sumo73

I'll keep it short- Rule 4 : Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrZ4JiFA2OQ

It's been a few years since I did the exam but you can find a lot of stuff via the main examining board Edexcel. (https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/japanese-2017.html). Although the exam has changed a bit from when I did it it's still worth having a look at older past papers to judge your level. Search around and you should be able to find them, pm me if needed. I also contacted them about finding a local examination centre as I was no longer at school and got a list from them. I contacted many places but only got a few replies saying they couldn't help me. At the time I had private 1-2-1 Japanese lessons and my teacher suggested a place in London (IIEL) which takes people on as external candidates. I filled in a form and paid the money for the exam. Later on I went to London twice to take the exam (speaking test was separate from the main test) and a few months later got my results. This might be useful - http://www.jpf.org.uk/language/exams.php Lastly if you based out of the UK, the IGCSE in Japanese will be stopped in Nov 2021. - http://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/cambridge-igcse-japanese-foreign-language-0519/

As someone who has taken both GCSE Japanese and JLPT exams (at level 4/N5) as an independent candidate, I can tell you that the GCSE exam is better if you want to push your Japanese in all skills (speaking, reading, writing, listening and comprehension) at that level. In comparison, I found the JLPT system a bit stiff and limited. It's not an exam that gives you a 'real working level of the language'. It assumes that because they can test your reading, grammar and listening skills that your writing and speaking (which are not tested) will be ok. This 'tries' to address things here - https://www.jlpt.jp/e/about/candolist_speaking.html

After watching The Last Jedi, I don't really mind missing some of this stuff out now (Solo, Kenobi, Yoda, Boba Fett, Jabba the Hut?....films).

I've finally being able to save up and buy a Wii U. I bought Project Zero 5 when it first came out but didn't have enough money to buy the console until now.

I don't agree with everything she says in the video but the general idea overall. In regards to trigger warnings and safe spaces, I've read information both praising and condemning them. I just wonder how far these ideas will go in the future and how out of the university sphere they will reach as well.

I was trying to make a point that the British in general complained less and expressed their emotions less in the past. If there are perceived injustices then we should be challenging things as people have done in the past such as the abolitionist and the suffragette movements which both had a big impact here in the UK and elsewhere. Fifty years ago homosexuality was decriminalised, the race relations act of 1976 and we now have equality in marriage as examples. None of these things would have changed if people had not stood up and made their voices heard. This is not about as you say the false dignity of gritting your teeth but I feel more observing how things were done in the past (from my own personal observation) and comparing them with now. How in the past were we able to resolve differences and how did we express ourselves to make our points heard without offending people? We live in a world now of instant communication and information. We expect/demand and want things quicker than we did in the past also how do we deal with people who have different opinions to our own now? Some studies have shown for example that our overall attention span has decreased partly due to the increase use of technology. As I said before I feel that the social constructs and technology have not caught up with each other. (YouTube comments are a good place to see this). Also I believe that the pace of life partly fuelled by technology has increased which is causing some issues as well.

For me the UK and elsewhere is influenced by America, by how much I don't know but we are shaped in some way but what happens over there. What's happening in US universities is making it's way over here. Last year the British government had a debate about safe spaces at some UK uni's so that shows that it isn't just limited to the USA. People here are already starting to use the term 'people/person of color' a term which is less nuanced and more loaded than ethnic minorities for example.

Jokes depend on your audience, context and timing. What someone finds funny someone else might not. I do get offended sometimes and I'm not that thick skinned but I am trying to deal with things a bit better than before. However...gone are the days of the British stiff upper lip where people kept their emotions largely hidden and I believe we have moved into a world where people are generally more impolite to each other but at the same time more open to their feelings and expressing them. Technology and social constructs have failed to keep up with each other and this is also causing issues. Some universities creating safe spaces for people, shutting down free speech and professors giving students trigger warnings before talking about something is not really equipping people for life outside of uni.

As long as the acting and plot are good, I don't really care about the gender of this new doctor. Having said that I stopped watching Doctor Who pretty much after David Tennant left.

Interesting, I've spent the last few weeks trying to improve on my Japanese which has suffered badly over the last few years. Recently I've been chatting online, spoke via Skype and met up with an old friend about a week ago where we spoke English and Japanese for quite a while, I think it's slowly coming back to me. I've only just heard about Duolingo in Japanese and there's a few YouTube videos talking about it but I've not used it yet. I did try the Vietnamese Duolingo a few days ago but didn't get very far with it but have found someone in Vietnam who is going to help me out as long I can help them improve on their English so I should be ok.

I'm genuinely shocked that he has decided to leave now. I left voting for the Lib Dems back in 2015 but kept an eye on them to see what they were doing. When Tim became leader he wasn't connected with anything to do with the coalition government so I thought it could be fresh start for the party again. However I knew back then that Tim Farron would be known mainly as the person who brought the party back from their crushing defeat just two years ago. I hope however he will be remembered for other things he did as well. Whilst I disagreed with the Lib Dem leader on some issues he kept his principles which I admire. As for Vince Cable possibly becoming leader, well Sir Cable's selling off the Royal Mail in the dying days of the coalition was the final straw for me, I could no longer back the Lib Dems any more. He is clearly a front runner in any leadership bid should he decide to run for leader but it won't impress me. Whatever I might think of the Lib Dems now I think there is a real need for the liberal voice to heard especially with the two main UK parties acting as they are.

If it wasn't for Ruth Davidson there wouldn't even be any Scottish Conservatives by now especially if she had lost to Murdo Fraser in the leadership bid a few years ago who wanted to break away from the Tories and form some kind of new centre right party. If the Scottish Conservatives want to distance themselves from the DUP, I can understand why. Although it's less reported on sectarianism is still an issue in Scotland and that's without talking about gays rights or abortion rights. I believe however that the PM has tried to reassure the Scottish Conservatives that LGBT rights are safe even if a deal with the DUP is formed. A few years ago during the Indy Ref campaign in Scotland, I remember seeing leaflets from the Scottish Conservatives with Ruth's name in big letters with the Scottish Conservatives underneath in smaller letters and during this election I saw a similar thing with Theresa May. The issue is Theresa May has less personality than Ruth so this idea doesn't work. She's not that good in interviews and appeared wooden when talking to the electorate. Compare that with Corbyn who has had years of talking at big often outdoor events. The whole thing appeared very natural to him, you could see him enjoy it very much and it worked well with the voters who saw him offer real hope. He came across as quite personable whereas the PM came across as a bit aloof. Had the Labour party not tried to stab him in the back last year after the EU Ref vote and had sections of the centre left press (let alone the centre right press) not tried to attack him, I think things might have been different.

Following my previous comment, I have just come back from the Winchester after speaking in depth with a friend who voted the opposite from me. Dress it up as much as you like but this is a mess and on many levels. I recently read five manifestos all very recently and the Conservatives one was the worst out of the lot even from a design view it came across as poor and dry. Somebody somewhere must have thought tearing up the human rights act, reintroduce fox hunting, allow the ivory trade back in, scrap free school meals, have your internet controlled by the government, remove the triple lock for pensions, cut down on winter fuel payments, reduce police numbers while facing increased terrorist attacks and sell your houses for care was a real vote winner. I don't like a hung parliament/minority governments because there is no stability in them. Just can't wait for the next few years ebbing out like this. Had the PM actually turned up to the TV debates, laid off the endless strong and stable comments, given the UK more police (I'm sure the money could have found from somewhere) and made some changes to their manifestos then things might have been different. I'm not a Conservative voter but I try to get out of my echo chamber sometimes and listen to others who have different views from me. I can see why people vote Conservative in a general election, it's just something I can't do. I guess there will be a government reshuffle with Jeremy Hunt remaining as Secretary of State for Health. For someone who has done the job for five years, I think it's time he moved on. Keeping him on will be a sure measure that this government is out of touch.

Well knives out I guess. I'm off to the Winchester and wait for all of this to blow over.

I'm going to have a look through as many political party manifestos as I can before I vote tomorrow but I pretty much know who I am going to vote for. I'm voting in part for the ethos of the party, what it's supposed to be and stand for rather than some of things I've heard from their supporters and even MPs. I've spoken to others who will vote differently tomorrow. I respect their choices and do understand why they are voting differently from me. One of the problems in politics is that we often just surround ourselves in an echo chamber thereby not understanding why people think in other ways. I was disappointed with the result in 2015 so maybe we have chance to change things, I hope so. Regardless of whoever we vote on 8th June, I hope as many people gets their voices heard.

There are other newspapers out there but when you have the Scottish Sun supporting the SNP with the Sun supporting the Conservatives, it's really just a two pronged attack on anyone else who gets in the way. Print media was a lot stronger 20 years ago so yes the Murdoch effect was there but Tony Blair was a modernist/reformer and largely a centrist who appealed not just to Labour voters to disaffected Tories. People who would never have voted for Labour before saw a clean cut politician, someone they thought was a million miles away from the Labour party in the early 80's. Blair knew that he needed them in order to win back in 97. Had Blair not gone into that stupid and senseless war I think history might have looked at him differently.

I used to work in Southwark Bridge Road and commute to and from London Bridge every day as well but that's largely irreverent for me here. I feel bad about what happened in London but also in Manchester and I've never been to Manchester before. I do realise people feel a connection to a place but the real issues are the lost of life due to these attacks and how do we stop these attacks from happening again wherever that is. People don't want to hear excuses or more talking from politicians, they want to see something being done about this but as I said before it can't be some kind of knee jerk reaction to things. My girlfriend has already been told where she works is a possible future terror attack spot in London and as I said my friend which I talked about earlier is already worried about possible reprisals against him and his family because they are Muslim. And I'm sure there are other people who can give similar stories. We either hide in our houses or continue with our lives and we will continue through this. Regarding the attack just one of the attackers was known to police so how do you police someone that is off radar that you don't know about? Pestneb already mentioned previously about the minority report but the idea behind it is arresting someone before they might commit a crime which they may or may never do. We have serious overcrowding in prisons here and some prisons are places where people become radicalised, so the whole thing is a mess. Cutting police numbers plus under funding prisons in the UK has been a mistake and I blame the government in part for this mess. If you have less police you are less able to enforce the law, collect intelligence... Saving money is one thing but it often results in a poorer service overall. The government and others also need to look into programmes like Channel, Prevent... and see how they can be improved.

I don't want to say this but I have to disagree. The people who committed the recent terror attacks believed that their version (their perverted version) of Islam was true and just. If people who follow this believe they are in a holy war then they will be rewarded with 72 virgins if they die through martyrdom. The people who believe in this don't care if it's Ramadan (note the Battle of Badr happened during Ramadan) or not, their goal in part is to split us up and turn against each other. Cue Tommy Robinson... I spoke to a Muslim friend of mine yesterday who is fasting during Ramadan, before I left London and we spoke about what had happened at London Bridge. We were both very sad about what had happened but my friend was worried about his wife and any possible retaliations against him and his family just because they are Muslim. We must always separate radical Islam from non radical Islam and not confuse the two. At times like this we look towards political and community leaders for a sense of direction and leadership but they and ourselves must not be forced into making knee jerk reactions. I'm sure we will be told that we need to give up a few of our social liberties (not just the government reading into our whatsapp messages) in order to better secure the country whilst ignoring falling police numbers. If these measures are rushed in there will be problems in the future. As for any talk about internment this needs to be properly thought through although I'm not a fan of it. People have already mentioned about internment during WWII but a bit more recently in the early 70's the British used internment in Northern Ireland and wasn't the great success they thought it could be. Due to faulty intelligence the police arrested some of the wrong people and only made the divisions there worse. Also you don't always solve a problem just by moving it to a non problem area (ie. moving people to a Muslim country). If people are found guilty then the law must deal with them accordingly (including de-radicalisation). As already mentioned, you can't deport someone who was born here. It's not just the funding (or backers) of these organisations, it's the weapons and the message they are spreading. Groups like Anonymous have shut down terrorist twitter feeds but really it shouldn't be up to them it should be up to governments and twitter themselves to look into things more. Going back to my friend, I said to him I understood in part why someone might get sucked into this. Although politicians virtue signal about how tolerant and multicultural the UK is supposed to be there are still divisions in the UK. There are people who have either lived in the UK for many years or were born here but don't feel that they are part of life here and there is a break down of social cohesion. Where there is division often there is resentment and people can get sucked into other things. I really don't think politicians are doing enough to represent everyone fully and to include us all regardless of who we are.

News from Southend News Network http://southendnewsnetwork.com/news/theresa-may-has-benefits-stopped-for-failing-to-turn-up-at-debate/ In order to balance things I should post this as well- http://southendnewsnetwork.com/news/shame-for-corbyn-as-source-confirms-labour-leader-had-curry-with-skeletor-in-1991/

My hope is that the political left can actually stop attacking each other and come together. What is currently happening at Evergreen State College is quite bizarre. Also for the mainstream media to stop trivialising anything and everything that the President does as news. The news out that President Trump eats two scoops of ice cream when everyone else gets one is not fake news, it's trivial. What's more important the US not signing the Paris climate agreement or 'Covfefe' on Twitter?

Interested to know if anyone here has done any language exchange before with native speakers and what they thought of it in regards to language learning.

Just came back from watching it this evening. Won't give anything away but enjoyed it. The cinema we went to was just £4 a ticket which was great too.

Knew it wouldn't be long before Arnold Schwarzenegger said something about it-

I didn't watch the TV debate but from what I've read Amber Rudd said she wanted to take part. "A friend of the family said: "It would have been madness for her (not to take part) - it's just not what her father would have wanted". - source The Telegraph - 31/05/2017 A no show from Sturgeon (I understand the reasons why) and a no show from anyone from N.I either. Separate N.I show as usual then. I'm gonna just sit down sometime next week and read through as many manifestos as I can. I know who I am going to vote for anyway but have thought NOTA might be an option for me and I thought I would never say that.