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Japanese Society

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Reply 1460
Original post by Xurvi
Yeah, I had exams. Wasn't too bad, I didn't have any trouble with the writing as I'm still in first year so it's pretty easy. The orals were something else though, I definitely need to work on getting stuff spontaneous and increasing my vocabulary. I kind of stopped working during a few weeks and I'm now lagging behind. I'll have to work twice as much during the summer to try and get N4 next December so I can possibly go to Japan in 2012 when the world will end...


What was your topic on?

Yeah, I have to admit, my oral wasn't great either. I don't practice Japanese enough, mainly because I have to find people to practice with so that's my fault I guess.

How come you're going for N4? I don't know, from what I've read/seen, JLPT isn't really of any use until you can get to N2 or N1 stage.
Reply 1461
Original post by fait
What was your topic on?

Yeah, I have to admit, my oral wasn't great either. I don't practice Japanese enough, mainly because I have to find people to practice with so that's my fault I guess.

How come you're going for N4? I don't know, from what I've read/seen, JLPT isn't really of any use until you can get to N2 or N1 stage.

No real topic for the writing. I had a translation exam that went alright though not as good as I expected, and another more about grammar and kanji in which I had sentences to translate in Japanese that would require the use of the grammar we learned (temooidesuka, koto ga arimasu ka, that kind of thing) and simply kanji writing.

About the oral, it was about our dreams (as in life projects), current or those of when we were kids. DIdn't go too well because I hadn't practiced Japanese at all for a few weeks so I was really rusty and didn't manage to say anything...

If I understood correctly what our lecturers said, N4 is required to apply for a year abroad in Japan, or at least would be a very strong advantage. So since I want to be able to go do my year abroad during my third year (2012-13), the application would then be during Spring 2012, so I need to get N4 during the december 2011 session.
I just had an oral exam on Friday morning. It was so scary! It was only 15 minutes long, consisting of a 5 minute speech comparing England and Japan, then 10 minutes of questions.

I made a point of giving a pretentious speech about English Class society versus Japanese social hierarchy, which is all well and good when you're writing the speech from the comfort of your desk with a big dictionary beside you. But then in the oral examination, the examiner started asking me "So, in your speech you spoke about English Class society, what exactly do you mean by this? could you describe this more?" and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO SCARY! But at the same time, I did enjoy it as well. A rollercoaster of emotion! I was stuttering so much, oh dear!
Reply 1463
Anyone know of any good online resources to improve my listening?? My current level is Genki 2
Reply 1464
Original post by fait
Yeah, I have to admit, my oral wasn't great either. I don't practice Japanese enough, mainly because I have to find people to practice with so that's my fault I guess.

You live in London? I was walking around Brick Lane with two hot Japanese girls last night, there's definitely no shortage of people to practise with here. :tongue:

Original post by zebok
Anyone know of any good online resources to improve my listening?? My current level is Genki 2

http://www.voiceblog.jp/ikebukuronow/

I've been listening to this podcast for about a year and a half. I have every episode and I listen to them over and over again, one or two every night. When I first started I could understand pretty much none of it (a word here and there maybe), but I kept listening anyway. Nowadays I understand probably about 95% of it, and it's improved my speaking as well.
Reply 1465
Original post by Xurvi
No real topic for the writing. I had a translation exam that went alright though not as good as I expected, and another more about grammar and kanji in which I had sentences to translate in Japanese that would require the use of the grammar we learned (temooidesuka, koto ga arimasu ka, that kind of thing) and simply kanji writing.

About the oral, it was about our dreams (as in life projects), current or those of when we were kids. DIdn't go too well because I hadn't practiced Japanese at all for a few weeks so I was really rusty and didn't manage to say anything...

If I understood correctly what our lecturers said, N4 is required to apply for a year abroad in Japan, or at least would be a very strong advantage. So since I want to be able to go do my year abroad during my third year (2012-13), the application would then be during Spring 2012, so I need to get N4 during the december 2011 session.



Ah, seems pretty well structured. I guess you're doing Japanese as your main degree? Which would explain why you're able to go abroad! (lucky people :tongue:)


IMO, if you work for it, you could probably do N3 in December which would probably work out better for you. Check out some sample questions anyway, you never know.

(http://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/n3.html)



Original post by screenager2004
I just had an oral exam on Friday morning. It was so scary! It was only 15 minutes long, consisting of a 5 minute speech comparing England and Japan, then 10 minutes of questions.

I made a point of giving a pretentious speech about English Class society versus Japanese social hierarchy, which is all well and good when you're writing the speech from the comfort of your desk with a big dictionary beside you. But then in the oral examination, the examiner started asking me "So, in your speech you spoke about English Class society, what exactly do you mean by this? could you describe this more?" and OH MY GOD IT WAS SO SCARY! But at the same time, I did enjoy it as well. A rollercoaster of emotion! I was stuttering so much, oh dear!



Pretty interesting topic you picked! Trust the examiners to pick out the most difficult to explain part of the speech, heh, I remember my one of my examiners asking me elaborate on Nintendo's old businesses' (I mentioned their old love hotels and taxi companies ahaha. :biggrin:)

Hopefully we've all done well. Thank the heavens for e-to, soudesune and anou. :redface:

Original post by Azimuth
You live in London? I was walking around Brick Lane with two hot Japanese girls last night, there's definitely no shortage of people to practise with here. :tongue:



Ahaha, you player. :tongue: There's quite a few Japanese people in London yup, but I don't know how I would go about finding people to talk with. There's Japanese society at university, but it feels weird. (On the other hand, I went to Imperial's once and it was really friendly welcoming!) I don't know, I guess I don't have confidence in my speaking abilities to start up a conversation in Japanese. =/
Reply 1466
Original post by fait
Ah, seems pretty well structured. I guess you're doing Japanese as your main degree? Which would explain why you're able to go abroad! (lucky people :tongue:)


IMO, if you work for it, you could probably do N3 in December which would probably work out better for you. Check out some sample questions anyway, you never know.

(http://www.jlpt.jp/e/samples/n3.html)

Yeah, my degree consists of Japanese and English in similar proportions and a bit of Law, Economics, Communications and Management.
I can go to Japan as soon as during the second year. Only the best go though, obviously...

I'll have a look at N3, thanks. I know I could probably do it, I'm quite decent at languages, but I tend to procrastinate terribly so I have that to take into account too :p:
Original post by fait

Pretty interesting topic you picked! Trust the examiners to pick out the most difficult to explain part of the speech, heh, I remember my one of my examiners asking me elaborate on Nintendo's old businesses' (I mentioned their old love hotels and taxi companies ahaha. :biggrin:)

Hopefully we've all done well. Thank the heavens for e-to, soudesune and anou. :redface:
=/


...and let's not forget "ii shi.tsumon desu ne!"

I'm sure we will all be fine. I try and gauge the success of an oral exam by your examiners face. If there's lot of frowning and silence and non-eye contact, that really worries me. I remember doing my GCSE French oral exam (I was awful at it, got a D) and my teacher pulling the most ANGRY faces you've ever seen! She was screaming at me "I''ve taught you this! You're letting me down!" with her eyes.

In this oral it was alright though. Although they were fairly quiet throughout, at one point in the exam, one of the examiners said 'aah! ii kangae!' so that really really cheered me up and motivated me on through the exam.

I was talking about the difference in the way Japanese say "Ganbatte!" before an endeavour (like an exam or a job interview), and in English we say "Good luck!" and the differences in the subtle nuances of personal responsibility and chance in those two phrases.

It seemed like a really good idea at the time. But thinking back, I could have easily passed by saying something much less ambitious so I might have kicked myself in the teeth a bit!




I was going to ask also, do any of you guys have a Lang-8 account? Considering we still can't use Japanese typefaces on TSR, and I really want to chat with people in Japanese!
Reply 1468
Original post by fait
Ahaha, you player. :tongue: There's quite a few Japanese people in London yup, but I don't know how I would go about finding people to talk with. There's Japanese society at university, but it feels weird. (On the other hand, I went to Imperial's once and it was really friendly welcoming!) I don't know, I guess I don't have confidence in my speaking abilities to start up a conversation in Japanese. =/

Oh, you came to our JapSoc? What event was it? I might have seen you there. According to your profile you're at UCL... I know a couple of people in your Japanese society.

Original post by screenager2004
I was going to ask also, do any of you guys have a Lang-8 account? Considering we still can't use Japanese typefaces on TSR, and I really want to chat with people in Japanese!

I like this site for talking to people in Japanese. You can chat via text, or you can use a mic.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 1469
Original post by screenager2004
...and let's not forget "ii shi.tsumon desu ne!"

I'm sure we will all be fine. I try and gauge the success of an oral exam by your examiners face. If there's lot of frowning and silence and non-eye contact, that really worries me. I remember doing my GCSE French oral exam (I was awful at it, got a D) and my teacher pulling the most ANGRY faces you've ever seen! She was screaming at me "I''ve taught you this! You're letting me down!" with her eyes.

In this oral it was alright though. Although they were fairly quiet throughout, at one point in the exam, one of the examiners said 'aah! ii kangae!' so that really really cheered me up and motivated me on through the exam.

I was talking about the difference in the way Japanese say "Ganbatte!" before an endeavour (like an exam or a job interview), and in English we say "Good luck!" and the differences in the subtle nuances of personal responsibility and chance in those two phrases.

It seemed like a really good idea at the time. But thinking back, I could have easily passed by saying something much less ambitious so I might have kicked myself in the teeth a bit!

I was going to ask also, do any of you guys have a Lang-8 account? Considering we still can't use Japanese typefaces on TSR, and I really want to chat with people in Japanese!


I didn't say 'ii shi-tsumon desu ne!' I didn't think one of the examiners would of appriecated it though, I got weird vibes from that oral. That's why it was hard to gauge how my examiners felt, one of them was our actual teacher who's always upbeat and easygoing and the other one was smiling and laughing at points but other points she held her head down and was scribbling away at something. :redface: Probably best not to overthink it.

Haha, your teacher was nasty! For GCSE German, my teacher kept mouthing the words to us and making gestures, generally doing as much as he could to help us out. Great guy!

To be honest though, the fact that you tried to talk about something advanced already puts you in a good position away even if you flunked it. Plus it's probably more interesting then hearing the same topic over and over again (my friend who's in another japanese class mentioned like 50% of people did anime for their project/oral, haha.)

I'm Myabetsu on Lang8. =] http://lang-8.com/272287

I just made an account though, so I have no real idea how everything works. :colondollar:

Original post by Azimuth
Oh, you came to our JapSoc? What event was it? I might have seen you there. According to your profile you're at UCL... I know a couple of people in your Japanese society.


I like this site for talking to people in Japanese. You can chat via text, or you can use a mic.


It was a social event at the Union in Feburary sometime. They was a Bingo raffle and stuff and Free Asahi. I actually met 2 computing 4th years there that were pretty cool, one of them might of been you, ahaha. Ah, who do you know from our society? Drop me a PM.

A friend mentioned sharedtalk, looks good, will have to try it out. =]
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 1470
Original post by notepad
I swear you can do it in a week, intensively.


well after my gcses i'll have 6 weeks or so. should I skip N5 and go straight for N4 instead ?
Reply 1471
Original post by Azimuth

A couple of months maybe? To be honest I'd have thought it better to save your money and take one of the higher levels when you get there. You also don't want to be studying *for* the JLPT. If your Japanese is good, you can pass N2 or N1 without studying for them, and your Japanese will be ten times more fluent and natural sounding that someone who's been studying Japanese for the JLPT, even if they get a higher score than you.


yeah tbh I agree but the reason I wanna do it is because I'd like some form of japanese qualification to go with a tefl course I'd be doing and then afterwards maybe I'd have a better chance of finding temporary placements in Japan (during my gap year, if I'm lucky and later on in life if I'm not.)
Original post by Akaten
well after my gcses i'll have 6 weeks or so. should I skip N5 and go straight for N4 instead ?


Yes, N5 is a joke :tongue:
Reply 1473
Original post by notepad
Yes, N5 is a joke :tongue:


Oh! k Thanks :smile: N4 it is!
Reply 1474
I found out the other day that I've gotten into the Japanese Language Program at Keio University in Tokyo, so I'll be moving there for a year in September. Yay!
Reply 1475
Original post by screenager2004
I was going to ask also, do any of you guys have a Lang-8 account? Considering we still can't use Japanese typefaces on TSR, and I really want to chat with people in Japanese!

Yeah, I made an account some time ago but never actually did anything on the site besides registering!

Original post by Azimuth
I found out the other day that I've gotten into the Japanese Language Program at Keio University in Tokyo, so I'll be moving there for a year in September. Yay!

That's great, congrats!
Original post by Azimuth
I found out the other day that I've gotten into the Japanese Language Program at Keio University in Tokyo, so I'll be moving there for a year in September. Yay!


Congratulations!!!!! :biggrin: You must be over the moon!
Reply 1477
Original post by screenager2004
Congratulations!!!!! :biggrin: You must be over the moon!

Thanks! Yeah, can't believe it really. Now I really have to improve my Japanese if I'm going to make the most out of student life.

You're going to toudai right? See you there :tongue:
Original post by Azimuth
Thanks! Yeah, can't believe it really. Now I really have to improve my Japanese if I'm going to make the most out of student life.

You're going to toudai right? See you there :tongue:


Yeah, just sent off my application for my ryugaku visa earlier today.

No doubt you'll be fine when it comes to interacting with the students there, last time I checked you had just taken N2, so you must have a pretty good grasp of Japanese.

I was watching this girl on youtube a while ago: she was living in Japan with a Japanese boyfriend (or was it a husband?) and she was still studying for the N1, but hadn't taken it yet (then she read out her results and passed). So from that I'm guessing you can conduct yourself fairly competently in Japanese society with N2.

Although obviously the more you study, the richer your interactions and friendships will be.

It makes me feel a bit hopeless though, I'm not even ready to take N3 yet. Honestly I feel slightly inadequate to be accepted to Toudai with such a crappy grasp of Japanese.
Reply 1479
Original post by screenager2004
Yeah, just sent off my application for my ryugaku visa earlier today.

No doubt you'll be fine when it comes to interacting with the students there, last time I checked you had just taken N2, so you must have a pretty good grasp of Japanese.

I was watching this girl on youtube a while ago: she was living in Japan with a Japanese boyfriend (or was it a husband?) and she was still studying for the N1, but hadn't taken it yet (then she read out her results and passed). So from that I'm guessing you can conduct yourself fairly competently in Japanese society with N2.

Although obviously the more you study, the richer your interactions and friendships will be.

It makes me feel a bit hopeless though, I'm not even ready to take N3 yet. Honestly I feel slightly inadequate to be accepted to Toudai with such a crappy grasp of Japanese.

Under normal conditions I can speak Japanese and generally get on fine, but I'm more thinking about how well I'll be able to keep up with group conversations in noisy bars and such...

You'll be fine at Toudai! I know this girl at SOAS who speaks ridiculously fluent Japanese (passed N1 ages ago, etc.) who says her Japanese wasn't that great before she went to do a year abroad at Waseda, and that she was awesome by the end of it.

What are you doing for accommodation, by the way? Are you staying in Toudai halls or something?

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