CLAIR Jet Programme Japanese language course

[Namisuke]

For those working on the Beginner course, I will repost materials that I made last year:

http://lifeinjapan.blogdns.com/?page_id=616

I posted it to possibly help raise a bit of money for Red Cross after the quake, but you don't need to worry about that anymore (ignore the note at the bottom unless you feel like donating). It is free for all There are a few typos here and there in the grammar section because it was my first time typing in Japanese (getting used to writing "ha" instead of "wa," "wo" instead of "o," and double tapping the "n" took a lot of getting used to, so watch for those typos). I made this because there was no vocabulary list at the back of the book, just a page number reference (same as the grammar). Enjoy

[jerseywonder]

Hey Namisuke

I showed your beginners course materials to a friend who's new in Japan and has gone straight to the intermediate books but wants to review beginners grammar points - they're awesome, so thanks for posting the link! But he's having trouble downloading the grammar points for books 4 and 5 ... I had a go to check it wasn't just his computer, and I can't get them to download either. Just thought I'd let you know as maybe you aren't aware that they aren't working.

Thanks again for the link!

[Namisuke]

Hey Namisuke

I showed your beginners course materials to a friend who's new in Japan and has gone straight to the intermediate books but wants to review beginners grammar points - they're awesome, so thanks for posting the link! But he's having trouble downloading the grammar points for books 4 and 5 ... I had a go to check it wasn't just his computer, and I can't get them to download either. Just thought I'd let you know as maybe you aren't aware that they aren't working.

Thanks again for the link!

Thanks! I will check that out when I get home.

[Namisuke]

Hey Namisuke

I showed your beginners course materials to a friend who's new in Japan and has gone straight to the intermediate books but wants to review beginners grammar points - they're awesome, so thanks for posting the link! But he's having trouble downloading the grammar points for books 4 and 5 ... I had a go to check it wasn't just his computer, and I can't get them to download either. Just thought I'd let you know as maybe you aren't aware that they aren't working.

Thanks again for the link!

I checked it out, but the downloads worked for me (on my work computer). Would you like me to send them via PM to you if they still aren't working?

[kagoislander]

Hi all!

I saw a post about this earlier in this thread, but from what I could tell, no one answered that person's question. I am thinking about taking the Linguistics course for next year (2012). However, I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could answer. I couldn't find any other threads that addressed this stuff, so I'm posting it here.

1. The Translation course mentions that an equivilant of N2 is expected. Is this the same for the linguistics course? I am taking N3 on Dec. 4th, and I won't be taking N2 until next year this time. I am currently enrolled in the JET Advanced Course.

2. Does anyone know approximately how popular these courses are? Only a limited amount of "seats" are available, so we have to take an exam. What are my chances of getting into this course?

3. Could anyone discuss their personal experience taking either of these two classes? I find that the Language Courses offered for free by JET aren't exactly top notch, but I am finding that it half depends on your language ability and how you use the materials.

Thanks, everyone. I know that by the looks of it, most of you are enrolled in the language courses, so the chances of my questions being answered may be slim. However, I want to warn my supervisor soon if I plan to take it next year (assuming I stay), so that they can budget for it.

By the way, good luck to those of you planning on taking the JLPT in two weeks!

[Eliza_FukuokaPA]

Hi all!
I saw a post about this earlier in this thread, but from what I could tell, no one answered that person's question. I am thinking about taking the Linguistics course for next year (2012). However, I have a few questions that I was hoping someone could answer. I couldn't find any other threads that addressed this stuff, so I'm posting it here.

1. The Translation course mentions that an equivilant of N2 is expected. Is this the same for the linguistics course? I am taking N3 on Dec. 4th, and I won't be taking N2 until next year this time. I am currently enrolled in the JET Advanced Course.

2. Does anyone know approximately how popular these courses are? Only a limited amount of "seats" are available, so we have to take an exam. What are my chances of getting into this course?

3. Could anyone discuss their personal experience taking either of these two classes? I find that the Language Courses offered for free by JET aren't exactly top notch, but I am finding that it half depends on your language ability and how you use the materials.

Hi there!
I'm not sure if I can answer all of your questions or provide the correct figures, but I did the Translation/Interpretation Course last year, and am currently doing the Linguistics/Pedagogy Course.

1. I personally feel that the Linguistics Course is slightly 'easier' than the Translation in regards to the level of Japanese required. I say this because for the Linguistics, it is possible to answer a large number of questions of the monthly homework in either English or Japanese.

To be applicable for either course, you need to have done and passed the Advanced Japanese Course (unless you are a Chinese or Korean CIR). Other than this prerequisite, you are required to sit a screening test in May/June and only those who qualify are accepted into the chosen course.

2. Again, I don't have the figures, but I feel that the Translation Course is perhaps more popular? I think that there were around 100 people taking it last year.

3. I often find myself working on the homework in the last minute every month, which I will admit is a real shame. The materials may not be all that practical in everyday life, but that is to be expected with learning a foreign language, in my opinion. I think that it is great that these courses are being offered for free, so if you are thinking of taking it I'd say go for it!

[duelingmonkey]

So this thread was started for feedback on the courses, is there now an official place to do that? Or is here still okay?

[susanne]

While I am glad there is a free Japanese course to study, my issues with the beginner course so far are:

-The fact that it is all in Romaji, meaning that it's only useful for listening and speaking, not for reading or writing, as you could do the entire beginners course and not be able to read a menu

-Some answers are at the back of the book for exercises, others do not have answers, so it's hard for me to know if my answers are right or wrong

-There are exercises that I don't understand how to complete and there doesn't seem to be any explanation of how to complete them, such as Week 2, Day 4, Exercise 1, which makes it really hard for me to continue to more complex sentences

[Namisuke]

While I am glad there is a free Japanese course to study, my issues with the beginner course so far are:

-The fact that it is all in Romaji, meaning that it's only useful for listening and speaking, not for reading or writing, as you could do the entire beginners course and not be able to read a menu

-Some answers are at the back of the book for exercises, others do not have answers, so it's hard for me to know if my answers are right or wrong

-There are exercises that I don't understand how to complete and there doesn't seem to be any explanation of how to complete them, such as Week 2, Day 4, Exercise 1, which makes it really hard for me to continue to more complex sentences

I would suggest getting the みんなの日本語 books. The workbook is all in Japanese, and the guidebook has great English explanations. This way it is challenging and allows you to get good practice. These books cover many things in the JET Course books. For the tests, you can convert the words into hiragana for practice and then try to do the tests that way. The all-over-the-place organization and romaji in those books drove me nuts and made them a waste of time to study. The みんなの日本語 books are quite well laid out and come pretty highly suggested. If you look up the grammar point in the JET Course in the みんなの日本語 books and do that instead, I think you would get more out of your study time. The books come fairly cheap too. I suggest getting both level I and II as there might be some things not covered from the JET Course in the first book (such as ~ んです). The kanji book that comes with the JET Course is alright for practice, but you can also get a lot of supplementary books, or better yet, get worksheets from the internet or play kanji games online.

[traigo12]

Can anyone tell me why the Clair Japanese courses are run on a six-month schedule? I don't see why we have to be completely stressed out trying to keep up with deadlines for six months, only then to have six months with nothing to do except forget everything we worked so hard to learn. All summer I had nothing but free time and it would have been great to have been able to use it on this program. If the same amount of material was spread out over a year, I might actually have time to absorb some of it for the long term instead of just cramming to make it through tests. I'm learning Japanese to improve my relationships at work, but during those six months I have to spend every moment of free time studying and as a result the program is actually preventing me from interacting with my co-workers or applying what I learn! Most days now I plan and teach an average of five classes per day and it's all I can do to keep up; being able to do half as much per day would be a real life saver.

Sometimes I really do like this program, and I get a lot out of the listening and reading practice, but that being said, does anyone else sometimes get the feeling that the textbook makers don't necessarily want us to succeed? For example, instead of providing an array of real-world grammar structures, each book often contains numerous ways of saying basically the same thing. Then with only a handful of example sentences as explanation we're tested on the extremely subtle differences in use. A couple times I've given up and asked my Japanese teachers for help and they tell me the different grammar points mean the same thing and either one is okay, but the book wants just one right answer. As another example, I'm taking the Advanced Course and was looking forward to the all-Japanese cultural articles at the end of the week to practice all I'd learned, but I came to find that most of them contained more words and structures that I'd never studied than words that I had, and I couldn't even get the gist of many of the articles. It's incredibly discouraging to study so hard all week, then to have it rubbed in my face how little I still know. Also after completing every lesson, listening to the dialogues multiple times, taking lots of notes, etc... I missed over 80% of the answers on the final review lesson for the first book, something that seemed to happen a lot in the Intermediate Course too. I know learning a foreign language is difficult, that a challenge can be a good and necessary thing, but sometimes these books are so difficult that I just want to give up on learning Japanese and go back to enjoying my life again. A number of friends have tried the Clair courses too and gave up for the same reason - the books were as a whole were arbitrary, discouraging, and seemed more likely to try and trick you into a wrong answer than to help you progress. It feels like this program has a lot of potential, but I think I'm probably going to just not send the next test in and go back to readthekanji.com.

[Cytrix]

Managed to complete the test a'ok from the beginners course...however in the test there is a spelling mistake. Can't remember which number right at the moment but instead of the particle 'ni' there is a 'bi' written...which confused the hell out of me!

[Guiteau]

For example, instead of providing an array of real-world grammar structures, each book often contains numerous ways of saying basically the same thing. Then with only a handful of example sentences as explanation we're tested on the extremely subtle differences in use.

And often the example sentences are absolutely meaningless/do nothing to illustrate the grammar's meaning. Adv. Book 1 Week 3 Day 3:

Japanese: "ああ、　やっぱり風邪ですか。　昨日から何だか体調が大変だなあと感じていたものですから、　もしかしてと思ったのですか。　でも、　風邪だとわかって安心しました。　先生、 ありがとうございます。"
English: "So (as one would expect), I have a cold. Because I have been feeling that my condition is somehow strange since yesterday, I thought maybe (I had a cold). But I am relieved now that I know it's a cold. Thank you, Doctor."

The English is... just weird. It makes sense, but it's something that anyone who natively speaks English would ever say. It's entirely unnatural and doesn't match expected "English thought patterns," if you will. I thought this may have been an artifact of a clunky direct translation, so I asked teachers about the Japanese and how "natural" or "normal" it would be. Both said, "Yeah, no, the Japanese is also... weird."

So we're left with learning only from examples poorly demonstrating grammar usage without additional expository support, and are then expected to be able to discern the difference between, say, "Vことになる" and "Vことになっている."

[Namisuke]

Yeah, the books are odd. It would be nice if we were simply given textbooks that are popular amongst Japanese learners instead of spending money to make their own materials. It would probably be so much cheaper that they could give us free JLPT exam registration on top of it (although I don't have the slightest clue how much they are spending on the CLAIR course materials). It might be a way to make a little budget cut if the course is expensive. I think more people would do the JLPT test than the JET Course tests as it can look better on a resume and is a recognized test.

[susanne]

While I am glad there is a free Japanese course to study, my issues with the beginner course so far are:

-The fact that it is all in Romaji, meaning that it's only useful for listening and speaking, not for reading or writing, as you could do the entire beginners course and not be able to read a menu

-Some answers are at the back of the book for exercises, others do not have answers, so it's hard for me to know if my answers are right or wrong

-There are exercises that I don't understand how to complete and there doesn't seem to be any explanation of how to complete them, such as Week 2, Day 4, Exercise 1, which makes it really hard for me to continue to more complex sentences

I would suggest getting the みんなの日本語 books. The workbook is all in Japanese, and the guidebook has great English explanations. This way it is challenging and allows you to get good practice. These books cover many things in the JET Course books. For the tests, you can convert the words into hiragana for practice and then try to do the tests that way. The all-over-the-place organization and romaji in those books drove me nuts and made them a waste of time to study. The みんなの日本語 books are quite well laid out and come pretty highly suggested. If you look up the grammar point in the JET Course in the みんなの日本語 books and do that instead, I think you would get more out of your study time. The books come fairly cheap too. I suggest getting both level I and II as there might be some things not covered from the JET Course in the first book (such as ~ んです). The kanji book that comes with the JET Course is alright for practice, but you can also get a lot of supplementary books, or better yet, get worksheets from the internet or play kanji games online.

Thanks! I'll seek those books out.

[duelingmonkey]

Sometimes I really do like this program, and I get a lot out of the listening and reading practice, but that being said, does anyone else sometimes get the feeling that the textbook makers don't necessarily want us to succeed? For example, instead of providing an array of real-world grammar structures, each book often contains numerous ways of saying basically the same thing. Then with only a handful of example sentences as explanation we're tested on the extremely subtle differences in use. A couple times I've given up and asked my Japanese teachers for help and they tell me the different grammar points mean the same thing and either one is okay, but the book wants just one right answer. As another example, I'm taking the Advanced Course and was looking forward to the all-Japanese cultural articles at the end of the week to practice all I'd learned, but I came to find that most of them contained more words and structures that I'd never studied than words that I had, and I couldn't even get the gist of many of the articles. It's incredibly discouraging to study so hard all week, then to have it rubbed in my face how little I still know. Also after completing every lesson, listening to the dialogues multiple times, taking lots of notes, etc... I missed over 80% of the answers on the final review lesson for the first book, something that seemed to happen a lot in the Intermediate Course too. I know learning a foreign language is difficult, that a challenge can be a good and necessary thing, but sometimes these books are so difficult that I just want to give up on learning Japanese and go back to enjoying my life again. A number of friends have tried the Clair courses too and gave up for the same reason - the books were as a whole were arbitrary, discouraging, and seemed more likely to try and trick you into a wrong answer than to help you progress. It feels like this program has a lot of potential, but I think I'm probably going to just not send the next test in and go back to readthekanji.com.

+1 on this.
Also question about the answer sheet: the study guide says this is supposed to be a piece of paper with our mailing address on it, but all I have is a blank scantron.
Are we supposed to write the info in now or should we peel off the sticker on the big envelope the materials came in?
I sent this question to the support email too, but somehow I think this might be faster.....

Does anyone else find the Helpline hours inconvenient?