Gave My Life Meaning This Year

I should have done a post about my supervisor a long time ago.  She is truly inspiring.  She comes to work every day about an hour and a half before her contract starts and is always one of the last to leave.  She averages about 14 hour work days while being a mother to 3 year old twins.  In high school, she was the top student at a large high school in Aomori city.  She constantly talks to me about American news and pop culture events.  Every time I ask her a stupid question, she drops everything she's doing and finds me an answer instantly.  In conclusion, she is awesome.

So today I was just sitting here reviewing my kanji like usual and she comes up to me and says "Tomasu sensei, your kanji study has inspired me.  Yesterday I went to the bookstore and bought a book to study for the kanji test level 1.  Your kanji study gave my life meaning this year.  Thank you very much"

I was floored.  The kanji test that she is referring to is a very famous national test for native Japanese speakers.  There are over 6000 kanji on the test, many are never used anymore and have 10 different pronunciations and meanings and it is just an absolutely ridiculous test  In all of Japan, only about 200 people pass the level 1 test every year, it is similar to getting a perfect score on the SAT or ACT.

Here is the wiki about the test if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji_kentei

So yea, this made me feel really happy to have inspired someone to take a year of their life (the test is March 2012) and do something they otherwise would not have.  I have no idea where she'll find the time to study but I'm really hoping she doesn't get transferred (lots of teachers transfer schools every year) so I can see her progress and maybe learn some crazy kanji myself.