A Week in University

Finally I had some free time to sit down and write this blog post. Been busy with classes in university so yeah, the usual term "busy" applies.
Let's go through the classes I took during this week.

Handy time-table I made for easier reference, fits inside the jacket pocket.

Monday

Computer Literacy.
Was asked to bring laptop to the class to setup the school's LAN settings, but I've already done it myself earlier.
For this semester we'll be learning Microsoft Office, namely Word, Excel and Power Point. Might be something quite basic for me, but Power Point might be the more important ones of all as we're likely to give quite a few presentations in near future.

The book written by the lecturer.


Basics of Acoustics (音響基礎論)
This subject is taught by Mr Hayashi who happens to be one of the lecturer I've spoke to last year during the university's open campus event.
It's about sound and one of the core subjects that I wanted to study. I'll definitely work hard on this subject as I'll be taking his class for the following years to come.

Monday ended around 4pm but the lesson started on 1040 so it wasn't that bad. The only complain is the laptop's weight....

Tuesday

Computer Outline (コンピューター概説)
Is like the theory of computer, sounds boring but the lecturer Mr Onda did a great job making it not as boring as it seems and I kinda enjoyed the class well.
First report was to write down our computing history. Just realised I've actually started using computer even before Windows 95 came out! MS-DOS (that's where Ctrl Alt Del comes from)!!

Information Legislation (情報法制)
My first ever law lesson, and I actually try to take it as I'm afraid I don't have enough credit points. The class was conducted by a rather young lecturer from Kansai region and the lesson was actually quite fun, giving some real life examples on how to apply civil law and criminal law.
Unfortunately, at the end I didn't register for this class as it's kinda hard for me to catch those judiciary terms what's more in Japanese.

Basic Information Processing Outline (情報処理基礎論)
I guess this is the most boring lesson of the entire week, which basically drains off my energy after the lunch break.
It's about information-processing, the theories/history, medias etc. So far I had 2 lessons and still yet to get a grip what kind of class it will be eventually.

Multifield Trial: Game Acoustics (マルチフィールド体験演習：ゲーム音響)
I guess you guys might be shocked to hear that in this lesson we're asked to bring our game consoles (PSP, DS etc) and play it in the classroom! While playing the game, we're asked to list down the sounds from the game, from simple sound effects, BGMs to narrations.
This is probably one of the most interesting subject of all, but because it's from 1440 to 1750, it can be kinda exhaustive. The game I chose is Final Fantasy VI, and it make things much tougher as it's a long game and we're supposed to complete it by end of May. Nowadays, I don't have much time for gaming huh.....

Tuesday is the busiest day of all with lessons from 9am to 6pm.... But thankfully I had the 2nd period emptied after dropping the law class.

Wednesday

Japanese language (日本語)
Foreign students are required to take the course and yeah, even if it isn't compulsory I'd still want to take it to improve my Japanese further.
So far the class was still quite OK, learning some easy stuffs before going into the harder ones later one. Seems like we're likely to be doing quite a few presentations in the class though.

English Intensive II
Now this is interesting, an English class taught by a British, Mr Michael Cormack. As expected, perfect British pronunciation and we had some fun in the class. He went to Malaysia before and love it, so that's why we have similar topics to talk about. Oh btw, he's a fan of Man Utd as well. :D

Music Aesthetic (音楽美学)
Although I plan to major in sound acoustics, but it's no harm to learn a little bout music eh. In this class, we're exposed to history of music and one thing I enjoyed is we're able to listen to different types of song genres. This week we had a few classical pieces, a gospel and then Tibetan chantings. It's interesting and I dunno what we'll be hearing this following week.

"History of Music", written by the 2 lecturers.


Wednesday is quite lightweight as the 2 language lessons are pretty easy to deal with, no need invest lots of brain juices in it especially the English class.

Thursday

Communication's Psychology (コミュニケーションの心理)
I've been wanted to study things about psychology as it gives me a different perspective to see how our minds work, something I'm amazed of.
During the first class we're given a video to watch, is like an introduction about psychology that originally is in English but dubbed Japanese.
I hope I can learn something from this class especially when I'm hoping to increase my communication skills as well. For now I'd say social skills play an important role in the outside world, even more important that academic results!

The Psychology book, it's been used not just for this class only but also another for Psychology subject which I'm unable to take it this semester.


Basics of Recording (録音表現概説)
When it comes to sound one can never forget about recording, a vital process to transfer the information (in the form of sound wave) from one medium to another. For the first class we're being briefed about introductions and sampling some of the earliest recordings, such as a noisy piece of J Brahms, voice of Florence Nightingale and Thomas Edison.
For this coming week we'll be shown some of the early recording tools that the lecturer own, cool!
The only downside is the lecturer speaks quite fast and kinda hard to catch it. Even the Japanese students are also having problem to catch up.

Basically Thursday is one of the easiest day of all, as I only had a lesson before and after noon. However, both lessons require a certain degree of concentration so it can be quite taxing as well.

Friday

Japanese language
Nothing much to talk about it, as the class is still taken by the same teacher from Wednesday's class.

Music Therapy (音楽療法概論)
This is probably one of my favourite subject so far, how the music plays a role in helping patient in recovery and reduce the pain of treatment. It's just amazing to learn this, bridging the world of acoustics and the medical field.
The lecturer used to studied in US before so she's still OK with English. In fact, she do allow me and my friends to write our report in English if we couldn't get the worlds in Japanese, how kind she is!

Chinese Culture (中国語圏文化論)
Although it says culture, but it's actually a history class of early Chinese empires and dynasties. Some might find it boring (coz it's history!) but I take it as a unique way to learn the Chinese history through Japanese language, heh.
Anyway she lecturer studied in China before so yeah, she can speak Mandarin as well.

English Intensive I
Different than Wednesday's English class, the last lesson of Friday is taken by a Japanese teacher. Then again, not that hard for us but just that I find it even more confusing to learn English by using Japanese language to dissect and analyse the language.
I do hold myself back a few times when hearing fellow classmates reading the passage.

Usually I'd prefer my Friday to be free of classes, but too bad there're compulsory subjects so I couldn't skip it. Anyway, at least the subjects might not be that tough, especially ending the day with simple English class.

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So this is what I've been through for the first week. Felt tired after it but I guess is because I haven't get used to getting back into study again, as after all I had a month's break hah. So far still OK, I think I still can cope with it. :)

Anyway, the downside is bringing the laptop to the university can be bugging as it's quite heavy. Somehow I'm like strained my back muscle due to ill-positioning of the backpack I suspect. Kinda hurt when moving the arms but hopefully with enough rest and applying something it should be recovering.

This coming week I might try to take pics during the class, we'll see about it. :)