Ritsumeikan University Life

Hello, thought I'd give a bit of  an update of where I'm at. I'm currently in my 3rd week of classes. Monday's class was cancelled due to a typhoon warning as was last week's Monday class.

Here's a break down on what we're expected to do as a student of the Study in Kyoto Program (SKP) in the Intensive Japanese Language Track (IJL). We have classes everyday from Monday to Friday. Our Japanese language studies are divided into 3 courses. Each class goes for 1 and a half hours.

IJL Courses Explained

Comprehensive Japanese Class

The first course is called 'comprehensive Japanese' which teachers us new vocab and grammar functions. We have one class of this everyday, Monday to Friday. We have 2 vocab tests each week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday. We also have homework sheets each week, due on Wednesday and Monday.

Speaking and Listening Class

The Second course is called 'speaking and listening' which teachers us exactly what you'd expect. We have two classes of this a week.

Kanji Class

Finally, the third class is Kanji class. Depending on your level, you may have to learn more or less Kanji per week. We have a Kanji quiz each week where I must memorise 15 Kanji including the compound words they provide us with. Although, we don't have to remember the other Kanji found in those compound words, we just need to be able to recognise the word.

Traditional Arts Classes

I also signed up for the Traditional Arts course, Calligraphy. I have one class of Calligraphy each week on Mondays. Traditional Arts courses are courses that students can voluntarily sign up for and if there are too many students who sign up for a course, the names go into a lottery. So you may not get the course you signed up for even if you tried signing up for all 4 courses. Other people I know got accepted into the course but their Japanese Language classes clash with the timing so they had to drop out and give their position to someone else. Luckily, I was chosen to get into Calligraphy and it didn't clash with my courses. Calligraphy is pretty laid back and it doesn't matter if we 'pass or fail' it. I don't believe we even get marked on anything. We just walk in and start painting/writing away and the teacher demonstrates how to write certain things.

Timetables

Depending on what level class you are placed into, your classes will be at different times. It seems as though everyone in IJL have at least one class each day of the week from Monday to Friday. All my days but Monday start at 1 O'clock in the afternoon or later. My latest finish is at 6 O'clock which is one day. You may have to start as early as 9 AM. Also, the traditional arts courses besides Calligraphy are held off campus, and one is even on a Saturday morning!