I had my first intermediate Japanese lesson today. Bath does not offer an intermediate Japanese course to postgraduates, so I was urged to join the undergraduate course with the 19 year-olds. The students giggled nervously, dreadding being questioned, and then stealing glances at the book or trying to get their friends to whisper the answers to them if they were questioned. I associated all this with elementary school French. Instead of questioning what I was doing there, I wondered what they were doing there, when clearly they considered this to be an ordeal rather than an opportunity to learn. As undergraduates they get credits for this course, but that need not necessarily kill any interest in what they are learning.

Having said that, they all kick my arse at katakana and hiragana, so I better try and catch up.