In the weeks leading up to the midterm, I was very nervous, not so much about the material that would be covered, but because I tend to perform very poorly in interview situations. I was expecting to be answering a lot of questions and asking a lot of questions, and I was afraid I would get too nervous in the middle of all that and not be able to continue. I was also nervous because I’m not used to using Japanese placeholders (あのう、ええと) while thinking, and I was supposed to speak no English.
The midterm itself was, in terms of material, exactly what I had prepared for, so I had no trouble understanding my examiner or answering his questions. Also, the exam was much, much shorter than I expected – I think we only went through about ten questions – and the examiner spoke little bits of English (okay, let’s see, etc.) which either surprised me because I was used to my language partner saying the equivalents in Japanese or because I wasn’t supposed to use English. I kind of wished, during the exam, that I knew more Japanese, because even though I was answering in complete sentences, I wasn’t doing so with any kind of introduction (The first answer is…, okay, I’m ready, etc.) and that just felt strange.
I thought I did relatively well as far as speaking went, except that I seem to have a habit of dropping the ends of my sentences that, unfortunately, carries over to other languages. I found myself ending sentences without any verb or question marker, which isn’t a good habit at all, especially for Japanese. I need to practice actually finishing my sentences, which means I need to practice speaking.
Overall, the midterm went well for me, and was a great confidence boost - doing well there kind of assured me that I was doing well in the language overall, and I think that at the rate I’m going, I’ll be just fine on the final.