JLPT -or- It's not an inferiority complex if you really do suck!

[kazari]

So a bit more than 6 months ago I was sitting in a Japanese classroom in Japan when Mike, sweet Mike, dared raise his hand and ask our highest ranking teacher about the JLPT. The other instructors had danced around the issue in previous classes. I'm not sure if that was because they weren't familiar with it or they just didn't want to inflict that much pain, but head teacher didn't feel that need for restraint. In a good twenty minute rant she dressed us down as a class, laying out why our collective skills were just not up to par and what our sad, sorry prospects were on the fabled proficiency test.

Somehow we all got out of that lesson feeling a little battered and abused, but with a goal in mind: Just to take that damn test and really see. So, being by far the most clueless member of the class I knew I had no hope. I made a decision to sign up for the 2kyuu test this December and just take it to take it. Sure, I wouldn't pass...but who am I kidding? I'm no linguistic genius. It isn't as though after two years of rushed study I have skills that could be classified as misunderstood and just need polishing to be... anything but shit. In two words: I suck. And, I put my name on that list with the full intent of not passing the damn thing. Just take it to see what it is really like. Now, the test is just days away and for some reason I'm panicking. Guilt is eating away at me.

What the hell?! I am intending to fail. I made a plan to fail. I wanted to waltz in, set my ass down in the 2kyuu test, dick around for three or four hours, and leave depressed but with a clear goal in mind for later. Yes, I know this is an expensive form of dicking around. Yes, I know the test is being reformed/written soon. Still! My patchwork Japanese education has left me feeling...patchworked. I want some direction.

But damn it, I'm nervous! Why, self? Why?! I'm going to cry on Sunday. More than once. I can feel it. Why?! Ugh.

You know... My dad turned to me over Thanksgiving break and asked, "If I wanted to help you look for Japanese jobs, what title do you think you'd hold? Translator?" Oh, dad. What part of "I read at a 3rd grade level." don't you understand?

....so. How's your week?

Comments

[scarreddragon.livejournal.com]

Haaaaaaaa~ I'm in your boat, although I kinda did want to pass. I'm only gunning for the 3kyu, but I'm thinking I don't want to bother taking it.

Not only is it this Sunday and I've been too busy all week to study, but its the Sunday after not one but two enkai's, one Friday night and one Saturday night. Plus its all the fucking way in Kiryu. Kiryu! Why was Takasaki or Maebashi not good enough!?! That's like an hour away, but I have to get the once-an-hour train from Fujioka and transfer in Takasaki too. All with what will probably be a hangover. Umm... not so much.

Still haven't decided, but good luck! REMEMBER, it only takes 60% to pass! XD

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

I haven't practiced kanji in weeks. Maybe months. MAYBE MONTHS. I won't pass. I'll panic and cry. Y_Y Actually, the vocab will get me hardest. I know I could pass 3kyuu.... But.... Yeah. I'm going from eastern Iowa to Chicago. I have to go up the day before. They want to make this a journey. Like a mission. They are evil. I know it to be true. If you do go, I'll be right there with you in spirit. *fist pump* Good luck.

[scarreddragon.livejournal.com]

I probably will, since I paid for it >.> still, tests, ugh. I wish they'd invent an instant language-brain-thiny, like uploading it to your head like in the matrix. Wouldn't that be nice?

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

I dunno. It would take some of the charm out of it all... I'm a masochist I guess.

[aranel-gamgee.livejournal.com]

This actually reminds me of the time in high school when I went to take some fancy math test. It was supposed to take around 4 hours, but I had always gotten A's in math and thought it would be fine. I walked in, took a look at each of the 5 questions that made up the entire test, looked around at the few other people crazy enough to be in that lecture hall, and walked out and sobbed. I couldn't answer a single question. I couldn't even START to answer a single question.

But that was a crazy math test, and nothing in class remotely covered any semblance of the symbols scrawled on that sheet. So even though this story isn't uplifting in any way (and I apologize for that), I think you will surely fare better than THAT.

Wait... this is in Chicago? How are you going, in a class group?

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I dunno. We'll see. Might be like that. But, I'll push through all the sections so I have a good idea of the rape-age for next year.

Yup! DePaul University campus? I think? My father has to drive me there. Staying with my mother's sister for a night. Not fun. Not fun at all.

[aranel-gamgee.livejournal.com]

Ah. That's on Lake Shore Drive, I think. Unless it's the one in DePaul itself--where one of my Disney roomies went to college. I wish you the best of luck.

[tigerdesu.livejournal.com]

:/ I think, that you should go in and take it, and not panic if you don't know it, just leave it. Or do educated guesses. Those work really well...our set was given the option of taking the practice papers back in June. It wasn't fun, but my class attempted it...noone passed, naturally. BUT! I got a decent score...cos I educated guessed a lot. So...you can just go, well that looks right, and mark that answer. And see where it gets you...

I decided to opt out of the test, because yeah, not at that level by far, and £60 is a lot of money to me...

So, do your best, as our lovely Japanese friends would say. ^_^ Everyone is there in spirit.

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

I was really mad our teachers didn't think us worth taking the practice exam. They literally would not allow it and I still don't know why. But, you had stronger skills than I so... that gives me an idea of how it will go down? I'll just go at it like the placement test and when it's done, let it be done. :/

What the hell?! £60?! It's only $50 for 2kyuu and 1kyuu here. $40 if you go down to 3 or 4.

;-;

[tigerdesu.livejournal.com]

I know, it's shit, the pricing. Another reason to skip it. But hey, might be on JET next year, so might not need the certificate.


You are better than me. So there. I know this, cos I witnessed you have a conversation with train station people on the way to the concert in May, and I didn't follow it, so...:p At least see how you do before you put yourself down like that.
And that means you doing your best~~~

I'm annoying sometimes, aren't I. :)

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

What? Huh. I don't remember that. You always seemed to get by better. You seemed more social with Japapnese people, I guess. And your class seemed more comprehensive, even if ours was supposed to be more advanced. *hangs her head in her hands and laughs at herself* Please don't mind me. This has obviously gotten far further under my skin than it should have. So JET trumps a need for JLPT scores? I haven't been paying very close attention to LJ as of late. Were you planning on using JET as a springboard for something else?

You know, I'm not even sure how they do results. Do they just tell you pass/fail or break it down a little? I'll find out eventually.

[tigerdesu.livejournal.com]

I think they give you a percentage. But I'm not sure. I know we got ours, cos we marked ours ourselves...

Well...social with Japanese can go both ways. A lot wanted to talk in English, and by the time I was comfortable actually being able to hold a conversation in Japanese, it was July. Which sucked. Outside of Sakie and Chiaki, it was hard going for conversations. (Those two are just easy to talk to in general, as you know.)
As for our class...yeah, I kinda prefered Murakami's method, for all the bitching everyone made about her. But I never had a class with Tokomoto, so I dunno...

And JET, well, I figure I can at least use it to improve my Japanese to a level where I can actually take the 2kyuu. Then apply the skills somewhere...dunno where yet. But JET doesn't actually like people staying in Japan, they like people to apply their skills back in their countries after...so yeah, we'll see.

Don't be depressed, you graduate soon!

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

*laugh* I'll let you know how it pans out. If only they'd let us grade the real one ourselves. 8D

This... is true. Oh, I miss Sakie and Chiaki. Sakie the most. ;-; As for Tokomoto, she was a ranter. I think she just expected to show up to her one class a week and her greatness would rub off on us eventually. One question about something and she'd be off on a very comprehensive, but very long winded and winding, explanation of the history and grammar and usage and connotation of anything. She'd toss out so much random information, yet most of her classes weren't really that informative. I was always curious about the notorious Murakami. The removing a belt with one's teeth class story comes to mind. Wasn't that Murakami?

I wish the reformed test was going to be implimented sooner than 2010. I want to go for the new between 3 and 2 level they're making. Apply their skills back in their home countries? Oh, silly JET. Trying to make a lack of job security into a bonus! Fun.

I do graduate soon! That's the slightly scary thing. I feel like I have so much more to learn! I wonder where and when I'll be able to pick that stuff up. Exciting in it's prospects, but so uncertain.

[tigerdesu.livejournal.com]

JET UK has a career's fair when we return from our placements to supposedly help us get jobs. OR! There's a scholarship we can apply for, to get funding to study for a master's degree in a Japanese university. I dunno if I can mooch that much more in my life though. A real job would be awesome. At least, the money would be.

Murakami was indeed belty-lady. She was a bitch it is true, but she did care for the classes really. Scarily, she told me she was coming to Europe next year and it'd be nice to meet. Seriously. That woman, is such a ho. She flirted with the men in class so much. She commented on my clothes all the time (in what was overtly inappropriate for me...) She traced patterns on Matt's back with her finger, she let Richie off easy, and she prolly wants to marry Dion. Oh that woman.

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

Oh, a real job. *day dreams*

*sniggers* If she didn't hate women, I wish I could have been there to see just one or two of those incidents. You were all such cuties, though!

[karasumaakane]

I think it's built into us to be afraid of tests. I was afraid to take that college MAPP test a month or two ago. It wouldn't stop me from graduating; it was just a horrible survey of our ability to read and process stuff. Still, I was nervous to take it. :(

My week? It, more or less, has sucked. And not in the good, yaoi-voyeuristic-blowjob type way. It's the bad, vacuum-to-my-brain type.

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

Well, the countdown has to be pretty short, now, at least. How many days left?

[karasumaakane]

7 days till my last final exam.
8 days till graduation.
13 days till I get my grades.

....Of course, who's counting? :D;;;

[mizuno-caitlin.livejournal.com]

XD