Alright so this my second post in like the past week on this forum ( I had asked for phrase translations) This time I'm reaching out to *hopefully* get some coherent advice in preparation for an interview that (I think) will be entirely in Japanese.
My Japanese is far from interview worthy (I haven't passed the N5JLPT exam yet though I plan to later this year) and my listening skills are very poor with complex sentence structures.(complex being most things besides a simple SOV short sentence).
I'm kind of stuck in this paradox where I know that the only way to get good at the language is to practice with native speakers, but I feel uncomfortable attempting when its not so good. So there's this whole anxiety thing going on with should I or shouldn't I because I need the practice but I don't want to be accidentally offensive or rude until I'm at level in comfortable with.
While the best way to do this would be to go to Japan, right now I don't have the time nor money to do so; in the meantime, I believe I've found the next best thing: A counselor position in a Japanese immersion summer camp for the young'uns.
It would be the most amazing opportunity and a great way for me to utilize my time and practice language and cultural aspects. I've landed an interview for the position and I'm extremely nervous because while I don't need to be native speaker perfect, I should have good basic comprehension skills
I'm looking to see if anyone could give me any good advice as to the kind of things I should say (especially in accordance to my language level), anything in particular I should avoid, or any general behavioral rules that'll help me look good? How would I greet myself in this scenario? How would I conclude the interview? How humble should I be? If I don't understand something how would I ask her to repeat it while keeping it as professional as I possibly can?
Thanks so much in advance any kind of response would be appreciated. ( If it helps the interview is going to be in a public venue; our local shopping center)
I wrote a really long reply just now but I guess it was all deleted... Well let's see if I can sum it up a bit more.
As general advice, I would keep the desu/masu-form during the interview as this is considered the normal politeness level and your job does not require any keigo. What is almost more important than your language level, is your attitude during the interview. From my experience both as interviewer and interviewee, a positive, cheerful (nothing over the top, though) makes a really good impression. After all, you need to take care of all the Japanese students so they will want someone friendly and social. Therefore, don't worry too much about possible mistake as long as you can get your point across. Of course to avoid mistakes, I would suggest you to use sentences with a very simple structure. Don't try to make them too complicated because it is really easy to get stuck.
Introduce yourself at the beginning, with what you do and your hobbies and prepare for some questions that are likely to pop up, such as "why do you want this job?" "why did you start learning Japanese?" etc.
If you don't understand something, ask for them to repeat the sentence or if you don't understand a word, ask for its meaning:
もういちどおねがいします。
Xって何ですか。｜Xってどういういみですか。
(I don't know your Kanji level so I kept it in Hiragana)
At the end of the interview, thank the person for the interview.
今日のインタビューありがとうございました。
In case you already get a yes, just say thank you very much and よろしくおねがいいたします。
Your self introduction or "jiko shoukai" will play a key role, because all other questions will stem from there. So prepare a proper jiko shoukai and get it ratified with someone who knows Japanese better than you.
