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2019 Japanese Oral

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Hiea:

--- Quote from: undefined on October 09, 2019, 08:04:07 pm ---Yeah same! Maybe, I was at like 12 and was in room 5. I had one non native and one native examiner too. Surprisingly the non native examiner spoke with greater clarity and it was a bit difficult to gauge what they were saying. Like for example they asked something like オーストラリアの高校と日本の高校、どこ違うの　and I was like what?

Edit: was I meant to respond with the Japanese school is in Tokyo and the Australian one is in Melbourne or something lol because I went with the more logical explaining differences route

--- End quote ---

Aw, I was there way earlier. I was in room 6, and there were two Asian people? Couldn't tell if one was native or not, but they asked more or less the same sort of questions each? It sounds like almost everyone got one native and one non-native assessor, though, so maybe one of them was Korean or something.

I think your response was on the mark. Sounds like a complex question if it was for GC, though. How'd you end up there? I know I kept desperately trying to lead my assessors into talking about school (My hobbies? Well I haven't much time due to entrance exam studies wink wink nudge nudge, but whenever I'm free I like to...) but they wouldn't take the bait so I was like screw it, have it your way, hell yeah let's talk about samurai dramas that I haven't watched, why the hell no--part time work? What the...

undefined:

--- Quote from: Hiea on October 09, 2019, 09:55:11 pm ---Aw, I was there way earlier. I was in room 6, and there were two Asian people? Couldn't tell if one was native or not, but they asked more or less the same sort of questions each? It sounds like almost everyone got one native and one non-native assessor, though, so maybe one of them was Korean or something.

I think your response was on the mark. Sounds like a complex question if it was for GC, though. How'd you end up there? I know I kept desperately trying to lead my assessors into talking about school (My hobbies? Well I haven't much time due to entrance exam studies wink wink nudge nudge, but whenever I'm free I like to...) but they wouldn't take the bait so I was like screw it, have it your way, hell yeah let's talk about samurai dramas that I haven't watched, why the hell no--part time work? What the...

--- End quote ---
Now that I think about it we literally talked about my Japan trip for the whole GC lol. It's not my best topic but then again it's not my worst (thank god they didn't ask me about school). So basically they asked if I went to school in Japan during my homestay and I was like yeah I went to classes and all that fun stuff. Then I got asked that. Too bad I didn't get to talk about part time work or my hobbies.. Also, I got asked my favourite flavour of yatsuhashi and I was like, shit, how do you say red bean (now that I think about it I could've easily said like strawberry or chocolate but my mind blanked so hard) and ended up just saying I like sweet varieties lol

By the time the DS came along they literally took none of my bait unless the conversation started to slow because they didn't know what to ask. There's always this thought in the back of my head that I misheard the examiner and answered inadequately but what's done is done.

Wait how did you lead them to talk about samurai dramas - let alone one's that you haven't watched? I guess those types of topics are good because they probably haven't had any students who have said something like that.


Also, note to future students. I recommend having a script for GC (don't be reliant on it though). It helped me so much as I already had stuff in mind that I wanted to talk about. Even though I only started it last Friday, I would've been screwed without it and there would be a lot of awkward thinking pauses.

Hiea:

--- Quote from: undefined on October 09, 2019, 10:20:30 pm ---Now that I think about it we literally talked about my Japan trip for the whole GC lol. It's not my best topic but then again it's not my worst (thank god they didn't ask me about school). So basically they asked if I went to school in Japan during my homestay and I was like yeah I went to classes and all that fun stuff. Then I got asked that. Too bad I didn't get to talk about part time work or my hobbies.. Also, I got asked my favourite flavour of yatsuhashi and I was like, shit, how do you say red bean (now that I think about it I could've easily said like strawberry or chocolate but my mind blanked so hard) and ended up just saying I like sweet varieties lol

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Kinda weird how we got assessors on opposite ends of the "stay on a topic or bounce around" spectrum ahahaha
To future students: you can and, in my opinion, should lie (just a little!) in your GC if it means you'll have an easier time forming answers. There's no "factual evidence" criterion and not only do the assessors know nothing about you outside of your student number, they really shouldn't care too much about anything other than your language ability, anyway. Heck, my teacher even said that you can lie about your own name if you wanted to :P


--- Quote from: undefined on October 09, 2019, 10:20:30 pm ---
By the time the DS came along they literally took none of my bait unless the conversation started to slow because they didn't know what to ask. There's always this thought in the back of my head that I misheard the examiner and answered inadequately but what's done is done.

--- End quote ---
Ah damn, that's a bit of a shame. Still, it's their job to stick to your DS introduction, so surely they just thought what you said so far was already good enough!

--- Quote from: undefined on October 09, 2019, 10:20:30 pm ---Wait how did you lead them to talk about samurai dramas - let alone one's that you haven't watched? I guess those types of topics are good because they probably haven't had any students who have said something like that.

--- End quote ---

When they asked about hobbies, I talked about Sekiro, which I offhandedly mentioned is a game set in the Sengoku era while I was giving a short scenario summary. So then one of the assessors said that lately, there have been a lot of Japanese-history based media, like dramas and whatnot. Momentary panic, aforementioned mental squaring up because no way in hell am I losing any marks without a fight, literally only got to say "Yes, such as dramas based on Miyamoto Musashi" as my brain started praying to Yoshikawa Eiji to lend me his guidance, before the other assessor cut in to ask me about my part-time work. On one hand, I'm a bit miffed because I was already like halfway through converting hazy memories of Vagabond into a coherent summary. On the other, that man probably saved my life.


--- Quote from: undefined on October 09, 2019, 10:20:30 pm ---Also, note to future students. I recommend having a script for GC (don't be reliant on it though). It helped me so much as I already had stuff in mind that I wanted to talk about. Even though I only started it last Friday, I would've been screwed without it and there would be a lot of awkward thinking pauses.

--- End quote ---

Absolutely second this. Having even just a scrap of something to fall back on not only lets you respond to individual questions more effectively, it's also really good for your nerves.

Another little tip is to try to speak a bit more slowly than you usually do, but really focus on your fluency as you do so. You'll be hopped up on adrenaline on the day, and it is very, very tempting to just babble as quickly as you can. Consciously compensating for this and focusing on the clarity of what you're saying will calm you down and make your responses so much smoother. It's a lot better than being a stuttering mess that trips over every second word like I tend to be, anyway.

Other than that, try to smile and act confident. Even if you have some blood in your adrenaline stream, keeping up a smile will probably trick you into thinking that everything is A-OK. The psychological battle against yourself is a big portion of every oral, I think.

(ofc feel free to disregard all of this when I end up with a scaled 2 hehe)

sarangiya:

--- Quote from: Hiea on October 09, 2019, 07:14:47 pm ---If you don't mind though, do you have any quick tips for studying the written exam? I'll definitely, definitely make use of them right away instead of procrastinating until the 19th. Yes.

By the way, weirdly enough, all the native speakers I know ended up with a non-native white assessor. Ironic.

--- End quote ---
Hahaha I think just bust out as many practice exams as possible. If you have an area you know needs improvement, don't kid yourself pussyfooting around it. Just take it straight on. If you want to improve your listening, practice dictation and writing down everything you hear. To improve your reading, do some vocabulary drills and or try speed-reading. The reading section really only identifies figuring out a keyword, finding it, and either regurgiating it or translating it. To improve your writing, perhaps try and memorise some phrases (use ones from your DS!!!!!) and just write like mad.
Otherwise yeah, at this point I think the best idea is just getting in as much timed practice as possible.

Also I know it's pedantic but there are assessors who are also "non-native" yet non-"white", and I would say a fair amount of students wouldn't even be able to tell. Bit rude to make assumptions about ones ability based purely on their skin colour. Can also say from experience that "native" students are not necessarily at as much disadvantage as what they think they are. Bit too easy to put the blame on the assessor and not oneself.

Hiea:

--- Quote from: sarangiya on October 10, 2019, 01:26:04 am ---Hahaha I think just bust out as many practice exams as possible. If you have an area you know needs improvement, don't kid yourself pussyfooting around it. Just take it straight on. If you want to improve your listening, practice dictation and writing down everything you hear. To improve your reading, do some vocabulary drills and or try speed-reading. The reading section really only identifies figuring out a keyword, finding it, and either regurgiating it or translating it. To improve your writing, perhaps try and memorise some phrases (use ones from your DS!!!!!) and just write like mad.
Otherwise yeah, at this point I think the best idea is just getting in as much timed practice as possible.

Also I know it's pedantic but there are assessors who are also "non-native" yet non-"white", and I would say a fair amount of students wouldn't even be able to tell. Bit rude to make assumptions about ones ability based purely on their skin colour. Can also say from experience that "native" students are not necessarily at as much disadvantage as what they think they are. Bit too easy to put the blame on the assessor and not oneself.

--- End quote ---

Thank you so much, as always, for all your help and guidance! It's really fantastic to have you here lending us a hand, and I can't stress enough how greatly it's appreciated  ;D
And it wasn't that pedantic; rather, you make an excellent and insightful point regarding how us students can tend to think. Should definitely be more careful with such thoughts and judgements in the future  :-[

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