🍎🧬📚 queenofthegods' "I passed N2 now what?" Study Log

[queenofthegods]

@GolyBidoof

a-absolutely zero pressure, nothing to worry about ^^

I am actually pretty worried about the other students resenting me. Like obviously I have good English but the professor is the most excited about my ability to speak (sub N2 level) Japanese. My ability to speak English and degree from a US university have nothing to do with my own effort and everything to do with me falling onto this earth on American soil. My ancestors put in the work 130 years ago to bring my DNA to the US. My plan is to use my skills in both languages to help others, such as checking the English in research papers or helping others with going to city hall. I have this skills so obviously I will use them to help others who did not have the benefit of coming into this world within the borders of the United States.

Also never intended to be the first anything. Like I just wanted a good boss with interesting research, not to make history lol.

@GolyBidoof

• if the research is easy to reproduce, American universities will be respected more
• if the research deals with a topic that is popular in the US, American universities will be respected more
• if the research deals with a topic that is not popular in the US, nobody will be quoting it in the US xddd

Like I do agree that American universities give out high quality degrees (my classes were hard and I feel like I learned a lot), but the idea that the rest of the world doesn’t count is CRAZY to me. Like why is the rest of the world suddenly not trustworthy just because they didn’t go to school or do research in the US? When I told people about my plan to go to graduate school in Japan they treated it like having a masters degree from Japan was worse than not getting a graduate degree at all. It’s so strange to me, because the research papers out of this Japanese lab look just like the ones I published with my American lab. The lab itself looks the same, in fact even nicer than the hospital lab I worked at. The scientific method is the same everywhere and journals judge research based on the same criteria so I am so confused why getting a degree from and doing research at a Japanese school is seen so negatively. I know people worry about academic dishonesty from Asian labs but the US has PLENTY of academic dishonesty itself. Maybe my opinion will change once I start working, but for now I can’t see why it has such a negative reputation in the modern era. Japan has changed a lot and I hope people can realize that.

The project I am being assigned is the same topic as my previous research, but we aim to do something pretty revolutionary. Hopefully we can succeed and other labs will notice, even if it is just to scrutinize. Aging research is super competitive and many labs are skeptical of working with other labs for fear of their ideas or data getting stolen. Because of this I am not allowed to talk about the research with others, so now I am basically a secret agent right hahaha.

[queenofthegods]

November 7th

15 lessons and 230ish reviews
appeased the owl

After 32 days I finally leveled up, thank goodness. This next level still makes my brain hurt but hurts a little less.

Musings about one level 34 kanji 吐 , emetophobia trigger warning

Level 34 contains the kanji for vomit, which I already knew, because I teach kids and kids barf! A lot! We had the great barfening this year when three kids in the same class threw up in quick succession, and hearing the teacher tell the story and using a different verb to describe each kid truly proved to myself I have learned a lot of Japanese. Something about knowing synonyms makes me feel so powerful.

At the end of the day I was standing outside waving goodbye to all the 1st and 2nd graders (they all want high fives I love it) and just as the buses were about to leave, one more kid came out of the doors, looked at me, said “oh no!” then started running to the bus . I think my proudest achievement as an ALT is teaching a bunch of kids “oh no!” because there is nothing funnier than a bunch of kids yelling “oh no!”

Side note about reading Harry Potter by the vending machines yesterday, but I didn’t look up a single word. When I started The Philosopher’s Stone I had to look up a word every line. It’s shows how much my Japanese improved since summer 2022 . Now in the 3rd book I know pretty much all the Harry Potter related words and I guess I know enough to understand the other words. Reading books like this is all about reading speed, because starting in N3 you need to get through a lot of words to answer the questions. Considering this I really need to get through this book because it has been in my work bag for probably 2 years now and is REALLY beat up. At this point I could probably just sit down and finish it in a week, have something like 80 pages left. Last I checked I can read 10-20 pages an hour so not that long left.

[hrudey]

@queenofthegods

Like why is the rest of the world suddenly not trustworthy just because they didn’t go to school or do research in the US? When I told people about my plan to go to graduate school in Japan they treated it like having a masters degree from Japan was worse than not getting a graduate degree at all. It’s so strange to me, because the research papers out of this Japanese lab look just like the ones I published with my American lab

That must be the science in you, actually looking at things like facts and reality and making reasoned opinions from that, rather than the trendy way of looking at opinions and making your facts and reality from those.

But good luck with the research and the secret agent lifestyle, and maybe you pick up the title of God of the Queens to go along with Queen of the Gods.

[queenofthegods]

@hrudey

That must be the science in you, actually looking at things like facts and reality and making reasoned opinions from that, rather than the trendy way of looking at opinions and making your facts and reality from those.

What can I say, I studied the scientific method for 6 years and actually took it to heart. However, despite the scientific method, academia is INCREDIBLY elitist lol.

@hrudey

But good luck with the research and the secret agent lifestyle, and maybe you pick up the title of God of the Queens to go along with Queen of the Gods.

Awww thank you! Actually the username is a reference to my government name because my mom is super into mythology and named me after a goddess . I’ll do my best to try to do something for the field of science. There were a good amount of women in my test room so I’m glad science is losing that “only boys do it” stereotype.

[queenofthegods]

November 8th/9th

5 Lessons 100 Reviews
appeased the owl

Not a fantastic weekend for language learning, but I did have some wonderful human interactions. Occasionally I have to work on Saturdays but this week it was a Sunday, which honestly feels worse. You get one weekend day then sike back to work! I get Monday off so I am still getting my two days off but going back to work in the middle of the weekend kinda sucks lol.

On Saturday I went hiking with two of my friends on a nearby mountain. There were TONS of bear sighting signs and our originally planned trail was closed due to massive flooding a couple years ago, but some trails have reopened so we hiked those instead. Got a very nice view of the river and ocean plus fall leaves. We were always on high alert for bears, like wondering if a broken sign was from a bear, some hair on a branch was from a bear, or if the source of scratch marks on the Jizo statue box were human or bear in origin. I also have a habit of throwing branches off the trail (a previous job of mine was trail maintenance), but the sudden rustling of leaves scared my friend so we established a code. Anytime I was about to throw a stick I would yet “STICK!!!” then yeet it into the underbrush. Even mid conversation, like “yeah the entrance exam was, STICK!, surprisingly easy.” The other guys starting doing it too. There is something truly entertaining about yelling “STICK!!!” then yeeting a stick into the forest.

Sunday was back to work, but for the local festival! Students were singing, playing music, and helping the vendors. That could be everything from shouting “FRESH FISH!!!” to helping the local mascot navigate the crowds. My 9th graders also did a candy and hand warmer toss off the balcony, which was technically for kids, but believe me the adults were in on it just as much . When the kids were sent off to go help the vendors I noticed one of the students had instead snuck into the crowd to hold his baby sister . Good priorities kiddo, good priorities.

While I am a bit annoyed at having to work on the weekend, the local festival is great because it is one of my only opportunities to see my 卒業生, so my students who graduated in years past. It is my 5th year teaching so that’s a lot of kiddos whose futures I want to hear about. Most of them are not particularly interested in talking to me (lol), but will at least say hi. One told me that another student was specifically looking for me, so I went to go find her. She wanted to find me and tell me that she is going to a UN conference next year! Also we talked pretty much entirely in English this time, omg she grew up so much . Like she was always one of my best students but she really took off in her high school and I am so proud of her.

At the end of the day I wanted to go ride the cherry picker/electric crane/basket crane (you know those things electrical workers use to fix power lines?). The reason they have all that equipment at the festival is a lot of the men in this district work in some kind of construction and there are some pretty big construction projects that are ongoing. When I walked over some of my younger elementary kiddos were all riding it together and as soon as they saw me started shouting my name, “I love you,” “cute,” and “princess” . Absolutely serenaded for the whole 2 min it took to lower the basket. Unlike my older students, the youngest students are always excited to see me hahaha. Especially the younger siblings of my older students, they figure if I teach their older sibling I must be pretty okay. After all that yelling and running over for high fives, the operators (who were laughing at the kids acting crazy lol) let me take the last ride of the day, which gave me a great view of the surrounding valley.

[pocketcat]

@queenofthegods

There were TONS of bear sighting signs

Oh gosh, stay safe! I bring bear spray when hiking in America, not sure if it’s legal or easy to get in Japan. Japanese bears definitely seem much more aggressive than American black bears, but maybe the same level as grizzlies? Cougars/mountain lions are also a scary thought I don’t think Japan has those, but you do get the wild boars there. Also leeches…when I went walking in the woods in the country side there were soooo many signs warning about 山蛭

[queenofthegods]

Bear spray is hard to find and expensive here. My school and everyone pushes bear bells, even though those have proven to have the opposite effect. However due to the recent increase of bears they are modernizing a bit. The local day cares play music through speakers to deter bears from the outdoor areas, which is what I do when I have to walk alone in bear territory.

Japan does have brown bears (grizzlies) but those are in Hokkaido, so not where I live. However they did just catch a 150kg bear in my village so…still pretty big. Japan doesn’t have cougars but my home state had a lot, so I am quite familiar. Honestly those are scarier.

I have yet to run into leeches, but my friend has literally canceled hikes because of the sheer number of leeches. Glad I wasn’t present for that one.

[queenofthegods]

November 10th/11th
15 lessons and 285ish reviews
appeased the owl
started bunpro
15 pages of Harry Potter

My pre-lunch vocab reviews. Only one class today and I am quite bored. There are many other things I should be doing but alas wanikani flashcards feel more achieveable. At least it is more productive than looking at cat pictures on reddit, which is what I also did.

This is Chibi-chan and she likes to come to my house for wet food. For some reason she decided to explore the rest of my house today and decided my cutting board was a good place to sit. I guess “box” + high place = mine? Out of the three friendliest cat colony cats she seemed the least likley to decide my house is the place to be but she may decide to move in this winter. Yesterday was the first properly cold day here in the valley so maybe she decided my house is better than the neighbor’s carport.

Just realized that there are less than 4 weeks left until the JLPT . My grammar book isn’t really working for me so maybe bunpro is the way to go. Free trial is one month so I can use it until the test then decide if I want to continue. So far I have been very unfocused on just about everything else, namely graduate school, but also maybe doing NaNoWriMo? I see one of my friends studying every day for the N1 then there is me who doesn’t really want to do anything than become こたつむり(kotatsu snail) the second I get home. Behind on just about all my goals except replacing my rice cooker, which I finally did. Like I know this is due to fairly severe internet additiction but at the same time I don’t really want to give it up…

[Malinkal]

@queenofthegods

Like I know this is due to fairly severe internet additiction but at the same time I don’t really want to give it up…

Brain wasn’t working yesterday so I spent too long zombie brained yesterday watching Youtube shorts, I realised I could at least do it in Japanese, and switched to zombie brained Japanese youtube shorts for the next hour instead

At least it’s better than nothing

[shitsurei]

@Malinkal

At least it’s better than nothing

I’ve been swapping over to my Japanese profile when I find myself getting stuck on YouTube. It’s nice that it’s an option, but it’s still the least productive Japanese thing I do in a day.

[queenofthegods]

November 12th

15 lessons and 225 reviews
appeased the owl at 2am
Bunpro reviews and new items

Bunpro reviews are going swimmingly, as you can see lol.

I planned to do more last night but managed to pass out on the couch after hunting down what I thought was a wasp but upon further inspection may not be such a terrifying creature. At first I lost it in my house because I had to go to English club but I did manage to find it again and sprayed the heck out of it with the bug spray that I got back in 2022 when I went to the pharmacy and showed a picture of the wasp in my house to the store clerk. When I woke up at 2am I did my Duolingo while half asleep then decided to wash all my dishes because I had filled my kitchen with bug spray and probably don’t want to be eating off dishes with that residue.

Said bug interrupted my soup eating which was very rude. Recently got a new kitchen toy (InstantPot) and thought it would be a good option for lentil soup and OMG IT SLAPPED. For the InstantPot variation I looked up another recipe and it only had American units so I actually messed up the ratio of water to lentils but it is still awesome. Like I literallly had to measure out my lentils in a mug I drink coffee out of, this is nonsense. Grams and liters please.

Not the worst for Wanikani reviews. They went pretty fast this time.

[GolyBidoof]

@queenofthegods

Bunpro reviews are going swimmingly, as you can see lol.

srs for grammar is ehhh

they do support flashcard mode though and i’m thinking of switching to that one, also to have a direction of reading-to-understanding and not the one where you have to write in a sentence with that grammar, maybe it’d make it a bit easier to manage reviews ^^

@queenofthegods

When I woke up at 2am

i so much envy people that can afford the luxury of “waking up at 2:00” as i just go to sleep at 3:30 xddd

[queenofthegods]

@GolyBidoof

i so much envy people that can afford the luxury of “waking up at 2:00” as i just go to sleep at 3:30 xddd

Well, it wasn’t intentional lol. I also stay up too late but needing to leave for work at 8am means I end up passing out after dinner sometimes. Then cue frantic doing of things in the middle of the night .

[queenofthegods]

November 13th/14th

7 lessons and 92 reviews, 15 lessons and 240ish reviews
appeased the owl
Bunpro reviews
Finished The Promise, which is in English…and a graphic novel lol

Studying I managed:

Making progress, making progress.

“The Promise” was so good . I know reading books in English isn’t really going to help me in my studies, but hopefully it lengthens my goldfish length attention span. What I could really go for right now is the next Nightwatch novel with that fantastic narrator but alas I have to wait another 3 weeks or so for my turn with the library copy. I’ve read or listened to 22 books so far this year, which is WAY more than any year since probably junior high school.

There were a bunch of monkeys in the school yard this morning so two staff members went outside with a BASEBALL BAT and a SLINGSHOT to scare them off. I don’t think it gets any more redneck than this

[queenofthegods]

November 15th/16th/17th

16 lessons and 55ish reviews
appeased the owl
Listened to photography presentation

I’ve been sick the last few days (yay working with children who cough directly into your face), so not a lot of studying but more than the usual zero studying I get up to on the weekends.

Studying I managed

It really frustrates me when they change the definitions or readings. Like I get it and I wish the textbook manufactures would let me fix some of the definitions in their textbook but my brain is dumb and it means I keep getting it wrong even though I swear I learned it. This does remind me of seeing the definition for “desert” to mean “place where nobody lives” and I got into an argument with the English teacher about it lol. Like yes TO desert means to leave and a deserted island (the context) does mean no people but the teacher argued that desert means no people and people live in an oaisis in the desert. Las Vegas is in the desert and pretty sure that wasn’t an oasis (but you could argue it is now lol). My parents live in the real deal desert in Arizona and it is a whole neighborhood not just my parents in a cabin, not that such a life would be out of character for them. I did grow up in a log cabin in the forest after all.

Unfortunately living in a foreign country means that basically you lose every argument now because even if their idea is wrong, it’s 97% of them all agreeing and then you some little weirdo with another idea. People can insist they know more about your language than you do, and yes sometimes the English teachers do know more about grammar but people also think Americans eat hamburgers every day and that simply isn’t true. I just tell them Americans think Japanese people eat sushi every day and they can see the absurdity of it all lol.

A wildlife photographer came to my workplace and gave a presentation about all the pictures he took in our area. While it is really hard to hear people speaking a second language over the PA system I at least got part of it and enjoyed the presentation. Trying to read the slides was a challenge too, especally trying to figure out what English word they were trying to emulate with katakana lol. To be honest I still don’t know lol. The guy also spent some time in Canada and showcased some of the animals he photographed there, including the beaver which is my state animal. Later on a kid asked him what he thought the cutest animal was and he said beaver so that’s super cool. Afterword I talked to him and he said he is going to Canada next year to take pictures of baby beavers, so heck yeah to that (followed him on Instagram so I get to see baby beaver pictures too).

This weekend I finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the fifth or sixth time. Japanese Netflix has a lot of anime but somehow I am not interested in it . In high school I watched anime but somehow I just don’t like it much these days? Not to say there isn’t good anime, there definitely is, I just…don’t like most of it? Not much of a film person I guess, more of a book person I think. Back to watching a docuseries about British Castles as narrated by a guy in a leather jacket with tattoos up his arms so the hosts of such series have definitely changed hahaha. Not the image I had of a historian but hey I’m glad younger people are getting in on these jobs.

Speaking of watching stuff, here is what I finally completed. This may usurp the black polka dot button up as my favorite work outfit. Now onto my Christmas gift for Mr. Engineer, a self designed scarf with a fun reference to his job.

Hopefully today’s studying goes better lol. I have next to zero motivation to study even with the N2 in a little over two weeks.

[queenofthegods]

November 18th

9 lessons and 405 reviews
appeased the owl
some Bunpro before rage quitting
Bunpro practice test pieces
7 pages of Prisoner of Azkaban

Bit more studying than the last couple days

Starting with some N3 as a warm up and while I didn’t get 100%, I did FLY through this. Considering this used to be my worst section I’m quite pleased.

What linguistic level are dirty jokes?

As I may have stated previously, I teach at a junior high school and my junior high is very boy heavy (around 70%), so I hear a lot of dirty jokes. This is either the kids trying to be funny in English or some jokes under their breath because they think I don’t understand them. Now as a teacher I am not supposed to laugh at such things but also if I call them out they are going to wonder why I understand them (the answer is a book called Dirty Japanese!). What linguistic level is understanding the dirty jokes of 13 year olds lol. For example, asking kids is this 1st person etc. and the answer being reinterpreted into a certain three person activity. To be honest quite funny but not for the classroom setting. There is also this (unfortunate?) Google translate mistake of イケメン=twink so when kids inevitably describe their favorite actor as とてもイケメン you get “He is very twink.” I did encounter this in a class early on in my teaching career and the number of verys and unexpectedness had me absolutely dying of laughter. Of course after class I had a crowd of kids around me putting イケメン into their Chromebooks trying to figure out what is so funny so I had to explain to them what it meant, because while not something a teacher should be explaining it is a heck of a lot better than them putting “twink” into Google at home ya know?

One day we taught the kids that in English “I like cat” means “I like cat meat” so the next week a kid asks his teacher(also male, somewhat relevant) “do you like man?” Haha, cannibalism joke whatever. Teacher replies “No, I do not eat man.” Kiddo then shoots back with “do you eat woman?” I have no idea how the teacher kept a straight face because it took everything in me not to absolutely die of laughter. Covered my face with a textbook to avoid having to explain myself. Like how much of this comedic genius was intentional lol.

Speaking of jokes in Japanese, usually it is hard to tell jokes in a foreign language but Japanese humor is absurdist so you can just say something really weird and that is funny. If anything being bad at the language is a benefit. Like my famous story of this is my boss calling me to tell me there is a bear near my house. He told me 「クマが(queenofthegods) is delicious」and my response was「そうね、アメリカの味ですね」. Simple, completely insane, but funny to a Japanese sense of humor. When I try to explain this conversation to non-Japanese speakers they just look at me like “that’s an HR trip” but I swear it makes sense in Japanese.

For anyone worried, nobody says bad words to me except the one English(!!!) teacher that used the word “gaijin” under her breath to describe foreigners right in front of me because presumably I don’t understand the nuance. For those of you who don’t live in Japan, that is an offense word toward foreigners these days so please don’t call yourself that <3 (外国人 is the correct word now, if you say 外人 people will be visibly taken aback). If a Japanese person uses the word “gaijin” you probably shouldn’t be friends with them

[pocketcat]

@queenofthegods

There is also this (unfortunate?) Google translate mistake of イケメン=twink so when kids inevitably describe their favorite actor as とてもイケメン you get “He is very twink.”

Oh my gosh that’s amazing and I love it. I think they’ve fixed this by now by in a similar vein of wild mistranslation, Google Translate once gave me “Miss Manners” for 風俗嬢 when I was watching a show where the term came up and was trying to figure it out

[queenofthegods]

I mean, I’m sure the ladies have great manners but perhaps not the main feature to be highlighted in the dictionary .

The kid wrote it as:
He is very very very very very very very very very twink.
--------------------------------------------------- ^very very very

It was truly hilarious. Like I can understand how it came to be that way but meaning vs percieved meaning I guess lol. Not sure if it is fixed or if that is still around. Haven’t seen it in a while.

[NatsuTatsu91]

The best reading resource that helped me: 世界の教室. This book series is for native Japanese speakers to read about various science things they are interested in. In the beginning, they are a bit tough, but they balance it out with beautiful photos, easy-to-decipher graphs and centerfold images with one simple Q&A. It was also exciting and motivating when I recognized words from WaniKani. The grammar is mostly N3 but also common N2 grammar points. Whether I was in the mood to study for a few hours (read a full paragraph or page) or want to glimpse something (centerfold with simple text), I was able to study in a more genuine way so it didn’t become overwhelming. My favorite books were minerals (and how they impacted human lives) and night sky (auroras, constellations, seasonal changes). They have so many options and even things like the book on clouds is surprisingly fascinating. Maybe one of those books would work for you with reviewing for N2 and help motivate more study?

They are in the science section of most bookstores and some libraries.

[queenofthegods]

November 19th

17 lessons and 160 reviews
appeased the owl
N3 grammar section on Bunpro
Reading about the classes I have to take

This word is burned into my mind after the November 2022 North Korean missile launch that went into my area. Nothing quite like missile launch sirens and hearing 「ミサイル発射」over and over again but not knowing what 発射 meant. Knowing didn’t exactly help but being woken up to a message of unknown meaning about missiles and missile sirens going off is terrifying. Japan does actually have pretty good immediate translations available (Safety Tips app) but in my panic I did not see it and instead called my then boyfriend with hands shaking so bad I couldn’t even hit the switch camera button to show him the emergency message on my TV. For a minute there I really thought I was going to die alone in my flimsy Heisei house. Such experiences really put life into persepctive.

Made it to zero zero, but not for long…

Not exactly where I want to be but practice is practice. Realizing my grammar is really behind. Somehow I always manage to be super unbalanced in my Japanese abilities. My grammar used to massively outpace my vocabulary but haven’t taken a Japanese class in 4+ years so my grammar learning has significantly decreased.

Recently it came to my attention that because I applied to a masters and am not going to a school in the global 30 program, I am going to be taking classes in Japanese right? Nobody has brought this up but to me it is kind of absurd to be taking graduate level courses in a language you don’t necessarily understand well and nobody even mentions it. Like I know Japanese schools are less serious but does mean possibly not learning anything in these classes? Will I even be able to do the assignments? Clearly it isn’t seen as an issue because plenty of people who don’t speak much Japanese also took the test with me. Taking graduate level courses in English was hard enough I can’t even imagine what it would be like in another language, but American universities are famously pretty difficult.

In some ways I am kind of excited, because I am already familiar with the topics from my undergraduate degree. Mr. Engineer told me that when he was in graduate school he had the option to write his reports in either Japanese or English, so I hope my school offers the same. His school was much nicer than mine is though lol. Even if I do have to do my homework in Japanese, imagine what that would do for my Japanese study! Absolutely incredible.