shirenomad | PAIN!

Torii-sensei's final makes me want to take back the nice things we said about him during the review. His class was centered around translating and analyzing a short story called "Yuki Onna" ("Snow Woman"), which was interesting, if a bit difficult due to that fancy language. In prep for the final he told us to focus our studies on the first portion, which was accurate, and that it would be multiple choice... which was a bald-faced uso. When we show up, Ura-sensei is there to pass out a single sheet, which had what we recognized as a two-paragraph passage from the front of the story, translated into English. The assignment: translate it back. (Hear that? That's the sound of eight jaws hitting the floor.) Us level A students were particularly in the lurch, but even Tae was stalling here and there; we had only been able to translate it the other way through a combined effort with the help of three or four tutors and multiple dictionaries of all kinds. Reversing the process as a solo effort was just not possible. I only managed to squeak out a pathetically simplified version of the first paragraph by the time the assigned 20 minutes were over, mostly in hiragana. Torii-sensei is probably going to give an A for effort no matter what we write (please oh please oh please), but I still think that counts as cruel and unusual punishment.

Fortunately, that was the last final. Absolutely nothing today, nothing tomorrow until 5pm... which is when we present our final speeches (oh joy!) Need to get mine thoroughly memorized by then. I also have to come up with three one-page summaries, in Japanese, of three three-page papers I've already written in English, which thankfully we only need to finish "before we leave Japan." So I'll spend the weekend dealing with that and turn it all in Monday. Someone give me a "ganbare!" please.

PAIN!

Ganbare! ^_^