Thanks to midterm examinations I haven't added any new entries lately. I had my oral examination on Wednesday. I prepared and memorized a summary I had written based on the Disney movie version of Aladdin, because one of the two assignments for examination was to present a summary of your favorite childhood story. Of course I wasn't able to pick a favorite story, but sure, Aladdin's up there. I also had to speak to my examiner using keigo, or respectful speech. I never find myself presented with opportunities to use exclusively keigo in conversation here in Japan because it's used mostly at work, and I do not currently have a job here. Business men and women use it at their offices, and keigo is also famous for being used, among other places, by elevator operators in fancy department stores. Within keigo I can think of two main categories. One is sonkeigo, which is speech used to respect your listener because they are in a higher position than you are (for example, one uses this when referring to a boss's actions if one is a business man or woman at a company). Another is kenjougo, or humble speech, which is used to describe the speaker's actions and place the speaker in a lower social position than the listener because the listener is a boss or a customer. There is, however, another respectful form of speech that isn't as fancy as keigo but I use quite often, called teinego, or polite speech. It does not require knowledge of special verbs that change depending on whether one is referring to the speaker or the listener's actions, and I use this form of respectful speech when speaking with my teachers at school.

I found out this past Monday that I won an honorable mention in the foreign exchange student program's Japanese language essay contest. I wrote an essay about a rough day at school and a stranger who came and talked to me and helped me feel better and forget, for a few minutes, that I'd had a difficult class that day. I never found out his name or contact information, and I don't think I'll ever see him again, but I'll always remember his kind gesture. I received a certificate from the Japanese language teachers, and they also awarded me with a prize (a bag of sweets), which I decided to share with "anyone to whom I've ever asked, 'How do you read this kanji ?'" which is most of the people I know here in Japan.