Alright, for those hoping for an exciting and dynamic post, look elsewhere. Today I’m talking about exams, oh yes. In this particular round of exams, I have 3 three hour long papers to sit;
- Contemporary Japanese Society
- Postwar Japanese Politics
- Japanese Language
I thought I’d break down each one, hopefully you guys might find it interesting, and potential future Sheffield students might think ‘Hey, I want to answer questions on the effect of the bureaucracy on Japanese politics, I should go to Sheffield!’
Contemporary Japanese Society is a mandatory module for Japanese studies students, and it’s not hugely popular with the students, because we took a very similar module (‘Understanding Japan’) last year. Still, it covers a wide range of topics so it’s a useful subject to study. Still, I have to admit I wouldn’t jump at choosing it. The exam was three essays, I answered one question on the toll on society the economic drive of the 1970’s and 1980’s took (looking at suicide, homelessness and 過労死 or death from overwork), one question on Japan’s homogeneity (not the first time I’ve answered that question!) and one question on how article 9 has changed Japan’s outlooks. It wasn’t too challenging an exam as it’s all stuff I studied last year. Hopefully I actually remembered some of it. (Probably not)
The second exam, Postwar Japanese Politics, is coming on Tuesday. The range of potential questions is pretty huge, but any questions on the relationship of politicians, bureaucrats and business would be superb. Questions on the media’s role in politics, the role of women or how the LDP works would all be fine too. As long as I don’t have to answer about how Japan’s electoral system, I’m ok. That thing is so confusing, I don’t think anyone actually knows how it works.
The big one, Japanese Language happens on Thursday. It’s broken down, as are the other two exams, into one translation piece, this time a passage of Japanese literature, one piece comprehension, which will be a newspaper article on an issue facing Japan today, and one part composition, which this time will be writing an article based on statistics. Yes, it’s as horribly dull as it sounds, and I’m currently in the process of memorizing sentences such as ‘At 94.7%, the rate was overwhelmingly high’ (９４．７％と、圧倒的に高かった I think!) To be honest, although this is probably the hardest exam I’ve ever sat in my life, I’m not hugely scared because I know what the format is going to be. In the first semester exam I was freaking out because it was so different to the first year exams. Still, I should really be sleeping now, I need to get a full day’s revision in tomorrow.
As usual I’ll wrap up by telling you what’s coming up. As you may have noticed, I lost the cool theme I was using due to a mistake on my part, so I’ve gone for this very minimal, very readable design. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the long term but this will suffice for now. I’m also working hard on getting a Japanese video on Youtube, although talking into a camera without bursting out into laughter is proving hard. Still, stay tuned for that. In fact, stay tuned for everything!
Also, although Sophia haven’t emailed me yet, my guess as to when I’m going abroad is September 16th. So only about three and a half months to go! Eek!
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Good luck with your remaining exams!!!!
Good luck man :) I want to study Japanese at university when I graduate (im 14 now) so this is good to read. がんばって！！！
Jen: Thank you! :)
The Best Of Times: ありがとう！ Feel free to use the contact form (at the top of the page) if you want more info :)
hey, so what did you end up getting? :]
I got three 2.1 (seconds) in those exams. I think that the British system is a bit different, but what that means is ‘I done good”.
Ahh good job man