I have just returned from the field of battle. No, not the airport. In fact, I was able to return home for the holidays for a short while and did have to brave the airport then, but came back to Japan only to be faced with perhaps the most daunting task I have had yet to overcome: exams.
The Japanese exam system is famous. Children begin training in lower school. While I was pouring glitter onto collages and playing tag, my Japanese counterparts are beginning how to take standardized tests in order to get into the best schools. Why start so early? Because if you’re able to get into the best school early, you’re pretty much in for life. It’s call an escalator system, and it’s great for the kids who get in during lower and middle school, but since the exams get exponentially harder for high school and university, there’s actually an entire market built up around juku, which are after-school exam study classes. Students trying to get into their high school or university of choice go to school for 7 hours a day, and then go to juku anywhere from another 3 to 6 hours. These kids are in school from eight in the morning to nine at night.
So, I was a tad bit nervous about my own foray into Japanese exams, especially since I would be taking all of them in Japanese, which as you can probably guess, is not my first language. Being in the bekka or separate language school has really improved my language skills more than a normal study abroad class would. I can only liken it to a language boot camp, but the best kind, where your teachers are strict but only because they want the best for you and then tell you stories about how they’ve eaten a bear. All of your classes are in Japanese, so you kind of have to learn how to understand them. All of your handouts, presentations and discussions are as well, so trust me, I’ve learned a lot of new vocabulary regarding the “oh crap” factor of Japanese university. Most of my other friends here have a main course taught in Japanese, but their four or five other classes are taught in English. While this may be good for someone on the beginning level, as one of my Japanese teacher’s puts it, you tend to bottom out in language learning, and if you’re not constantly surrounded and prodded, you won’t reach that next level in your pursuit of the language.
Anyway, I found myself writing a report on Noh theatre about how I thought it represented the emotional pursuit of the past and nostaliga…all in Japanese. I can’t wait to see my teacher and her face. Usually the teachers here either try to give you positive feedback while threading in the negatives, or they just straight up say “This was weird.” And in the exam arena, my most daunting tasks were probably reciting the entire Edo Period of Japanese History as well as solving the worldwide population problem…all in Japanese.
It was a rough two weeks, as those of you who are fresh from finals can probably imagine. A lot of me, in my dorm room, quietly crying over my text as I wrote down the actions of the 8th Tokugawa Shogun. But in the end, I feel a bit like George having slayed the dragon – it was a daunting task, but with a lot of hard work and not a teensy bit of effort, it got done.
Of course, I haven’t gotten my grades back, so you may yet see another post of me bemoaning the unfairness of the Japanese exam system. Hopefully not. I’m now officially into the largest break of the Japanese school year and I’m planning on using it well. The person who teaches me tea ceremony has started me in on the use of the okama and hishaku, which is the most formal and, can I say complicated version of the ceremony, so that will be taking up some time. I’m also planning a series of trips to the West to see the old capitols while the train tickets are cheap. Hopefully, all of you will be able to see the fruits of my labor here as they occur!
