しあわせ » London

July JLPT in London

ロバート — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:58:30 +0000

The Japan Foundation has announced for the first time that the JLPT will be held on Sunday July 3rd at SOAS in London. The deadline for applications is April 4th.

The SOAS web site hasn’t updated for this information as yet, but the contact details are there to request information and/or an application pack.

This is fantastic news. Unfortunately I doubt I am ready to sit a test in 4 months time. I think it’ll be December for me. I have a month to ponder spending £70 on a trial run… Maybe if I work really hard.

Jukai 樹海 at the Blue Elephant Theatre London

ロバート — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:34:09 +0000

My friend Tomoko-san is performing in JUKAI, starting 28 September 2010, in South London at the Blue Elephant Theatre.

JUKAI was created by Theatre Témoin in Santa Cruz, CA in 2008 with actors, musicians and designers from Japan, California and London. Now the company has gathered together again to perform the London premiere in 3 weeks time.

At the base of Mount Fuji lies a stretch of forest known locally as “The Sea of Trees”. Thousands of people who have entered these woods have never been seen again. Some simply got lost. Others went in intending to disappear…

Physical theatre meets Japanese taiko drumming. JUKAI is a play of mask, dance, movement, samurai sword fighting and live music, telling a touching story of a French writer visiting Japan. Guaranteed to bring you an exciting cultural night out.

JUKAI will be performed in English. It runs from 28 September to 16 October on Tuesday to Saturday at 8 pm for 15 performances at
Blue Elephant Theatre / Nearest tube: Oval (map)

Tickets are £9.50 (£7.50 conc.; £6.50 Southwark residents and Previews)
There are free seats available for under-26s. Check with the box office, but early booking is required.

Kanken London 2010

ロバート — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:13:40 +0000

This year’s kanjikentei will be held on Sunday 31st of October at SOAS UCL London.
They have a Google webform this year for candidates to request application forms. The deadline is the 28th September. You can sit more than one level if you want but this year I’ll only be attempting 8 kyu. It may take me a few years to reach my 5 kyu goal of the 1006 primary school kanji. It’s not the kanji so much as the vocabulary and usage.

Be aware that British Summer Time ends on the 31st, so make sure you turn up on time for the test!

(I had a rather interesting search term in my blog stats today. “Heisig classes in Tokyo” Good Luck with that, Heisig seemed very anti-teacher and only an individual could manage his method. And only the Internet has kept his book in print… )

Also open for applications is the 2010 JLPT held at SOAS. This year they have online application and are again limiting candidates to 1000 across all levels. I must get back on track with JLPT. The leap to 2 was too daunting, but now there is the intermediate N3 I should give it a go. Just not this year!

Ninagawa at the Barbican in May

ロバート — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:25:23 +0000

Ninagawa returns to the Barbican Theatre London for 4 days in May (5th to the 8th) in what might be becoming an annual event I hope. I’ve seen the two previous productions, Coriolanus and the kabuki version of Twelfth Night. This time it’s not Shakespeare. It’s a play about the famous swordsman Musashi, the author of the Book of Five Rings.
It’ll be entirely in Japanese with English surtitles. The Japanese is usually difficult and fast, however I found the women’s voices easier to follow and it helped that I knew the English versions of both the previous plays and could even remember some speeches from Coriolanus I had memorised for an exam over 20 years ago. I must re-read Eiji Yoshikawa‘s epic novel so I can follow things a bit easier. It’s a great book, although I believe the play starts where this book ends so maybe I’ll be able to find out what happens to Otsu.
I hope for some great swordplay, the literally blood-spattering finale of Ninagawa’s Coriolanus in the manner of Kurosawa’s Sanjuro was such an impressive image. I have expectations of some skillful stagecraft.

My wife tells me the lead actors are quite famous in Japan and expects there to be lots of Japanese women there because the actor, Tatsuya Fujiwara, is a bit of a heart-throb! You might have seen him as Light in DeathNote. It’s only playing for 4 days and when I booked tickets last night, all the cheap seats were unavailable and a fair amount of the stalls and circle were sold as well. So available seats are from ￡28 to ￡40.

The cheap seats might still be available as freebies if you are under 25 as part of Barbican’s free-B events

Review of the production in Japan.

image from kirainet’s flickr photostream used under creative commons license

After Kanken 2009

ロバート — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:56:51 +0000

Yesterday I sat the kanji kentei 漢字検定 in London. There were surprisingly few candidates there. Less than 30 for all levels by my reckoning. This is a real pity as it’s an interesting and challenging test of real Japanese reading and writing ability. I hope the numbers are sufficient to keep it being held regularly in London.
Probably because of the smaller numbers it was much more smoothly run than JLPT at SOAS in my experience. They would actually do well to tell those doing the JLPT about the Kanken and keep an email mailing list to remind past applicants about forthcoming tests.

Anyhow…
I signed up for 2 tests, but due to a lack of time and hence a lack of study I decided to concentrate on the lower test, 9 kyu, instead of 8 kyu. In theory you could sit as many tests as you want, each taking 40 minutes, but in practice those taking more than one test only took two. The plus is you don’t have to wait another year, the minus is you may be paying out extra money for a test you don’t take or mightn’t pass.
I might have passed 9 kyu. I’ll know within 2 weeks. (Again much faster than JLPT and it involves a human marker rather than machine marking.) I was reasonably confident going in having gotten good marks in the practice tests I’ve been taking. However the pass mark is a high 80%. It hinges on vocabulary. I know the target kanji, I know their readings, Where it starts to get difficult is putting this together with vocabulary and my vocabulary isn’t as good as an eight year old’s!

My advice, for what it is worth, is learn vocabulary using the target kanji.
The most useful tool I had was my Nintendo DS and a title called 正しい漢字かきとりくん (Tadashii Kanji kakitorikun). The original edition. There is an extended kanken version, but this is too advanced until you are ready for the post primary school grades. Although it’s test questions are more comprehensive.
The advantage of using DS is you have to write your answers and you get instant feedback of whether you are correct and the quality of your writing. The style of questions are the sort you will get on the kanken.
The teacher behind the method used in kakitorikun has an interesting paper on his method, the Kageyama method.
The other resources I used were the official kanken books, both the step up book and best of all the practice test book.
For a while (when I had the time by a computer) I used renshu.org, which has a great set of quizzes specifically for kanken and uses a spaced repetition formula. I also made a number of vocabulary lists on smart.fm.

So, today, I started once again revising for 8 kyu and with luck will take it next year. Will I try 7 kyu as well I wonder….

D.T. Suzuki Documentary screenings

ロバート — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:05:49 +0000

If you have ever read about Buddhism you are certain to have come across the writings of D.T. Suzuki.
I was recently contacted by a director of a film about Suzuki’s life. There are screenings in the UK in November. While the film isn’t in Japanese, I think it will be of interest to people interested in Japanese culture and Buddhism. I’ll let Michael Goldberg tell you himself after the jump.

There will be 3 free public screenings of “A ZEN LIFE – D.T. Suzuki” at universities in the UK next month.

“A ZEN LIFE – D.T. Suzuki” is a 77-minute documentary in English about Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966) the Japanese lay Buddhist, prolific writer and teacher credited with introducing Zen Buddhism to the West.

With an excellent grasp of English, Daisetsu Suzuki was highly successful at getting Westerners to appreciate the Japanese mentality, and Japanese to see the merit of Western logic. He earned widespread respect for his deep insights into Eastern and Western religions and philosophies. The effect he had on Western psychology, philosophy, religious thinking, and the arts was profound.

A variety of excerpts from Dr. Suzuki’s talks about Zen and Buddhism, Christianity, and psychoanalysis punctuate the film. Inter-faith dialogue and mutual respect were, in his mind, keys to peace. Interwoven with film footage, photos and audio recordings of D.T. Suzuki are interviews of many people who knew him, including Huston Smith, Gary Snyder, Robert Aitken, William Theodore de Bary, Donald Richie, Mihoko Okamura, and Dr. Albert Stunkard, with rare historical footage of Fr. Thomas Merton, John Cage, Erich Fromm, and the voice of Christmas Humphreys.

A pioneer in improving East-West relations, his numerous writings in English and Japanese, translated into many languages, serve as an inspiration even today. Daisetsu Suzuki’s message is all the more important now, in light of contemporary conflicts stemming from divergent ways of thinking.

SCREENINGS IN THE UK

Glasgow
Monday, 23 November, 6:30 pm
Interfaith Chapel, University of Glasgow, West Quadrangle
Screening followed by Q&A with director
No reservation necessary
For further information about the Glasgow screening,
please contact Joan Keenan, Interfaith Chaplaincy,
on 0141 330 5419 or joan.keenan@admin.gla.ac.uk

Manchester
Tuesday, 24 November, 5:15 – 7:30 pm (doors open 5 pm)
Arts Lecture Theatre, Lower Ground Floor, Samuel Alexander Building
University of Manchester
Screening followed by Q&A with director
No reservation necessary for the Manchester screening

London
Thursday, 26 November, 6:30 – 8:30 pm (reception afterward)
Brunei Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Russell Square
University of London
Screening followed by Q&A with director and panel discussion
Please reserve in advance for the SOAS event by contacting
info@azenlife-film.org, ts@soas.ac.uk, or tl3@soas.ac.uk
or call 01442 890882

These events are sponsored by
The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation

2 preview clips can be found on YouTube:

Very truly yours,
Michael Goldberg
Executive Producer / Director
The DT Suzuki Documentary Project
Japan Inter-Culture Foundation
www.azenlife-film.org

Frank Chickens Rides Again!

ロバート — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:30:27 +0000

Frank Chickens will be at the Japan Matsuri in Spitafields Market on Saturday 19 September. They expect to be on stage around 1:20 until 1:50.

Practice your singalong with this video of We Are Ninja (Not Geisha) on YouTube.

Nagisa Oshima season at the BFI

ロバート — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:16:30 +0000

A season of films by Oshima the director of the infamous Realm of the Senses (愛のコリーダ), and the notable Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (with a famous soundtrack) is playing at the NFT London from today until the end of October. Details on BFI’s website.

Kanken Kanji Aptitude Test London 2009

ロバート — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:12:14 +0000

This years Kanken Kanji Aptitude Test will be held at SOAS London on Sunday the 8th of November. The deadline for applications is Monday 5th October. It is possible to sit more than one level of the test on the day and the test fee is a reasonable £23 to £35 per paper.
I need a bit more motivation or focus in my Japanese studies so I’ll give it a go this year. Last year unfortunately I couldn’t sit it.
JLPT candidates could give it a go as a bit of a warm-up for the JLPT. Heisig devotees could prove their real competence and their method’s efficacy by passing level 2 perhaps. Hell I’d be impressed if they could pass level 5 after a couple of years starting from scratch.

Terracotta Film Festival London

ロバート — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:20:45 +0000

As part of the Terracotta Film Festival at the Prince Charles cinema over the bank holiday weekend, there are three Japanese films being screened.

After School Saturday 23 May 16:15
High Kick Girl Sunday 24 May 18:40
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 Friday 22 May 20:45

Details at the festival site. There are also films from Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia if you are a fan of Asian cinema.

Thanks to Paul at London Japanese Language Meetup for the heads-up!