The Language-Learning Thread

Right, basically, I got a tax rebate a few days ago amount to roughly £3k.

I am hugely tempted to do the JET but I don't know:

a) What it entails
b) Whether I have enough money to do it
c) Whether I have left it too late
d) Whether Interpol will legally let me travel
e) Whether my Japanese is, in any way, up to it (my Chinese is definitely tonnes better)

Any advice? I feel like just blowing my rebate and going away for a year.

Thanks Pacman!

John Galt wrote:

Nova wrote:I'm going to China to teach for a year in January, in Wuxi (1 hr west of Shanghai). Now, I don't think they speak Mandarin there, which worries me slightly. I'm not supposed to use it in class, but I would like to learn it to make my own stay more comfortable.

Any tips?

They'll definitely speak Mandarin there but it may not be the local language. All this means is that you'll be able to converse as much as you like if you know Mandarin but might find that local people will talk amongst themselves in a different dialect. Unless you know Mandarin already it probably won't be worth you making an effort learning the local language as it will be pretty much redundant outside of the area but learning Mandarin will almost certainly be worth it as you can use it anywhere in China.

How did you get the teaching placement?

Well I took a certTESOL course, and spoke to the Director of Studies at some place, and he recommended a few schools to try and get into, like Shane English Schools. This was initially for Japan, actually. But, there was a branch of the same type of school that had two vacancies for Feb, my gf somehow found his personal e-mail address

All just rolled on from there, really. Currently paying through the arse for injections Didn't pay for a doctor's note, though....sort of.....signed one myself.....

Parksey wrote:Right, basically, I got a tax rebate a few days ago amount to roughly £3k.

I am hugely tempted to do the JET but I don't know:

a) What it entails
b) Whether I have enough money to do it
c) Whether I have left it too late
d) Whether Interpol will legally let me travel
e) Whether my Japanese is, in any way, up to it (my Chinese is definitely tonnes better)

Any advice? I feel like just blowing my rebate and going away for a year.

A) Japan exchange programme - basically working in a Japanese school for at least a year. Experience varies from person to person as its up to the school how much you do. Taffy had a rather full on experience, but still loved it.

B) they pay you, and provide flights. You get roughly £36,000 a year, so you don't need any money.

C) you have, yes. Unless you can get a doctor's appointment today or tomorrow and get them to sign the form, get 2 signed and signed over the seal references and get it to the London embassy by 5pm Friday.

D) not if you look anything like your avatar.

E) no Japanese required!

I'm applying this year, with a much better application than last year, so fingers crossed. Just finishing up my Statement of Purpose and it will be special delivery tomorrow morning.

Shitting myself!

Good luck to everyone else applying

I sent mine special delivery today, too. Good luck to all.

aaronayl1 wrote:

Parksey wrote:Right, basically, I got a tax rebate a few days ago amount to roughly £3k.

I am hugely tempted to do the JET but I don't know:

a) What it entails
b) Whether I have enough money to do it
c) Whether I have left it too late
d) Whether Interpol will legally let me travel
e) Whether my Japanese is, in any way, up to it (my Chinese is definitely tonnes better)

Any advice? I feel like just blowing my rebate and going away for a year.

You get roughly £36,000 a year, so you don't need any money.

Holy strawberry floating gooseberry fool are you sure? I looked at the salary last year, and saw it was admirable, but could have sworn it was closer to £25k. I guess I just remembered that it was "enough" and didn't store a number in my brain. That and the yen is stronger now or something.

Pacman wrote:I sent mine special delivery today, too. Good luck to all.

aaronayl1 wrote:

Parksey wrote:Right, basically, I got a tax rebate a few days ago amount to roughly £3k.

I am hugely tempted to do the JET but I don't know:

a) What it entails
b) Whether I have enough money to do it
c) Whether I have left it too late
d) Whether Interpol will legally let me travel
e) Whether my Japanese is, in any way, up to it (my Chinese is definitely tonnes better)

Any advice? I feel like just blowing my rebate and going away for a year.

You get roughly £36,000 a year, so you don't need any money.

Holy strawberry floating gooseberry fool are you sure? I looked at the salary last year, and saw it was admirable, but could have sworn it was closer to £25k. I guess I just remembered that it was "enough" and didn't store a number in my brain. That and the yen is stronger now or something.

xe.com says £1 is about 119 yen, which comes out at £30,059.91, as the salary is 3.6 million yen for the year. The yen becoming stronger/pound becoming weaker is beneficial to this, yeah.

I need to get accepted this year!!

With that sort of money, maybe you could spare some money for your old pal zoidstaydead and buy his plane ticket for him.

Got approval to finish my application for spending my first semester in France and then the second in Spain, with full funding.

Might have to apply to the JET programme next year now, looks good. How competitive is it, out of interest? I assume, even though it's not required, most successful applicants have a good level of Japanese?

final-fx wrote:Got approval to finish my application for spending my first semester in France and then the second in Spain, with full funding.

Might have to apply to the JET programme next year now, looks good. How competitive is it, out of interest? I assume, even though it's not required, most successful applicants have a good level of Japanese?

I hear it is quite competitive, but we can't get official numbers on applicants and successful applicant number. As you say, I would imagine that having Japanese does help your application, but I would say that it helps it more in the fact that you are willing to put effort in to learn the culture and language, rather than that you need it for the job at hand; at least for the ALT position.

StayDead wrote:With that sort of money, maybe you could spare some money for your old pal zoidstaydead and buy his plane ticket for him.

Nah

Pacman wrote:

StayDead wrote:With that sort of money, maybe you could spare some money for your old pal zoidstaydead and buy his plane ticket for him.

Nah

G-Ratasaurus Rex wrote:

final-fx wrote:Got approval to finish my application for spending my first semester in France and then the second in Spain, with full funding.

Might have to apply to the JET programme next year now, looks good. How competitive is it, out of interest? I assume, even though it's not required, most successful applicants have a good level of Japanese?

I hear it is quite competitive, but we can't get official numbers on applicants and successful applicant number. As you say, I would imagine that having Japanese does help your application, but I would say that it helps it more in the fact that you are willing to put effort in to learn the culture and language, rather than that you need it for the job at hand; at least for the ALT position.

I have a Chinese qualification, but not a Japanese one - this would still help any application, right?

I basically need to sort something out soon - maybe even start applying for next year's JET if it is re-open already -rather than leave things to the last ruddy minute.

I got a tax rebate last week that enables me to pretty much go to Japan for a two week holiday now. Should I go in the summer to test the waters (as no matter how much preparation you do on the language side of things, it could still be a massive culture shock), or just put that money towards a year abroad (as not all the programmes are as financially... healthy, like JET)?

Parksey wrote:

G-Ratasaurus Rex wrote:

final-fx wrote:Got approval to finish my application for spending my first semester in France and then the second in Spain, with full funding.

Might have to apply to the JET programme next year now, looks good. How competitive is it, out of interest? I assume, even though it's not required, most successful applicants have a good level of Japanese?

I hear it is quite competitive, but we can't get official numbers on applicants and successful applicant number. As you say, I would imagine that having Japanese does help your application, but I would say that it helps it more in the fact that you are willing to put effort in to learn the culture and language, rather than that you need it for the job at hand; at least for the ALT position.

I have a Chinese qualification, but not a Japanese one - this would still help any application, right?

I basically need to sort something out soon - maybe even start applying for next year's JET if it is re-open already -rather than leave things to the last ruddy minute.

I got a tax rebate last week that enables me to pretty much go to Japan for a two week holiday now. Should I go in the summer to test the waters (as no matter how much preparation you do on the language side of things, it could still be a massive culture shock), or just put that money towards a year abroad (as not all the programmes are as financially... healthy, like JET)?

I imagine the Chinese qualification shows that you at least have an interest in Asian culture, or at least shows that you are capable of learning a foreign language which is also vastly different from your mother tongue.

Next year's JET applications will probably open from August at the earliest, so not much point looking into that just now. I would recommend against going to Japan right now, if only for financial reasons, as the £ is pretty week, so you're getting less than 120 yen for each £, which is the lowest I've seen it.

I don't think any courses or holidays will prepare you for a life in Japan. It's impossible without going there in the frame of mind that you are there for a long time, and chances are, you will only scratch the surface, even in a month of being there; I know it took me a few months to even realise how deep-rooted the culture is.

There are, however, plenty of English-teaching schools/other programmes that you can apply to directly to spend time working in Japan. For example, Aeon is one based in Tokyo, iirc. I'm sure they are always looking for new teachers/employees, but other than that I can't help anymore, I'm afraid. Best to look into those things yourself if you are interested.

G-Ratasaurus Rex wrote:

final-fx wrote:Got approval to finish my application for spending my first semester in France and then the second in Spain, with full funding.

Might have to apply to the JET programme next year now, looks good. How competitive is it, out of interest? I assume, even though it's not required, most successful applicants have a good level of Japanese?

I hear it is quite competitive, but we can't get official numbers on applicants and successful applicant number. As you say, I would imagine that having Japanese does help your application, but I would say that it helps it more in the fact that you are willing to put effort in to learn the culture and language, rather than that you need it for the job at hand; at least for the ALT position.

4436 people were accepted onto JET in 2009 (4063 of them were ALTs). No idea how many applied though. Sauce.

Just did the J-CAT test, which grades your Japanese much like the official JLPT. This actually adapts to how well you're answering and gives you more difficult questions if you keep getting them right, I think. It's free to do if anyone here wants to do it. All you need is your email address and some personal details. Link here: http://www.j-cat.org/en/

Word of warning though, you can only take it once every 6 months (I imagine you can get around with a proxy but whatever), so bear that in mind if you want to study for it and get an "artificial" score, or no study and get a natural score.

It also takes strawberry floating ages. Mine took two hours, but that is maybe due to my internet connection, as it loads all the questions.

Anyway, without any study I managed to get a score of 203, which just breaks the Level 2 estimate that they have for the official JLPT. Thought I would do a little better. I think I bummed myself a little when I perhaps overestimated myself in the initial self-assessment bit, as it ended up giving me a bunch of questions I really struggled with. The Vocabulary section also only gives you 30 seconds per question which was pretty annoying.

Definitely worth a shot if you want to see your progress, but save an afternoon with no distractions for it.

Screencap of final scorecard:

I appear to be reaching a bit of a rut with regards to my Chinese learning. My main problem is my vocabulary but I'm finding it difficult to improve this via any means other than simply remembering words using flashcards and the likes. Although I've been able to find some good resources for reading at my level, any new words that I do pick up through these I tend to just forget unless I come across them in subsequent passages.

I'm guessing that this is a common problem when you reach a level in a language where it's a lack of vocabulary holding you back, so does anyone who has experienced this have any tips at all?

Completely overlooked this thread. I did JET for 3 years if anyone has any questions on the application process or what happens when you get out there.

Anyway, just started learning Spanish through a teach-yourself course. If it works out I might consider getting some proper lessons. Are there any official Spanish learning councils/board in the UK? Anything that officially recognises teaching institutions and does exams, something like that?

John Galt wrote:I appear to be reaching a bit of a rut with regards to my Chinese learning. My main problem is my vocabulary but I'm finding it difficult to improve this via any means other than simply remembering words using flashcards and the likes. Although I've been able to find some good resources for reading at my level, any new words that I do pick up through these I tend to just forget unless I come across them in subsequent passages.

I'm guessing that this is a common problem when you reach a level in a language where it's a lack of vocabulary holding you back, so does anyone who has experienced this have any tips at all?

Unless you use it regularly in conversation, I've found that vocab tends to dwindle quite quickly. I've been out of Taiwan for about 6 months now and am coming to applying for some Chinese-related jobs having not really used my Chinese at all since coming back to the UK. Suffice to say, its pretty damned rusty. I've started reading the Chinese language version of BBC news aswell as some other news/politics blogs and watching some more Chinese films and TV shows and it's all coming back fairly quickly. There's loads on the internet, John, I'd recommend finding something you're interested in and reading/watching that. The obvious downside of reading the news is that any vocab you learn if fairly non-applicable to daily life, I'd say if you're looking for conversational vocab, research some TV shows and films and watch them on youku.

I'll try and have a think of some websites that might be good for you to check out later pal.

Rudolphin wrote:Completely overlooked this thread. I did JET for 3 years if anyone has any questions on the application process or what happens when you get out there.

Anyway, just started learning Spanish through a teach-yourself course. If it works out I might consider getting some proper lessons. Are there any official Spanish learning councils/board in the UK? Anything that officially recognises teaching institutions and does exams, something like that?

Not sure if it's any help, but we're allowed to take Spanish exams with Asset Languages at the end of the course. (http://www.assetlanguages.org.uk/index.asp)

Pretty much ground to a halt with my Chinese now, I'll pick it up again in the future, but I'm focusing on the two languages that I'll need next year.