learning japanese

gundamhamtaro

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i studied at SP in 98 and learnt my basic japanese there thruout my diploma. it was free cos at tt time, dept of IT was called JSIST and had relations with japan(now dont know wat happen), so i could take it as my elective. all our sensei were japanese. i had 3 different senseis, 1 for each time. the basic part was the hardest as she couldnt speak much english and we pretty much had to guess what was been taught haha. however we were only taught the basic stuff and even in the exams the answers could pretty much be copied back from the questions. this is from '98-2000 so i dont know what it would be like now though
 

JoySakurai

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ah.. thx for the info gundamhamtaro.. haha..

my teacher doesn't speak much english either, but it was really good learning from her.

shogun > yeah, its coz ikoma fees are sooo high.. ><||
i'm thinking of trying out SP's while at the same time still learning at ikoma and see how it compares.

Don't know how much it costs, but im guessing we have to pay now.
the teacher is Mrs Foong Yukiko. Sounds like a chinese woman who just gave herself a japanese name?
or am i wrong?

well.. will check out more details when i start school in SP.. ^^;;
 

gundamhamtaro

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maybe she's 1/2 japanese, hence the strange name.............i remember there're some ang mohs out there with mixec names too
 

ender51244

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JoySakurai said:
ah.. thx for the info gundamhamtaro.. haha..

my teacher doesn't speak much english either, but it was really good learning from her.

shogun > yeah, its coz ikoma fees are sooo high.. ><||
i'm thinking of trying out SP's while at the same time still learning at ikoma and see how it compares.

Don't know how much it costs, but im guessing we have to pay now.
the teacher is Mrs Foong Yukiko. Sounds like a chinese woman who just gave herself a japanese name?
or am i wrong?

well.. will check out more details when i start school in SP.. ^^;;

might have been a japanese who married a chinese ?
 

JoySakurai

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yeah, could be i guess..

neway, just found out i prolly can't take those classes they offer at SP.
at the end of year 3 then they take JLPT4.. O.O|||||||

but can try out the JLPT3 prep classes [30hours].. the normal 60hours classes cannot coz too basic.. =\
 

ShougunX

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JoySakurai said:
yeah, could be i guess..

neway, just found out i prolly can't take those classes they offer at SP.
at the end of year 3 then they take JLPT4.. O.O|||||||

but can try out the JLPT3 prep classes [30hours].. the normal 60hours classes cannot coz too basic.. =\
Huh? End of yr 3 then take jlpt 4??? wat kinda rule is this....i think u might have mistaken. Most poly/unis allow their students to take watever levels they wan since jlpt is registered individually. But i do heard that classes in institutions tend to be a bit slower, although the vocab might have been heavier.

When i first started out in Hougang Japanese School, the lessons concentrate more on the sentence structure and grammar. Vocab was rather left on our own. In fact, i can still remember learning the は particle on the first lesson....
 

gundamhamtaro

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tts wat happen to me too...........well actually me and my friends decided to take jlpt by ourselves, so we ask help from sensei thats all. other than that at end of 3 years i dont think pple will even know got this thing called jlpt lor.....i didnt know also until my friends tell me got.
 

JoySakurai

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SP webbie said:
This course is offered to final year students who have completed the Japanese Language Year 2 course. You will study new verbal forms, sentence patterns and advanced conversations.

Upon completion of the course, you can attempt the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Level 4 offered by Japan Foundation and Association of International Education, Japan. It is the only Japanese Language certificate recognized throughout the world. JLPT examination is usually held in early December.

An Intensive JLPT Preparatory Course will be held by the Department of Language and Communication just before the test. This 10-day refresher course, which is separate from the Japanese Year 3 course, is a good opportunity to further improve your Japanese.

I guess its cause they learn at a much much slower pace, and its only 60hours/year. So by the end of year 3 they prolly only mastered the basic foundation, only enough to take the JLPT4.
=(
 

ender51244

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yeah... that's poly japanese studies. my sp friend also got until JLPT 4 after she completed her 3 years japanese studies in school.

actually depending on your own standard, u can take whatever level you feel comfortable. for me, 2 years of studies at JCS is actually only enough for level 4, but for me, i took preparation classes and a bit of japanese shows. so i managed to pass my jlpt 3.
 

ShougunX

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Gulp.....3 yrs to attain jlpt level 4? That is like taking 10 yrs to complete ur secondary sch preparation for 'O'-levels......i think after 6 months of continuous study twice a wk is more than enough to tackle level 4..
 

JoySakurai

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coz they only have 60hours per year of lessons i guess?

neway, yeah, 6months shd be enough to complete jlpt4[depending on how frequent your classes are and how many hours of lessons too i guess], for my schoo, 1year is enough to complete jlpt3.

wonder hows it gonna be thou.. hmmm..
 

ender51244

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ShougunX said:
Gulp.....3 yrs to attain jlpt level 4? That is like taking 10 yrs to complete ur secondary sch preparation for 'O'-levels......i think after 6 months of continuous study twice a wk is more than enough to tackle level 4..

Er.... i dun think 6 months is enough. even intensive learning, you need about 9 months (for marks above 300, considering you start right from the scratch) that's for studying in singapore. but of course, if you study in Japan, it takes only 1 year to complete your JLPT 1. because... you are in the environment and you are forced to speak.
 

ShougunX

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hmm...is it?.....but level 4 realli quite basic le....i onli scored 297 for my level 4. but i took it after 3 months of studying twice a wk 2 hrs each lesson....
 

crazy777

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I am currently undergoing Basic Japanese Level 2 at Ikoma at Shaw House.
Being taught by native Japanese teacher.
You can try there.
 

JoySakurai

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crazyyyyy, whose your teacher?

kotake? nishio? taniguchi? yamane?

what class are you from btw?

^^
 

buyaodawo

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Did anyone of you tried the full time courses yet? I am rather free nowadays but then I might go overseas at least 2~3 times this year. So it might prove to be a problem for me to attend during that period. Besides Ikoma and the Hougang one. Like don't have other school with full time everyday lessons liao?

And the hougang one doesn't seem to have full time courses after the basic one ?
 

ender51244

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full time ... as in go there and study every day ?

this kind... a bit hard to find, honestly. if not go Japan study for 1 year and you can get JLPT 1. that's a even faster route, just more exp only.
 

JoySakurai

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ikoma has the everyday full time de lor..

my fren was in it, he said it was fun, but tiring..
 

buyaodawo

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ender51244 said:
full time ... as in go there and study every day ?

this kind... a bit hard to find, honestly. if not go Japan study for 1 year and you can get JLPT 1. that's a even faster route, just more exp only.

That one abit impossible. If I wanna go there and study. I still need to find a place to stay. I doubt my friend will let me stay at his house for so long. Not to mention that food is expensive.

Seriously 1 year to JLPT 1? Any website to take a look? Or just heard from some friends?

So only Ikoma and hougang rite? Tomorrow I ask ask see how. I scared I have to go overseas during my lesson time then siao liao.
 

ender51244

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yeah. i got 2 friends who do that. now they studying in university liao. what we learn in jcs 1 year, i think they only spend 2 to 4 weeks to teach.

actually, the school fees is okay. it is the living expenses that kill. My friends went for a japanese university for preparation school where international students gather. and they provide dormitory for you to stay. the use of dormitory and water/electrical expenses is about 1,000 a month. and if you dun visit the restaurants often, just feed on supermart's onigiri most of the days, you should be able to save alot.

the preparation school focus on intensive Japanese training everyday, and a few hours of other subjects you have to take, like mathematics, Japan and the world, science (chemistry, bio, etc) and so on. for Japanese, you normally have grammar lessons in the morning, oral and listening in the afternoon. so this trains you to speak very well.

When you head out. let's say you want to order something from ... say, the canteen, you have to order in Japanese. if you can't, you still have to force yourself to ask. and in doing so everyday, you will watch, observe, learn and experience for yourself. if you get yourself embarrassed at first, i think it is okay. from there, you will learn this for life and never make the same mistake again.

and if you think u need to get some entertainment like.. overnight ktv, bowling, shopping, snooker and so on, you can always earn your expenses by working. Most of the chinese will work as waitress or service officers (they have very strict standards, but it is a good training) so that they will be exposed to the Japanese more. in this way, they will pick up japanese faster and earn some extra expenses. anyway, most of the university studies work to earn their expenses. not every japanese can afford the education there. so most of them will earn their pocket money by working. and depending on your job, the amount varies. i have seen a variety show on uni girls working as cabaret as part time job, gets to earn even more than some full timers working over there.

so all in all, in a year, with everything included, would be around 65,000 sgd (without entertainment expenses). and this is for the livestyle in the extremely expensive tokyo. if you go other places like sendai and so on, you will only spend 2/3 of what you spent in tokyo. but it is better to check out the fees and rates properly. my friends only give me a rough figure when i'm considering whether to go over there to study or not.

as compared to australia's university studies of 45,000, Japan is slightly steep because of the expenses. but if that's your dream and you want to go for it, you shouldn't hesitate. however, for university studies in Japan, the fees will be much higher than this price... because university fees are very expensive and unless you approach JSSO for lodging, you will need to rent you own house, which your expenses will be doubled.
 
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