First you're up, then you're down again.
Tuesdays are film day in class. We watched some silly kids anime movie -- Doraemon's Adventures in the South Seas -- the first two weeks, and a news program about global warming in Japan for the third, but the past two weeks were spent on Porco Rosso. For those not in the know, it's an animated movie by Hayao Miyazaki (same guy who made Princess Mononoke, etc.) about this Italian WWI ace who, well, looks like a pig (for reasons explained in the movie). Two instant pluses to watching it: first, it's a darn good anime movie, if a bit silly, and second, I've seen it with subtitles before so watching it raw now isn't as painful. Best line: "Tobanai buda wa tada no buda da." ("A pig who does not fly is just a pig.")
On the downside, the same day was, at least this week, speech day. Our first time without notes. I hate public speaking. Sounds weird coming from someone who spent five years in the drama program, but it's true. On stage, I can pretend it's not me, and that there aren't hundreds of people watching. At the podium, they are there, and it is me. And when you don't even have the vocabulary to improvise something if you don't remember the exact words, it's even worse. End result: I gave the slowest and most stop-and-go performance of my life. Just to make matters worse, I had run the speech by my host mother over the weekend to iron out any problems. She helped with some synonyms to eliminate repetition and gave pointers on my intonation, but then casually asked when I was giving the speech. Should have seen it coming; come speech time, she's sitting there with the teachers to hear her adopted American show off his (lack of) talent. >_
On the downside, the same day was, at least this week, speech day. Our first time without notes. I hate public speaking. Sounds weird coming from someone who spent five years in the drama program, but it's true. On stage, I can pretend it's not me, and that there aren't hundreds of people watching. At the podium, they are there, and it is me. And when you don't even have the vocabulary to improvise something if you don't remember the exact words, it's even worse. End result: I gave the slowest and most stop-and-go performance of my life. Just to make matters worse, I had run the speech by my host mother over the weekend to iron out any problems. She helped with some synonyms to eliminate repetition and gave pointers on my intonation, but then casually asked when I was giving the speech. Should have seen it coming; come speech time, she's sitting there with the teachers to hear her adopted American show off his (lack of) talent. >_