I actually had some conversation classes with Americans this year. And I'm pretty jealous of the American education system. From what I gather, you need to study four years to get a BA, correct? Well, while it takes three years to get a BA here, it's actually pretty useless. You won't find a job without an MA, which takes an additional two years. And I'm already studying a year longer because of my second faculty, so I'll be studying for a total of six years. And I feel worn out already But still, sometimes it's pretty fun and I really feel I'm doing what I was made to do. Too bad the only thing I'm really good at is pretty useless. Nowadays, phonetics don't matter, according to some linguists.
It's actually the easier of the two. It's just a cloze test (is that how you call it?) - we need to just choose the right answer. The GB part is actually pretty much overkill - every question is like a mini essay, where we have to describe stuff in detail. And we had a semester on each part. I'm more linguistically-oriented, I guess. Last year, my best score on the exams was Descriptive Grammar of English - I got a five (top score) in phonetics and phonology I love that stuff. I was actually the first person in the history of the department to get 100% on my practical oral exam (American phonetics, mind you)... But I'm bragging, sorry Japanese is actually much more difficult for me. While I could be very good at the practical subjects if I had the time, Kanji are just another world of difficulty. I guess the problem is my memory. While I comprehend theory and can use it in practice pretty well, when it comes to direct memory, chronology and remembering symbols, I suck >.<
Lol, history is actually my favorite subject. I took a History of India and South East Asia last semester and plan on doing a course on Ireland this fall. Wish I could get a decent Russian history course. Though I can agree that American history can be pretty boring.
Yeah, me too. You know, me ranting here about people ranting is hypocrisy, too Anyway, I'm studying for a history exam now. I failed my History of Great Britain and the USA exam last year and I have to retake it now. It sucks! It's tomorrow and I feel stupid, can't remember anything D: I've never liked history, as history never liked me. Dealing with two faculties is hard enough in and of itself. I had to postpone most of my Japanese exams to September I'm gonna kill the one who said University is the best period of life.
I feel that way too, but often times I get caught in the hypocrisy of that line of thinking. Course I tend to insert my foot into my mouth a lot, so I guess its normal.
Maybe we're talking about the same guy here? :P But seriously, I sometimes can't get how closed-minded people can be. Don't hate it until you try it and you get to know what you're actually hating.
I have one friend who hates the Wii and motion gaming with a passion. He is set in his mind that motion gaming has failed and while he's not as pissy about the DS or Nintendo in general, I sometimes feel he hates on things for silly reason, course he probably feels the same way about some of my opinions.
The worst part is I have a close friend who's like that. And it's annoying as hell. He claims to be a casual gamer and yet rants about the gimmicks of the DS and Wii. Of course, the Xbox 360 can do no wrong and the Kinnect (is that how you spell it?) is an awesome, revolutionary add-on, and not a gimmick at all. It's sometimes funny, though, how worked up he gets when talking about cash cow franchises like Pokemon, Zelda and Mario, even though he has little experience with them. He played one generation of Pokemon ("the new ones are ugly - they're running out of ideas!"), one Mario game ("but they're all the same and it's always the same. effin. MARIO you're playing as!") and no Zelda. And he hates them for being all the same. That annoys the hell out of me, but how pissed off he gets is pretty amusing.
To them, it doesn't even matter if the DS has traditional games like Strange Journey cause these people have just decided they hated the Wii/DS and won't hear any of it. Half the time they bitch about using the motion controls and touch screen but if you talk about a game that doesn't use it, then they bitch about "what was the point of it being on the system if it doesn't use the gimmicky controls I hate?". Its a damn if you do, damn if you don't with these people and I would just ignore them.
These are the people who feel that "if your game doesn't have chiseled space marines, disembowelment, or the FFVII cast on your system, its a kiddy game and it must be on a kiddy system cause real games have gore and swearing and high res graphics and none of that cell shaded crap..." so they can suck it for all I care, cause half the time it has nothing to do with "casual" or "hardcore" its just "games I use to play on the PS1-2" and "new games that don't require a traditional controller, OH NOES! ITS A HAX"
