What am I doing here?

This is how intensive it was ;-)

     Learning nihongo can be frustrating. But it can be fun as well. During my first semester, I had to go to A Class Intensive. A Class is where you learn the basics. Classes are either intensive or standard. Intensive means more lessons, more periods and of course more assignments, quizzes, exams, and then with even more sensei (teachers).
     In A Class Intensive there were 8 people - 1 Filipino (that would be me of course), 2 Australians (Holly and Steven), 1 Bangladeshi (Nojeebu), 1 Chinese (Nishika), 1 Korean (Kim), 2 Thai (Friend and Napa). And only me and Napa did not have any background in Nihongo. And so when I heard them being able to talk to the sensei in Nihongo, I was like "How come these guys are in this class?". And then for just one day, we had to learn the hiragana and katakana. So if you didn't do any advance reading you'd be really left behind.
     And when they said Intensive, It was really intensive. Vocabulary and grammar quizzes almost everyday. Assignments almost every night. In four months, we had to finish two books. And in total we had 8 long exams. I think I earned a lot of wrinkles during the first few months. The senseis were always talking in Nihongo. Although we were given a translated version of the book, the teacher's explanations and examples were all in nihongo(of course).  Well they would insert an English phrase or a word sometimes, but pretty much they would teach in Nihongo. Thinking about it right now, it was good. Because they were teaching us to get used to hearing it.

A Class with Yoshinari Sensei. A++
 

     The teachers were patient though. And they never fail to give you praises now and then. They may praise you for writing the characters prettily, for being able to remember a difficult word, for having pretty clothes, for saying that you're experience was really unique, that you are good in this or that. I was told not to take in the praises too seriously, because it's their way. But well, I'm just human. I basked in those moments. Whether they were meant or not, they did something for the morale.