Planing for The Last Week

I have one week holiday before heading home in Japan, and I am wondering what I want to do during the period.


Maybe I will be looking for some souvenirs for friends and family in Japan. My mom sent me a list where names of relatives and families are written and was like "This is least."


I most appreciate for my parents and grandmother in this study abroad, because they allow and help me to live in Australia, giving a great deal of financial aid as well as supporting me in many ways.


In addition to souvenirs, I haven't proceeded luggage packing at all, and even haven't started it yet. I am thinking of sending some Australian snacks and other stuff I don't need anymore in this weekend.


Some of my friends are planning to go for a trip during that time, but I feel like I am not up for it. Although I still have some places where I have wanted to visit at least once, I am feeling like I don't want to put an effort for that.


I also have lots of things that I want to do after this study abroad, so I am looking forward to heading home!

Internship

I started an internship at the beginning of November.

My colleagues and other staffs there are very nice and friendly, and I was surprised at first by when they are calling their first name each other.


Although during an orientation term of the internship, I was given an explanation about that, it was still unusual for me.


However, at the same point, I thought it was a very nice custom to let them get close emotionally, which makes communication smooth.

Since my jobs are very simple and easy, I sometimes got bored and have been thinking four weeks are enough for me.


Even though I felt that way, the experience to work at an Australian company is special, so I have been thankful for this opportunity.


And on this Thursday, I went for lunch with my co-worker for the first time. He is a very nice person and we talked a lot about our culture.


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Almost nine months have passed since I started living here, Australia.


I was really confused at first, and wanted to go back many times, but overall I gained lots of priceless experience.


I have gone through a plenty of difficulties and challenges to overcome.


And I have learnt how to deal with them and enjoy them, which is still quite difficult though.


So, I cannot tell how grateful I am for people around me.


I have less than two weeks left before going home. I just would like to enjoy my life here.

if times fly or not

Exact 7 months has passed since I came here, Australia. It looks like I've been here for a long time and I know about Aussie and its life, but I'm still not sure about it.

I think it's been a long way to get here. I've spent this term with lots of anxiety, disappointment, dissatisfaction as well as happiness. Come to think of it, this 9 months journey started with  lots of nervousness and excitement and I was not sure I could live in that unfamiliar place. (No wonder I was so struggling, because it was the first time to go abroad and even to live in another place.)

Compared with the first month here, I'm doing okay. I finally got used to this life that is inundated with English.

Before this studying abroad, I got a list that shows my goals I would try during this trip. Unfortunately, I lost it because of the stupidest accident ever of mobile phone that I saved that list in.
If my memory was not wrong, I would get 5 goals, which include

• able to read difficult articles and books that are both academic and casual
• able to use English in a natural way
• make Australian friends
• be good at communicating
• had my own firm opinions about anything

Roughly there are 5 main aims. and I'm not confident especially about third one. This is because I don't have any Australian friend yet.

EAP II

Finally, I finished my great classes at EAP II!!

When I failed IELTS that made me keep studying and felt ashamed for myself, I didn't want to join new class honestly. At that time, all of the things: my misunderstanding that I studied hard, the fact it was not enough for the pass and difficulty that I had a big gap with other students studying at UQ made me anxious. That was so tough for me I wanted to run away from this study abroad. 

However, I now think this way I've studied was also great as well as going to the university (I don't know it well), because I learned a lot of important things thanks to my main teacher, David.

As you can see (if you've taken his classes), he definitely is the most strict teacher of all ICTE teachers. The confidence I felt after EAP I was completely broken by him with underlining every single line of my essays meaning many errors as well as some comments saying, 'very very poor essay'. 

At first, I felt down, but as time went by, it turned into heartbreak that helps me study harder than before. As a result, I could beat him (maybe), because he said to me, 'You're a good student' when I received a good result at the final exam. Perhaps, I need strict teachers like him when studying. Thank you, David!

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Before the internship, I want to focus on speaking and listening, which are my weaknesses and I dislike. I am not happy and used taking with new people or those who I don't know so much. But I need to do it, because it is my weakness. Also, I want to concentrate on translation. I heard that the class in the next session will have time to watch films, so I'm excited about it.

Finish Reading

Today, I took an exam at ICTE, which was quite difficult for me, especially Listening.  David, my main teacher said to me that my score in listening was very low, so I need to focus on it in the rest of study abroad. i was kind of shocked at that fact, and felt a big gap form other Kansai university students ( i see them as a kind of rival as well as the best friends).

Apart from that i do not want to think about while I feel like I need to do so, i finished reading the book I've been reading for three months. I once quit continuing it after my first session in ICTE because i didn't want to, and because my everyday life was full of anxiety and tiredness. But since i got used to the life in Australia, I thought I wanted to read something.

Speaking of the progress of translation, it is in 15 mins that I'm struggling to translate now. Proceeding it, i found several tips and findings which are...

• basically allowed to put just three letters in one sec into subtitles
• should be simple, clear and natural
• should focus on the main point speakers want to mention
• when finding it too difficult to contain all things speakers mention, have a courage to eliminate unimportant information
• should face a computer for a long time when i feel annoyed about it (HOW DO THEY MAKE IT IN SHORT PERIOD OF TIME??)
• Should be patient. It is sometimes so frustrating that i shout in my mind " DON'T SPEAK! ANYMORE!!!"

Although i want to work in Australia translation company as internship, it looks impossible according to my internship program supervisor. i understood i cannot, but i'm just wondering why i cannot get internship which is in centre of my field. DISAPPOINTED... She said i need to have experience where i finished many subjects related to translation and i didn't. In my opinion, which is important to be noticed, internship should be experienced not by people who completed their study so are ready to work in society, but by students who have little experience about the job. i dont know i'm correct or not, but i felt so.

Translation

Recently, I'm trying to translate some works which I found interesting and brilliant and after, will be put into a list of my favourites.

The movie that is making me struggle to translate and realise that translation is a bloody tough task for me (not only me hopefully) is "The fault in Our Stars."

As I wrote in the last post, the film is amazing, which is about cancer.  If you see that movie carefully and enjoyably, you can see and share my feeling about it.  And if not, it is no surprise that you don't feel impressed, like one of my friends who watched it at my recommendation.

But don't get me wrong, I don't want to force someone else to try it and talk with me about that a-Japanese-guy-who-writes-a-strange-blog-in-his-poor-English-is-strongly-recommending movie.  This is because that kind of behaviour is exactly what I don't want anyone to do to me.  I hate people who compel to do something that they assume it also is amazing to others (Actually, it is not always, to be precise, it happens very occasionally).  As a result, I have to make an effort in order that I wouldn't hurt their feelings and make them notice my thoughtfulness.

The reason why I am writing this boring and too long daily is, by the way, I want to practise some expressions which are similar to that of  film's author, while wondering if these weird phrases such as "a-Japanese-guy..." and whatnot, are correct or not.  

Now, while writing an uninteresting blog as a break, I am transferring every single phrase that characters say into OneNote through hard typing, so I can translate them.  I'm looking forward to translation after completing the transferring, although I've done only 25-Min's so far.

Speaking of translation, there was an argument about the Japanese translation of the movie's title, "The Fault in Our Stars."  When I saw this movie in Japan, its title had an completely opposite meaning.  It said, "きっと、星のせいじゃない," which means "it's definitely not the fault in our stars."  At the first time I saw it, I really didn't understand why the translator decided to choose the opposite meaning title, even after watching the movie.  However, reading its original book helped me get out of the unclear wonder.  The title actually quote a phrase by Shakespeare which is "The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underling."  In this movie, "Fault" means cancers which characters have and "Stars" is a fate, meaning "We had cancers, and it is inevitable.  But, it's up to us how we lead a life which is limited by cancers, but also includes an infinite possibility."  So, although they know their limited lives were inevitable, they believed they can do and have to do anything in such lives.

MOVIE

Yesterday, I've gotten the DVD of my favorite movie called "The Fault In Our Stars"

I've already watched it in February, before I came to Australia. It's very heartwarming and I was moved when watching it yesterday as well as the last time. 

The movie stars a 17 years-old girl who suffers from a lung cancer and after, fells in love with a boy aged 18 years-old who has only one leg. I've seen many this kind of movies, like about disabled peole, but that film is different. Normally, disabled movies contain a charity by disabled characters and it tries to make audience cry. They are also good, but I'm not as moved as the movie which describes a beautiful love story between a young girl and boy.