Making progress

For a change, I'm not going to make a diary style entry like last time. Simply going over events always feels a bit dull for me, and I feel that's reflected in what I write down. So, as I've had a few things on my mind lately, I'm going to comvey those instead.

So, yet again, I've been getting somewhat frustrated with my progress. I am speaking more and learning new things, but at the same time I don't feel as if I'm making any genuine progress. Coincidentally, during this time, I learnt how to say "one step forward and two steps back", so it's quite apt timing really. It's been especially frustrating when I meet Japanese people who are pretty proficient at English and respond to me in English even if I speak in Japanese. I've been here for almost two months now, and it was starting to feel as if I'm falling into the trap of not putting enough effort in.

So, due to this, I've started to try and change my behaviour. The main thing, and so far most successful, is to try and really put myself out there. I had been visiting places by myself, where I would end up using less English and exposing myself to Japanese, but progress with that method has been slow. Now, I'm making an effort to meet and speak to people who speak more Japanese than English. At the moment, this seems to be paying off. Forcing myself into situations where I have to speak Japanese seems like the most effective method at the moment.

Today, I was quite pleased to end up speaking to someone in an arcade. I've lately been playing some Tekken Tag Tournament 2, as the players for that seem a lot more sociable than the Street Fighter crowd. After speaking to one of the players today, he's offered to try and teach me some of the basics and play agaisnt me if we're in the arcade at the same time. As I'm not especially skilled at Tekken or Japanese, it's going to be a long road, but it really does seem to be paying off at the moment, and has put me in a really good mood as a result.

I've also had some potential progress on the job front, but I'll update about that when something solid actually happens.