Mira’s Review In Full

 

 

I started my Japanese journey in Year 11 (2020), coming from a background of knowing zero Japanese – not even being able to read basic hiragana in class. I was constantly told by my class teacher and deans that I would not be able to take Japanese as a subject as I had not done any Japanese prior to Year 11, however, Rie sensei saved me :D. I still remember walking into my Japanese class in school and being told constantly by my teacher that I was not allowed to be in the class, and I would have to choose another subject as a replacement. I had even gone to see the head of the languages department who told me that if I did Japanese in Year 11, I might be able to scrape through with an Achieved but I would have to change to another language, e.g Spanish or another subject all together next year onwards. I was determined to prove them wrong and tried my absolute best in class and at home to get back up to speed with the rest of my class who were all already really good at Japanese. I did two of my writing internals, which I somehow managed to get a Merit for, but I still didn’t feel that I had a good enough grasp on the language yet. It was now roughly a month before my Level 1 mock exams and I was basically panicking, not knowing how I was going to get an Excellence or even a Merit for my Japanese. The last thing I wanted to happen for my finals was to just get an Achieved and show the teachers that they were right about me not being able to learn the language well and fast enough. It was then that my mum had googled and miraculously found Rie sensei online. I went to her welcoming home for my first trial class, super-duper nervous, not knowing how it was going to go or what sensei was going to think of my poor ability. She had a look at my internals to access my current level and quickly devised a plan of action and.. it really worked!! I went from a student who could barely read my exam paper, let alone understand it, to getting one of the top marks in my Year 11 class with an Excellence 19 for my reading paper and Excellence with a mark of 22 for my Listening in just 4 months!! WOW. I was over the moon, I couldn’t even believe what had happened. Not only had I completely outdone the expectations of all of my teachers and myself in terms of my marks for Japanese, but I really felt that I had a good grasp of the language for my level. Everyone was so impressed, and it’s all thanks to Rie sensei xx.

 

After my NCEA L1 exam was over, during the summer break of 2021, both sensei and I felt I needed another push and goal to work towards. JLPT. I was honestly shocked that my tutor thought that I was capable of such an exam already, but super excited too for a new challenge. We both worked hard twice a week on vocabulary, grammar, kanji and on practice and past year questions, in the midst of my own school internals which I had to do too, and finally, in July, I sat my JLPT N5 exam. I was really nervous as I really wanted to do well for this exam and the results would only be posted at the end of the year; so all we could do it wait patiently. But of course, there was no time to sit around and wait doing nothing. I had my NCEA Level 2 Japanese mocks and finals coming around the corner. I was pumped and was really excited as I felt so much more confident compared to last year. I had already gotten 2 Es for both of my internals (speaking and writing) and I was remembering all the vocabulary, kanji and grammar practices I did during class with Rie sensei. We went through every single past year’s paper on the NZQA website that was available and I was genuinely looking forward to sitting the exams. As we all know, the year 2021 took a big hit to school kids nationwide in New Zealand, due to the well-known and not very loved Covid-19 pandemic. There was a huge surge in cases in 2021 and due to this, we were often in lockdown, doing school, mock exams and everything really online at home. Being at home 24/7 and working/studying from home is definitely not the ideal situation, and was often very demotivating for everyone, however, Rie sensei made sure this was not the case. She checked up on me and how I was doing every lesson and made sure that the lesson was always going at a good pace – tailor-making each session towards what I really needed to focus on at the time and what I could handle, and always keeping the energy up. We studied hard together and finally, it was time for my NCEA exam. As I was sitting my paper this time, I did not feel at all stressed or concerned about whether or not my answers were wrong, and I found myself not second-guessing anything I was writing. I was confident in my knowledge and knew that thanks to Rie, I’d definitely know all of the vocab and kanji I would need to and I’d definitely know how to answer the questions without leaving anything out. I was cool, calm, and composed, knowing that Rie had helped me learn everything I needed to and more and there wouldn’t be anything to worry about. I came out of the exam room knowing that I aced it and surely enough, I did. I got Excellence for both of my externals and internals in Year 12 and was Excellence endorsed for Level 2 Japanese! My JLPT N5 results had come in too at that time, and of course thanks to Rie sensei the results were miraculous once again. I passed really well with 96.8% accuracy and received my endorsement certificate for my first ever JLPT exam within the first year of me learning Japanese!