Hi, I got notified that I received the Monbusho scholarship. So I'll be leaving in april for study.
The first year will be spent on studying japanese. Now I'm not very worried about that timeframe since I've already been studying for over a year (8 months of which spent in a language school in Tokyo). But I'm just wondering how they[MEXT] expect the students who haven't had any prior japanese study to get up to academic level from zero in just one year.

Any prior monbusho grantees who can shed some light on how the monbusho program works?

fjolnir Wrote:But I'm just wondering how they[MEXT] expect the students who haven't had any prior japanese study to get up to academic level from zero in just one year.

They don't expect that. It's impossible.

Most MEXT students I've met do their research in English.

Womacks23 Wrote:

fjolnir Wrote:But I'm just wondering how they[MEXT] expect the students who haven't had any prior japanese study to get up to academic level from zero in just one year.

They don't expect that. It's impossible.

Most MEXT students I've met do their research in English.

This is not the research scholarship. I was talking about undergraduate & special training college(senshu/senmon gakko)

Then I have no idea. I guess they send them off to language school and hope for the best.

The percentage of people who get sent home after that one year of language school must be huge.

College entrance exams are way above １級 level.

I think they just shout 'Ganbarimasu!' as you walk through the door and hope.

Yea seriously. I bet the orientation is fun. "Welcome to Japan, you have a year to become fluent enough to pass this entrance exam that only about 40% of native Japanese people can pass. Ganbate kudasai."

I'm not really sure about Monbusho, but most of the students I'm currently studying abroad from are receiving the JASSO. Probably completely different, but for what it's worth this is how it goes for me:

1. Sign a sheet on the 1st ~ 8th of every month.
2. Receive 80,000円 in my bank account on the 25th of every month
3. Take classes at 北大, do my best, although it doesn't affect the scholarship at all

The program I went through allows people starting from 0, so most of the classes are in English. I tested into quite high Language classes though, so those are all in Japanese.
Actually, it's kind of a hassle to try and get them to let you attend real classes. But that's another story...

Womacks23 Wrote:The percentage of people who get sent home after that one year of language school must be huge.

College entrance exams are way above １級 level.

We don't take entrance exams for the school. Instead I took an exam when applying for the scholarship. You take math, english, etc tests in english and then a placement exam in japanese (japanese skill supposedly doesn't affect your chances of getting the scholarship)

To get the Monbusho scholarship, what did you do to prepare yourself for the tests or the interview because I want to get that scholarship but don't know how to get ready for it. Were the tests hard?

You study for a year and then they hope for the best. In all probability, you will eventually get into the grove as you study at the senmon gakkou, but the first months will be very hard for you since you will have homework etc like every Japanese person, yet you won't understand much of what's being said in class.

There's no better immersion though, so time will fix it eventually.

Andres Wrote:To get the Monbusho scholarship, what did you do to prepare yourself for the tests or the interview because I want to get that scholarship but don't know how to get ready for it. Were the tests hard?

You can look at the tests online.

Spoiler: They are VERY hard.

http://www.studyjapan.go.jp/en/toj/toj0308e.html#1

Andres Wrote:To get the Monbusho scholarship, what did you do to prepare yourself for the tests or the interview because I want to get that scholarship but don't know how to get ready for it. Were the tests hard?

I spent about a week brushing up on my math. The test wasn't that hard(High school level math) but the time limit is only 1 hour so you have to think fast, I think I scored a bit over 50% on the math (They wouldn't tell me).
English was a piece of cake, I probably got 100% on that.
The japanese exam was fiendish(It was basically just a jlpt2/3ish kanji test, and I only knew the kanji commonly used in casual keitai mail ), scored 25% (for some reason it was ok to let me know my japanese score) on that one but it's apparently only for placement and doesn't affect acceptance.

Your test score is the combined score of the english and math tests, so if you score 100% on the english test but only say 40% math you still have a 70% score.
(don't know if it's like that in countries where english is the native language)

Then there's the interview, was very nice&easy for me since the people at the embassy were very friendly and helpful. But that obviously depends on the people conducting the interview.

The crappiest part is the wait, I got the embassy recommendation in July and got the official notification of acceptance in mid-January.. (And I'm leaving for Tokyo next week^^)

Just give the exams a shot and see how it goes. It's free

Sorry for my questions but what were some of the questions asked in the Interview?

I don't really remember. I just described myself, what I'd done, why I wanted to go to Japan etc.
They also asked me to speak something in Japanese.

Does anyone know what criteria MEXT judge upon?
Do they care more about your school grades etc, or the results of tests they make you take?

fjolnir Wrote:

Womacks23 Wrote:

fjolnir Wrote:But I'm just wondering how they[MEXT] expect the students who haven't had any prior japanese study to get up to academic level from zero in just one year.

They don't expect that. It's impossible.

Most MEXT students I've met do their research in English.

This is not the research scholarship. I was talking about undergraduate & special training college(senshu/senmon gakko)

I worked with a lady who entered university after a one year university prep course at a language school. Not sure if this is the exact same thing that you are objecting to though...

Thanks for the info IceCream.
I'm going for the undergraduate scholarship, so I think the exams are fairly important. The selection process seems pretty unpredictable though; people who did terribly at the exams and interview have reported getting through.
I'm hoping that I'll get through to the interview process and then impress them with my Japanese skills.

The only problem is that I suck at maths, so I'll have to spend quite a while studying for the maths exam. I guess I'll just go through all the previous exams and a bit extra and Anki the questions.
I guess I better try extra hard in my subjects just in case they care about grades.

Bad luck on not getting through; it seems that the research scholarship is a lot more competitive than the undergraduate.
Hopefully we'll both get through next year!