Darlo's World

Classes started again at 9 o’clock this morning and man does it look like it’s going to be a buggar of a year … again. As far as Japanese language classes go it seems we’re all now together regardless of level; we were told we’d all come back and be roughly the same level. I was sitting next to someone who’d studied Japanese since school (and was in the higher class pre-japan) and behind someone who’d just been living there for 2 years. Not exactly on what I’d consider to be my level of play. I did receive some kind words from one teacher though who said that it appeared from my resit that I had been studying hard. True as this is, I still couldn’t learn my result other than ‘pass’.

I made a change in my modules this morning as a few new ones had been added onto the system since initial registration, dropping a 20 credit Japanese history module in favour of two 10 credit Japanese Economy/Management/Environment ones. On arrival to my environment class this afternoon, it seems that not many other students had thought about it either (I only found out about its existance on Friday) as I was the only student. After a short while we were joined by one more student, doubling the student population of the room. I’m intrigued to see how the class progresses from here.

On Saturday I had a rather fun time at a Jiu Jitsu “give-it-a-go” session, thanks to Leeds Uni Jiu Jitsu club. Tonight I’ll be heading over there again to see how I feel about it. I still want to try a few other clubs before I settle on a sports one (to add to Japan Soc, LSTV, Anime Soc and possibly LURPS).

Well I’ve finally finished it. Ish. The animation that I started over a year ago. The only thing I’m missing is sound, and I’m hoping that’s where you come in. I’m looking for a narrator to interact with Anna, the main character, while she learns a simple Japanese phrase. I don’t mind about the voice too much, as long as you’re clear and easy to listen to, but remember that this is in the style of a children’s show (though if Stephen Fry wanted to audition I’m sure he’d be perfect). As Anna’s learning a Japanese phrase, a basic knowledge of how to pronounce Japanese words (written in romanised text) would be helpful. I should also point out that Anna doesn’t physically speak, but uses text bubbles. So if you want to have a go, here’s what you need to do.

Record yourself following the audition lines below in MP3 format, and send them to me at darlo@darlosworld.co.uk. The audition deadline will be Saturday 10th October (6pm BST), so there’s still plenty of time.

Audition Lines:

• Good morning Anna, are you ready to learn today?
• Would you like to learn some Japanese?
• Do you know any Japanese already? (Anna thinks, but doesn’t seem to know any) Oh I’m sure you know some Japanese words, let’s think really hard.
• To say “I am Anna”, you say “Watashi wa Anna desu”.
• (Anna get’s it wrong and laughs it off) Never mind, shall we try again?
• Very good Anna well done … (stammers and get’s cut off as Anna recites a phrase of Japanese) oh Anna, now you’re just showing off, aren’t you.

Here’s the animation so you can get a feel for it. Don’t worry about timing the lines accordingly, as I will make adjustments to the timings.

AUDITIONS RECEIVED (last updated 10th October 09)
Kakkun
Jason Phelps
katy
R Wong
slowolf88
Tiffany
wushubabe
Damaru12
Jennifer Vaughn
KingTsundere
Tylec

The weekend gone by has been very weird. I’ve not had a need to study my arse off every day and have gone back to working on an animation I started over a year ago (ironically a learning Japanese one). I’ve also been helping to promote LSTV to the freshers to try and draw in some more members, all the while never knowing if I myself would be able to rejoin this year or not. We also had a mini-house party in which we ate a delicious pasta dinner and (finally) cracked open that bottle of Champagne Lloyds TSB tried to buy me off with (you might have to look back through the old blog for info on that). We also decided on a cleaning rota, and as luck would have it, I was first up. So after arriving home this afternoon I cracked right on with hoovering and mopping.

I then came online, and while listening to a song by Angela Aki, I noticed I had an email about my exam.

…

I passed.

Some would call me a pessimistic person and for the most part I would agree with them. However there is optimism in my pessimistic ways. For you see if you always look at things negatively, Nozomu Itoshiki style, then you will never be dissapointed if the worst should happen. Likewise when something good happens you’re then over the moon as you were expecting nothing of the sort. So to bring this round to a relevant point, my exam.

Now for those who don’t know or just plain forgot, this exam that I took this morning is as important to my degree as non-linear narratives are to a Quentin Tarantino film (I haven’t seen Inglorious Basterds yet so don’t know how that goes). As I said in the pre-exam entry I did sacrifice a Summer, which I should have been working and earning money, to study every single thing that we were expected to know but was held back my my crappy memory.

So how did it go?

We won’t know until next week (possibly Monday or Tuesday) but incase you can’t tell from the tone at which I’m whacking the keys on my keyboard, I don’t think it went well. If I had passed then it would be by the skin of my teeth, and not knowing what will happen if I do fail is what is really eating me up inside.

I guess my next entry will be the result.

Having sacrificed a Summer to cover all kanji, vocab and grammar that we were expected to know from 76 chapters for the exam I am about to take (10am BST), I am severly haunted by the fact that I can’t remember a bloody thing. As I sit here eating a bowl of Shreddies (the last of the box so it’s mainly broken Shreddie fluff), I worry about outcomes. I personally don’t feel like I will pass, having made it this far without passing a written exam for Leeds so far and passing on a reasonable oral score, but as classes start in just over a weeks time, should the worst happen I have absolutely no idea what I will do.

I’ll see you after.