Future of Japanese Study

I had a very productive weekend. I finished the week’s schoolwork a day ahead of time, on Saturday evening, and I danced and shopped, and did a little bit of programming too. On Sunday I did laundry, went to church and the gym, then cooked in the evening. I also did a little more programming and started the textbook reading for this week. My goal is to finish the textbook reading and do the quiz today, but the reading is quite long so it might be a stretch. At sixth period today I hope to watch the first graders do the 百人一首 tournament.

I realized yesterday that I might be able to give some of my belongings to people at church. From the list that I made, the only thing that I’m dead set on selling is my bike and saddle bags, though I think it only makes sense to sell the other accessories with the bike. My rice maker is in good condition and rice makers are in high demand so I feel confident that I can get at least twenty bucks from it. If it’s appraised at less than that, I wouldn’t feel too bad about giving it away also. The rest of my belongings: music stand, coffee maker, trash can, etc. I’ll probably try to ask the incoming teachers if they want to have, and if not, I’ll offer them to people at church.

My other thought of this weekend was about the JLPT. My score was 84, and the passing score is 100. I still did very poorly with the reading, and I think in order to improve I would need to read and answer comprehension questions. As of right now, I can’t envision a setup in which I would be motivated to do this consistently. Furthermore, returning to Japan, while still possible, seems less likely than ever. Therefore passing the test seems to have value primarily in abstraction. For the next year and a half I want to prioritize schoolwork, then supplementing my savings, staying healthy and fit, and finally working on programming projects before any other activities. With so many things already on my plate and my schedule liable to be mutable, I think it might be difficult to commit to something as time-intensive as studying for the JLPT. So I think I will give up on Japanese for the first six months or so of this year. If I can make it through half of the summer feeling like I have some extra time and willpower to devote to another pursuit, I think July won’t be too late to start studying.