Japanese Books and Oriental Language Proficiency Tests

I've decided to have another go at learning Japanese. I did some about 10/11 years ago, (the intensive first year class at Leeds Uni) and did quite well in that - got a first (A) in the first semester and a 2i (B) in the second. Sadly, I now remember very little really and I can't even be certain how to read some of the syllabary characters anymore! So, I first bought a little book for NT$40 (less than £1) to practise reading and writing hiragana and katakana, and then invested in a main text. Of course, both are from Chinese to Japanese, but I can manage that fine at beginners' level. This course has at least 6 books and I can get the first 4 for a discount price at the bookshop at the university we live very close to.=)

A few weeks ago, we took the TOP Huayu, the Test of Mandarin Proficiency, Taiwan version. Despite having learned for many years, well over a decade each, we just took the Basic level, which requires about 1600 words. There is an 800 word Beginners Level as well, but I wasn't about to drop that low!! Anyway, these things are tough! I'd heard that the HSK (the mainland Chinese version) was really hard, and it seems from the passing grade stats on the Wikipedia article about, that the Japanese Language Proficiency Test is a beast and three quarters! Now, I can't comment on a comparison between those and any English language testing system and I haven't yet got to the point of working towards and taking my Zertifikat Deutsch, so I have no real Western comparision, but the TOP Basic seems to require about 77% in order to pass at all and get grade 1, with grade 2 coming at 86%. I just scraped a grade 2 by virtue of having got the overall mark required and got grade 2 standard in 2 of the 3 individual tests. A bit depressing really. I mean, I have a degree in Chinese Studies, which was about 60% language based, plus a postgraduate diploma in translation (Chinese-English) and 7+ years teaching experience with beginners, and I only got grade 2 out of the possible 7. You have to take the Intermediate test (which I plan to do in May and re-sit next November if need be) to get grades 3 or 4 and the Advanced (forget it!!) to get grade 5-7 and comparison chart of TOP and HSK grades says I have the equivalent of HSK 5 - HSK 6 standard being the requirement to join the 2nd language speakers of Chinese organisation, ASCSL, the other benchmark being degree level Chinese. I confess I feel a bit better knowing I have HSK 5 level, sounds a lot better than just TOP 2, but these things are not easy!

The format is really quite quick fire and you have to be concentrating 100% to have a chance. The listening section is played once only, which is considerably tougher than the twice or more you get in the UK for language listening exams, and there's just about enough time to complete the Basic paper. I hear that the Intermediate writing section is pretty quick as well and that you barely have time to think at all! Whew! Thinking about it, I suppose so many people do so badly in the JLPT as they may feel that their Japanese is fine, they can cope OK with life there and have friends etc, so they may go in for exams that are just too high, given the demanding nature of the test procedure. I was thinking it might be fun to have a go at the Japanese one when I've done some self study here - just the bottom level, level 4 test, but I'm not so sure now....

Long time no post!

I'm still alive, for anyone who reads this blog and not my other(s)! I'm now in Taiwan on the Huayu (Mandarin) Enrichment Scholarship. I've been here over 2 months now and seem to be making some progress with the language etc. It's nice to be learning actively again and, of course, in a country where the language is (one of those) spoken on the street, you can see what you're learning all around you and use it almost immediately. That's a big plus. We're using a really practical textbook, Far East Everyday Chinese III (a level 5 book), which deals with lots of real life stuff. We also have a terrific teacher and I'm afraid of getting one of a lower standard next term as two of the lads who are also here (and who I taught in beginners' classes back in the UK 4 years ago!) say that their teacher is dreadful. Hope I don't get them next term....

When I eat alone at home I'm reading 'Teach Yourself Linguistics', which is helping me to get a good idea of some of the basic concepts in studying language as a 'science' rather than a real tool for communication. Very interesting and some of the stuff I've come across there is helping me getting a better grip of some of the grammatical terminology I'm getting confuddled by in language classes! I've also got my eye on a book on a linguistic grammar of Chinese. Sounds dreadful to most people, I fear, but I'm looking forward to it, once I'm through with this one.

I plan to go to the National Chengchi University bookshop after I leave here (using the wireless sservice at the Mandarin Training Center just now as we have no net connection at home) and get a beginners' Japanese text. I did learn Japanese for a year or so about a decade ago and have begun to revise the kana sets, but I don't remember very mmuch now and there are so many Japanese friends here, including one whose invited us to vist her once she goes back, so I want to have another go. Of course, the text is from Chinese to Japanese, but I can manage a beginners' level course OK.

Find out more about ex-pat life in Taiwan etc on my Made in Taiwan blog.

Wanted by the Police!

No, I haven't become a criminal and gone into hiding, and it's not really the police I mean.

We had an interesting experience on Saturday afternoon whilst with some Chinese friends in their home. We were there in our capacity of Bible teachers, when suddenly 4 ladies in uniform from the UK Border Agency (Home Office policing, sort of thing) came in looking for some Chinese chap who seems to have left before our friends arrived. After a couple of exchanges with A-Ming, he turned to us and asked, 'What did she say?' and Martin interpreted a bit for him. The lady who'd been talking to him looked astonished and asked if he could really speak Chinese? A minute or so later, I said something in Mandarin and one of the other ladies then came over, after saying, 'You too?!' , told us they were desperate for Mandarin interpreters all through the West Yorkshire region and gave us the office number to call!!

Well, we're going off to Taiwan for 18 months or more in just over 3 weeks, so we can't follow it up now and, frankly, after looking at the Home Office interpreter requirements, I can see that I wouldn't be anything like good enough at the mo, but maybe when we get back and I can see if I can get some funding for the Leeds Uni interpreting programme. AHRC has a Professional Preparation programme, which I might qualify for (as well as a couple of bursaries that the Uni and the School of Modern Languages offers) as, although I already have related postgrad stuff, interpreting is a very different beast to written translation and, well, if they really are desperate, then it's worth a try! The rates of pay are decent too. We shall see.....

23 days until departure and, yes, I'm way busy and stressed!! (Thus no posting etc)

My husband's been learning Estonian!

Well, he's put it on the back-burner for now as the work project he was doing it for has, once again, failed to come to anything, but he's planning to get back to it in the autumn.

Here's one of the flashcards he was using. As you can see, it's done from German to Estonian and, on the other side of the card (not shown here) it went the other way around. This isn't my preferred way to make flashcards, but everyone has a system that works well for them and he likes this one (amongst a few others).

He also had a regular, weekly language exchange via Skype with an Estonian chap who speaks 13 languages (enviable, no?) and was delighted to practise his German! He was so sorry that Sir wasn't planning to carry on with Estonian that he more or less convinced him to come back to it in September when we're settled in in Taiwan and he's also got through a busy patch.

Apart from these 2 resources, he was using 'Teach Yourself Estonian' and a website which taught the language from several big lanugages, (so he could learn in English, German etc). He wasn't over-enamoured of the TY book, as much as it's hard to physically keep it open as anything, but resources aren't plentiful for Estonian! He was pleased, when looking at something in Estonian, that he'd got enough of an idea how the language worked to be able to muddle some of it out.=)

He's now fallen in love with Spanish and so I suspect that some sort of learning materials will make up part of his anniversiary present this year and we may even go to Insituto Cervantes lessons when we get back to the UK next autumn. I hope so as I too like Spanish and would like to learn it better. I know quite a bit of the grammar/structure and can read it passably well, but I can't really say much these days.

One Step Beyond!

Today was, well, not really an eye-opener, but a very interesting and revealing experience. It showed quite graphically the difference between someone who can speak a foreign language really quite well and a professional linguist.

This morning I received a call on my mobile/cell from a desperate member of one of the Schools at Leeds Uni who needed a Mandarin speaking person to interpret a presentation into Chinese for 4 of the audience. Someone mentioned me so off I went after being as frank and honest with the lady as I knew how - ie telling her I knew nothing, including none of the terminology in Mandarin, of that industry and that I was probably far from good enough for the job. I looked through the Powerpoint with the speaker, making note of words I needed to check etc, then went off to prepare. During this time, the other interpreter they'd tracked down, a native Chinese PhD student, arrived and went through the slides as well.

We 'arranged' to do it together, but you really can't have one person butting in to the other's speech - highly unprofessional, so I just left the real thing to her and was glad I did! Had he been really using just the slides, then I could have managed as that was what I'd had chance to prepare, but he did a lot of extemporaneous speaking, using all manner of jargon I couldn't possibly have managed and breaking his speech into enormous segments. Certainly no good for someone working out of their mother tongue. (Translation and interpreting is normally worked into the linguist's mother tongue regardless of how well they speak the other language.) I would have had to stop him and asked him to pause much more often. So, in the end, I did little more than nod when the Chinese lady looked at me in a 'Was that rght?' sort of manner, (as I could understand both languages and comment on level of correspondence etc). She's not a pro either, but she is a native speaker whose lived here long enough to understand English extremely well.

I got a day's pay and a free lunch for the experience and the sure knowledge that what I'd been saying for a while was right - I was teaching beginners as I simply wasn't good enough to work in industry. Well, now I have a chance to make that good with the period of intensive Mandarin training in Taiwan next year. One thing I did get kind of 'confirmation' of this afternoon was that funding does seem to attract funding and that when someone's been considered worth one funding body's money, they tend to stand a better chance with another as well - quite a few people in the know seemed to concur with this impression. So, that bodes well. I would like to do that Interpreter training MA, but can't find £5000 for it.

Now, however, I need to sleep.


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BIG change coming up...

A letter, of which this is the first sentence, came in the post the other day:

So, we should be going off to Taiwan for a year studying Mandarin (and, hopefully, Taiwanese) from late August. We haven't yet heard how my hubby's application has turned out, but the closing date is not until 17th, followed by a 'phone interview in early May. My application was decided on within a week, so his is a pretty slow business. Anyway, hope he gets it as, although work has started to finally come in again, we don't really want to drain all our savings in order to be able to afford this trip. We shall see. In the meantime, if I ever shake off this everlasting 'Boomerang' 'flu, then I may be able to a) get down to some linguistic preparations (ie get some Chinese studied!!); and b) get some more casual work to help boost the finances.

Plans after that are to try and get AHRC funding to do the MA in Translation Studies with Interpreting, as that would be a viable alternative to English teaching in Taiwan (which I can NOT do - I've trialled teaching 3 times with increasingly disastrous health results), but getting that funding won't be easy. Still, I think there were only about 3 scholarships available for open competition for this year's award and I was one from the 'very high number' of applicants chosen. Could I get my head out of the door afterwards? I think not!

So look out for lots of move and language news coming up....

Multilingual Frankfurt

Just back from a short trip to Frankfurt where I began to wonder if there were any Germans resident! I seemed to hear far more other languages spoken than German and we were intrigued to see in our favourite lunch stop, the Kaufhof (for their buffet restaurant), the store guides not only in German and English, but also in Chinese!

Spoke in German, Chinese and Italian whilst I was there. Someone didn't realise I wasn't Italian and let forth at full speed. Well, I could follow the gist of what she was saying, and I haven't much looked at Italian for the best part of 4 years, so I was quite pleased with myself. Didn't make any monumental gaffs in German this time either, but then I tend to give up when I just can't say something!! I couldn't at one point though as Sir had disappeared and I really had to set to and answer the questions as best I could. The other party was a very pleasant and patient young man, so I managed in the end.=)