The AIJP (Academic Intensive Japanese Program) has 3 beginner levels, 2 intermediate levels and those who test into advanced are placed in the AJSP (Advanced Japanese Study Program). I expected to be placed in the upper beginner (103) level, and I was. I'll review some chapters from Minna no Nihongo (again!), then move to a more intermediate text. When learning a language, immersion helps and without it, it's easy to lose what you've recently learned.
An aside: as I'm typing this, the yaki imo truck just went by. It's similar to an ice cream truck, but the product is roasted sweet potatoes. Like an ice-cream truck, the yaki imo truck has a song to announce itself. It sounded like this one. I hope I can catch him sometime, but I'm on the second floor so I'll have to learn his schedule. I bet those are really good when it gets chilly!
Back to school! Today we had a 2 hour orientation and tour. Most things seemed reasonable and straight forward. Poor attendance can lead to loss of visa status. In Japan the drinking age is 20 (the age of majority), and the blood alcohol limit for driving or bicycling is 0%. Health insurance is simple: as a student on a visa we will all enroll in the national health insurance, which pays about 70% of medical costs.
The last time I was in Japan on a visa, I had to apply for a residence card at my city hall once I moved my assigned city, and then wait for it and go pick it up in order to open a bank account, set up internet, etc.
That process has been revamped and now if you come to Japan on any visa that includes resident status (such as student visas, work visas, but not tourist visas), you receive a residence card at the airport. If you've filled out the form, you can get work permission at the same time, which I did, just in case something presents itself.
However, you do have to register at the city where you'll live and sign up for health insurance and pension. Next week, we'll all fill out our paperwork for that, and the school will bus us to city hall to take care of everything.
As a student, I think I'll be exempt from the pension requirement, and I'll be able to apply for a discount on my health insurance since I earned no money in Japan last year. Health insurance premiums are determined at the local level. In Okazaki, without the discount, mine would be ¥7000 (less than $70) a month.
Yamasa tries to avoid concentrations of students from any one country or language, and I think they do a good job at this. It's good for the students to have only Japanese as a common language, although that's not really the case because of how many people learn English in school.
Here is the breakdown of the October intake of 44 AIJP students:
- Brazil - 4
- Canada -1
- China - 4
- France - 1
- Germany - 2
- Indonesia - 4
- Israel - 1
- Mexico - 1
- Philippines - 1
- Singapore - 2
- South Korea - 1
- Taiwan - 13
- UK - 1
- USA - 7
- Viet Nam - 1
Tomorrow the fun begins!
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1 comment:
I find it kind of depressing that after all the work and time you've put into studying Japanese, you're considered an advanced beginner. I know that having to take breaks to come back to the US slows you down and all, but jeez.
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