Shambles

I'm still reeling at the 4-1 defeat at the hands of Germany. To be fair, we squandered the second half after bringing Joe Cole on. We lost our swagger that we had despite being down 2-1. After the even worse decision to bring on Heskey you could tell all was lost.

Next, Japan vs. Paraguay. Japan could win it. I can dream they might even make the final too. And beat Brazil perhaps? Er, no. Still, could be interesting.

And when you are greeted with rudeness...

When I talked about being greeted rudely by a neighbour, I didn't realise he'd been blog material before.

Anyway, that's depressing so have some flamingoes.

Reasons to learn Japanese (or any foreign language)

This is my first list post in a while but I was thinking about my motivation for studying Japanese. Don't worry, I will change to a less boring and bookish topic soon; possibly sex on motorbikes or bungee jumping with sushi. Roll on 4th of July when the test is over and I can live life again with English for a bit.

Anyway, here are some reasons for studying a foreign language:

So you can get your wallet back when you lose it on the bus and need to phone to find out where the bus office is. Like I did tonight.

So you can buy what you actually want in supermarkets. The sunflower oil-vinegar switcheroo is only funny the first time, and not exactly hilarious at that.

The culture of the country you're living in must be a bit interesting of you're still there, right?

To understand what people are saying about you. Love and hate, both are useful to know about.

To pass tests and advance your career one day perhaps.

To make friends and be able to talk about The Cure, Björk and Depeche Mode to people in bars.

Oh so many reasons. It would be ever so welcome if you had other ideas and left them in the comments.

O-yasumi!

Other related posts are: Study In Progress, Crap and I Think I'm Learning Japanese.

World Cup 2010 - or better things to do

I have been watching football but however much I watch simply depresses me. That the best game I've seen so far has been Japan versus Cameroon speaks volumes. The two games England have played are games where I am glad I only watched the 'highlights' instead of dragging my arse out of bed at 3:30 in the morning before work.

In the lead up to the tournament, there were a ton of voices hyping England up saying we could win it. With the dire Heskey and woeful Lampard, I always wondered where the evidence was.

I'm hoping we can beat Slovenia, but God knows how. There's probably more chance of Japan getting one over on Holland.

And to think this has been effecting my Japanese study.

Study in progress

I got my JLPT N2 test confirmation/test voucher yesterday so I am definitely, definitely taking the test, which is quite scary considering I have been having a crisis of confidence this week. However, I have finished the 500 N3-N2 questions textbook I bought, and have finished the N2 grammar book I bought. Just have to do the reading, do some vocab study and take some practice tests.

And work, eat, sleep, and find time for laundry and going to the toilet.

Crap

Crap English football team can't play for toffee and win only because of a crap Japanese defence. A crap World Cup for England fans, I reckon.

Crap insult after greeting neighbour with "Konnichi wa" I get the retort of "Kimochi warui" (feels bad, or more like disgusting). Feel like putting crap in his letterbox but then neither his wife nor the postal service have insulted me.

Crap at Japanese after studying on and off for five years. Crap command of vocabulary even though I can pretty much carry an everyday conversation after a fashion.

At least neither work nor the weather are crap at the moment.