Saturday, December 13, 2008

December 2008

I say it over and over again; it's been too long since I have posted something on my blog. I've got 2 reasons for that:

*Time
I've been studying for months in preperation for the JLPT, and Reo is keeping us busy as well (in a nice way of course)
*Readers
Seeing the amount of comments that I receive makes me wonder if people actually read my blog and if it has any meaning to write on it... I mean a blog is there to share stories, but without readers there isn't anything to share, is there?

JLPT
As you can read above, I've been really busy studying for the JLPT. What is the JLPT you might wonder, well the JLPT stands for; Japanese Language proficiency test. There are 4 levels in the test:

Test content and requirements summary
Level Kanji Vocabulary Listening Hours of Study Pass Mark
4 ~100 (103) ~800 (728) Beginner ~150 60%
3 ~300 (284) ~1,500 (1409) Basic ~300
2 ~1000 (1023) ~6,000 (5035) Intermediate ~600
1 ~2000 (1926) ~10,000 (8009) Advanced ~900 70%

I went for level 2, and I have to say that it was bloody hard so I'm not sure if I passed or not. But I will take the test again in July and will take care that I will pass it that time. Passing this test makes it easier for me to find a job in a Japanese environment because I am not planning to stay an English teacher for my whole life!!!

Reo
Reo is doing really great and he is starting to crawl from the living room to the kitchen and back, and likes to explore things (especially by putting everything in his mouth). Mayuko is doing great and she is really making a lot of effort for Reo and me (it's commonsense when you are married I think, but still I want to say that I am proud of her). It's such a pleasure to see him growing day by day!!

Work
Well, yesterday I finally got my contract for my new job. I am going to work for an international kindergarten not too far from here. My working hours are from 9.45 until 18.00 so that means that I can sleep in until 8 in the morning (hihihi). The morning class is a very nice small class, and in the afternoon I will have different kids every day. I am a bit nervous to start this job but I think I should be able to get used to it pretty fast.

Birthday
Yesterday was my 24th birthday (yes, I'm Jack bauer now), and enjoyed my day with Mayuko and Reo. Mayuko made a very nice dinner (kobe beef), a birthday cake, and gave me a nice belt and an organizer for next year. I'm also very happy with all the messages and the phone calls from my family.

I do have to say that when you are getting older, it seems that other people care less about it... I expected a bit more but guess there is nothing to do about it than except.

I hope to be able to update my blog a little bit more next year, but please give some more comments... a reason for me to write on my blog.

4 comments:

ジョン said...

Well, I'm here and reading. (J44xm from JRef.) It's good to hear that you're doing all right and congrats on the big two-four. Don't worry too much if you're not getting many comments: more people are reading than it seems, I can almost assure you.

Misa said...

Welcome back Dave!! Happy Birthday, and thank you so much for the birthday wishes on Jref, too. I'm glad to hear that you had a lovely with Mayu and Reo.
I'm surprised that he is already "putting everything in his mouth" stage, it doesn't seem like it's been so many months passed.

Well, I re-started my blog too, so if you are interested, check it out!

Anonymous said...

Ik vind alles erg interessant om te lezen hoor ^^ Ik zit ook op Jref, maar ben er niet super actief...anyhoo, gefeliciteerd~!
Reo ziet er echt suuuuuper schattig uit :D

Jaap said...

今晩は、私はヤープです。
オランダから来ました。
南大学の学生です。
二十二歳です。
どうぞよろしく。


im still reading youre blogg in my spare time. but i don't think its always nessary to respond on all youre posts.

i found youre blogg 2 years ago when i was searching for people that where living in japan. from that time i was reading it.