mentioned, we were only 6 people, but it was still a lot of fun. I got to hear people's accent, which was really good, since it made me realize that I am not the only one struggling with the Korean accent and way of speaking, and also that my accent isn't bad compared to some people.
Why isn't my accent as bad as some of the other students? Because I've been practising using one of the books I bought from Japan, which is all about speaking (and speaking out loud). This means that my effort working with the book has payed off.
Some people in my class are really shy though, and do not want to speak at all, and if the teacher presses them too much they get angry and she has to back off. It's sad, because this way they will never learn the language, but I also feel bad for them of course, I know how they must feel. Hopefully as time progresses, they will get more comfortable in the classroom setting and be able to do more speaking.
Ah well, I should get back to school work now. I also need to prep a bit for Monday's Korean lesson, wish me luck!
Mar 6, 2018
Life getting in the way..
So much to do in school right now...
I really shouldn't be doing this right now, but I am...
Warning: this post might make you think I am a spoiled brat, but that's okay.
Life isn't fair, it kind of sucks, more for some people than for others, and I got it good, I know that. It's just that it could be better.
The more I think about it the more do I not want to start working full time, so yea, I am going to complain about that again. Because maybe in the future I will go back and read these posts and wonder why the heck I was writing such strange things about not wanting to work, or maybe I will still feel the same.
Anyway, signing off 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, to do stuff for someone elses benefit (mainly the benefit of a corporation), and only ever have a minimum of 5 weeks vacation a year seems crazy to me. And honestly I do not understand how it doesn't seem crazy to other people too! I guess you just get used to how things are, so you never question them.
Well I do question the system we have, even though it is already sooo much better than the systems of so many other countries, there is always room for improvement.
Think about it:
A workday is "8 hours", but then you also have lunch which also is connected to your work, so most if not all days you will spend a total of 9 hours a day at work.
Then there is commuting!
While some people are lucky and live very close to their jobs, I think most people aren't. So maybe you are commuting for 1 hour a day? 2? 3???
Let's say just 1 hour, 30 minutes to get to work and 30 minutes to get back home.
Well then there is another thing! Grocery shopping and other shopping just to keep the household going. This isn't really something most people enjoy doing (I think), but they have to do it, and it takes up time that could be spent on things you really want to do.
To keep the rant going we got: cooking!
I am not really fond of cooking and hate spending 2 hours doing it every 2-3 days, I feel like it takes up so much time I would like to spend on other things.
There are of course more things that go into a day that are also things we don't really want to do.
So lets say we are at work for 9 hours a day, commute for 1, and do other necessary tasks for 2 hours a day (realisticaly it's probably even more than this).
That is a total of 12 hours, so how much time do you have left of the day to spend on stuff you want to do?
Well if you go to bed at 23 thats 3 hours (if you ended work at 17). Man that feels great! So the only way I can spend a sufficient amount of time doing things I want to do is to not sleep?
We got the weekend to do whatever we want, which is nice, but spending 5 days a week on building someone elses dream and 2 days a week of freedom doesn't seem fair.
Also 5-6 weeks a year on vacation? Are you kidding me? What will I do with that? If I use all that time to take a long vacation in the summer, when will I have a winter break? When will I be able to get off work to visit family?
Am I really the only one who thinks the system is screwed up? Why are we striving for the happiness of corporations, without even considering things from the workers point of view?
The least we could do is implement "6 hour workdays" (with lunch they would still be 7 hours of course), because the companies who have already tried this model don't seem to be reverting back to "8 (9) hour workdays", so it seems to be working fine. And also, make vacations longer, 5 weeks as the minimum is just not enough, ideally around 3 months would be, but I may be shooting for the start here in this society by saying that.
I would say a minimum of 7 weeks is the absolute minimum we should aim for (it's only 2 weeks more than the current 5!), with the opportunity of negotiating for even more with your employer.
After all, the point of a democratic society is to keep improving it, and I think that should include improving the personal lives of people, by letting them actually have a life that extends to more than 5 weeks vacation a year, 2 days of freedom a week, and a few measly hours a day that do not unclude working.
--Thats the end of my rant, I kind of hope you didn't read it, it has nothing to do with anything... I just needed to get my thoughts out there, to keep them saved for the future me, whom I hope is in a better place work wise than I am fearing I might be in the future... :)
I really shouldn't be doing this right now, but I am...
Warning: this post might make you think I am a spoiled brat, but that's okay.
Life isn't fair, it kind of sucks, more for some people than for others, and I got it good, I know that. It's just that it could be better.
The more I think about it the more do I not want to start working full time, so yea, I am going to complain about that again. Because maybe in the future I will go back and read these posts and wonder why the heck I was writing such strange things about not wanting to work, or maybe I will still feel the same.
Anyway, signing off 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, to do stuff for someone elses benefit (mainly the benefit of a corporation), and only ever have a minimum of 5 weeks vacation a year seems crazy to me. And honestly I do not understand how it doesn't seem crazy to other people too! I guess you just get used to how things are, so you never question them.
Well I do question the system we have, even though it is already sooo much better than the systems of so many other countries, there is always room for improvement.
Think about it:
A workday is "8 hours", but then you also have lunch which also is connected to your work, so most if not all days you will spend a total of 9 hours a day at work.
Then there is commuting!
While some people are lucky and live very close to their jobs, I think most people aren't. So maybe you are commuting for 1 hour a day? 2? 3???
Let's say just 1 hour, 30 minutes to get to work and 30 minutes to get back home.
Well then there is another thing! Grocery shopping and other shopping just to keep the household going. This isn't really something most people enjoy doing (I think), but they have to do it, and it takes up time that could be spent on things you really want to do.
To keep the rant going we got: cooking!
I am not really fond of cooking and hate spending 2 hours doing it every 2-3 days, I feel like it takes up so much time I would like to spend on other things.
There are of course more things that go into a day that are also things we don't really want to do.
So lets say we are at work for 9 hours a day, commute for 1, and do other necessary tasks for 2 hours a day (realisticaly it's probably even more than this).
That is a total of 12 hours, so how much time do you have left of the day to spend on stuff you want to do?
Well if you go to bed at 23 thats 3 hours (if you ended work at 17). Man that feels great! So the only way I can spend a sufficient amount of time doing things I want to do is to not sleep?
We got the weekend to do whatever we want, which is nice, but spending 5 days a week on building someone elses dream and 2 days a week of freedom doesn't seem fair.
Also 5-6 weeks a year on vacation? Are you kidding me? What will I do with that? If I use all that time to take a long vacation in the summer, when will I have a winter break? When will I be able to get off work to visit family?
Am I really the only one who thinks the system is screwed up? Why are we striving for the happiness of corporations, without even considering things from the workers point of view?
The least we could do is implement "6 hour workdays" (with lunch they would still be 7 hours of course), because the companies who have already tried this model don't seem to be reverting back to "8 (9) hour workdays", so it seems to be working fine. And also, make vacations longer, 5 weeks as the minimum is just not enough, ideally around 3 months would be, but I may be shooting for the start here in this society by saying that.
I would say a minimum of 7 weeks is the absolute minimum we should aim for (it's only 2 weeks more than the current 5!), with the opportunity of negotiating for even more with your employer.
After all, the point of a democratic society is to keep improving it, and I think that should include improving the personal lives of people, by letting them actually have a life that extends to more than 5 weeks vacation a year, 2 days of freedom a week, and a few measly hours a day that do not unclude working.
--Thats the end of my rant, I kind of hope you didn't read it, it has nothing to do with anything... I just needed to get my thoughts out there, to keep them saved for the future me, whom I hope is in a better place work wise than I am fearing I might be in the future... :)
Jan 19, 2018
6 months of university in Sweden
I have now studied 4 courses worth a total of 30 points, and in Sweden you normally study 60 points worth of courses in a given year. Which means I somehow made it through half a year already! That's quite insane, because it really doesn't feel like it.
But this is actually not my first time studying full time at a university (which I had totally forgotten about), because before going to Japan I took 2 Japanese courses at another university, and those courses mounted up to be 30 points and I studied for half a year there too.
So since I've now got 30 university points collected in 2 different fields, I did a little comparison in my head and just found that there is such a huge difference between what fields you study, and the amount of work you have to do.
I got a really good grade in my Japanese courses, and they were really easy! It was a distance course so I never had to leave home, we met with the teacher on group calls online. We also did our groupwork the same way.
It worked fine I guess, but even though I was a full time student, it really didn't feel like it. Most of my days I spent in the house just not doing much, or atleast feeling like I wasn't doing anything.
Those six months I spent on Japanese classes were super chill.
Maybe it was just my particular school and their curriculum that didn't really understand that they could have put more pressure on students, without doing them any harm.
Anyway, these 6 months at the SEM program in Gothenburg have been so different, and so packed with new stuff that there has never been a dull moment. Sure it's been difficult and annyoing and boring some times, but all in all I look back on these 6 months with a smile on my face, and I look forward to more of it.
Which is more than I can say about the 6 months I spend at home, being a full time student but feeling like a total slacker with nothing to do and nothing to contribute.
Don't get me wrong, studying language is awesome! But doing it from home wasn't really my thing. :)
But this is actually not my first time studying full time at a university (which I had totally forgotten about), because before going to Japan I took 2 Japanese courses at another university, and those courses mounted up to be 30 points and I studied for half a year there too.
So since I've now got 30 university points collected in 2 different fields, I did a little comparison in my head and just found that there is such a huge difference between what fields you study, and the amount of work you have to do.
I got a really good grade in my Japanese courses, and they were really easy! It was a distance course so I never had to leave home, we met with the teacher on group calls online. We also did our groupwork the same way.
It worked fine I guess, but even though I was a full time student, it really didn't feel like it. Most of my days I spent in the house just not doing much, or atleast feeling like I wasn't doing anything.
Those six months I spent on Japanese classes were super chill.
Maybe it was just my particular school and their curriculum that didn't really understand that they could have put more pressure on students, without doing them any harm.
Anyway, these 6 months at the SEM program in Gothenburg have been so different, and so packed with new stuff that there has never been a dull moment. Sure it's been difficult and annyoing and boring some times, but all in all I look back on these 6 months with a smile on my face, and I look forward to more of it.
Which is more than I can say about the 6 months I spend at home, being a full time student but feeling like a total slacker with nothing to do and nothing to contribute.
Don't get me wrong, studying language is awesome! But doing it from home wasn't really my thing. :)
Jan 11, 2018
Are you really suitable for a study abroad scholarship?
Trust me, straight A's isn't all you need for a scholarship. I am a totally normal average person, and I got one! So it's not that hard. That's not what I want to talk about though. I want to talk about a persons suitability for recieving a scholarship, based on their personal traits and behaviours.
Having found this new scholarship that I am considering applying to has made me reflect more upon the time I applied for my scholarship for going to Japan, as well as on the people who recieved this scholarship and who abused it.
I go to an international university program right now and there are so many people here from so many different countries, which is amazing. But it made me realize something: Many people that come here from a different country to study, aren't very good students.
Don't get me wrong, most of them are great, but there is still a noticable amount of people that aren't doing a good enough job.
Of course it's the same with the Swedish people, many of the Swedes in my class also slack off and don't study. But it's not as big of a deal for them. They are not paying anything for their university education, and if they would fail they could just take a short trip home to live with their parents again.
For international students, things are a bit different, which lead me to believe that they might take school more seriously. But no, they don't.
And the more I think about it, the more I realize it was just the same in Japan, with scholarship students none the less!
It has made me realize that not everyone is fit for studying abroad, and I would like people to really look into themselves before making such a big decision.
Are you really fit to study abroad? Let's see.
If you are planning on applying for a scholarship in Japan or anywhere else, or just want to study abroad using your own money, or your parents money, please consider these things.
When you fail a test, who do you blame?
Do you blame yourself for not studying enough, or for studying the wrong things etc? Or do you blame the teachers, the way the test or course was structured? Maybe a mix of both?
If you have ever failed a test think back to your reaction. Who was to blame for your failure?
If you happen to have failed tests on several occasions, and you do not feel that you are to blame in any more most of those occasions, you probably shouldn't study abroad.
Trust me, if you fail a test, most of the time (though not always of course!), it is almost entirely your fault, and if you cannot accept that and learn from your mistakes and work harder you probably shouldn't make any big decisions about your education that might affect you badly in the long run.
I've noticed that many people in my class constantly put blame on bad teachers, badly structured tests, badly structured courses, etc. And to some extent they can be right, but never to the full extent. Plus, after all their complaining about everyone else, they still never even mention what they could've done better themselves.
Constantly blaming your bad luck on others is just going to make you miserable, and will not help you with your studying.
How are your group work skills?
Personally, I am not a fan of group work, mainly because before university I was always the one doing all the work in the group works we had.
My naive self thought university would be different, and that everyone would be great team members, but it really isn't different at all (which I already talked about in another post).
One difference though is that in university you can have a whole course revolving around group work, and if you don't do your part, your team members will hopefully rat you out to the teachers (righfully so, in my opinion) and you might fail the course, if it turns out that you were riding on the backs of your team members the whole way.
Failing courses can get you kicked out of your program, and thus all your time and effort (and maybe even money), will have been wasted.
How well can you deal with disappointment?
Many of my fellow scholarship students came to Japan with hopes that were way too high for reality, so when things didn't go their way, they just quit.
I am pretty sure I've talked about it already, but at my first school there was a guy in my class who always skipped class, and my teacher had to call him several times a day to pester him to come. He did move on to university in the end, only for the same story to get repeated there. Granted, he wasn't a scholarship student, and might just have been forced to Japan by his parents.
Another story of a girl who was a scholarship student and already 100% fluent in Japanese: She got through the language school that they forced her to attend even if she didn't need to. She didn't attend classes very often of course.
Soon after she started her new school she flat out quit because she didn't want to move to Kyoto, and so on.
The worst story though if that of another scholarship student. This person attended the same school as me, but a year below. But she stopped coming to school for over a month, and therefore was no longer eligible to recieve her monthly payment to live on. But even before she lost it, she had stopped paying the rent for her apartment, so her roommate was left to pay it all on her own.
I do not know what happened to her in the end. But if she were to continue this behaviour she would not only lose her scholarship, she would also get kicked out of school and thus the country. And because she failed to pay rent, maybe even worse things could happen.
I think many people who want to study abroad have these grand expectations of how it's going to be, and when it turns out that it honestly kind of sucks sometimes, they just break down and quit and do not take responsibility for the position they've put themselves in.
What is your real purpose for applying for a scholarship?
Are you really a good student? I am not asking if you have straight A's or anything, I just want to know if you do your best. Do you put school first? Would you rather spend time on writing a good assignment, and handing it in on time. Or do you only study last minute for a test? Write assignments right before deadline?
Would you skip classes to do something more fun? Would you arrive late to class because you just don't really care that much?
Do you even really want to study? Or is your main goal to come to another country to travel around, and live off of free money?
I'm not saying it's wrong to want free money, or to want to travel and have fun rather than attend some boring class. But when you are a scholarship student you have to take responsibility, because you are first and foremost a student. And someone somewhere believed so much in you that they decided to spend all this money on you.
Don't let it go to waste.
In Japan, and I know in many other countries too, coming to class on time is very important. Even coming just a few minutes late can affect your grades.
Even so, my first year in Japan I was the only one in my class with perfect attendance. And most of us lived in the dorms which were connected to the school!
Being late, to me, is disrespectful, especially if it literally takes you 30 seconds to get to class.
-------
Well there you have it. Another rant. Take it with a grain of salt, I guess. I am not saying you shouldn't study abroad if you ever failed a test (or even many), but if you constantly keep failing, and don't even learn from your mistakes, well...
TL:DR(?)
The main thing is to be a responsible person, a person that cares about not letting yourself or others down. A person that can be relied upon, by teachers as well as other students. You don't need straight A's in school to achieve these things.
But then again, straight A's don't make things any worse either, right? ;) (Man, I wish I could get straight A's too..)
Having found this new scholarship that I am considering applying to has made me reflect more upon the time I applied for my scholarship for going to Japan, as well as on the people who recieved this scholarship and who abused it.
I go to an international university program right now and there are so many people here from so many different countries, which is amazing. But it made me realize something: Many people that come here from a different country to study, aren't very good students.
Don't get me wrong, most of them are great, but there is still a noticable amount of people that aren't doing a good enough job.
Of course it's the same with the Swedish people, many of the Swedes in my class also slack off and don't study. But it's not as big of a deal for them. They are not paying anything for their university education, and if they would fail they could just take a short trip home to live with their parents again.
For international students, things are a bit different, which lead me to believe that they might take school more seriously. But no, they don't.
And the more I think about it, the more I realize it was just the same in Japan, with scholarship students none the less!
It has made me realize that not everyone is fit for studying abroad, and I would like people to really look into themselves before making such a big decision.
Are you really fit to study abroad? Let's see.
If you are planning on applying for a scholarship in Japan or anywhere else, or just want to study abroad using your own money, or your parents money, please consider these things.
When you fail a test, who do you blame?
Do you blame yourself for not studying enough, or for studying the wrong things etc? Or do you blame the teachers, the way the test or course was structured? Maybe a mix of both?
If you have ever failed a test think back to your reaction. Who was to blame for your failure?
If you happen to have failed tests on several occasions, and you do not feel that you are to blame in any more most of those occasions, you probably shouldn't study abroad.
Trust me, if you fail a test, most of the time (though not always of course!), it is almost entirely your fault, and if you cannot accept that and learn from your mistakes and work harder you probably shouldn't make any big decisions about your education that might affect you badly in the long run.
I've noticed that many people in my class constantly put blame on bad teachers, badly structured tests, badly structured courses, etc. And to some extent they can be right, but never to the full extent. Plus, after all their complaining about everyone else, they still never even mention what they could've done better themselves.
Constantly blaming your bad luck on others is just going to make you miserable, and will not help you with your studying.
How are your group work skills?
Personally, I am not a fan of group work, mainly because before university I was always the one doing all the work in the group works we had.
My naive self thought university would be different, and that everyone would be great team members, but it really isn't different at all (which I already talked about in another post).
One difference though is that in university you can have a whole course revolving around group work, and if you don't do your part, your team members will hopefully rat you out to the teachers (righfully so, in my opinion) and you might fail the course, if it turns out that you were riding on the backs of your team members the whole way.
Failing courses can get you kicked out of your program, and thus all your time and effort (and maybe even money), will have been wasted.
How well can you deal with disappointment?
Many of my fellow scholarship students came to Japan with hopes that were way too high for reality, so when things didn't go their way, they just quit.
I am pretty sure I've talked about it already, but at my first school there was a guy in my class who always skipped class, and my teacher had to call him several times a day to pester him to come. He did move on to university in the end, only for the same story to get repeated there. Granted, he wasn't a scholarship student, and might just have been forced to Japan by his parents.
Another story of a girl who was a scholarship student and already 100% fluent in Japanese: She got through the language school that they forced her to attend even if she didn't need to. She didn't attend classes very often of course.
Soon after she started her new school she flat out quit because she didn't want to move to Kyoto, and so on.
The worst story though if that of another scholarship student. This person attended the same school as me, but a year below. But she stopped coming to school for over a month, and therefore was no longer eligible to recieve her monthly payment to live on. But even before she lost it, she had stopped paying the rent for her apartment, so her roommate was left to pay it all on her own.
I do not know what happened to her in the end. But if she were to continue this behaviour she would not only lose her scholarship, she would also get kicked out of school and thus the country. And because she failed to pay rent, maybe even worse things could happen.
I think many people who want to study abroad have these grand expectations of how it's going to be, and when it turns out that it honestly kind of sucks sometimes, they just break down and quit and do not take responsibility for the position they've put themselves in.
What is your real purpose for applying for a scholarship?
Are you really a good student? I am not asking if you have straight A's or anything, I just want to know if you do your best. Do you put school first? Would you rather spend time on writing a good assignment, and handing it in on time. Or do you only study last minute for a test? Write assignments right before deadline?
Would you skip classes to do something more fun? Would you arrive late to class because you just don't really care that much?
Do you even really want to study? Or is your main goal to come to another country to travel around, and live off of free money?
I'm not saying it's wrong to want free money, or to want to travel and have fun rather than attend some boring class. But when you are a scholarship student you have to take responsibility, because you are first and foremost a student. And someone somewhere believed so much in you that they decided to spend all this money on you.
Don't let it go to waste.
In Japan, and I know in many other countries too, coming to class on time is very important. Even coming just a few minutes late can affect your grades.
Even so, my first year in Japan I was the only one in my class with perfect attendance. And most of us lived in the dorms which were connected to the school!
Being late, to me, is disrespectful, especially if it literally takes you 30 seconds to get to class.
-------
Well there you have it. Another rant. Take it with a grain of salt, I guess. I am not saying you shouldn't study abroad if you ever failed a test (or even many), but if you constantly keep failing, and don't even learn from your mistakes, well...
TL:DR(?)
The main thing is to be a responsible person, a person that cares about not letting yourself or others down. A person that can be relied upon, by teachers as well as other students. You don't need straight A's in school to achieve these things.
But then again, straight A's don't make things any worse either, right? ;) (Man, I wish I could get straight A's too..)
Jan 2, 2018
Year of the dog
2018 is here, which is very exciting! But I must give a shoutout to 2017 as well, it wasn't a bad year.
- I got to visit South Korea in March, and spend my last days and very last moments together with my closest friends in Japan.
- I got to go slaloming in Sweden in April (which I didn't think was possible), and I also rode a scooter for the first time, which was awesome. And I didn't trip over even once! Though it was close at one point, haha.
- I got to spend almost six months with my family before moving again!
- I got into the university program I wanted, and I really feel like I made the right choice.
- I have worked hard in school, and plan to keep on doing it.
I haven't made a "New Years resolution" since I was a kid, because of course you never keep them anyway! But this year I sort of made an inofficial half-resolution to try to do even better in university, in order to get very good grades.
This is of course something that I am not sure I can achieve, because I do not have that much confidence in my ability to learn, even if I am willing to do it.
But I have to try, and I do have an incentive to.
When starting university I still was not sure what I wanted to do after graduting this bachelor's program. Do I want to work? Or go for a master? Or?
So since I thought I might go for a master, I had already decided to try and get as good grades as possible, since you need good grades to get in to master programs. But I still wasn't really sure, and thus sometimes felt like maybe I didn't need to push myself that hard after all.
The incentive just wasn't strong enough, even though I really did want awesome grades, I didn't have a clear goal to focus on.
But now I think I do.
I have set my eyes on another scholarship.
It's the same type of scholarship as the one that brought me to Japan, but given out by a different country. That's all I will say for now, because this scholarship is for master's, and I still have 3 years or bachelor's studies to take care of. And I am very aware that 3 years is a long time, and that I might very well change my mind during this period. That is why I am not making any promises.
But if I after 3 years feel the same as I do now, I will apply for this scholarship.
Thing is though, I think that it must be a lot harder to get than my previous scholarship, because here they are asking you to have a "GPA at 80% or more", and as a Swedish person I do not even know what that means! We don't have GPA in Sweden, and when I tried emailing school officials about it, they just told me that if you want to know your GPA you have to do some kinda conversion of your grades, which can only happen once you have finished the program. So I cannot know my GPA until after these 3 years! That is kind of nervewracking.
So if after 3 years I still want this scholarship, and my grades are good enough, I will apply. And until then I think this might just be the right incentive for me to study as much as I possibly can!
What I am looking forward to in 2018:
- Learning more Korean
- New university courses!
- Finding a summer job related to what I am studying
- Becoming a better programmer
- Hanging out with my family on holidays
- Possibly finding a student apartment
- And more :D!
- I got to visit South Korea in March, and spend my last days and very last moments together with my closest friends in Japan.
- I got to go slaloming in Sweden in April (which I didn't think was possible), and I also rode a scooter for the first time, which was awesome. And I didn't trip over even once! Though it was close at one point, haha.
- I got to spend almost six months with my family before moving again!
- I got into the university program I wanted, and I really feel like I made the right choice.
- I have worked hard in school, and plan to keep on doing it.
I haven't made a "New Years resolution" since I was a kid, because of course you never keep them anyway! But this year I sort of made an inofficial half-resolution to try to do even better in university, in order to get very good grades.
This is of course something that I am not sure I can achieve, because I do not have that much confidence in my ability to learn, even if I am willing to do it.
But I have to try, and I do have an incentive to.
When starting university I still was not sure what I wanted to do after graduting this bachelor's program. Do I want to work? Or go for a master? Or?
So since I thought I might go for a master, I had already decided to try and get as good grades as possible, since you need good grades to get in to master programs. But I still wasn't really sure, and thus sometimes felt like maybe I didn't need to push myself that hard after all.
The incentive just wasn't strong enough, even though I really did want awesome grades, I didn't have a clear goal to focus on.
But now I think I do.
I have set my eyes on another scholarship.
It's the same type of scholarship as the one that brought me to Japan, but given out by a different country. That's all I will say for now, because this scholarship is for master's, and I still have 3 years or bachelor's studies to take care of. And I am very aware that 3 years is a long time, and that I might very well change my mind during this period. That is why I am not making any promises.
But if I after 3 years feel the same as I do now, I will apply for this scholarship.
Thing is though, I think that it must be a lot harder to get than my previous scholarship, because here they are asking you to have a "GPA at 80% or more", and as a Swedish person I do not even know what that means! We don't have GPA in Sweden, and when I tried emailing school officials about it, they just told me that if you want to know your GPA you have to do some kinda conversion of your grades, which can only happen once you have finished the program. So I cannot know my GPA until after these 3 years! That is kind of nervewracking.
So if after 3 years I still want this scholarship, and my grades are good enough, I will apply. And until then I think this might just be the right incentive for me to study as much as I possibly can!
What I am looking forward to in 2018:
- Learning more Korean
- New university courses!
- Finding a summer job related to what I am studying
- Becoming a better programmer
- Hanging out with my family on holidays
- Possibly finding a student apartment
- And more :D!
Nov 26, 2017
Japanese VS Korean - The similarities
Hello there! I don't speak Korean!
Well, now that you know that, let me start explaining some of the similarities between Japanese and Korean!
I want to learn Korean and hopefully in the future I can start taking a course or something, because I am not very good at motivating myself to learn stuff on my own without some sort of pressure, like the kind of pressure you get from knowing there will actually be a test coming up. I am not one to accept failing a test, haha.
Anyway, yesterday I started looking into Korean again, like we all do when we don't have enough pressure from school to be able to focus on school work.
And I find that every time I look up Korean words I discover words that are almost the same as a word in Japanese. This time was no different, among others I found that "picture/photo" and "moment" are almost the same in Japanese and Korean.
Picture is in Japanese: Shashin, and in Korean: Sajin.
Moment is in Japanese: Shunkan, and in Korean: Sungan.
There are word that I would've never realized were almost the same just by hearing them being spoken in Korean. I had to actually see the word written on a paper, with the English translation, to be able to realize this.
Even the word "Shigan"/"Sigan" in Korean, a word which I've heard time and time again, did not register with me as being the word "Time", which is "Jikan" in Japanese. But then when I see it on paper, it's so obvious!
It's annoying to have all these similar words and not be able to notice them in speech. But at least it's somewhat helpful when it comes to writing, and it's always funny to have that kinda "Aha!" moment, when you realized that you have been blind/deaf(?) all along!
Anyway, I just came to think about this other thing too. How kanji also helps you (well, me atleast) to map Korean words to Japanese words:
If you know Japanese (probably works if you know Chinese too), you can sometimes guess what the kanji should be for Korean words. Back in the days, they used to use Chinese characters in Korea to write, before a guy came up with Hangul (glad that happened!).
Take for example the Korean words "Yoja" and "Namja", meaning "woman" and "man". My guess is that they used these symbols for these words back in the day (altough I am writing in kanji so it might be a bit off stroke wise n stuff): 女者 for woman and 男者 for man. In Japanese both these symbols exist but would not be used in this way. The "equivalent" of the Korean Yoja in Japanese would be Joshi 女子, and to Namja would be Danshi 男子. Well, not exact equivalent, since danshi and joshi have the kanji for child in them, which implies that we are talking about young people specifically.
If you want to be precis I suppose the equality would be "Onna no hito" 女の人 and "Otoko no hito" 男の人 in Japanese, but I liked the other comparison better, since they have the non-japanese reading of 女 and 男. Namely "Jo" and "Dan".
"Dan" (男) by the way also has the reading "Nan", which is very similar to the Korean "Nam".
And "Jo"(女) in Japanese, does sound a bit similar to the "Yo" they use in Korean.
Then there is also 者 ("Ja" in Korean), which kinda means person. This generally has the reading "Sha" in Japanese.
So if we would try to turn 女者 and 男者, into Japanese it would sound like "Josha" and "Nansha". In my opinion they sound very similar.
I have found that it often helps to try to remember the kanji symbols of a word, if you can't really remember what the word means. There are only so many different kanji with the same sounds used on a daily basis, so often it's not that hard to come up with fitting kanji that might help you remember a certain word.
So if you already know Japanese and want to learn Korean, or vice versa, I've found that it's a lot easier to learn one through the other. Since English is not very similar to Korean, it's not very helpful.
Well, that's my post. Not sure where I was going with it, but here it is. Cheers!
Well, now that you know that, let me start explaining some of the similarities between Japanese and Korean!
I want to learn Korean and hopefully in the future I can start taking a course or something, because I am not very good at motivating myself to learn stuff on my own without some sort of pressure, like the kind of pressure you get from knowing there will actually be a test coming up. I am not one to accept failing a test, haha.
Anyway, yesterday I started looking into Korean again, like we all do when we don't have enough pressure from school to be able to focus on school work.
And I find that every time I look up Korean words I discover words that are almost the same as a word in Japanese. This time was no different, among others I found that "picture/photo" and "moment" are almost the same in Japanese and Korean.
Picture is in Japanese: Shashin, and in Korean: Sajin.
Moment is in Japanese: Shunkan, and in Korean: Sungan.
There are word that I would've never realized were almost the same just by hearing them being spoken in Korean. I had to actually see the word written on a paper, with the English translation, to be able to realize this.
Even the word "Shigan"/"Sigan" in Korean, a word which I've heard time and time again, did not register with me as being the word "Time", which is "Jikan" in Japanese. But then when I see it on paper, it's so obvious!
It's annoying to have all these similar words and not be able to notice them in speech. But at least it's somewhat helpful when it comes to writing, and it's always funny to have that kinda "Aha!" moment, when you realized that you have been blind/deaf(?) all along!
Anyway, I just came to think about this other thing too. How kanji also helps you (well, me atleast) to map Korean words to Japanese words:
If you know Japanese (probably works if you know Chinese too), you can sometimes guess what the kanji should be for Korean words. Back in the days, they used to use Chinese characters in Korea to write, before a guy came up with Hangul (glad that happened!).
Take for example the Korean words "Yoja" and "Namja", meaning "woman" and "man". My guess is that they used these symbols for these words back in the day (altough I am writing in kanji so it might be a bit off stroke wise n stuff): 女者 for woman and 男者 for man. In Japanese both these symbols exist but would not be used in this way. The "equivalent" of the Korean Yoja in Japanese would be Joshi 女子, and to Namja would be Danshi 男子. Well, not exact equivalent, since danshi and joshi have the kanji for child in them, which implies that we are talking about young people specifically.
If you want to be precis I suppose the equality would be "Onna no hito" 女の人 and "Otoko no hito" 男の人 in Japanese, but I liked the other comparison better, since they have the non-japanese reading of 女 and 男. Namely "Jo" and "Dan".
"Dan" (男) by the way also has the reading "Nan", which is very similar to the Korean "Nam".
And "Jo"(女) in Japanese, does sound a bit similar to the "Yo" they use in Korean.
Then there is also 者 ("Ja" in Korean), which kinda means person. This generally has the reading "Sha" in Japanese.
So if we would try to turn 女者 and 男者, into Japanese it would sound like "Josha" and "Nansha". In my opinion they sound very similar.
I have found that it often helps to try to remember the kanji symbols of a word, if you can't really remember what the word means. There are only so many different kanji with the same sounds used on a daily basis, so often it's not that hard to come up with fitting kanji that might help you remember a certain word.
So if you already know Japanese and want to learn Korean, or vice versa, I've found that it's a lot easier to learn one through the other. Since English is not very similar to Korean, it's not very helpful.
Well, that's my post. Not sure where I was going with it, but here it is. Cheers!
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