as written by Melissa Kartini
When people think about studying and living abroad, they envision a bright, bright future with a white picket fence house. Good food, a good job and a good, problem-free life. Rarely do they think about some of the less appealing realities that are attached to settling in another country. To date, I’ve studied abroad in …
So after the onslaught of personal posts, we’re back to our regular content about Japan. This time around, I’m going to talk about seven bad habits to avoid while studying Japanese. Now, I have been studying Japanese for almost three years (one and a half years in Malaysia, and almost a year in Japan), and …
Every country has its own way of speaking English. There’ll always be certain words, phrases and slang terms that are different by country. What’s important is that we understand each other, right? Right. We Malaysians have our own quirky way of speaking English. We basically dot our English with a couple of Malay and Chinese …
Photo by melissakartini For a detailed overview about Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens: Let’s Go for a Garden Stroll in Tokyo… Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens, an Overview — Hey, everyone! I know I missed out on my usual Saturday post this month on the 7th, but there’s a reason for that. I got a little busy, and then got …
Photo by melissakartini Photo essays Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens in Autumn The Garden Along with Rikugien Gardens, Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens is often regarded as Tokyo’s most beautiful garden. It is also one of the oldest (1603-1868), and being so well-preserved, makes it an excellent place to get a glimpse of Edo period Japan. Its affair with …
This is part of a culture shock series that I’m doing for Japan and Malaysia. Please expect to see posts like these being posted whenever exams are approaching because apparently, I’m bad at time management. — This one was a bit difficult for me to come up with a list for. Surprising, I know, because …
Photo by melissakartini This is part of a culture shock series that I’m doing for Japan and Malaysia. Updates for “Reverse Culture Shock: From Japan to Malaysia” will be extremely erratic as I’ll mostly be based in Japan for the foreseeable future. — I know, I know, I haven’t even been living in Japan for …