Jap Oral interviews!!

[IntoTheNewWorld]

I'm on the 23rd so still a bit of time I guess







ファックファックファック。

[dejan91]

Same here, mine's on the 23rd. Still...That's only 3 weeks away 

[IntoTheNewWorld]

hmm I have to force my teacher to practice with me >_> Whenever we practice as groups we just talk about very random things...

I cbs writing anything for General Convo, it seems limitless. Hopefully the Examiner will be nice and ask me nice questions.

[dejan91]

Yeah, agreed. f you write a lot down, You run the risk of being too restricted with what to say and end up trying to remember what was on page 12 on the 10th line or whatever...instead of actually answering the question spontaneously. That's what I've found at least. Of course, that's not to say you shouldn't have some sort of general idea on what you want to say

[moshi]

23rd? you guys are lucky.. maybe you'll see each other there too! mine's 1 week and sleep away, so しんぱいしています! i've written some stuff down, because i'd rather try (hope!) to have some direction in the conversation by predicting what they might ask if when i say something. hopefully they'll stick to broad topics like family, school, etc. i've heard of one girl being asked about terrorism, and got really freaked out - our teacher said that if it did happen, it was because she must've mentioned something to get the examiners asking about it. so i guess it does pay to come in with some indication of what you're going to say

[IntoTheNewWorld]

lolol terrorism. Unlucky. What a mean examiner.

If an examiner really wanted you to fail I guess he could just latch onto tiny points you say and keep going on about difficult topics.

[dejan91]

Ouch, terrorism! That's quite harsh. Moshi, that's not to say I haven't written anything down for general conversation by the way

[moshi]

that's good
although i get the feeling that no matter how much i try to prepare, it'll never be enough! i just really hope that there'll be no awkward pauses and that i'll be able to understand and answer every question.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

きっと大丈夫だよ。　Moshiさんなら出来るよ~

Hmm do you think if you don't understand a question, do you think it'd a good idea to just say something you think is related based on a word or two you hear in the question?

[moshi]

aww thanks
it's best to ask them to repeat, pray to god that they'll rephrase/say it slower, and if that fails, just answer what you think is right. although i've done that a few times with the language assistant, and sometimes she'll stop, look to the right, purse her lips and go "uh-uh". very demoralising, lol. they'll probably just mark you down for not understanding the question fully, but it's better than having an awkward pause and still getting the question wrong, in my opinion.
although when i first started practicing my DS with the language assistant, she liked asking ＿＿どしたらいいですか。i had no idea what it meant, so i guessed she was asking 'what is good' rather than 'how to make it good/better'. so while i understood a tiny part of it (sort of?), i'd still misconstrued the question and gotten it wrong.
or maybe, you could use aizuchi to clarify the question if you're not sure? e.g. take out a key word, and go 'keywordですか'. that might help in making sure you're on the right track

[IntoTheNewWorld]

do you mean どうしたらいいですか？

lolol I like doing the ○○ですか？ gives me time to think as well. Why do Japanese people like to speak so fast...?

I pray I don't get a non-native examiner that butchers words beyond recognition.

[moshi]

yeah, sorry i forgot the 'u'
lol i'm usually so wound up while doing it that it barely gives me time at all!
in regards to the assessor, i hope so too. but maybe non-natives speak slower? hope so.
we were doing kikitori in class the other day, and there was this guy on the recording with an absolutely hilarious voice - apparently it's your teacher, lol! one person laughed which set off the rest of the class. our teacher was chuckling too, but was like, it'd be our luck if we ended up with someone like that on exam day, haha. so fingers crossed!

[IntoTheNewWorld]

lol fujino sensei >_>

hmm must've gottten used to his voice. Usually speaks pretty softly though.

[sonnypls]

bah and I was stuck with two natives. fml

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Mock speaking tmr nuuuu.

I already failed my written trial >_>