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23/2/08 15:46I told myself that I wasn't going to get any new study materials or dictionaries or whatnot until I had my JLPT results, but as it turns out, I do feel kind of at loose ends about where I go from here.
I'm still reading the same authors I was reading in high school. That's frustrating for me. Okay, if you don't count me plowing through "Norwegian Wood" with a dictionary in 12th grade, I'm still reading the same authors I was reading in college. Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana. It still feels terribly hard to bridge the gap between pop fiction and anything older or denser. I'm not going to start reading classical Japanese without going back to school, and I'm not ready to go back to school.
Though actually, it occurs to me that fantasy like Saiunkoku Monogatari could be useful in that it's not really denser or more complicated than pop fiction, but it does have some more specialized vocabulary. Likewise for mysteries, or maybe Murakami's denser books (still haven't read Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, for example, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland only in translation). I've also had the idea to read backwards in time very, very slowly - lots of books from the 1950s-1960s before I seriously try any prewar lit. Although Tanizaki wasn't that bad.
1-kyuu would've meant something when I was feeling "anywhere but here" about my old job, but I like my job here and I've got at least a year or two before I start to burn out. Last year, I wanted a job where I could have more chances to use my Japanese, but right now I don't feel that way - I feel needed & appreciated in other ways. At least for now.
I can still get a working holiday visa until I'm 30. That's something to consider.
I'm still reading the same authors I was reading in high school. That's frustrating for me. Okay, if you don't count me plowing through "Norwegian Wood" with a dictionary in 12th grade, I'm still reading the same authors I was reading in college. Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana. It still feels terribly hard to bridge the gap between pop fiction and anything older or denser. I'm not going to start reading classical Japanese without going back to school, and I'm not ready to go back to school.
Though actually, it occurs to me that fantasy like Saiunkoku Monogatari could be useful in that it's not really denser or more complicated than pop fiction, but it does have some more specialized vocabulary. Likewise for mysteries, or maybe Murakami's denser books (still haven't read Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, for example, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland only in translation). I've also had the idea to read backwards in time very, very slowly - lots of books from the 1950s-1960s before I seriously try any prewar lit. Although Tanizaki wasn't that bad.
1-kyuu would've meant something when I was feeling "anywhere but here" about my old job, but I like my job here and I've got at least a year or two before I start to burn out. Last year, I wanted a job where I could have more chances to use my Japanese, but right now I don't feel that way - I feel needed & appreciated in other ways. At least for now.
I can still get a working holiday visa until I'm 30. That's something to consider.