がんばります！

So earlier this evening I went to Uniqlo to browse because I heard there was a nice sale going on. I was trying on some pants and decided that I would get them, but needed them hemmed, which i something I actually know how to say in Japanese. I called someone over and all was going well until she said something and I totally didn't get it. She asks me if I'm Japanese and when I tell her I'm not, she busts out with perfectly fluent English complete with slang and expressions, with an accent to boot. Apparently she just got back from working in New Zealand for a year. Her name was Mariko and we had a nice little conversation while she shortened my pants for me (for free, might I add! I think stores in the States need to start offering this convenient service...).

There isn't much of a point to this entry except that it never ceases to amaze me when I meet Japanese people who speak perfect English with an accent. It's SO COOL. I guess the other point is that I feel that it is necessary for me to step up my Japanese studies. If Mariko can spend a year in New Zealand and come back saying things like, "Will you turn around for a second so I can measure the bottom of your pants?" and "Cool, see ya!", then there is no excuse for the fact that in about one month, I will have been in Japan for a year and am nowhere close to that kind of equivalent ability.

I think I've pinpointed one holdup, which is that the YMCA conversation class I take, though useful and interesting, focuses mainly on polite Japanese, which most people don't use as frequently as, well, casual Japanese. I have heard that most places teach polite Japanese because they want any foreigners who come to Japan to speak politely (of course), but the reality is that casual, everyday Japanese is very abbreviated.

For example, a form I learned last week:

Polite: 銀行へ行かなければなりません。(Ginkou e ikanakereba narimasen.)

Casual: 銀行へ行かなきゃ。(Ginkou e ikanakya.)

Both of these mean "I have to go to the bank." But you can see that the casual form is considerably shorter than the polite form. Japanese people I've talked to who speak English told me it's sort of like how we say "gonna" instead of "going to" sometimes, but there's definitely more to it than this, because it's like there's a whole separate tier of language for polite speaking.

Anyway, starting tomorrow, Japanese studying kicks into overdrive for my second year in Japan. I want to come home as close to nearly fluent as possible. あした、私はがんばります！