I chose Japanese language and culture for major

Good evening,


Since I graduated from High school, five years ago now,
I have been studying Japanese language and culture :
that means I've learnt some Japanese literature, history/civilisation,
arts (but no practises). I also had some class during which we read
some japanese philosophers' books, which was very boring for me
as I didn't understand neither Karatani's, nor Maruyama's way of thinking.


I've been, for four years, a student of the Japanese
department in Bordeaux 3 University
(French Literature and Foreign Languages).


As I chose literary disciplines, like English specialty
(add 2h of English, so in total 5h each week),
during my A level, it seemed obvious to me that
I had to carry on learning foreign languages.
And, indeed, English, Spanish and Latin were my
favourite subjects in junior high school and high school.


When I started studying Japanese language in Bordeaux,
I was very happy. The first year, it was easy to understand
at the beginning, so I thought I had good skills and I would be
able to speak fluently Japanese within 3 years.


But, the next year was more difficult and we noticed that some teachers
were cheating on us during the exams : they gave good marks to
their favourite students, and for those they couldn't bear to see,
they ensured that they would have to go to the remedial exams.


Because of that, many students from my promotion just gave up
and that just made me sad. Some teachers were punished for this problem
but nothing has changed until now.


Moreover, during classes, students weren't
used to speak a lot, because of shyness, because of the huge number of students
in each class, because we were afaid of our ba level, etc...


On the third year, there was a huge demonstration against the
Government's plan to reform the Education, which led the students
all over in France, to block every university for 6 monthes.
Hence, we didn't have class during this period, so our level didn't rise.


I really became aware of how low my Japanese level was
during my fourth year : only 20 students remainded, and half of them
had already spend a year or more in Japan as foreign students or workers.
I was so ashamed of my level that I barely spoke in oral class this year.


So, in order to remedy this problem, I decided to come to Hirosaki,
to seek for Japanese friends, to improve my knowledge in Japanese language.


That's all folks, thanks for reading !! ^^