━━━━━━━━━━━ <受験レポート>(1) ━━━━━━━━━━━ ●プレゼンテーションの内容(厄年) There are Yakudoshi, or "unfortunate ages" in Japan. For each sex, men and women have three years of unfortunate ages three times throughout their lives. It is said that bad things happen in those ages, so people of unfortunate ages visit shrines to prevent bad things from happening. For example, one of the unfortunate ages for women is 19 and I got disease when I was 19. I did not visit any shrines, so I suspect that was a reason of my disease. Though Japanese people don't fully believe in this "myth" (←迷信が出てこなかった), they want to avoid bad things from happening and want to do auspicious things, so they take care of their health when they are in these ages.
●質疑応答の内容:(30代ぐらいの男性外国人試験官) Q: You said an "unlucky age" for women is 19. What are other unlucky ages? A: I am not sure about the exact ages, but for women, the early 30s and for men, the late 30s. (実際は男性は40代前半)
Q: Why do you think this "superstition" was born? A: One of the reason why this superstition exists is that these ages are times when people's health condition greatly changes. 19 for women is the time when children grow into adults, and the 30s for both men and women is the period young people become middle aged people.
Q: Do you think young people don't believe in the unlucky ages these days? A: I think they believe in the unlucky ages less and less these days. (lessの位置を間違った気がする) But, they go to shrines when they take the entrance examinations of universities. So I think young people still believe in gods. (最後論点がずれた)
━━━━━━━━━━━ <受験レポート>(2) ━━━━━━━━━━━ ●プレゼンテーションの内容(日本における最大の木造建築) I would like to talk about the largest wooden architecture in Japan. Todaiji in Nara is the largest wooden architecture in Japan. It houses a huge statue of Buddha, which is one of the largest Buddha statures in Japan. Shomu Emperor founded Todaiji in the 8th Century. The reason why he made such a big statue and architecture is because he wanted to spread Buddhism through out Japan. In fact, Todaiji was built as the head temple of all provincial temples in Japan. In Nara, I would recommend you to visit Nara Park also where friendly deer will welcome you. If you have more time please visit also Kyoto, which is another old capital city of Japan and pretty close from Nara.
●質疑応答の内容 Q:How long would it take from Tokyo to Nara? A: It takes about three hours. You need to take a bullet train and then change trains.
Q: Suppose you are a tour guide, how would you like to explain the architecture? Are there any special things that you would like to describe about the architecture? A. It is just unbelievable that they could built such a giant building with an ample space to house a huge Buddha stature in the 8th century. Please take a look at these wooden pillars sustaining the high roof. It is definitely an excellent example of the root of Japanese carpenters’ high level of craftsmanship that has been handed down from generation to generation and down to present.
Q: You said that Nara Park and Kyoto are the places you would recommend. If you were asked which to choose, either Kyoto or Nara, what would you say? A: It really depends. If you like a serene and ancient atmosphere, I would recommend Nara. If you have only one day to spend in Kansai Area, I would definitely recommend Kyoto. There are many religious and cultural sites and beautiful gardens since Kyoto was the capital of Japan for 1000 years. Shopping and eating is also fun in Kyoto.
丁度ここで自分のプレゼンを終えようとセンテンスが途切れたタイミングで、外国人試験官の方が間髪入れずに質問で割り込んできました。自分の感覚では全然2分に足りないと思っていたので、何が起きたのか一瞬分からず、とっさに、「Could you repeat that?」と言ってしまい、試験官が質問を言い直してくださってプレゼン時間が終わって質疑応答に入ろうとしているんだな、ということがようやく理解できました。プレゼン時間終了の合図はそれまで仕切ってきた日本人の試験官の方がその旨を伝えてくれると思い込んでいたのですが、うかつな対応をしてしまったかな、という感じです。
●最後に 各パートが独立して採点されるということをお聞きしましたので、そのとおりであれば、今回は通訳問題で不合格の可能性が高いです。しかしながら、プレゼンで何とか伝家の宝刀「By the way、Aside from〜作戦」を抜かずに済んだのは、すべて植山先生のお陰です。ありがとうございました。不合格でしたらまた来年お世話になるかもしれませんが、その際はよろしくお願いいたします。お元気で。
━━━━━━━━━━━ <受験レポート>(4) ━━━━━━━━━━━ ●通訳問題 まず、逐次通訳問題ですが、後になって冷静に考えてみると、どうして言えなかったんだろう、というくらい、英語が出てきませんでした。それでも何とかしゃべらなければ、と思い、Gifu prefecture has a lot of snow. The roof is very steep so that snow easily falls down か何かしゃべったような記憶しか残っていません。まず、屋根という簡単な単語がすぐに出てこなかったことには、かなりのあせりを覚えました。こんなこともあるんですね。とにかく、逐次通訳は全くできなかったといった方がいいくらいでした。