Day 3: The Placement Test

Monday, August 25

Once again, I woke up really early in the day, but this time there was actually something happening in the morning. According to the schedule inside the booklet I received upon arriving to my dorm, there was to be an orientation session at 9:30 AM, followed by an optional campus tour and then the dreaded language placement test at 1 PM.

So, not knowing how long it would take me to walk to campus, which I would also be seeing for the first time, I set out around 8 AM and started walking towards the university, which, as somebody had explained, was in the exact opposite direction of the convenience store. At first I was really worried about finding my way, but after a while I saw a really tall building in the distance and recognized it from the university website. Just to be sure, however, I asked a local policeman for directions, which was a good opportunity to review the relevant Japanese.

I then continued on my way, looking more specifically for a gated entrance to the university. I think I was expecting something more grand, or just closer to the big building, because I nearly walked past the gate at first and only turned back because the road split afterwards. The gate itself was rather modest, and I think what threw me off was that it was not a pedestrian-zone, but instead a regular car road with a black fence and a small guard booth. In addition, the road seemed to follow along another fence, so it kind of looked like it was instead leading to the Komatsu building on the right hand side, rather than the university far on the left (*wishing that I took a picture*).

The weather wasn’t very nice in the morning: it was cloudy and gloomy, yet still really hot and humid. Since I arrived early, I thought I would go around the campus taking pictures, but instead I ended up snapping a few and waiting inside, because none of the pictures turned out too great and the inside of the library building had air-conditioning.

Soon enough, the doors to the Multimedia Hall were finally opened and students were allowed inside. What followed was a pretty basic information session with information of rules, expected behavior, necessary paperwork and other formalities that needed to be taken care of.

After the event ended, I had about 2 hours until my language test. I did not want to take the campus tour, because the maps seemed pretty straightforward. Luckily, the weather had gotten better, so I was finally able to take some pictures and felt a little less miserable outside.

I didn’t really make an effort to get around the campus all that much that day because I was really hungry from the day before. So, I decided to instead find the dining room and get something to eat.

First, you pick up a tray and come up to the the aisle, where you can pick up some sort of an appetizer. Most are some sort of a salad with chicken bits in it, but none looked too interesting, so I went straight for the main course. There are ladies behind the counter that ask you what you would like today and then you can order either the daily special meal or one of the usually available dishes.

I went for the daily special because there was no line, I had to decide quickly and the only thing that had a “preview” of the dish was the beef katsu. When I was given the plate, I said a thank you and turned around ready to go to the register. Except, apparently the beef came with an order of rice, so I was called back and given it. Again, I thanked the lady after apologizing and was about to head off, when she said “Wait! Come back! There’s also miso or soda!” and just started laughing. So awkward!

But so delicious! The food was really good, and the fact that I was extremely hungry probably made it taste even better. I finished all of the meat, salad and miso (not sure what the 4–5 little macaroni pieces were there for at all), but took half of the rice with me in a plastic container I had with me.

Once I was done eating, I left the building to go up a floor to the small campus convenience and school supplies store, where I bought all sorts of adorable pens, notebooks, etc. On the way back, I noticed some things I somehow managed to ignore on the way to the dining hall.

Either way, at about 12:30 PM I decided it would be a good idea to find the room where my test was going to take place, so I headed back to the Library building, but this time to the second floor. I saw a lot of people waiting by the door, mostly sitting on the floor and doing some last-minute revision. I tried to join them in the effort, but I couldn’t quite sit on the floor while wearing a skirt and pacing along the corridor got boring fast. And after a bit of leaning against the wall and hectic reading, I figured it was too late to remember anything new anyway, so I just talked to some other students about the test.

Turned out, that not only was the test NOT a speaking exam like I had expected/feared, but it was going to be a multiple-choice computer-based test. That was a major relief, so my mood definitely improved.

Finally, we were allowed into the room, where eventually the test began. To everybody’s surprise, the first part of the test was actually to be done on paper. It was a short, but closely timed test on basic hiragana, kanji recognition and translation. I didn’t really have much trouble with it, although some things you are so used to seeing in kanji form, that you forget the hiragana spelling, but luckily I was able to remember those correctly. The time limit was a bit harsh, but I was able to finish with just a few seconds left on the timer. From the complaints that followed all around after the test was collected, I gathered that not everybody was able to do so.

Afterwards, we were told to register on Blackboard to gain access to Kansai’s questionnaires about Japanese background and the like. There was a huge sound of disappointment in people’s reactions to being told to open Internet Explorer, but I think most did just to avoid any possible complications. Well, the thing with Explorer that all it does by definition is create complications, so of course the multiple-choice questions failed to load properly in the browser and somebody managed to click “Submit all answers” after only marking the first question.

That caused a giant delay, because nobody knew how to fix the problem OR how to help the guy who just failed to answer ~90% of the required background questions. Luckily, the solution turned out to merely be opening the site via Firefox (aaaand point), and they were able to unlock the questionnaire again for the guy that messed up.

Once everybody finished those questions, they were placed on a presumed level of knowledge and offered to complete fill-in-the-blank grammar exercises for their level. I believe, if a student managed to get above 70% on a grammar section, they would be offered to try one on a higher level.

I had to do 3 grammar sections, but the 3rd one was clearly way above my current level, so I ended up choosing “no idea” for all of the questions, as instructed by the person that was watching over the process. Two Kanji-recognition sections followed, and then I was all done with the test that turned out to be not at all scary and relatively fair. Well, at least if you studied by Genki, the same textbook used at Kansai.

Anyhow, after the testing was done, I walked all the way back to my seminar house with a bit less stress than I had in the morning and took a fed more pictures along the way:

Not much else happened that evening, except that I got to my room and started organizing all of my supplies and preparing paperwork that I would have to submit the next day.