Hi! I have done a lot of research, found a language school to attend, and everything looks good to enter by October except that I found out you need to be able to prove you have studied at least 150 hours of Japanese, but I have no proof of hours. I’ve only studied a bit here and there on my own time. I have the money, working on my BA, intend to finish my TEFL in a few weeks to do part-time teaching work for 28 hours or less while there, so this is the only issue.
I never took it in high school, and there are no Japanese courses offered through my university I am currently attending. The other problem is there are no Japanese language schools near me, and they are very difficult to get to, so that’s a write off. Plus, since I’m hoping to go for October, I know there is a cut-off date and even if I did attend a language school here in my home country, the courses are very slow, ie they only offer maybe 2-3 hours a week, meeting once or twice in the evenings, for sometimes 6-8 weeks, then you have to apply for the next level and so on. I don’t have that time.However, I did find online courses offered through the Japan Foundation called Marugoto which issue a certification of study/completion, and record how long the study material is for each course, which, is 48 hours for the Katsudoo and Rikai combined courses. Would this be acceptable to show proof that I’ve spent time studying? And it wasn’t 100% clear to me when talking with the lady at the language school, but outside of proving 150 hours which you have to do, do you also HAVE to show you have a JPLT N5 or higher, or is that optional?
So, I’m unsure of what to do. I know with my current ability at Japanese I wouldn’t pass N5 quite yet either. Any advice would be appreciated.
EDIT: I did to a lot of research on what is needed to go on a student visa, and as per MOFA’s eligibility for a student visa, I didn’t see anything about needing 150 hrs of study of Japanese language. Not sure if it’s something the school asks for, or it’s it’s part of the CoE process.
2 comments
As far as I know, it’s either supply a document showing 150 hours OR have N5. So if you haven’t studied officially you would get N5 to prove how much you’ve studied.
fwiw when I applied for my CoE (this was back in Nov 2020) I didn’t have proof of the full 150 hours but I had studied with the school previously (in person and online) so I think they must have sort of vouched for me.
your school probably offers online classes of some description, you could sign up for those. the requirements are more to show you have a record of commitment to studying the language and that you’re not going to turn up and disappear on your student visa.