MEXT Scholarship (Graduate Students) 2017

[Kod42_IndJap]

Hi Amerikajin, Thank you so much for your prompt response. At least, I can understand that things are manageable. Yes, Yokohama do offer couples dormitory but at the time of application (Jan-Feb 2017), I won't be married. This could be a problem, but I will request my university to consider this case and hopefully get one.

I can imagine the stress since its hard to manage everything. But now you a better deal with your new apartment. That should make things a bit easier for you.

Don't know what will happen with secondary screening.. fingers crossed

 

[madphysicist]

@AmerikaJin5

I can forgive them addressing me in English if they have not heard me speaking Japanese. I agree the probability of a random white person they meet being competent in Japanese is pretty low. But if they have heard me speaking - and I can speak pretty well if I do say so myself - or I start the conversation in Japanese, there is no excuse for replying in English. It's just rude. I asked my friends and they said my accent is not strong enough to tell where I'm from (actually I was recently complimented on my English by a stranger when I returned to my hometown, clearly lived outside the UK for too long haha).

I have read quite a bit of Ken Seeroi's blog and some of it was funny, but I find some of his ideas towards women, the Japanese, and Japanese women to be distasteful so I gave up. The whole "Japanese women have no personality" theme in particular.

Actually both he and you seem rather more pessimistic about the situation than I am. I find the vast majority of Japanese people are quite happy to see you as "you" not "foreigner" once you speak to them in reasonable Japanese and make vague attempts to assimilate. But there will always be the odd person who insists on treating you as a curiosity and that can ruin your day. I wrote my last comment right after some old guy on the train kept practising his English on me despite the fact I was obviously trying to read my book (which was in Japanese for goodness' sake!).

edit: Forgot to mention the funniest part, which was he asked me if I was going to Hiroshima "because President Obama went there?" Yes, whenever another country's president visits somewhere I hasten to get there. No other reason I'd have heard of Hiroshima.

 

[AruanM]

I haven't been in Japan so I might not know the exact feeling of what you guys are talking about... but to be honest, I don't think that this kind of prejudice is that bad. I would be bothered if they treated me the same way we Brazilians treat Bolivians (or Americans treat Mexicans, or Europeans treat Syrian Refugees, and so on), but "being spoken to in English despite knowing Japanese" doesn't sound that annoying. Is it prejudice? Yes. Is it unreasonable? No. Is it a direct attack on me, personally? Meh, doesn't sound much like it. I actually feel some sympathy towards them, as they probably don't have a lot of chances to practice their English with a foreigner. But hey, I may be completely wrong.

 

[indojindesu]

I think they are just being nice. I doubt they are trying to put you down or something.
It can get irritating but if the person starts speaking English I usually switch to English and then back to Japanese after sometime.
Dont care either way as long as the person understands what I am saying
(Never been to Japan but I have interacted with many Japanese people)

 

[Frida]

I have been to Japan several times but only as a tourist, and it has been a little frustrating to not be able to practice my Japanese as I would have liked because everyone spoke to me in English, but I didn't consider it rude or anything like that, specially because I've always visited the most common tourist traps.
The funny part is the last time I went to Japan, my cousin went with me, and she doesn't speak Japanese nor English, and every time someone spoke to her, she looked at me with big scared eyes, so I pretended to not speak English as well.
I would say in Japanese that we didn't speak English that we are from Mexico and speak Spanish, and they would completely ignore that and keep talking in English... I mean... why? XD

 

[AmerikaJin5]

@AmerikaJin5

I can forgive them addressing me in English if they have not heard me speaking Japanese. I agree the probability of a random white person they meet being competent in Japanese is pretty low. But if they have heard me speaking - and I can speak pretty well if I do say so myself - or I start the conversation in Japanese, there is no excuse for replying in English. It's just rude. I asked my friends and they said my accent is not strong enough to tell where I'm from (actually I was recently complimented on my English by a stranger when I returned to my hometown, clearly lived outside the UK for too long haha).

I have read quite a bit of Ken Seeroi's blog and some of it was funny, but I find some of his ideas towards women, the Japanese, and Japanese women to be distasteful so I gave up. The whole "Japanese women have no personality" theme in particular.

Actually both he and you seem rather more pessimistic about the situation than I am. I find the vast majority of Japanese people are quite happy to see you as "you" not "foreigner" once you speak to them in reasonable Japanese and make vague attempts to assimilate. But there will always be the odd person who insists on treating you as a curiosity and that can ruin your day. I wrote my last comment right after some old guy on the train kept practising his English on me despite the fact I was obviously trying to read my book (which was in Japanese for goodness' sake!).

edit: Forgot to mention the funniest part, which was he asked me if I was going to Hiroshima "because President Obama went there?" Yes, whenever another country's president visits somewhere I hasten to get there. No other reason I'd have heard of Hiroshima.

I'm not pessimistic at all, I'm just relating what my experience has been. No amount of telling them that I'll study here for 3+ years and then look for a job in hopes of living long-term is enough to stop questions like "when will you return to USA" and "you wouldn't understand why my friend doesn't want to be friends with foreigners, because you're a foreigner..that means you'll never understand" and the like. In the past year of living here, only a handful have truly considered me as "me", and if your experience is different then that's great. It doesn't bother me at all, just an observation. Not sure if you're implying that I don't attempt to speak Japanese or assimilate, either.
And about Seeroi's statements regarding Japanese women, uh yeah it's far far far more likely to find a girl with no interests/hobbies and little personality to speak of; then again, that goes for males too. Unless you count eating and shopping as "hobbies", which many Japanese tend to do. Not much to talk about when you sit down for coffee for an hour, let me tell you!

All that is to say, yeah I think it's rude when they clearly know that you speak Japanese (you speak admittedly more than I) yet they reply in English. However, I brush it off. My point before is that it happens far too often to continue thinking "that's so rude" etc. You'll get worn out. Just keep speaking in Japanese.
I haven't even studied for a year yet, but after I can speak better I will no longer use English in daily life (except when speaking with my German classmate who refuses to learn Japanese )...just gotta keep at it.

 

[indojindesu]

German classmate who refuses to learn Japanese

I found this amusing for some reason. Is he a short term student or something? Would love to hear how his stay in Japan goes

 

[AmerikaJin5]

I haven't been in Japan so I might not know the exact feeling of what you guys are talking about... but to be honest, I don't think that this kind of prejudice is that bad. I would be bothered if they treated me the same way we Brazilians treat Bolivians (or Americans treat Mexicans, or Europeans treat Syrian Refugees, and so on), but "being spoken to in English despite knowing Japanese" doesn't sound that annoying. Is it prejudice? Yes. Is it unreasonable? No. Is it a direct attack on me, personally? Meh, doesn't sound much like it. I actually feel some sympathy towards them, as they probably don't have a lot of chances to practice their English with a foreigner. But hey, I may be completely wrong.

Americans don't treat Mexicans in any negative way lol. Not sure where you got that. But yeah other countries act far worse toward outsiders than Japanese do by speaking English to non-Asians.

 

[AmerikaJin5]

I found this amusing for some reason. Is he a short term student or something? Would love to hear how his stay in Japan goes

It's amusing to me too lol. Nope he's PhD student, already been here for a year and still has 2 more to go. He knows "thank you" and some very basic phrases (not even full sentences), and has quit every language class he enrolled in. Yare yare...

 

[AruanM]

Americans don't treat Mexicans in any negative way lol. Not sure where you got that. But yeah other countries act far worse toward outsiders than Japanese do by speaking English to non-Asians.

Maybe you, personally, don't, and people around don't either. Which is good. Same way I don't mistreat Colombians, and my inner circle of friends doesn't either (or else I don't believe I'd relate to them). But I've lived in the US for a year (SC), and visited my exchange family several times since then, and saw a lot of hate aimed at Mexicans, from a considerable amount of people. And that was before Trump and his wall, btw.

 

[indojindesu]

Trump

Aaand trump is on JREF too! Was waiting for this

 

[AruanM]

Aaand trump is on JREF too! Was waiting for this

Yeah, sorry about that. Hard to talk about Murica and Mexicans without mentioning him.

 

[indojindesu]

Yeah, sorry about that. Hard to talk about Murica and Mexicans without mentioning him.

Yup. I find him amusing. And a bit scary

 

[madphysicist]

And about Seeroi's statements regarding Japanese women, uh yeah it's far far far more likely to find a girl with no interests/hobbies and little personality to speak of; then again, that goes for males too. Unless you count eating and shopping as "hobbies", which many Japanese tend to do. Not much to talk about when you sit down for coffee for an hour, let me tell you!

See what you're doing there is the same thing you complain about Japanese people doing to you...
I have no idea what you or Seeroi are talking about here. Japanese people have hobbies and personalities just like anyone else, you just have to speak enough Japanese to have a decent conversation. Also when Japanese people don't have anything to say they don't mind silence, they don't feel the need to fill every moment with small talk - I rather like that actually but it's often taken for awkwardness by foreigners.

When I was living in Italy I was asked the same questions like "when are you going home?" and told how good my Italian was. That's not specific to Japan. The thing I am really complaining about is specifically when I start a conversation in Japanese and keep getting replies in English... though as I said above it's not that often that it happens and mostly it's other foreigners who do it. And also when I am in a restaurant or something with a Japanese person and the staff completely ignore me and will only talk to the person I'm with (and/or every time I say something they look at my friend to confirm...).

And yes, in general Americans treat Mexicans and other immigrants way worse than the Japanese treat white people. I wish Seeroi and other white guys would use their new-found awareness of what it's like to be treated differently to look more closely at how they and their own country treat other groups. He also made some dodgy comments about women and gay people and in general just completely fails to realise he's making the same kind of "microaggressions" against other people that he complains about receiving from the Japanese.

 

[indojindesu]

See what you're doing there is the same thing you complain about Japanese people doing to you...
I have no idea what you or Seeroi are talking about here. Japanese people have hobbies and personalities just like anyone else, you just have to speak enough Japanese to have a decent conversation. Also when Japanese people don't have anything to say they don't mind silence, they don't feel the need to fill every moment with small talk - I rather like that actually but it's often taken for awkwardness by foreigners.

When I was living in Italy I was asked the same questions like "when are you going home?" and told how good my Italian was. That's not specific to Japan. The thing I am really complaining about is specifically when I start a conversation in Japanese and keep getting replies in English... though as I said above it's not that often that it happens and mostly it's other foreigners who do it. And also when I am in a restaurant or something with a Japanese person and the staff completely ignore me and will only talk to the person I'm with (and/or every time I say something they look at my friend to confirm...).

And yes, in general Americans treat Mexicans and other immigrants way worse than the Japanese treat white people. I wish Seeroi and other white guys would use their new-found awareness of what it's like to be treated differently to look more closely at how they and their own country treat other groups. He also made some dodgy comments about women and gay people and in general just completely fails to realise he's making the same kind of "microaggressions" against other people that he complains about receiving from the Japanese.

Was wondering what you were talking about so I read Mr. Seeroi's blog.

I wonder what his reaction will be if an Asian wrote a blog like that about America and generalized American women as easy and men as playboys or stupid. (I'm not saying they are easy/stupid . Just an example)

Clearly he hasn't met enough Japanese women to state so confidently that they have no personalities or hobbies. He needs to meet some of my friends
He seems to be a bit full of himself. (I hope thats the correct expression)

 

[madphysicist]

Was wondering what you were talking about so I read Mr. Seeroi's blog.

I wonder what his reaction will be if an Asian wrote a blog like that about America and generalized American women as easy and men as playboys or stupid. (I'm not saying they are easy/stupid . Just an example)

Clearly he hasn't met enough Japanese women to state so confidently that they have no personalities or hobbies. He needs to meet some of my friends
He seems to be a bit full of himself. (I hope thats the correct expression)

I'm sure he's met a lot of Japanese women but to me it seems like he isn't exactly interested in what they have to say...

I think most people find it easier to get a conversation going with people from their own country, not only because you both speak the same language fluently but also because they grew up in the same culture as you with the same music and sports and books and so on

I think it's up to the foreigner living in Japan to consume more Japanese media etc. so they have more conversational topics to fall back on. For example I get a lot of mileage out of my love for figure-skating and Japanese TV dramas (things which Europeans generally don't care about!).

 

[Salpies]

I think it's up to the foreigner living in Japan to consume more Japanese media etc. so they have more conversational topics to fall back on. For example I get a lot of mileage out of my love for figure-skating and Japanese TV dramas (things which Europeans generally don't care about!).

This is pretty much how I made most of my Japanese friends outside of the sphere of school. I had a conversation partner I met online and she saw my quote on LINE as a lyric from a Japanese group, and she freaked out and was so excited to share that with me. We've been good friends ever since, and she introduced me to her social circle of fans of the band and it's been such a great experience bonding with them over music (and karaoke haha). It's the same as with any person ever, if you share some common interests, it's easier to get to know someone and cross the language and cultural barriers. I think it's pretty harsh what's being said about Japanese people (women in particular) here. They are just as varied in their interests and hobbies as anyone else. I have not found that stereotype to be my experience at all.

 

[indojindesu]

I'm sure he's met a lot of Japanese women but to me it seems like he isn't exactly interested in what they have to say...

I think most people find it easier to get a conversation going with people from their own country, not only because you both speak the same language fluently but also because they grew up in the same culture as you with the same music and sports and books and so on

I think it's up to the foreigner living in Japan to consume more Japanese media etc. so they have more conversational topics to fall back on. For example I get a lot of mileage out of my love for figure-skating and Japanese TV dramas (things which Europeans generally don't care about!).

I was referring to my Japanese friends when I said he should meet my friends.

Couldn't agree more. I made most of my Japanese friends by talking about music and dramas. (They completely freak out whenever I say I like oguri shun. They cant understand why I would like him because he is not the conventional ikemen, but come on his dramas are awesome! )

If you judge everything from the country to be gay or nonsense then you can hardly blame the locals for not trying to have or failing to have a convo with you.

 

[indojindesu]

This is pretty much how I made most of my Japanese friends outside of the sphere of school. I had a conversation partner I met online and she saw my quote on LINE as a lyric from a Japanese group, and she freaked out and was so excited to share that with me. We've been good friends ever since, and she introduced me to her social circle of fans of the band and it's been such a great experience bonding with them over music (and karaoke haha). It's the same as with any person ever, if you share some common interests, it's easier to get to know someone and cross the language and cultural barriers. I think it's pretty harsh what's being said about Japanese people (women in particular) here. They are just as varied in their interests and hobbies as anyone else. I have not found that stereotype to be my experience at all.

Hi! Which group are you talking about? I like Japanese music too! but trying to find nice songs these days is such a chore!
Do you have any recommendations?

 

[Wilson Karma]

Dear friends,

My name is Wilson, I've found this webpage while I was looking for some information regarding the MEXT scholarship procedure, and I found the page very useful. Thank you all for sharing your experience.
I've applied for the MEXT scholarship from the Japan's embassy in Angola and hopefully I received three LoA from 1# Kyoto University, 2# Waseda University and 3# Sophia University.

Although the long waiting is killing me, I couldn't be happier! I guess the best thing to do right now is to forget the scholarship for a while and don't get too anxious. I'm taking this time to improve my English's skills (my native language is Portuguese). Is there any person here who needs to improve their English too?

Once again, many thanks to all of you and I hope we all fulfill the dream of studying in Japan!

 

[AmerikaJin5]

See what you're doing there is the same thing you complain about Japanese people doing to you...
I have no idea what you or Seeroi are talking about here. Japanese people have hobbies and personalities just like anyone else, you just have to speak enough Japanese to have a decent conversation. Also when Japanese people don't have anything to say they don't mind silence, they don't feel the need to fill every moment with small talk - I rather like that actually but it's often taken for awkwardness by foreigners.

When I was living in Italy I was asked the same questions like "when are you going home?" and told how good my Italian was. That's not specific to Japan. The thing I am really complaining about is specifically when I start a conversation in Japanese and keep getting replies in English... though as I said above it's not that often that it happens and mostly it's other foreigners who do it. And also when I am in a restaurant or something with a Japanese person and the staff completely ignore me and will only talk to the person I'm with (and/or every time I say something they look at my friend to confirm...).

And yes, in general Americans treat Mexicans and other immigrants way worse than the Japanese treat white people. I wish Seeroi and other white guys would use their new-found awareness of what it's like to be treated differently to look more closely at how they and their own country treat other groups. He also made some dodgy comments about women and gay people and in general just completely fails to realise he's making the same kind of "microaggressions" against other people that he complains about receiving from the Japanese.

Ok, you missed what I was saying (which was simply replying to you), but yeah I get it about the replying-in-English thing, which I acknowledged.
Enough of this "if you speak enough Japanese" stuff, yeah? Did I say silence among Japanese seems awkward to me? Did I say I can never have a 'decent conversation' with them? Nope. And my comment applies to American youth just the same, the majority of them are airheads who think about Instagram and celebrity gossip. It's not specific to Japanese, no one said that.
And what do you know of how Americans treat Mexicans? Kinda curious. Anyway, who's comparing other countries' prejudices with how Japanese treat white people? No one.
And I don't subscribe to that "microaggression" buzzword, sorry. In any case I offered a funny blog (with a grain of salt, I mean come on we're all adults here), I didn't say Seeroi is a saint Cheers

 

[AmerikaJin5]

Was wondering what you were talking about so I read Mr. Seeroi's blog.

I wonder what his reaction will be if an Asian wrote a blog like that about America and generalized American women as easy and men as playboys or stupid. (I'm not saying they are easy/stupid . Just an example)

Clearly he hasn't met enough Japanese women to state so confidently that they have no personalities or hobbies. He needs to meet some of my friends
He seems to be a bit full of himself. (I hope thats the correct expression)

Take it all with a grain of salt, he changes everything to be entertaining. But yeah of course he's full of himself lol, he's pretty much an a**hole. Name a famous comedian who doesn't say questionable things?
Anyway, if such an Asian wrote such a blog about America, I think it wouldn't be too far from accurate! haha I would read it for fun

 

[indojindesu]

Take it all with a grain of salt, he changes everything to be entertaining. But yeah of course he's full of himself lol, he's pretty much an a**hole. Name a famous comedian who doesn't say questionable things?
Anyway, if such an Asian wrote such a blog about America, I think it wouldn't be too far from accurate! haha I would read it for fun

Lol glad I wasn't the only one who thought that. Some posts were kinda funny

And yep, would love to read a blog written by an Asian. And the comment section too

 

[madphysicist]

And my comment applies to American youth just the same, the majority of them are airheads who think about Instagram and celebrity gossip. It's not specific to Japanese, no one said that.

You said that:

And about Seeroi's statements regarding Japanese women, uh yeah it's far far far more likely to find a girl with no interests/hobbies and little personality to speak of; then again, that goes for males too. Unless you count eating and shopping as "hobbies", which many Japanese tend to do.

If you can't be bothered to remember your own statements this could get tedious very quickly. Suffice it to say I strongly disagree with your perspectives on the Japanese and on how Americans treat Mexicans. Let's get back on topic a little...

 

[madphysicist]

Dear friends,

My name is Wilson, I've found this webpage while I was looking for some information regarding the MEXT scholarship procedure, and I found the page very useful. Thank you all for sharing your experience.
I've applied for the MEXT scholarship from the Japan's embassy in Angola and hopefully I received three LoA from 1# Kyoto University, 2# Waseda University and 3# Sophia University.

Although the long waiting is killing me, I couldn't be happier! I guess the best thing to do right now is to forget the scholarship for a while and don't get too anxious. I'm taking this time to improve my English's skills (my native language is Portuguese). Is there any person here who needs to improve their English too?

Once again, many thanks to all of you and I hope we all fulfill the dream of studying in Japan!

Congratulations!

I also have Kyoto University as my first choice. What subject are you applying for?