- Queen Street, Auckland (17.05.08) -

First of all, I’d like to welcome Izz and Henry to the Caramel Toffee/Junjou.info family Now I have three darling hostees under my wings (or the lack thereof) . Izz keeps a site where you can watch streaming anime episodes, and Henry is making an online portfolio. My best wishes go to both of you and your website projects!

Okay, so I kind of lied when I said I’d use this blog to focus on my academic endeavours. I actually have an EDUC283 (Pedagogy: Beyond Skills & Methods) assignment that I need to complete, and yet I’m writing this. Well, I can’t help it. The hot-cold-hot-cold autumn weather is not friendly to my cognitive ability as well as my internal balance. I think from now on, I’ll start posting a photo along with a blog entry. I may not be good enough of a writer, but I can give you a taste of how Auckland is like through pictures and my somewhat crappy blog entries. And yes, if that makes Caramel Toffee a photoblog, so be it.

I think my English and my Japanese is getting better with each passing days. Being enrolled (albeit forcefully) into ESOL210 (Writing Research Report) guides me to a much better academic English writing. I may not know of things like ‘parallel structures’, ‘bare participles’ and ‘participial phrases’ before, but now I can fully different and apply them in my writings. I may not be an expert in APA referencing before, but now I may as well be one. All the courses that I enrolled in make me more conscious in my academic writings. I’d watch out for little mistakes, I’d proofread my essays as much as I can, and I’d try to use perfect grammar instead of intelligible and acceptable grammar. My first EDUC223 (Educational Psychology) reflects my efforts in learning and applying grammar rules in my academic writings. I got 100% for grammar and referencing although I lost a fair amount of marks due to my carelessness in incorporating research evidences into discussions and arguments.

I am also doing quite well in ESOL202 (Phonology). Provided, it is only my elective. Credit hours aren’t counted for this course, but I still like the content of what I learn. I may not like the lecture format which resembles small-class discussions, but the skills taught are worth it. My spoken English is getting better after attending ESOL202 lectures, and I’m glad for it. I’m also relatively better in IPA now. If you ask me, I may well be able to write a full-length letter in IPA codes. I’ll be taking Linguistics (Applied Grammar) next semester, so IPA will help me pull through.

As mentioned above, my Japanese is also improving. If I could understand spoken Japanese better than written Japanese before, the two skills are now almost on the same levels. I can read kanji and write kanji characters better than ever. I’m really glad. Books in Auckland are cheap – this is one fact that delights me. I’m sure I’ll miss being able to buy reasonably priced books when I return to Malaysia. Academic and non-fiction books (I’m more interested in non-fictions) cost heavenly in my beloved home country. Thinking back, I wasn’t able to construct even simple sentences as written below a couple of years ago:

ゆうべはあまり寝ませんでした。そうして、今朝八時に起きて朝ごはんをたべた。今日のお天気がいいですが、お金がなくて買い物ができませんでした。すべてが本当につまらないし、何もやられないだった。本当にいやですね、私が　Ｔ＿Ｔ
つか～自分の日本語はまだ上手ないですが、もっとがんばります！

I didn’t sleep well last night. So, I woke up at 8 this morning and had breakfast. Today’s weather was good, but I couldn’t go shopping since I didn’t have money. Everything was really boring, and I didn’t get anything done. How terrible I am T_T
Anyway, my Japanese is still not good, but I’ll work harder!

There may be a whole lot more that I can write about, but I guess I should stop here. My assignment is calling me. Until later!