My first day of school at the Fukuoka language school - an exciting start

To be honest, I knew that this day would come, but somehow I couldn't imagine it. I'm in a foreign country, I don't know anyone and I'm attending a school there to learn Japanese. I'm doing a Japanese course for foreigners in Japan, you have to let that sink in...

Nervousness before the first day of school

You can imagine the nervousness before the first day of school, even if you usually hear that from six-year-olds in primary school, or even later at ten when you go to secondary school. But me? I'm in my mid-20s, and I can guarantee I was more scared than the average six-year-old when they first step into the classroom. But to be fair, I also had a few reasons why I was so nervous.

Why I was nervous

Without beating around the bush, I booked a course that required a placement test. I had to be at a certain level of Japanese to be allowed to join. And that was very important to me because I didn't want to start from scratch. I had already learnt a lot of Japanese in Germany, but to be honest, I only managed to take the placement test the day after Christmas at the very last minute and after a week of studying, even at Christmas, I was done with Japanese for the next week.

But then things happened...

Due to various life changes in Berlin, I didn't get back into Japanese until a week before I left, and yes, I was suddenly quite worried about whether I would be able to reach the same level as a month ago. So even when I was travelling to Japan, I couldn't switch off and ‘had’ to learn Japanese.

By the way, you can read about my journey to Japan here - it was pretty stressful!

Well, in any case, I was afraid that I would be told on the first day of school that I wasn't good enough for the course and that I should please join the beginners' course. That wouldn't be bad in itself, but the progress I would lose would be a month at the language school! So I studied and studied, but the fear still didn't go away.

The night before the first day of school

If I were to say that I couldn't sleep tonight, that would be an exaggeration. But if I were to say that I slept well, that would be an understatement. I woke up for the first time at 4am, and then every half hour until I had to get up. The dreams were filled with situations like me overhearing the alarm clock or being demoted to the beginners' course. As a result, I was also a bit tired. But now finally to the actual school day!

The first day at school - only half a day

First of all, the general details:

I will be going to school from Monday to Friday from now on, from 9am to 12:20pm. That's not actually a lot, but it's certainly intensive. Four lessons of 45 minutes each, with a little break in between.

I enter the school and see an entrance area where you leave your shoes. Cosy, I think to myself. The secretary speaks to me in Japanese, I don't understand a word, I think to myself. Phrase by phrase we make progress in the conversation and finally I sit two metres away at a small business meeting-like table and find my seat. I was there earlier than the rest, but the room couldn't fit so many people in there anyway, which had calmed me down a bit. Then the room fills up, there are five of us, and the teacher starts the lesson.

Should I write my name on the blackboard in Japanese? No problem, I say ‘Hai’ and nod. I didn't realise at the time what I was saying yes to and after a few gestures I'm suddenly standing in front of the blackboard and I can't remember how to write my name in Japanese. I need some help and I'm ashamed that I can't write my name. I imagine a parallel world in which I wouldn't have been able to do this in first grade. What does the teacher think of me now? Anyway, back to my seat and I understand individual words and often say ‘Please repeat slowly’ in Japanese, a phrase I memorised particularly well on the plane.

When I realise that ‘slower’ and ‘again’ don't help me at all, I say ‘Wakarimasen - I don't understand/ I don't know’. But then the teacher suddenly speaks English to me and the other students don't seem at all put off by my subterranean performance. On the contrary, it seemed as if everything was completely fine.

As the lessons progress, I realise how relaxed the lessons are and that I even know a few more things about grammar than other students, which really motivates me. Of course, my vocabulary and my writing and speaking skills are well below the rest, but it was really worth it that I learnt so much grammar in advance.

My classmates and the international environment

We have a first and then a second break, which is a bit longer. The others take me straight to the ‘Kombini’, the convenience store, or simply Späti, for the Germans. 10 minutes break, I hear in my head and wonder why the rush. But I soon realise that everything was planned down to the minute and we really are back in the classroom eating our snack after exactly 10 minutes. Incidentally, a particular moment in the ‘Kombini’ was the moment that showed me how simply and calmly you can see things. I simply imitated the others, picked out the same snacks and even the phrases when paying were suddenly no longer so important.

I sat there in the classroom in a good mood, quietly slurping some ramen beef soup and suddenly felt like I belonged. The lessons were difficult, I really didn't understand much, but the grammar exercises were easy, so at least I could do the exercises well. Answering and asking questions is something I hardly ever did in Germany, not even writing, but now at least I know where I stand.

Conclusion from my teacher and me

And then the lesson was already over, and my concentration was pretty low, to be honest. But then the teacher came to me and told me that she thought I was in good hands in this lesson. I marvelled out loud and explained why I was so bad today, but she pointed out my strengths and said that it was completely normal not to understand so much at the beginning. I then asked the others who said the same thing. It's amazing that I have classmates who understand spoken Japanese so well after just two weeks. For me, this means that I too will probably make huge progress in the next few weeks.

Today wasn't easy, but if it was easy, it wouldn't mean that much. It was fun and gave my mentality such a kick in the right direction. I'm glad that I can stay in this class, even if it means that I still have a lot of revision to do. I'm sitting in front of the screen right now, thinking about the fact that for the people reading this in Germany, it's still mid-morning. If you're reading this, it's eight hours later for me at the same time. It's crazy how the world ticks.

Speaking of crazy: ‘crazy’ is a pretty good way to describe my journey to Japan and so far it's the article that means the most to me because I put my heart and soul into it. I would be very happy if you would still read ‘Four flights to Japan’ if you missed it a few days ago. Thank you very much and see you there!