Go away, Deva!!!

Last night, I was watching a wonderful Japanese film called Swing Girls and I understand why it was so popular when it came out (well, that is what I've heard). It is now on my list of favourite films! The only thing I didn't like about it was, it encouraged Deva to come out from hiding and to start hassling me about how bad I am at Japanese and how by now I should be able to understand what was being said in the film.

At one point, I tried to understand the Japanese without reading the subtitles and I could barely understand one word that was being said. I know that the language being spoken was very informal Japanese, but it is very frustrating after studying Japanese for so long to be faced with not being able to understand a word of what was being said. I understood a lot when the Japanese was more formal, but I think it's especially upsetting when the kind of informal language that I want to be able to speak and understand sounds as though it's a completely different language.

I thought my little book of colloquial Japanese might help me - and I still believe if I studied it a little more it would help, but there must be so much more that I need to learn...

Deva has almost taken over my mind and I must try and ignore what he's saying! If anyone has been at this stage before, please encourage me to keep trying!