So, I had a meeting with the international coordinator (Maeda-sensei) for the Economics department at Kobe University ("Hi. I really like your university/country. Will you please take me back in a year or two?").
Basically, in principal, I can was the answer. One odd thing. Apparently part of the entrance exam I would have to take for post-grad economics is the TOEIC exam* (Test Of English for International Communication). Everyone does this, including the Japanese students. Apparently they've just never had a native English speaker as a student, so we spent about 45 minutes calling round various people to figure out if they would make me do this (Rather surprisingly for Japan, everyone admitted straight up that it was rather pointless to make me do it.). At one point Maeda-sensei even asked "You're Scottish right? Is there any way you can claim Scottish as your first language?".
I actually had a look at some of the test questions later in a book store... There were a few I didn't know...
*TOEIC holds a somewhat bizarrely revered position in Japanese society. Not Kimutaku/Ichiro-level reverence of course, but you hear people talking about fairly regularly (actually it would be more accurate to say "you hear people talking about it when they see a foreigner"), and the English book sections of bookstores are sorted by "TOEIC-level X" shelves...
I need JLPT 1 as well (Yay! fun! Not to mention another 500 Mister Donuts points :-S). Actually, that's not 100% true. I would need to SIT the JLPT 1 exam. Apparently they wouldn't care even if I got 0 as long as I attended the exam. Actually I was planning to taking it this December anyway...
Somewhat depressingly, JLPT 2, despite being a perfectly respectable level of Japanese is in practice a rather useless qualification... It's kinda 中途半端 as Yume would say...
Monday, 30 August 2010
Sunday, 29 August 2010
I have a cold :-(
I never really understand how you get a cold in summer, especially when it's still about 35C everyday here, but I guess it's probably something to do with the crazy cold air-con every building in the country has on every day (not that you'd want to be without it on the other hand...)
So yea, I have a cold. It's not really that serious, and wouldn't be a massive problem except it's screwing around with my voice... which is a problem when you try and speak to people in a foreign language where they won't understand you if you get a single syllable wrong*, when you already have a funky weird accent. (Think the Japanese sound weird when they speak English? Guess what...).
Example: I walked into a konbini today and asked for a ピザまん (Pizza-man; Kinda steamed bun thing with pizza sauce filling.), and got given a packet of cigarettes instead...
*I think it has something to do with having comparatively few non-native speakers. They've just never had much experience hearing anything other than perfect Japanese. I think English speakers (French/Spanish/German whatever) are much better at figuring what someone meant to say, even if it wasn't perfect.
I have just re-read that last paragraph. My god I sound like a 5 year old... I'm just gonna leave that there as a monument to... something. I forget what I'm supposed to say... Yea, maybe not such a bad thing I'll be back in an English-speaking country in 3 weeks (sob sob).
Anyway, what I meant was that since there are a massive number of non-native English speakers of competencies ranging from native-level to "can say 'Herro-'. Badly", we tend to be better at working out the general meaning.
Oh, and by the way: Special note, aimed specifically at Louise and Yume. This blog will not end randomly with "I'm just going out for some ramen tonight" or such like. I promise it a proper, dignified conclusion and maybe even a reflective entry in 2 months or so. :-P
So yea, I have a cold. It's not really that serious, and wouldn't be a massive problem except it's screwing around with my voice... which is a problem when you try and speak to people in a foreign language where they won't understand you if you get a single syllable wrong*, when you already have a funky weird accent. (Think the Japanese sound weird when they speak English? Guess what...).
Example: I walked into a konbini today and asked for a ピザまん (Pizza-man; Kinda steamed bun thing with pizza sauce filling.), and got given a packet of cigarettes instead...
*I think it has something to do with having comparatively few non-native speakers. They've just never had much experience hearing anything other than perfect Japanese. I think English speakers (French/Spanish/German whatever) are much better at figuring what someone meant to say, even if it wasn't perfect.
I have just re-read that last paragraph. My god I sound like a 5 year old... I'm just gonna leave that there as a monument to... something. I forget what I'm supposed to say... Yea, maybe not such a bad thing I'll be back in an English-speaking country in 3 weeks (sob sob).
Anyway, what I meant was that since there are a massive number of non-native English speakers of competencies ranging from native-level to "can say 'Herro-'. Badly", we tend to be better at working out the general meaning.
Oh, and by the way: Special note, aimed specifically at Louise and Yume. This blog will not end randomly with "I'm just going out for some ramen tonight" or such like. I promise it a proper, dignified conclusion and maybe even a reflective entry in 2 months or so. :-P
Monday, 16 August 2010
Everybody's leaving :-( sob sob
So we've sadly come round to this point...
Good-Tony left this morning (probably sitting in KIX departure lounge at the moment...) to go back to America. I'm going to miss living down the corridor from Hong Kong film-star royalty... (Tony Leung hehe) (Coincidentally Bad-Tony also left today...)
Louise left last week (Granted she was only in Kobe for 3 weeks...), Alexis left Sumiyoshi a few mins ago to spend a few days in Tennoji before he goes back to France, and Chris leaves in a few days...
I'm leaving 5 weeks from yesterday... Seriously, what I wouldn't do for another year here...
Oh, we had お盆 (O-bon) this weekend. It's a Japanese Buddhist festival to remember your dead ancestors. Interesting task: Go ask Japanese person under the age of 30 if they know what it's for... lol.
So anyway, I went up to Fukui-ken to go see Yoo again. Met a couple of his friends at the 鮎祭り (Fish Festival?) who were pretty cool, one of whom had a truly amazing command of English swear-words hehe :-). Another one, assuming I couldn't speak Japanese*, was speaking to me in mostly-not-bad-English for about 10 minutes. I'm not sure if this was mean or not but I just let her keep going with that assumption (answering only in English) until Yoo "outed" me. Is this bad? I don't know, I kinda figure it's sort of what you get for not asking...
*Given Yoo speaks only Japanese and a bit of German, this really doesn't make that much sense...
Incidentally, Year Abroad lesson: No matter what language your speaking NEVER assume that nobody has a clue what you're saying.
Special mention goes to Louise, who shouted accidentally "Vagina" rather loudly in an Osaka Starbucks. The Japanese woman sitting next to us gave us some interesting looks...
Unless you're speaking in Danish. Not even the Danes understand that sh*t lol.
We were having a chat about how I don't really like how Kyoto is full of tourists who can't be bothered to learn a bit of Japanese, and they asked if that meant I didn't like Japanese people who couldn't speak English. Basically, the way I see it is the difference is, when Japanese people (actually this goes for pretty much all non-English speaking countries) go abroad, they don't try to speak their home-language to whoever they meet there. Japanese tourists aren't generally in the habit of waltzing into Starbucks in London and expecting the barista to understand "アイスチョコをクリーム抜きでお願いします". This is however, exactly what tourists do here. I think it's just rude to make your own laziness someone else's problem like that.
Oh, and we went swimming in the river next to Yoo's village, which was great 'cos it's still roasting hot here (and the water was as clear as glass). They say it'll get cooler soonish. I was here last September so I know this is a complete lie :-) hehe
Ryota seems to have become a fan of this foreign cinema over in West Kobe (新開地). It's a bit like the Cameo or Filmhouse in Edinburgh (This reference was put in for the sole benefit of my mum.). I have to question it's selection on occasion however... "Did you hear about the Morgans"????
Oh, and "The Karate Kid" is called "ベストキッド" ("Best Kid") here...
Good-Tony left this morning (probably sitting in KIX departure lounge at the moment...) to go back to America. I'm going to miss living down the corridor from Hong Kong film-star royalty... (Tony Leung hehe) (Coincidentally Bad-Tony also left today...)
Louise left last week (Granted she was only in Kobe for 3 weeks...), Alexis left Sumiyoshi a few mins ago to spend a few days in Tennoji before he goes back to France, and Chris leaves in a few days...
I'm leaving 5 weeks from yesterday... Seriously, what I wouldn't do for another year here...
Oh, we had お盆 (O-bon) this weekend. It's a Japanese Buddhist festival to remember your dead ancestors. Interesting task: Go ask Japanese person under the age of 30 if they know what it's for... lol.
So anyway, I went up to Fukui-ken to go see Yoo again. Met a couple of his friends at the 鮎祭り (Fish Festival?) who were pretty cool, one of whom had a truly amazing command of English swear-words hehe :-). Another one, assuming I couldn't speak Japanese*, was speaking to me in mostly-not-bad-English for about 10 minutes. I'm not sure if this was mean or not but I just let her keep going with that assumption (answering only in English) until Yoo "outed" me. Is this bad? I don't know, I kinda figure it's sort of what you get for not asking...
*Given Yoo speaks only Japanese and a bit of German, this really doesn't make that much sense...
Incidentally, Year Abroad lesson: No matter what language your speaking NEVER assume that nobody has a clue what you're saying.
Special mention goes to Louise, who shouted accidentally "Vagina" rather loudly in an Osaka Starbucks. The Japanese woman sitting next to us gave us some interesting looks...
Unless you're speaking in Danish. Not even the Danes understand that sh*t lol.
We were having a chat about how I don't really like how Kyoto is full of tourists who can't be bothered to learn a bit of Japanese, and they asked if that meant I didn't like Japanese people who couldn't speak English. Basically, the way I see it is the difference is, when Japanese people (actually this goes for pretty much all non-English speaking countries) go abroad, they don't try to speak their home-language to whoever they meet there. Japanese tourists aren't generally in the habit of waltzing into Starbucks in London and expecting the barista to understand "アイスチョコをクリーム抜きでお願いします". This is however, exactly what tourists do here. I think it's just rude to make your own laziness someone else's problem like that.
Oh, and we went swimming in the river next to Yoo's village, which was great 'cos it's still roasting hot here (and the water was as clear as glass). They say it'll get cooler soonish. I was here last September so I know this is a complete lie :-) hehe
Ryota seems to have become a fan of this foreign cinema over in West Kobe (新開地). It's a bit like the Cameo or Filmhouse in Edinburgh (This reference was put in for the sole benefit of my mum.). I have to question it's selection on occasion however... "Did you hear about the Morgans"????
Oh, and "The Karate Kid" is called "ベストキッド" ("Best Kid") here...
Saturday, 7 August 2010
徳島 Tokushima
So I actually made it off Honshu Island for once lol.
About 15 of us (mix of Japanese and foreign students) took a little trip down to Kaifu at the very bottom of Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku for a few days. In other words, pretty much the middle of nowhere. Was really fun! Got some rather itchy sunburn on my back though...
Oh, and I had NO idea what on earth anyone was saying there... Mind you, apparently neither did the Japanese lol... Where's Taichi when you need him... (In Birmingham actually).
Also, Louise arrived! She's here for 2 weeks for a Japanese language course Kobe University is running. Yay! (Judging by how everyone says the classes are "really fun", I think they must be getting different classes from the ones we did. :-P) . Oh, and I think I might be successfully converting here to the obviously far superior Kansai version of Japanese :-)
Speaking of Japanese, I heard this random foreign woman in a bar speaking Japanese (I think they were the Kobe JETs). She obviously new the language very well (better than me) but it was a little bit weird in that she didn't seem to know how to use it. By that I mean when she told us someone else was using the seats we tried to sit in, she told us exactly that, which is fine in English but came across as a bit rude in Japanese... I just thought that was interesting.
Oh, and I got my nose felt up by the waitress in a Korean restaurant in Kobe. (Incidentally, Eve, Elena, we're going to need to have a discussion about Kimchi in the fridge...). Literally I was sitting at the table and she came up and was like "Wow, your nose is really big!" And just started feeling it! Wierd... lol
Sad news: Yume and Mark are leaving in a few days :-( Stevie and Marina are already gone :-( sob sob
About 15 of us (mix of Japanese and foreign students) took a little trip down to Kaifu at the very bottom of Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku for a few days. In other words, pretty much the middle of nowhere. Was really fun! Got some rather itchy sunburn on my back though...
Oh, and I had NO idea what on earth anyone was saying there... Mind you, apparently neither did the Japanese lol... Where's Taichi when you need him... (In Birmingham actually).
Also, Louise arrived! She's here for 2 weeks for a Japanese language course Kobe University is running. Yay! (Judging by how everyone says the classes are "really fun", I think they must be getting different classes from the ones we did. :-P) . Oh, and I think I might be successfully converting here to the obviously far superior Kansai version of Japanese :-)
Speaking of Japanese, I heard this random foreign woman in a bar speaking Japanese (I think they were the Kobe JETs). She obviously new the language very well (better than me) but it was a little bit weird in that she didn't seem to know how to use it. By that I mean when she told us someone else was using the seats we tried to sit in, she told us exactly that, which is fine in English but came across as a bit rude in Japanese... I just thought that was interesting.
Oh, and I got my nose felt up by the waitress in a Korean restaurant in Kobe. (Incidentally, Eve, Elena, we're going to need to have a discussion about Kimchi in the fridge...). Literally I was sitting at the table and she came up and was like "Wow, your nose is really big!" And just started feeling it! Wierd... lol
Sad news: Yume and Mark are leaving in a few days :-( Stevie and Marina are already gone :-( sob sob
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