Ever since I left Japan in 2015 I've been longing to go back. I've talked a bit with one of the teachers at my university and he mentioned the Monbukagakusho scholarship that is given to 2-3 students every year. The scholarship I applied for was for 2 years on graduate level. I sent in my application thinking at least they will read it and maybe remember me for next year. BUT, surprisingly I receieved an e-mail saying I was summoned for exams in Japanese and English, and an interview. This is the last stage in the application, after this they decide on which 2 or 3 candidates they will recommend.
To be honest, since I was so sure I wouldn't have a chance I didn't really pay that much attention to the application form. I googled around to get some tips and hints on what they want to read and that seemed to do it.
The closer it got to the date of the interview and examinations the more nervous I got. It got more real to me that since they summoned me I acctually did have a chance. Among the tips and hints I found that many recommended you should pay attention to your choice of clothes. So I acctually wore a suit, also trying to cover up my pierced ear with my hair.
I got to the embassy a bit early, but I thought that would be cool and they'd just have me sit and wait, BUT NOOO. I rang the bell and the guard told me to take a walk and come back by the time of the appointment. This I found very amusing since in their letter it said I should come at least 10 minutes before to prepare for the first exam... I found a bench and listened to ZIZ while I waited and then I rang the bell 5 minutes before the appointment and that was ok :P
If you google monbukagakusho you're most likely to end up on a webpage that offers example exams for both the Japanese and English one. The real thing was a bit different though. The Japanese exam was rather long and I got really tired by the end of it. It's devided into 3 parts, the first part is the easiest and then it just gets harder. Each part however has the same structure. It starts of with grammar, so you should fill in the blancs with the correct particle and then there's a reading comprehension. The English exam was the same, but much smaller and easier (at least for me).
Now to the interesting part, the interview!
I mentioned that I googled a lot before I went there, to prepare myself. I really wanted to know what kind of questions they'd ask and I found some detailed blogs about it. Although, the most detailed one was written by a girl who applied for the undergraduate scholarship. I assumed however that the questions would be about the same so the day before I acctually tried to answer these question (by myself, in english). When it was my turn to be interviewed a women from the staff came to bring me to the room, and she told me to knock and say "失礼します" which I found a bit funny. To apply for this scholarship, knowing japanese is a merit, which means if everyone says it it's obvious we're told to do so and they can't really judge our performance (I've been told that they really look at the overall image you give).
In the room I was introduced to a Japanese woman from the embassy and a Swedish man who came from another organization to act as a objective judge.The interview was held entirely in english, and then there was a bit in Japanese. From the blogs I read, it seemed like the japanese part was most casual, to just check that we can hold a normal kind of conversation. Ow, how wrong they were. This might depend on both the country in which you live in and also the kind of scholarship you apply for but the questions I found from googling was not asked, AT ALL. I was so nervous I felt like jumping out the window. Since I got my hopes up, feeling like I acctually had a chance I was so scared of screwing this up, that I acctually did....big time.
So I walked in there and they ask me for a self introduction. If there's anything I hate, it's that. I never know what it is they want to hear, so I went with my name, age and then what I ahve studied. That was followed by awkward silence. No, I'm not kidding, they didn't say a thing until I felt so uncomfortable I said I didn't know what it was they wanted to hear, which probably was my first out of many mistakes. He explained that I could mention about anything, just as long as I kept talking. I was so nervous my mind went about blanc. Thinking about it now I could've mentioned things I like to do in my spare time but sitting there I felt like there was a total chaos in my head and I'm glad I knew my own name.
I got asked what I came up with for my bachelor thesis, what my question was and what I found out by doing my reserach, so I briefly talked about that and then they also wanted me to explain my master thesis that I will write. Since I combine gender studies with my Japanese studies they wanted me to mention some theories from gender science and again my mind went blanc and I couldn't even remember R.W Connell or Judith Butler which I reffered to alot in my thesis! Panic yet again, so I just mentioned the hegemonic men and how the western idea of that differs from the Japanese. When they had tried to make me talk it was time for the fun part...or not so fun part; JAPANESE.
In all the blogs I found about everyone mentioned how they test your Japanese skills by talking casually to you, just to make sure you'd be able to talk to the proffessor in Japan. So I assumed there would be questions like "Why are you interested in Japan", "what do you like to do in your free time"etc. She started off with asking me to explain my future reserach. .... yeah., not what I had planned. I froze, I don't even know the japanese word for gender roles. If I wasn't so nervoud I probably would've been able to explain with other words what I meant but at that point I felt like my head just blacked out and I just threw something out there....in 1 sentence (second BIG misstake, inbetween there had been a million small ones). Then she asked what I would like to do in Japan, besides studying. The third question I don't remember, but it went bad, REALLY BAD, I could feel it. Then they asked me if I had any questions for them. Yet again I planned on asking them something but I didn't bring my notes and by this time I was so paniced I couldn't think, and replied that I couldn't think of anything for the moment. I was dissmissed and went down to the waiting area in which the kind japanese women from before asked me how it went. She also wondered what they had asked me in Japanese, so I told her (in japanese) that they wanted me to explain my reserach and it acctually suprised her. She had also thought they'd ask about my hobbies or something, not questions that difficult, especially since you don't have to know any japanese to apply for this scholarship.
Anyhow we were 7 applicants there, I talked to some of them and some had amazing japanese skills, other had already established contact with japanese universities so I knew I was done for. I received an e-mail a few days later saying I did not get the scholarship.
So, keep in mind!
- Prepare yourself for questions regarding your previous and future reserach
- Review your bachelor thesis so that you can reply to any questions regarding that
- and most importantly, STAY COOL
