Costs
For myself this was of course the main issue when planning the whole thing. What does it cost to live in Japan, is there some fees no-one remembers to point out to you but are mandatory and so on so on. So here is all the costs, estimations and calculations I have done (which I kind of hoped I would have seen before my own trip), I hope you find this helpful!
One month cost in Tokyo
Estimation and reality
Tokyo is one of the most expencive cities to live, but I would like to point out that food is still cheap compared to Europe. Public transporation is pretty expencive and you need to have a little bit of luck in order to find an apartment which doesn't have "key money" or long term contracts (more about that below). The apartment rent is 80 000 yen, which is dived for two.
Estimation (7/2014)
Rent = 43 000 yen (~ 300 euro)
Public Transport = 13 000 yen (~ 100 euro)
Phone and Internet = 13 000 yen (~ 100 euro)
Food = 23 000 yen (~ 170 euro)
School fee (only tuition)* = 51 667 yen (~380 euro)
*155 000 yen / 3 months (only tuition)
Rent = 43 000 yen (~ 300 euro)
Public Transport = 13 000 yen (~ 100 euro)
Phone and Internet = 13 000 yen (~ 100 euro)
Food = 23 000 yen (~ 170 euro)
School fee (only tuition)* = 51 667 yen (~380 euro)
*155 000 yen / 3 months (only tuition)
Reality (3/2015)
Rent = 45 000 yen
Rent = 45 000 yen
-> This number includes gas, water and electricity bills that we share with Mikko. Our rent is much lower compared to our school mates.
Public Transport = 10 000 yen
Public Transport = 10 000 yen
-> 4 000 yen for a commuter pass (purhased for 6 months at the time) and 6 000 yen for commuting outside our normal school way. This number has been pretty realistic for each month.
Phone and internet = 3 000 yen
Phone and internet = 3 000 yen
-> This is very low compared what our friends have to pay. I was able to find very cheap operator, but more common is to pay approximately at least 5 000 yen for the same. Read more when scrolling down where I used more space talking about phone companies.
Food = 37 500 yen
Food = 37 500 yen
-> 37 500 yen is really big budjet for food. There is a lot of flexibility to eat in restaurants. One day budjet is 1 250 yen, basically if you eat in normal lunch budjet restaurants, you could it in restaurant once everyday (one meal approximately 700 yen).
School fee (only tuition) = 51 667 yen
School fee (only tuition) = 51 667 yen
-> School fee includes in my school books and other material that we get from the school (!no translation for Minna no Nihongo included!) like vocabulary lists and other prints. In my school the fee also covers one school trip in each course.
+ Health insurance = 2 000 yen
+ Health insurance = 2 000 yen
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Other costs
So then comes the other costs you have to add to the living costs. Some of these are easier to forget than the others (like almost 3 000 euro school fee is pretty hard to forget... for the rest of your life).
4/2014 // The rent of January 2015 and deposit // 40 000 + 40 000 yen (~580 euro)
6/2014 // Application fee for Go!Go!Nihon // 21 890 yen (~160 euro)
8/2014 // a Fligh to Japan 26th of December // 599,00 euro
11/2014 // School fee for 6 months // 2 804,00 euro (~410 000 yen)
12/2012 // Visa application for Japanese Embassy in Helsinki // 23,50 euro
1/2015 // Commuter pass for 6 months* // 24 800 yen (~180 euro)
6/2014 // Application fee for Go!Go!Nihon // 21 890 yen (~160 euro)
8/2014 // a Fligh to Japan 26th of December // 599,00 euro
11/2014 // School fee for 6 months // 2 804,00 euro (~410 000 yen)
12/2012 // Visa application for Japanese Embassy in Helsinki // 23,50 euro
1/2015 // Commuter pass for 6 months* // 24 800 yen (~180 euro)
1/2015 // Fee for opening the phone contract // ~ 3 000 yen
School
I tried to get a realistic image about what the studying on Japanese language school was going to be, but the reality was something very different. So here I have tried to take as small space as possible to summarise the most important things about the school. ^^ I have chatted with other language school students in Tokyo area and after doing that I have to say that schools have differencies (last chapter about those), so please remember that my experience is based on Yoshida Institute.
Courses
Most of the language schools have named their courses starting from "A, B, C..." and ending to "advanced". That is also the way in Yoshida Institute. The courses have been devided to "beginner", "intermediate" and "advanced" levels that two first ones include three courses and advanced only two. Beginner = A, B, C. Intermediate = D, E and F. Each course lasts 3 months and in the end of the course there is the final exam which determinates if you can move onwards to the next level.
The levels get tougher very suddenly. Basically during beginner courses you learn a good base with Japanese grammary and then when entering to intermediate you start to work more with detailed language. After maybe D class I'm going to do a post what different classes in my school in fact included (grammary structures and discussion levels and so on). But basically most of the students, even with former experience of Japanese language go first to A course, even the beginning is overly easy and only few goes straight to B class and very rarely someone goes straight to C class (in the beginning of my B course there was one girl).
Teachers
The teachers speaks only Japanese. In my school in fact most of the teachers can't any English, so when you need to communicate with teachers, since the beginning of the A course you have to use Japanese. Online dictionaries are handy! Yoshida Institute is small school, we have about 20 teachers, both male and female. a Class doesn't have only one class room teacher but one "class room teacher" which teaches two days in a week and for the rest of the days there is another teacher. But at least Mondays teacher is always Mondays teacher and so on. Teachers are very nice and courage to speak a lot in the class. In fact, the teachers prefer us to speak without rising our hand and waiting for our turn, but in the same time any other language than Japanese is prohibited in class room.
Exams and final score
In my school our one course is worth of 600 points in total. 300 of those points comes from things you hand in during the course and mid-term exams we do. The rest 300 comes from Final exam. You have to score more than 60% from the total in order to pass the course (360 points), but even if you score that but you have been too much abcence from the lessens, you can't pass. Each lesson you are away you loose points from your total (if you are twice late it is considered as being abcence once).
300 points that comes during the course include kanji tests, mid-term tests based on the book (we had 4 mid-term exams in B class), esseys and speeches and homework you need to had in. How you act in the class is also valuated, but only with letter A, B or C. Mid-term exams usually includes 3 to 5 chapters from the book, and those last for only one hour. In the beginning is small listening part. After the exam the next hour is used to go through the exam right away and they make you fix your own mistakes (you fill in two sheets of answers, one you will never see again, that goes for the teachers). For kanji test you have only 10 minutes, usually 10-20 kanji depending how many chapters from the book is included. The essey is written during the class, then memorized and presented as a speech for the class. They gave us about 5 days time to remember the speech. If you do that without reading from the paper, you get better feedback, but it is not mandatory.
The final exams takes two days. First day is the conversational exam, that only lasts about 10-15 minutes. The topics are the same discussed during the course. The conversational exam is worth for 100 points. Second day is divided for three parts, reading, grammary and listening, one hour for each. With listening exam the procentage is high that you only hear the exercises once, so better listen carefully! Listening can also include grammary in a way that the task gives you a beginning of the sentence and then reads out loud to you few options which only one is grammatically correct ending. Reading is very similar for the tasks done during the course and grammary as well. After each part there is a break. Listening and reading are both worth of 50 points and grammary 100 points.
Process
Go!Go!Nihon
This is worth of a long speech becouse there is so much information about Go!Go!Nihon in the web that is not actually true. But then in the other hand I have to say that unfortunatelly all what they say is not accurate either. I only used Go!Go!Nihon for doing the school application, but you can also get apartment through them.
Go!Go!Nihon is a very simple way to get your paperwork done when you decide to study in langauge school in Japan. You fill in an application where you tell a little bit about your goals and time you want to come to Japan. Just remember that the actual applying to the school doesn't start more than only half a year before beginning date.
After that Go!Go!Nihon is going to contact you and if you are already within the applying time, you pay an application fee (approximately 150 euro) and mail documents (passport copy, another passport photo about yourself, your tax income ticket and payslip) to the organization. After the waiting begins, becouse you will receave a yes or no only about one month before taking off to Japan. Basically if your finances is OK (you have on your account the needed 1 000 000 yen when applied), and there is no crimes you have done, basically the answer it is always supposed to be yes.
When you receave yes answer, they e-mail you a bill about first 6 months of studying in the school you picked and an e-mail copy about your COE (certificate of eligibility). You are supposed to pay that immediatly and when they see that the transaction has been done, they will mail you by snail mail the actual copy of your COE. That COE you take to your Japanese Embassy, where you they will issue you to your visa. Still in this point the Embassy will hold a permission to not issue the visa if they feel like that, but basically that is super rare. After that your paper work is done and you are ready to go!
For me, Go!Go!Nihon was always very polite and nice, even though sometimes they didn't answer all my questions when asked first time. But I still find their work very helpful and I'm very grateful and would recommend this for someone who plans to do the same. Only thing I can say against and this is coming from my friends who have used the apartment service, don't use it or if you do, don't do long contracts even if they offer you a discount for that without seeing the apartment. Many have had bad surprises and things haven't been like described.
Go!Go!Nihon is a very simple way to get your paperwork done when you decide to study in langauge school in Japan. You fill in an application where you tell a little bit about your goals and time you want to come to Japan. Just remember that the actual applying to the school doesn't start more than only half a year before beginning date.
After that Go!Go!Nihon is going to contact you and if you are already within the applying time, you pay an application fee (approximately 150 euro) and mail documents (passport copy, another passport photo about yourself, your tax income ticket and payslip) to the organization. After the waiting begins, becouse you will receave a yes or no only about one month before taking off to Japan. Basically if your finances is OK (you have on your account the needed 1 000 000 yen when applied), and there is no crimes you have done, basically the answer it is always supposed to be yes.
When you receave yes answer, they e-mail you a bill about first 6 months of studying in the school you picked and an e-mail copy about your COE (certificate of eligibility). You are supposed to pay that immediatly and when they see that the transaction has been done, they will mail you by snail mail the actual copy of your COE. That COE you take to your Japanese Embassy, where you they will issue you to your visa. Still in this point the Embassy will hold a permission to not issue the visa if they feel like that, but basically that is super rare. After that your paper work is done and you are ready to go!
For me, Go!Go!Nihon was always very polite and nice, even though sometimes they didn't answer all my questions when asked first time. But I still find their work very helpful and I'm very grateful and would recommend this for someone who plans to do the same. Only thing I can say against and this is coming from my friends who have used the apartment service, don't use it or if you do, don't do long contracts even if they offer you a discount for that without seeing the apartment. Many have had bad surprises and things haven't been like described.
JLPT and EJU tests
Usually before entering language school they have asked you already several times if you had completed any JLPT tests before applying. JLPT test is short nickname for Japanese Language Proficiency Test which is held all over the world once or twice in a year little bit depending on o country. In Finland it is held once every years December. The leves are diveded in these days to be 5 different (before only 4) and before there excisted a study material for the exams, but after two years ago happened alteration, there is no study data for these new tests. Below you can see the level descriptions.
So when you entrance language school they usually want to know your goals and there is three main questions.
1) How long do you plan to study in this school?
2) Are you going to do JLPT or EJU test?
3) What are you going to do after leaving this language school?
If you don't plan to entrance any schools in Japan after your language studies, they basically don't think you need to do neither of the tests, but if you want to, you can. JLPT is usefull for everyone being only Japanese Language test that is valid all over the world. But the cruel truth is that if you do levels under 2 (second highest), they are not really going to be worth anything in Japan, in other countries, maybe. Then there is EJU test. EJU is a test that you have to do if you want to entrance Japanese University. It is not only language test, but also tests for mathematics and other sciences and your knowledge about Japan and the world. You need to pass EJU in order to apply, no matter if you want to become art teacher or chemist. Both of the tests are usually recommended to be done earliest in the end of intermediate courses (basically after 1-1,5 years of study).
JLPT levels
N5 - The ability to understand some basic Japanese
N4 - The ability to understand basic Japanese
N3 - The ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations to a certain degree
N2 - The ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations,
and in a variety of circumstances to a certain degree.
N1 - The ability to understand Japanese used in a variety of circumstances.
More about JLPT test and wider definitions for the levels you can find from this page:
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