Subok lang naman

A few weeks ago, the UP Linguistics Department announced on their Facebook page that they will be holding language classes as a fundraising for their students and alumni. Among the languages available were Bahasa Indonesia/Malaysia, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. I have always wanted to learn a third language so this piqued my interest. Inggit kasi ako sa ate ko who is fluent in Bahasa Indonesia haha. Every time I visit her in Bali or Jakarta, it never ceases to amaze me how she can nonchalantly converse with the locals.

Apart from the chance to learn a new language, the more important part was that that I can extend some help while at it. I immediately signed up for the Japanese classes and made a humble donation.

Our first class was this morning and... ang hirap hahaha! 

First, we each introduced ourselves with a guide that the teacher provided on screen. This part was easy kasi may kodigo lol. There were 14 of us in class, and it was cool how our ages and profession varied. There was a 14-year old student, a 25 year-old researcher, a 45-year old doctor, and a 41-year old Corp Comm Manager (me!) among others.

The initial lesson was Hiaragana, a component of the Japanese writing system. This means we were not only minding the pronunciation, we also had to practice writing the characters. Hindi ko inexpect! I thought it would be more of speaking, where the Japanese words would be spelled out using the English Alphabet. There was even a recitation, where the teacher would ask us to read the words in Hiragana and pronounce them. 

Nandiyan na rin lang, so fight na lol. I was called thrice and I was thankfully able to answer. Our teacher, a lovely young lady who works as a translator, also then gave us assignments, one of which is to write the lyrics of our favorite Japanese song in Hiragana.

Utada Hikaru na ito :D

Hopefully, sa susunod, hindi lang "It's automatic!" ang lyrics na kaya kong kantahin dito lololol.

We have four more two-hour sessions to go. Subok lang naman. If this goes well, I am hoping to enrol in UP's full course on Basic Japanese this summer. Malalaman natin kung matutuloy yan four weeks from now ;)