CLAIR Jet Programme Japanese language course

[Patryn]

So I have a blank scantron too. You just need to fill in your JET Number and your name on the form and which level you're doing.
Stick it in the envelope that you got with the pack and put your details on the back of the envelope.

At the very least, if they have your JET Number, they'll know your BOE who will be able to get the results or anything to you.

I would suggest that the study guide is a bit out of date in this section and they've put the blank sheet in there to make it clearer to people that it IS in fact the answer sheet. xD

I'm doing Online submission though, so shouldn't be a problem for me. As for the helpline hours, I haven't had to call them yet so not sure. I just emailed them.

[Lianwen]

I really have to agree with everyone about the Advanced course`s weird wording for the English examples.

The cold one particularly threw me off. I feel like the majority of the English used in the translations are very purple prose.

However, I recommend, that if anyone else who needs additional help for better grammer explanation/practice, to try Tobira (for Advanced course would be better). Tobira is geared towards an intermediate level, but contains nearly all the grammar points in Book 1 for the Advanced course. It was very useful to have to reference while working through the first CLAIR book.

[Jordaius]

Has anyone tried taking the test online?
http://www.manabinet.com/eLM/index.cfm
Apparently, you have to use a Windows computer and Internet Explorer, as other browsers won't work, to use the site. I thought people only used IE once to download a better internet browser.

[Cytrix]

I have no idea idea why they're saying IE only, because it works perfectly fine on Chrome!

[Elfe_noire]

The deadline is the 9th, does it mean we have to submit the test before that date or is the 9th included ? (can I submit it online on the 9th or post it on the 9th ? )

[Lianwen]

The deadline is the 9th, does it mean we have to submit the test before that date or is the 9th included ? (can I submit it online on the 9th or post it on the 9th ? )

It says postmarked by the 9th. So it should be okay if you mail it in on the 9th.

[kagoislander]

Hey again,

So, for submissions online, the website is all in Japanese... what about all the poor beginners out there who can't read Japanese fluently?? Anyway, I threw out my original instructions for how to submit online, I think. How do you go about signing up for that and doing it? The website is http://www.manabinet.com/eLM/index.cfm, right? Seems that even if I had a login and password my office won't let me use the site. I'm hoping Firefox works with it.

By the way, thank you Eliza_FukuokaPA for answering my questions about the translation and linguistics courses!

[Cytrix]

I imagine Firefox probably will. If not get Google Chrome because it worked for me last night perfectly!

[5pool]

ok, so i logged in to do the test and i now see that none of the questions are listed. i was doing the test without the book and i think it says there is only 40 minutes to complete it, yet i logged in to take it already. does this mean i'm going to get 0 for attempting to take the test without the paper sheet around?

and yeah, it's real effective to have the whole site in japanese

[Heather]

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.

Minna no nihongo is pretty great. I like how the kanji book you can get with them requires you to fill them out yourself, which helps you retain info more. The Genki series is also good because the explanations are mostly simple and easy to understand. I also like Gene Nishi's Japanese Step-by-Step, which is a good introductory text (he uses sentence patterns, which helps the beginner a lot, but is less useful for more advanced students. Some of my friends didn't care for it, but I loved it). A good reference book is Naoko Chino's All about Particles, which is pretty handy for beginning and intermediate students. Japanese Core Words and Phrases is good is you're intermediate to advanced. I guess what I'm trying to say, is make sure that you have plenty of references. Often, if you're having a hard time understanding a grammar concept, it might help to look it up in another source.

[number one]

I imagine Firefox probably will. If not get Google Chrome because it worked for me last night perfectly!

Yup. Couldn't be assed to download IE (really? REALLY? who uses IE?) and tried my luck in Firefox. Worked fine for me.

[Elfe_noire]

Firefox worked for me as well.
I don't know why they say it doesn't...

[auryngirl]

Sorry to be the one to ask a dumb question, but what username/password do you use? I don't remember setting up an account with JET before, but didn't see anywhere to sign up on the site.

[number one]

Sorry to be the one to ask a dumb question, but what username/password do you use? I don't remember setting up an account with JET before, but didn't see anywhere to sign up on the site.

You have to e-mail them about it. The details are in the instruction guide .

[duelingmonkey]

Is it too late to request changes for the future books?
I think it would be more useful if the furigana is taken off in the Advanced course books.