Hello!

Hello everyone! Again a long week. Let's just say a lot happened this week. I had my first test.

I was quite worried about failing my course. But, I've been talking to a South African guy that's already been at the university a semester, and he says that it's virtually impossible to fail here! You see, at Japanese universities, teachers try to avoid failing students. So, unless they profoundly dislike you, it's OK apparently! So wow, that's a major load off my mind!

I just went to a really nice Chinese restaurant after with some church people. (When I say 'some', I really mean that there were so many of us that we talk up two thirds of the restaurant!) The meal may have been a little bit expensive, but it was really good! The food here in Japan is top notch!

Anyway, when I'm not doing Keio University work, having fun, or anything, I need to do my work prescribed from back home! Here's a sample:

This picture is 9 sheets of Chinese characters that I printed off. There is 1,945 here all up. And guess what? I have to learn them all! And well! When I get back to Canberra, I need to do a test on these 1,945 Chinese characters ("Kanji" in Japanese), and score 70% or above to pass! If I don't pass, I don't get credit for my time here!

So many people are confused by Japanese and Chinese; how are they different? Well, basically, Chinese and Japanese are totally different languages. A Chinese person cannot speak to a Japanese person. However, about a thousand years ago, Chinese merchants travelled to Japan. Since the Japanese people of that era did not have a concrete writing system of their own, they adopted the Chinese writing system, which uses pictograms (or "picture words"). Consequently, along with the writing system, the Japanese people borrowed a large amount of Chinese words, and many of these are used alongside Japanese words, or have even replaced them. (This is similar to the phenomenon nowadays in Japan, where there are thousands of Western words, particularly from English.)

Apparently if you travel to a place like Vietnam or Korea, which are countries close to China, you can sometimes spot Chinese characters. Such is the influence of the Chinese nation that, nearby countries have used the Chinese writing system at at least some period in their history. Chinese people are indeed everywhere!