Right after the talk on the 8th I’ll be dashing off to Dublin to be at the embassy on the 9th. There will be an English test, Japanese test, and interview for the MEXT scholarship. Any time I’ve mentioned the English test to anyone I’ve had surprised responses—”But you’re a native speaker!” Looking at the past papers though, the English test actually seems pretty tricky. Some of it is in the form of proof-reading where you find the missing word (usually a preposition or an article) in a big paragraph of text… which is no problem to do but is a problem to do at a decent speed.
I’m quite looking forward to the Japanese exam, but I’ve always enjoyed those. Placement tests are always interesting to take because I feel pretty happy about my level of Japanese at the start as a blast through all the multiple choice questions, but that quickly goes away as the paper inevitably gets more difficult and I spend the latter half of the exam racking my brain trying to remember how to read/write a particular kanji or getting frustrated because I don’t understand one critical part of vocabulary.
Interviews are always fun though, and as my friends know all too well, I like talking about Japan more than anything else. (Sean’s the only friend who can stand this, and that’s because he can give as good as I can.)
Well, I’m off to pick up my shiny new MacBook Pro!