Good Bye Osaka!

And now, the end is near.
And so I face the final curtain...

Training in Osaka almost reached it's end. So far, I didn't update a lot since the nihon-go class started. しゅくだいたくさんありますから。There is a lot of homework given by sensei. Ok... I know, that is just another reason. The fact is I felt like time is moving faster than ever. 3 weeks almost past in this beautiful city of Osaka.

So far, I still can't speak proper Japanese. My vocabulary is still under average, under my expectation. But from this training I gain a lot of knowledge, including the sentence structure, the grammar and the language behaviour. It's a great start for me on this new language.

Besides the language, the most important things I learned here is about Japanese characteristics. Sensei always tell us about the Japanese characteristics and culture including the history. So, we might know why is this so, and why is that so. Both of our sensei have done their job very well in educating us. Special thanks to them.



I didn't have the chance to visit most of the exciting place around here. The only place I went is Namba, Nipponbashi, Universal Studio Japan and Osaka Castle. I couldn't allocate time to visit Kobe (the romantic city?) and Kyoto (the previous capital of Japan for more than 1200 years). Maybe I'll make another trip in one of these days.

USJ... in Malaysia, when one pronounce USJ, the first thing in mind is the 'Ulu Subang Jaya'. But in Japan especially Osaka, USJ is well known as the famous entertainment center - Universal Studio Japan. Once I put on my foot into this wonderful piece of land, I felt like I was in the USA with all the atmosphere is American style. The songs, the buildings, the sign on the road etc etc. From testimonials, most of them saying that USJ is better than Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea. I didn't went to Disneyland, so I could not compare. But to be honest, it was really worth to give a visit to this USJ even the entrance fee could suck up the money inside your wallet.

So, tomorrow I will coming back to Kawasaki before I return back to Malaysia.
Good bye Osaka! さよなら　大阪！
Wish you the best of luck!

Nihon-go Benkyo o shimasu

How's Osaka?
It was great to be here. So, the training was fun, yet challenging.
Lately I can hardly spare-off some time to update my blog due to many homeworks given by sensei.

The weather here is a little bit cold. Colder than Kawasaki. Not because the temperature, but our training center is just next to the sea. You'll have some idea when you watch the map down there. The red circle is the Cosmosquare, where I am now. It can be consider as an island (I guess), in the middle of the bay. So, can you imagine how you feel when the wind blew in a cold day?


After completed the first training of Japanese Culture, we continue with the second training. For this time it is the language training. The Japanese Language or Nihon-go.

So, this is the book that provided by the training committee. "Japanese For Busy People" by AJALT. This is a good book to learn, with examples and exercises. Amazingly, we have finished almost half of the book in 4 days. It was a bit fast for me, but it was the only way to finish this book by the time the training ends.

Studying a foreign language is not an easy thing compare to our mother language. When we start to study a foreign language, we started to compare the grammar and the structure of the sentence with other language that we'd already master. That's make the process even harder.

Japanese language has alot of difficult point. Here I list some of them which I have found in this 4 days lesson:
1. The particles is always confusing. Too many of them and all of them are critically important. Words such as wa, no, ka, o, mo, de, to, ni, yo and so-on and so-forth.
2. The politeness levels. Depending on situation, one must use a different kind of expression, and words must be choose wisely. For example for the words 'sorry' the hierarchy is as follows: Gomen, gomenasai, sumimasen, moshi waki arimasen, moshi wake gozaimasen.
So, when we go to exclusive restaurant, the words level will be different compare to McDonalds.
Besides, for male and female, there are different kind of words to be used. Example: Female - watashi, male: boku.
3. 3 types of writing. Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. I think only nihon-go have this 3 kind of writing which is mixed in a sentence. Malay people may have 2 types of writings; which called rumi (romaji) and jawi. But they never use both in a sentence. Besides, jawi writing is difficult to find nowadays.
4. The counters. Unlike other languages, if you wish to count, you just memorized the number. But for nihon-go, there are several types of counters. I give you some examples:
1 = ichi, 3 = san
1 apple = hitotsu, 3 apples = mitsu.
1 paper = ichi-mai, 3 papers = san-mai.
1 bottle = ippon, 3 bottles = sanbon.
1 person = hitori, 3 peoples = sannin.
and so on.... (this is not include the date in a month... I have no idea how they memorized all of them)

It sounds like complaining too much, but the fact is, Japanese language is a fun language to learn. Hopefully I can talk a little bit Japanese once I leave this Cosmosquare Training Center.

Japanese Culture Training Ends

So now the first training ends.

I would like to share some pictures of the training here>>

Stay tuned~

Osaka ATC Green Eco Plaza > Explanation on the environmental issues
(credit to Mr. Shakir for this lovely picture)

The training members for this batch

(credit to Mr. Shakir for this lovely picture)

This is my kanji writing. For me it was nice, but for the native calligraphy writers it was an awful writing I guess!~

"Ok.. tunjukkan burung anda!!!" Origami - the Japanese arts of paper folding

At Matsushita Eco Technology Center Co Ltd. Here they are recycling 4 Electrical items. TV, Air-conditioner, refrigerator and washing machine.


After came back from Matsushita Eco Tech, we went to Umeda for jalan2.
Pekena kopi secawan...~

I drank this tea for the Tea Ceremony. It was a complicated yet fun ceremony.

Osaka update

I haven't update my blog for sometime. I got 2 reasons here:
1. Internet connection is super-slow (actually it was intermittent)
2. I don't have enough time; full of daily activities.

So, a week has passed. What did I learn? Japanese Culture. At first I might think that learning this culture is not as critical as learning the language. But then, after this whole week process, I had changed my mind by thinking that 1 week is not enough. I wish it could be a longer period.

Learning the culture is critically important as long as I am working or dealing with Japanese Company. When we talk about culture, they might be differ among each country or nation and it explains a lot of behavior. I just don't know how to explain this, but if you join this, you would think the same way too. (But make sure you have a positive mind before joining such classes).

Besides on culture, we did learn something about the environment. You know all the global warming and recycling stuff. But guess what, a lot of people just talking about the cause and effects. But here, they are really doing it. We have visited a factory which recycle electronics stuff. It is a very difficult process yet costly. They might not get profit from it; i.e. business people would not consider such a thing. But from our last visit, we actually seen people doing it. It means, they care about life and future more than the only making money. Hopefully, in the future we can see more giant companies doing the same thing to protect our environment. Let's make a better future!

Osaka...

Well here I am, in Osaka. I did finally made it here!
So today, I move from Kawasaki 7.00am in the morning, together with one of the Kawasaki staff. Riding the Shinkansen Nozomi, a shinkansen 500 series from Shinagawa at 7:58am and reached Shin-Osaka about 11 O'clock. After arriving at Cosmosquare International Education and Training Center, I was introduced to some of the trainers here. I made a few Malaysian friends working with Japanese Company. Most of the companies send 2 ~ 5 members for training, except for me and the other member from Brothers.

Training started today. It was the Japanese Culture. Of course every country practice different culture, but Japanese have a unique culture which is interest me to know more about it. After every explanation, I feel like - Owh no wonder.... So sure got a lot more to learn.

Facilities here are great. Room was marvelous, food taste good, everybody was warm and kind.
And finally I have somebody to talk to..Most of the trainees here done some training in their headquarters in Japan, so they know a little bit about Japan.


After dinner we have a quick walk to WTC just around 10 minutes from here, it's more like an orientation kot, we get to know each other closer. They are all cool and friendly.

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So, yesterday... the final day in the east side of Japan, I finally went to Asakusa. This place was strongly recommended by some of my friends, and it was like 'tak sah' visiting Japan and missed out this place. The famous of all, the Kaminarimon or Kaminari gate is the main attraction of Asakusa. There is a temple here where the buddist spending some time to pray. All around here, there's alot of activities, so it is worth a visit. Please put in your 'must go' list if you make a trip to Japan.

Final Day in Kawasaki

Last Friday was my final day on duty in Pioneer Kawasaki Plant. It was very enjoying to work in Kawasaki. A very great environment and view, Nice facilities, Warm and kind people. Really great to be there. It's been almost 7 weeks for some PE job training and the experience here I will never get in MPT. And the best part, even there were busy times, but at least nobody come and bug me with something like, "Johan, turun line PB35. Dah 5 kes capacitor missing" or "Johan, ada set smoke, cepat pegi turun line" or "DSP ni kitorang tak dapat repair, PE tolong support analysis" or "Ni ada 1-3-5, pegi buat meeting cepat!"

It's being a pleasure moment working here. Nice knowing you people, and thanks for the knowledge sharing. Look forward to come back if I have the opportunities.

Thank you everybody!!!