In my last post i mentioned that I was going for my “Japanese Placement Interview”.  The word “Interview” was the word used by Dr. Nagata and so i prepared myself for an interview.  I went through some listening excercises, went over some grammar and vocab…. I didn’t bother with too much kanji practice as I figured speaking would be the primary focus in this interview. I’m already pretty confident with my pronunciation.  And generally, with vocab and grammar fresh in my mind i’m generally pretty ok at speaking, i mean, i’m sure to the Japanese I probably speak like a 5 year old child – a 5 year old JAPANESE child! And so i’m happy enough with that for the time being.

I was set, I was pumped, I was only a wee bit nervous, and really, most importantly, I was open to whatever result I would receive.  So I turned up, there were a few people in the room and so I immediately thought that this must be like a group interview thing.  I didn’t know if I should wait before going in or what, and there were some people sitting down outside so I took a seat and waited for a bit.  I also had a bit of a chat with the people outside, they were also there for either the interview or just to gather some information.  One girl had already lived in Japan for a year, and one of the guys was fresh out of highschool and had never studied Japanese before.

I walked in and told one of the Japanese professors that I was there for the interview to which she replied (in her Obaachan-like Japanese accent): “Oh, you’re here for the test!” then she hands me 2 bits of paper and tells me to sit down and get started (politely of course).

This wednesday i’ll be journeying to the University of Queensland campus at St. Lucia to attend a Japanese placement interview.  I requested (and… actually I’ve been approved for) Japanese 3 – which is essentially the beginning of the 3rd year of Japanese language studies at UQ.  That’s all really meaningless to me and I suppose the studies I have taken part in are meaningless to the Japanese language faculty which is why I’m attending this interview to figure out if this really is the right level for me.

I haven’t really studied or prepared for it yet.  I did a bit of study over the December-January New Zealand trip but, oddly enough, I haven’t found time to study now – although, that has to be an excuse because I reckon there was time for it.

Whenever I do study Japanese I surprise myself with what I already know AND how quickly I relearn stuff that i’ve forgotten. I still kinda think Japanese 3 will be the right level though…  But i don’t really have my heart set on any particular level because essentially the numbers tacked on the end of the class are irrelevant – i’m more particular about being placed correctly in a way that I will be able to relearn and review a bunch of the stuff I’ve already covered as well as push on and learn more.

Ahh… wow today was probably one of the best days I’ve had in a loooong while.

Today marked the day I finish Uni this semester – heck the last day I finish Uni in Austraia for 2009!!! No more uni till Kansai Gaidai! And, oh, was it a wonderful day.

So I woke up this morning after a pretty good sleep – which doesn’t happy very often due to a sleeping condition I have – and I dived straight into study for my final exam for the semester: Japanese.  And what a way to go out!

So today I had the pre-departure information session.  Things were looking good until something was discretely brought to my attention.  I, Jace, master of this here blog you read this very moment am NOT going to Kansai Gaidai!

It’s real, it HAS TO BE REAL!!!!!!!

Wicked, so there have been a few new things that have been happening lately and i guess its time to finally update and cram it all in this post.

Woo photos! Enjoy!

This is it! My last exam that will count towards my application to Kansai Gaidai starts at 5:30pm today.