A little late to be doing this, since I originally planned to start in January 2009. But as my friend Dow used to say “huli man at magaling, undertime pa rin”. Oops, wrong quote.  “Huli man daw at magaling, naihahabol din”. Or something like that. Better late than never, yeah?

１級は難しいかもしれませんが、試したいと思います。実は、いろいろ悩んでいて、レビュークラスに参加できなくて、とてもがっかりしました。これから、どうするのか、迷っています。漢字、文法、語彙。。。勉強しなければならないことが山ほどあります。１２月までに、できるかな。キイナさんと同じような記憶力があったら、いいなと思っている。まあ、しょうがないから。頑張ります！

So the battle plan. Well, it is not yet complete. I’ve realized the hard way that the original plan of time boxing will not work for JLPT1 (or 2, for that matter). I simply cannot accomplish much with the original plan of a little bit of this and that. While time boxing is good to help you move forward, what you did is simply just a drop in the ocean. So I have scrapped that, and decided that I will dedicate at least 2 hours of JLPT study per day.

I have accumulated materials – courtesy of Ebay and (unbelievably slow) BeNippon.com and the Internet – but I have yet to sort through them and arrange them in an efficient manner. I’ve started studying, of course. I am almost done reviewing 2kyuu grammar （２級の漢字は別の話ですが。。。）& have started on JLPT1 Kanji and vocabs. I hope to finish JLPT2 grammar this week so I can start on JLPT1 as well.

The books and stuff is the first hour (or so) of the review (depending on the internet connection). The next hour? Jdorama time!!  It is a little unorthodox, this method of ’studying’. But it helps so much. It’s fun, relaxing, and it helps me get used to the normal speaking speed in Nihongo. I watch without subs, of course. But only the easy doramas. Not the Iryu & Galileo level with too much technical stuff. Last week, I finished Iryu season 2, but not without difficulty. Whenever they go into stuff like myocardial this and gastrointestinal that, I pause the video and scribble away. Meh. Maybe, just maybe, ’superior vena cava’ will appear in this year’s JLPT1 exam!!

This early, I’m already excited, I’m nervous. Earlier today, I got to finally talk with Peewee-kun (after a verrrrryyyy loooooong time) on the phone & we agreed that we’ll both go for 1kyuu this year. No rush for us, though. We’ll just have to study hard, and see what happens in December. Of course, JLo is taking the exam again.  It’s great that he already knows how it feels. Peewee-kun and I will just have to take his word for it. OK, now…time to stop blogging and slave away on Kanzen Master!

I just learned this morning that I have to be a JLPT 4 proctor tomorrow. And here I was, thinking I could spend one quiet Sunday snoozing all day. OK, maybe not so quiet, because everyone will be watching Manny Pacquiao’s match tomorrow and will most probably be screaming their lungs out at the TV.

Only a few hours more till the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Again, I won’t be taking the exam this year. I’ve put off 1kyuu for several years now, working as exam proctor instead. I did try to study for 1kyuu on my own, but it was not possible considering my busy schedule, since I have 2 jobs. Also, it is not going to be easy, since I still need to review everything in 2kyuu before I proceed with 1kyuu material. I will probably just review 2kyuu for the rest of the year, then enrol in the 1kyuu review class next year.

No pressure, though. I already passed 2kyuu, after all. In the school where I teach, your JLPT level is worth a lot. I think I can just take my sweet time, preparing myself for 1kyuu, because there are some teachers who are still working on their 2kyuu certificates and I think the school’s ultimate goal is to have everyone pass at least 2kyuu. So until everybody is a 2kyuu passer, there’s no need for me to sweat it. Or maybe there is. Kouchou-sensei did tell me earlier today that she will be freeing me up for one class next year, so I could attend the 1kyuu class. I guess it is her way of gently pressuring me. Why me?? But anyway, I think this JLPT deal is good — Nihongo Center Foundation will just keep on raising the bar for quality Nihongo eduation in the country by producing quality teachers. (OK, I’m going to stop the plug now)

October has already passed and I completely forgot the date of my 1 year anniversary as a Nihongo teacher. Baka. Kouchou-sensei, fortunately, knew the exact date. Haha. So OK, I officially turned a year old as a teacher on October 26th. She told me she remembered because our teacher training course just ended and she gave me only a WEEK before I took on my very first Nihongo class. Again, I was silently screaming, why me?? And to make things worse, she shipped me off to the Makati school, where I barely knew anyone — I was a student at Sampaloc from elementary to intermediate to advanced to teacher training, and I had to teach in a “foreign” environment. I still remember that first day of class, like it were yesterday (or last week) – but that is another story for another day.

Now, I am just thankful that I have learned so much and met a lot of great people in my year of teaching (scary, weird and funny people, as well). I am still relatively new at this (and a part-timer, at that. I still won’t give up my day job!) but I’ve been picking up lots of new ideas and techniques in teaching and I always look forward to preparing for and conducting my classes — OK, well, maybe not ALWAYS. I mean, I do have the Nihongo class equivalent of bad hair days, KWIM. But generally, I am happy being a teacher, I am happy that I am working under the BEST NIHONGO TEACHERS in the BEST NIHONGO SCHOOL in the Philippines. (OK, I am really going to stop the plug now). I’m going to keep working for NCF for as long as my main job permits me, because I love what I am doing — certainly not doing this for the money!! Gets?? XD