Japanese/Admission Test

So the admission process is more or less complete.

Application for early admission... accepted
Interview... passed
Application for enrollment... accepted

Only thing left was a Japanese Language Test to show that I would be able to attend classes in Japanese, which I just took this Sunday.

I haven't spoken a lick of English any of the times I visited the schools, so the teacher's kept telling me that the test should be a breeze, but I still get a little nervous taking tests, especially when I don't know what they're going to test me on.

I wasn't really that worried, but I was a little worried that there might be a writing portion where I would have to write Kanji. See I can read most Kanji, but writing them is a different story. Since the computer pulls up Kanji for you when you're writing emails or what not it's easy (even for native Japanese speakers) to forget how to write kanji.

So anyway I came to the school in some comfortable jeans and casual clothes, and after arriving I was brought to a room filled with other applicants,
who were ALL WEARING SUITS!!!

I felt a little out of place, and I started to wonder if in Japan you're supposed to wear a suit to take a test, but then I realized (and later had it confirmed by a teacher) that all the other applicants hadn't done the early enrollment and still needed to have their interviews.
I already passed my interview so I was all right. But yeah was still a bit shocking at first.

So I received the test alone in a room with a teacher watching over me. The first part of the test was on proper use of Keigo (the super polite form that I don't use that often in my regular life).
Luckily I had read a copy of
"Chibi Maruko's Keigo Classroom"
about a year ago and new enough about keigo to work out the questions through a process of eliminating which answers I knew weren't right.

Next section was the kanji. This was what I knew would be on the test so I was ready to work out kanji backwards and forwards and even tried preparing just in case I had to write from scratch (no multiple choice), but actually this section was quite easy. None of the kanji were higher than the second level JLPT and it was just multiple choice "How do you read this kanji?" type of questions. Much more straight forward and less tricky than the 1st level JLPT kanji section.

Next I think it was reading comprehension. These weren't too hard but there were a few questions that were a little tricky. I really wonder what the answer for the last question was. It was this article on the Japanese dependency on foreign imports and the last question was asking what the author felt would happen if trends continued as they are. The first two choices were way off so I eliminating those and then had to choose between...

1. Japan will lose it's ability to farm it's own resources.
2. Japan's economy will collapse.

Now the author mentions both of these things but he doesn't say it in exactly those words. If I remember correctly it was something like...

"...this will effect Japan's ability to produce it's own resources, and the Japanese economy may be in danger of collapsing."

So they don't actually say the economy WILL collapse, or the ability to produce resources WILL be lost. It just says there will be an EFFECT, and there may be a DANGER. So neither one's really correct, so I have to try to guess which one's closest. This is what I don't like about some multiple choice tests.

Anyway, I went with the last one.

After the test I stayed around for the Open House and took part in a sample class for Maya 3D software. 3D feels so strange to me, but they say the more you do it the easier it gets.

After class my supervisor congratulated me on my test. He said, "I can't tell you what score you got, but you don't have to worry. Good job."

I guess that means I pass.

Now I just have to wait for the card in the mail, and keep working on my portfolio.

If I have a good enough portfolio they said I may be able to skip the first year and start as a second year student. That translates into me saving a lot of money and having a better chance to get into a company (they like hiring people under 30), so I think that's what I want to do.

Oh and in other news, I have to move by the end of the month.
If I renew the lease here it'll be for two years, and since I'm going to school next year it wouldn't make sense. I'll probably move in with a friend for the time being, so no big, but packing is taking more of my precious time that I need to be using working on my portfolio and stuff.