No, I haven't decided to suddenly pack up and make my move over to Japan a few months early. What I have done though is to decide that I'll be moving my blog to Wordpress running on my very own hosting account.
It really started with me trying to find a new theme for my Blogger-blog without much luck. I then decided to check out Wordpress.com to see if the situation was any better...it was, but to be able to fully customize your blog they want you to pay (not much mind you but still). I figured "if I'm going to pay money I might as well get my own hosting and register a proper domain name" and so I did.
So, three days after I tried to change my Blogger theme I am the proud owner of jormedal.com, and my blog has been relocated to www.martin.jormedal.com/blog. If you're reading this on my old Blogger-blog I suggest you head over there right away and check it out. If you're already reading this at its new location, welcome! I promise to make continue to make this blog just as redundant as it ever was. ;)
Oh, and yes, I will get around to making the design a bit more personal. Just probably not for a month and a half or so. ;)
Alright that's the end of the last post for me on Blogger, thanks for getting me started! And the first post on my new very own Wordpress blog, here's for hoping you keep me going! Cheers! \ ^.^ /
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Silly "poodle scam" hoax
I quite frequently run across news or comments about "those wacky japanese", most of them founded in bad translations or just total lack of knowledge about the country and people they're mocking. This one takes the price though.
A recent hoax story claims that about 2000 sheep has been sold as poodles to japanese customers who couldn't tell the difference. This is obviously fake. Of course any japanese person can tell the difference between a sheep and a dog just as any european person would be able to spot the difference between say, a camel and a donkey.
I've seen this false story printed all over the english-speaking web and I just can't believe that anyone would be so stupid as to believe this, not to mention publish it!
Anyways, Here's a link that shows the spread of the hoax in Australia and explains some of the errors in the story (which seems to be based on a joke recounted on this year old japanese blog entry)
A recent hoax story claims that about 2000 sheep has been sold as poodles to japanese customers who couldn't tell the difference. This is obviously fake. Of course any japanese person can tell the difference between a sheep and a dog just as any european person would be able to spot the difference between say, a camel and a donkey.
I've seen this false story printed all over the english-speaking web and I just can't believe that anyone would be so stupid as to believe this, not to mention publish it!
Anyways, Here's a link that shows the spread of the hoax in Australia and explains some of the errors in the story (which seems to be based on a joke recounted on this year old japanese blog entry)
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tokyo Cribs: Martin
Today I got some more info on the apartment that From Software will be lending me. It's 26m² big and you can see for yourself how it looks like in the pictures. ^^There is another employee of the company living there right now, hence all the stuff.
They'll also lend me a TV albeit just a 15" one, brilliant I say, I love Japanese TV and it'll be great for working on my Japanese (as if talking, working and living with Japanese people 24/7 wouldn't ^.~)
Also I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I've
been awarded a scholarship for the thesis project from the Sweden-Japan Foundation! This will of course make it a lot easier to get by while over there. \ ^_^ /Saturday, April 14, 2007
An update of importance
It's official.
This Monday around 13:00 (UTC+1 time) I got a mail from From Software (「フロム・ソフトウェア」) of Tokyo saying they'll let me do my graduation project ("exjobb" for the Swedes) at their company from the 3:rd of September till the middle of January.
I'm going to Japan people, and I just couldn't be more stoked about it! \^o^/
From Software seems like a really nice company to work at and they've been nothing but really nice when negotiating this. I really want to make a good impression so I'll be trying to read up as much as I can on the project before I go and expecting to do quite a lot of overtime while there. They will also hook me up with one of their apartments! For free! 10min by foot from the company! About two or three stops from Shinjuku!!! xD
I'll probably fly over a week or so in advance to spend some time with Yumeko (who by the way found an apartment in Tokyo about 10min away from Haneda airport where she'll be working from August when her two month training is over) before work kicks in. I'll be waiting for my good friend Daniel to get word on his exchange studies at Tokyo Institute of Technology before planning my trip over, we've been discussing taking the Transsiberian railway... ^.~
This Monday around 13:00 (UTC+1 time) I got a mail from From Software (「フロム・ソフトウェア」) of Tokyo saying they'll let me do my graduation project ("exjobb" for the Swedes) at their company from the 3:rd of September till the middle of January.
I'm going to Japan people, and I just couldn't be more stoked about it! \^o^/
From Software seems like a really nice company to work at and they've been nothing but really nice when negotiating this. I really want to make a good impression so I'll be trying to read up as much as I can on the project before I go and expecting to do quite a lot of overtime while there. They will also hook me up with one of their apartments! For free! 10min by foot from the company! About two or three stops from Shinjuku!!! xD
I'll probably fly over a week or so in advance to spend some time with Yumeko (who by the way found an apartment in Tokyo about 10min away from Haneda airport where she'll be working from August when her two month training is over) before work kicks in. I'll be waiting for my good friend Daniel to get word on his exchange studies at Tokyo Institute of Technology before planning my trip over, we've been discussing taking the Transsiberian railway... ^.~
Monday, April 02, 2007
日本語能力試験二級合格！ / JLPT level 2 passed!
I wrote about the trip to Denmark to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Tests ("JLPT" for short and 「日本語能力試験」 in Japanese) here.
Now the grading of this test apparently takes a lot of time as the results weren't to be expected until late February It felt as if I had been waiting forever but finally the results came and I had passed! I'm incredibly happy that I didn't put myself through that ordeal for nothing.
The passing score was 60% and I cleared it with a margin of nearly 10% with my 69.75%. As I explained in my earlier post the test is divided into three parts:
1.kanji and vocabulary ("moji / goi")
2. vocal understanding / listening ("chôkai")
3. reading and grammar ("dokkai / bunpô")
Before the test I was mostly worried about the first part, but I cleared it with ease at a whopping 84%! \^o^/ Part 2 should be my strong point but I'm not too happy with my 85% here...I could've done better. The last part was, as expected (see previous post), the one that lowered my overall score quite dramatically with the lowly 55% that I managed to scrape together.
Well then, the aim is set for 一級 / level 1 next year, and this time I'll make sure to practice my speed-reading properly in preparation for the dokkai / bunpô part. ^.^
Anyhow it feels great to have some sort of poof of my Japanese skills. Since I've done most of my studying by myself, the courses and points I have from the university say little of my current level.
Now the grading of this test apparently takes a lot of time as the results weren't to be expected until late February It felt as if I had been waiting forever but finally the results came and I had passed! I'm incredibly happy that I didn't put myself through that ordeal for nothing.
The passing score was 60% and I cleared it with a margin of nearly 10% with my 69.75%. As I explained in my earlier post the test is divided into three parts:
1.kanji and vocabulary ("moji / goi")
2. vocal understanding / listening ("chôkai")
3. reading and grammar ("dokkai / bunpô")
Before the test I was mostly worried about the first part, but I cleared it with ease at a whopping 84%! \^o^/ Part 2 should be my strong point but I'm not too happy with my 85% here...I could've done better. The last part was, as expected (see previous post), the one that lowered my overall score quite dramatically with the lowly 55% that I managed to scrape together.
Well then, the aim is set for 一級 / level 1 next year, and this time I'll make sure to practice my speed-reading properly in preparation for the dokkai / bunpô part. ^.^
Anyhow it feels great to have some sort of poof of my Japanese skills. Since I've done most of my studying by myself, the courses and points I have from the university say little of my current level.
Back from the dead!
Alright so I promised that I would get better at posting regularly and failed, miserably. -_-; But now I'm back and quite a lot has happened since I last wrote something here. Over the next week or two I'll try to make a couple of posts on the more important and/or interesting stuff.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
My first car will be electric.
I just watched this documentary on the state of electric cars in America and the large step back the car makers have done there. It's quite sad really but luckily, the situation it quite different in Japan where the government has a goal of 50000 fuel-cell cars on the roads by 2010 and at least Mitsubishi aims to start selling plug-in fully electric cars before the same year. Then of course we have Toyota and Honda the current leaders in hybrid technology.
Anyways I had decided upon at least going for a hybrid for my first car but since that's still a few years off I've decided to upgrade that plan to at least a plug-in hybrid, but aiming for a fully electric plug-in car.
Also, if anyone is wondering what to give me for my next birthday here's a hint; do a search for the "Tesla roadster" for some awesome Knight-rider-eat-my-shorts whizzing speed freak action. ;D
Saturday, December 09, 2006
日本語能力試験 / JLPT
Damn! more then a month without any updates is far to long. I need to start making shorter more frequent updates or I'll never feel up to doing any at all. (-_-;).
Anyways, last weekend I went to Copenhagen to take the "nihongo nouryoku shiken" (that's what the kanji in the title says) a.k.a. the "Japanese Language Proficiency Test". The test is conducted once a year in December at the same date in all countries where you can take it, sadly Sweden is not one of those countries hence the need to go to Denmark to take it. As always I waited too long to book the trip and wound up going by bus instead of train as was originally planned. For those who don't already know I generally detest buses. (>_<) However the trip down wasn't too bad, I didn't need to switch bus even once and the bus wasn't too full so I easily got myself two seats and since I brought a lot of study material I could spend the 6,5 hours preparing for the test. When I arrived in Copenhagen I went to the hostel I had booked. Once again I had to take the bus worrying all the while whether I would be able to decipher the name of the bus stop in time to get off. I did, with some help from some nice danish people and all went well. Before going to bed I learned that the university where the test was held was just 20 minutes away by subway (yay, train!) which gave me time for a good nights sleep. The next day I got to the test venue with proper time to spare. I met up with some people from my own university and a lot of other swedes as well. Seemed like almost everyone taking the test were swedish! The organization was pretty lacking though with time schedules with the three parts of the test in different order and quite a lot of delays. (>_<)
Finally the test got under way. It has four levels or "kyû" (yes, just like in budô), you choose your level when you apply and then you either pass or not. A bit different from english tests such as TOEFL that is. Four is the lowest level and one is the highest, I was going for level two or "nikyû".
The test is divided into three parts: kanji and vocabulary ("moji / goi"), vocal understanding / listening ("chôkai") and finally reading and grammar ("dokkai / bunpô"). I was mostly worried about the first part and as such had spent a lot of time studying kanji before the test. It seemed to have worked because that part felt a lot easier than I had expected from the mock tests I had practiced on. the second part was about as difficult as my mock tests and as such went quite well as well, not surprising since day-to-day conversation is my strong point.
The last part though...was the one I had spent the least time preparing for and faith decided I should suffer for it. I had looked trough some of the mock tests and decided that the texts and questions seemed pretty easy as long as I didn't get to hung up on any kanji so I put even more focus on studying those. What I forgot to check properly was the time given for the test, not very much according to the people I spoke to in the brake before the test and they most certainly were right. 70 minutes, 60 (multiple choice , but still) questions and a question booklet of 22 pages! In bloody Japanese! In the end I managed to properly answer about half of the questions and just put down random markings on the other half (thank you multiple choice tests!). Not very good that is. (-_-;) But, it turns out the first questions, which were on longer texts, give 5 points each and the rest which were quick grammatical questions give just 2 points each...*phew*.
All things considered and given that you need a total of just 60% over all the three parts to pass, I'm still quite optimistic. The results though, will be subject to japanese bureaucracy until the beginning of March! (>_<)
The afternoon and evening was spent on a pizza buffet and a couple of beers with my australian buddy Tim who works in Copenhagen at the moment (and whom I totally forgot about when booking the hostel).
The bus home left at 21:05 and provided me with a hellish ride home with a total of maybe 1,5 hours of sleep. Needless to say I wasn't all to energetic at the lecture on Monday morning 08:15....I hate buses.
Anyways, last weekend I went to Copenhagen to take the "nihongo nouryoku shiken" (that's what the kanji in the title says) a.k.a. the "Japanese Language Proficiency Test". The test is conducted once a year in December at the same date in all countries where you can take it, sadly Sweden is not one of those countries hence the need to go to Denmark to take it. As always I waited too long to book the trip and wound up going by bus instead of train as was originally planned. For those who don't already know I generally detest buses. (>_<) However the trip down wasn't too bad, I didn't need to switch bus even once and the bus wasn't too full so I easily got myself two seats and since I brought a lot of study material I could spend the 6,5 hours preparing for the test. When I arrived in Copenhagen I went to the hostel I had booked. Once again I had to take the bus worrying all the while whether I would be able to decipher the name of the bus stop in time to get off. I did, with some help from some nice danish people and all went well. Before going to bed I learned that the university where the test was held was just 20 minutes away by subway (yay, train!) which gave me time for a good nights sleep. The next day I got to the test venue with proper time to spare. I met up with some people from my own university and a lot of other swedes as well. Seemed like almost everyone taking the test were swedish! The organization was pretty lacking though with time schedules with the three parts of the test in different order and quite a lot of delays. (>_<)
Finally the test got under way. It has four levels or "kyû" (yes, just like in budô), you choose your level when you apply and then you either pass or not. A bit different from english tests such as TOEFL that is. Four is the lowest level and one is the highest, I was going for level two or "nikyû".
The test is divided into three parts: kanji and vocabulary ("moji / goi"), vocal understanding / listening ("chôkai") and finally reading and grammar ("dokkai / bunpô"). I was mostly worried about the first part and as such had spent a lot of time studying kanji before the test. It seemed to have worked because that part felt a lot easier than I had expected from the mock tests I had practiced on. the second part was about as difficult as my mock tests and as such went quite well as well, not surprising since day-to-day conversation is my strong point.
The last part though...was the one I had spent the least time preparing for and faith decided I should suffer for it. I had looked trough some of the mock tests and decided that the texts and questions seemed pretty easy as long as I didn't get to hung up on any kanji so I put even more focus on studying those. What I forgot to check properly was the time given for the test, not very much according to the people I spoke to in the brake before the test and they most certainly were right. 70 minutes, 60 (multiple choice , but still) questions and a question booklet of 22 pages! In bloody Japanese! In the end I managed to properly answer about half of the questions and just put down random markings on the other half (thank you multiple choice tests!). Not very good that is. (-_-;) But, it turns out the first questions, which were on longer texts, give 5 points each and the rest which were quick grammatical questions give just 2 points each...*phew*.
All things considered and given that you need a total of just 60% over all the three parts to pass, I'm still quite optimistic. The results though, will be subject to japanese bureaucracy until the beginning of March! (>_<)
The afternoon and evening was spent on a pizza buffet and a couple of beers with my australian buddy Tim who works in Copenhagen at the moment (and whom I totally forgot about when booking the hostel).
The bus home left at 21:05 and provided me with a hellish ride home with a total of maybe 1,5 hours of sleep. Needless to say I wasn't all to energetic at the lecture on Monday morning 08:15....I hate buses.
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