Tuesday 15 November 2011

Asian Fail

This quote on OHinNY instantly reminded me of Pratiti – I was her Statistics tutor for a year, and each time she left more than four marks unanswered in an exam, she would moan that she would fail (I have written elsewhere about her nerdy habits, so I will not elaborate).

I have been blogging infrequently of late because I spend most of my spare time studying for my upcoming Japanese exam. In August, just before I left Tokyo, my Japanese teacher persuaded me to sign up for an exam one level higher than my actual level. This seemed like a fun challenge at the time, but there are several factors I did not take into account:

  • In London I only read Japanese when I open my textbooks, whereas in Japan it was all around me.
  • Here there are only two people with whom I can converse in Japanese – a Japanese lawyer (the only one in our London office) and a Buddhist priest whom I have befriended.
  • I don’t have a teacher, and self-study requires a lot of discipline.
  • For the level I was foolhardy enough to sign up for, they recommend 300 class hours; as of September, I had about 80.

It doesn’t help that my attitude towards the exam fluctuates every day, sometimes every minute. Some examples:

  • I’ll give it my best. That way, even if I fail, I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing I tried.
  • This is hopeless. Let’s go on Facebook.
  • I left office after 11 pm every day this week; I can cut myself some slack.
  • That is an excuse. We don’t do excuses.
  • Let me take out my textbook. I’ll show them!
  • Effing kanji.
  • Do I really need to memorise the characters for 航空書簡 (Kōkūshokan = aerogram)?
  • This is so awesome! I love studying!
  • I’ll study tomorrow.
  • I can’t fail. The humiliation!
  • Effing kanji.

The upshot of all this is that I rarely blog, I don’t make fun weekend plans, and still I study much less than I could.

So now you know. In three weeks’ time, an Asian will take an Asian exam, and he will fail. Only, it won’t be an Asian fail. It will be a fail fail.

10 comments:

Priyanka said...

Reading your blog after ages and feeling super.

There's no way you'll fail, Sroyon. I'll eat my sneaker if you do.

(nervous look)

Priyanka said...

Also, glad to see you've knocked me (and not Ana) off the blogroll, and added Book Cover Lover =D

relativelytruthful said...

this means that you can edit your previous blogpost to say that you do have something to wish for after all.

:)

Sroyon said...

@Priyanka: Hahaha that's my revenge for deleting butterflyassassin.

@rtf: :) But my teacher was very insistent that I choose a tangible thing...

Shrabasti Banerjee said...

:D. Poro poro!

Karthy said...

I second priyanka on everything she said except the sneaker bit because...effing kanji seriously. :)

Pratiti said...

This is just the trailer to the blog post in which you will pass with flying colours and show off some more, toh?
Also, it's weird, I thought I was Asian till I came here, but then everyone just stared at me when I called myself that. And good luck!
*loftily ignores snide remarks about self*

Pratiti said...

Also, I just realized I miss the stats tuitions. Sigh. What fun it was. Luchi and no work. Ok, tell you what, the next time we meet, I'll laugh at ALL your jokes appreciatively. Hmm.

Anindita said...

So what did happen? Did you fail???

Sroyon said...

Waiting for the results...