"Oftentimes it's better in Japanese culture to soften your assumption."
The instructor, Christensen-sensei, stood at the front left corner of the classroom, going over the Japanese "Core Conversations" that were to be learned that week. The overhead lights were on in the basement classroom of University Hall, which certainly didn't help the concentration of the students. Whispers and hushed voices beat through different parts of the room, whether or not they were at all relevant to the subject remained to be seen, although a surprising amount normally was. The students in Japanese 102 wanted to be there, wanted to learn the material. Those who had taken the class simply at random to fulfill a GEC had dropped out some time during 101, as the class was less than easy. It was rewarding though, at least in Emily's eyes. To be able to converse in this amazing language was like a dream, and having already mastered the Katakana writing style, she felt that she was more than willing to keep taking the class, all the way as high as she could go.
Emily sat in the front of the back set of seats, basically halfway between the front and the back row, so that she could plug her laptop in and charge it while she took notes. She felt so... grown up in her grandfather sweater vest with a computer in her lap and a coffee in her hand. Two seats away, Stopar-san was watching anime on his computer, headphones in, and taking notes in a notebook at the same time. Next to her, Guo-san was flipping through her textbook halfheartedly, not quite tuning in but not wanting to tune out. Snow fell outside and covered the ground that she would be walking on to get to her next Japanese class in half an hour, yet somehow she had overdressed and felt overheated on the way in. Maybe that was why college students could be seen wearing shorts in winter...
