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Okay, the JLPT is over, time to play catch-up.
I'm going to gain like 10 pounds today. I decided it was a eat-whatever-the-fuck-I-want-because-I-took-the-JLPT day, so I've been pretty much just gorging myself and not really caring.
So, yeah, the JLPT. Went down to the Tokyo Seiei College, which is in Shin-Koiwa, right by the north side of the JR station. The test started at 9:45 and I arrived at 9:15am, which was actually about when most people arrived -- coming out of the station I saw a whole bunch of people talking excitedly in (I think) Chinese and holding up their JLPT vouchers looking at the map. But the college is literally only like, 2 blocks from the station. If you didn't know it was there you'd walk past it.
In a room of 72 people or so -- 9 rows, 4 desks per row, 2 people per desk, there were... THREE other white people there. And infact, only like, 2 other non-Asians there. I guess that isn't entirely unexpected.
Oh yeah, and I was a narc and tattled on a guy who picked up his booklet and started looking through it way before they told us we could start. Seriously, WTF? They said in Japanese, several times, "DO NOT OPEN YOUR TEST BOOK", so when the lady was coming by to check our vouchers and faces, I motioned towards the dude looking through his book and she BOLTED over to him like "CLOSE YOUR BOOK OR YOU WILL BE DISMISSED". I saw other people cheating later on and turning over their books "nonchalantly" and basically reading the back pages through the back cover, while waiting for the test to start.
Worse, they tell you to bring a watch. I don't own a watch. I figured, this is a COLLEGE, there has to be a CLOCK in the room, right? Well, get this, they COVERED the clock. And I was the only person there without some kind of timekeeping device other than a cellphone. Sigh.
So, the test... the first part, kanji and vocab, I think I actually did reasonably well, which isn't too surprising. At least, I managed to answer everything I could when they called 5 mins left and then I frantically filled in the tentative answers I had marked before. The second part is listening, and IT SUCKED, as expected. Seriously, you miss ONE word and you completely fail the question in most of the cases. I realize the test is supposed to measure how well you would catch things in ordinary conversation, but when the situation is something that in real life you'd seriously say, "Wait, please repeat that?" what is the point of this? Like one listening question was a phone recording, "Press 1 for ____, Press 2 for ____". In real life, you would press 9 to hear the options again. Or another was one where a guy is talking about the course options at their fitness club and the lady has to decide on one. But I didn't understand the first one on the first try, so I wasn't sure which one she decided on. In real life, again, I'd just be like "Hey, what was the first one again?"
It pisses me off because I think I'm actually a lot better at listening than I was before. I mean, I fucking LIVE in this country. Y'know?
Anyway, reading/grammar was the third part.
I couldn't really understand what the initial 7-question composition was about per se. And just in case I'd be scooping someone if I talked about it, I won't. Either way, bombing that is a pretty big strike in the first place. On the other hand the grammar stuff seemed easier, BUT on the other other hand, I ran out of time. I was up to question 40-something out of 59 when they announced 5 minutes, so, crap, I basically just filled in the blanks randomly for the rest of it for the most part (if I didn't immediately know an answer, BAM).
You know what one of the worst parts of the test is? You're not allowed to eat/drink/leave/whatever, anything, at all, for the hour or hour and a half per test session. Bathroom, I was good at going before the sessions started, and eating, not important, but OH MY GOD my throat was so dry from the heater in that room -- my sinuses started acting up during the reading part of the test and I thought I was going to die from trying not to cough up a lung. SO dry. When we finally passed in our tests I almost lunged for my water bottle.
So, probably failed. I kinda knew that. Still kinda curious to see how badly I failed...
Also, it kinda sucks that last year I woulda been taking the test at Meiji and this year I was at some random whatever college.
Oh, so at lunchtime we all swarmed the station area. I got katsudon at a little place with the meal ticket vending machine but I didn't get the protocol for how to put it on your tray in queue so I waited like 5 minutes longer than necessary. Then, I spilled soup all over my tray. Whee.
Anyway, afterwards I came home with a brief stop at the import store in Akihabara (trains change there anyway) and have been home since, doing laundry and all. While I should probably be concentrating on more important things like paperwork and going back to the US, instead I am trying to figure out how feasible various Seishun 18 trips would be over New Year's. Thinking to go to Obama City, though it's a shame nobody I know in the Nagoya region will actually BE here over New Year's.
So, yeah, the JLPT. Went down to the Tokyo Seiei College, which is in Shin-Koiwa, right by the north side of the JR station. The test started at 9:45 and I arrived at 9:15am, which was actually about when most people arrived -- coming out of the station I saw a whole bunch of people talking excitedly in (I think) Chinese and holding up their JLPT vouchers looking at the map. But the college is literally only like, 2 blocks from the station. If you didn't know it was there you'd walk past it.
In a room of 72 people or so -- 9 rows, 4 desks per row, 2 people per desk, there were... THREE other white people there. And infact, only like, 2 other non-Asians there. I guess that isn't entirely unexpected.
Oh yeah, and I was a narc and tattled on a guy who picked up his booklet and started looking through it way before they told us we could start. Seriously, WTF? They said in Japanese, several times, "DO NOT OPEN YOUR TEST BOOK", so when the lady was coming by to check our vouchers and faces, I motioned towards the dude looking through his book and she BOLTED over to him like "CLOSE YOUR BOOK OR YOU WILL BE DISMISSED". I saw other people cheating later on and turning over their books "nonchalantly" and basically reading the back pages through the back cover, while waiting for the test to start.
Worse, they tell you to bring a watch. I don't own a watch. I figured, this is a COLLEGE, there has to be a CLOCK in the room, right? Well, get this, they COVERED the clock. And I was the only person there without some kind of timekeeping device other than a cellphone. Sigh.
So, the test... the first part, kanji and vocab, I think I actually did reasonably well, which isn't too surprising. At least, I managed to answer everything I could when they called 5 mins left and then I frantically filled in the tentative answers I had marked before. The second part is listening, and IT SUCKED, as expected. Seriously, you miss ONE word and you completely fail the question in most of the cases. I realize the test is supposed to measure how well you would catch things in ordinary conversation, but when the situation is something that in real life you'd seriously say, "Wait, please repeat that?" what is the point of this? Like one listening question was a phone recording, "Press 1 for ____, Press 2 for ____". In real life, you would press 9 to hear the options again. Or another was one where a guy is talking about the course options at their fitness club and the lady has to decide on one. But I didn't understand the first one on the first try, so I wasn't sure which one she decided on. In real life, again, I'd just be like "Hey, what was the first one again?"
It pisses me off because I think I'm actually a lot better at listening than I was before. I mean, I fucking LIVE in this country. Y'know?
Anyway, reading/grammar was the third part.
I couldn't really understand what the initial 7-question composition was about per se. And just in case I'd be scooping someone if I talked about it, I won't. Either way, bombing that is a pretty big strike in the first place. On the other hand the grammar stuff seemed easier, BUT on the other other hand, I ran out of time. I was up to question 40-something out of 59 when they announced 5 minutes, so, crap, I basically just filled in the blanks randomly for the rest of it for the most part (if I didn't immediately know an answer, BAM).
You know what one of the worst parts of the test is? You're not allowed to eat/drink/leave/whatever, anything, at all, for the hour or hour and a half per test session. Bathroom, I was good at going before the sessions started, and eating, not important, but OH MY GOD my throat was so dry from the heater in that room -- my sinuses started acting up during the reading part of the test and I thought I was going to die from trying not to cough up a lung. SO dry. When we finally passed in our tests I almost lunged for my water bottle.
So, probably failed. I kinda knew that. Still kinda curious to see how badly I failed...
Also, it kinda sucks that last year I woulda been taking the test at Meiji and this year I was at some random whatever college.
Oh, so at lunchtime we all swarmed the station area. I got katsudon at a little place with the meal ticket vending machine but I didn't get the protocol for how to put it on your tray in queue so I waited like 5 minutes longer than necessary. Then, I spilled soup all over my tray. Whee.
Anyway, afterwards I came home with a brief stop at the import store in Akihabara (trains change there anyway) and have been home since, doing laundry and all. While I should probably be concentrating on more important things like paperwork and going back to the US, instead I am trying to figure out how feasible various Seishun 18 trips would be over New Year's. Thinking to go to Obama City, though it's a shame nobody I know in the Nagoya region will actually BE here over New Year's.