if you have plans to study overseas, avoid signing contracts with the local telcos. this means, no new mobile phones at low prices. it would really make things a lot easier to suspend your phone line when you are not bound by contracts.
i, very unwittingly, signed a 2-year contract with singtel last may and got my samsung at a really affordable price. but cancellation or suspension of phone line while under contract costs $400. for a 6-month period, my subscription cost would at most be $192, so it doesn't make sense to cancel the line. the best way is to cancel as many additional services as possible, so you pay less.
things that you can cancel are data plan, caller id, auto-roaming, color-me-tones (if you use them) etc. i never understood why people would pay for color-me-tones. it doesn't make much money sense to me. but i digress.
there's good news though. singtel actually allows you to suspend your line for free even while under contract provided you're there to study. i'm not so sure about other circumstances. but the troublesome part is that you'd have to photocopy a letter of acceptance to show them that you are indeed going to study.
but before you go drug-high on suspending your phone line, you may wanna consider if you need it for your uob internet banking. of course, all is not lost in this case. you can still suspend your line, but make sure you get your otp service switched to a token before you do that. it takes them 14 working days (that's almost 3 weeks) to get the token mailed to your place and upon reception, you are required to sign an acknowledgment form and either mail it to them or personally bring it down to your uob branch. only then, is your token activated for use. so do what you have to early.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
applying for visa
the school that you’re applying for would typically guide you on what you need to provide them with in order to apply for a student visa. but i can’t say for certain.
i applied to yamasa institute in okazaki city, aichi prefecture. so i can only tell you the procedure of this school. applications require you to send original copies of your certificates such as a bachelor’s degree or diploma with transcripts and proof of your japanese studies experience. your bachelor’s degree or diploma may not be returned to you, so instead of sending the ones you have on hand, request for proof of graduation and extra transcripts from your school. you may be required to pay some administrative fees but that’s better than not getting back your certs.
when your visa application is approved, the school would require you to pay tuition and accomodation fees before they courier over your certificate of eligibility (coe), which is required for you to get your visa stamps at your local japanese embassy.
i don’t know about other countries but for singaporeans, the following is important. the school tells you to bring the coe to the japanese embassy to get your visa stamp. but that is not all you have to bring! i was fortunate i had my passport photo in my wallet when i went there in the morning. first, submission can only be done before 12 noon. so if you forget anything important, you probably don’t have enough time to head back home to get it.
here are the things you need to bring:
1) coe (1 original + 1 photocopy)
2) passport (with at least 6 months validity and at least one full blank page)
3) application form (you can get it at the embassy and fill it in there)
4) passport photograph (1 to be attached to the application form)
be sure to fill in the application form before you get a queue number. if not, you’d have to queue again. the most crucial thing here is the passport photograph. if you didn’t photocopy the coe, they can still do it for you, albeit with a pissed off look.
collection of the passport is from 1:30pm~4:00pm, 3 working days from your date of application. as for guys who need to apply for exit permit, if you’re an nsman already, documentation proof is usually not required though sometimes they do random checks.
in the application for exit permit page, there’s this field that requires you to select the level of study. the minimum is a diploma, and that is what you should select because every certificate is a diploma. don't get confused with the singapore context.
i applied to yamasa institute in okazaki city, aichi prefecture. so i can only tell you the procedure of this school. applications require you to send original copies of your certificates such as a bachelor’s degree or diploma with transcripts and proof of your japanese studies experience. your bachelor’s degree or diploma may not be returned to you, so instead of sending the ones you have on hand, request for proof of graduation and extra transcripts from your school. you may be required to pay some administrative fees but that’s better than not getting back your certs.
when your visa application is approved, the school would require you to pay tuition and accomodation fees before they courier over your certificate of eligibility (coe), which is required for you to get your visa stamps at your local japanese embassy.
i don’t know about other countries but for singaporeans, the following is important. the school tells you to bring the coe to the japanese embassy to get your visa stamp. but that is not all you have to bring! i was fortunate i had my passport photo in my wallet when i went there in the morning. first, submission can only be done before 12 noon. so if you forget anything important, you probably don’t have enough time to head back home to get it.
here are the things you need to bring:
1) coe (1 original + 1 photocopy)
2) passport (with at least 6 months validity and at least one full blank page)
3) application form (you can get it at the embassy and fill it in there)
4) passport photograph (1 to be attached to the application form)
be sure to fill in the application form before you get a queue number. if not, you’d have to queue again. the most crucial thing here is the passport photograph. if you didn’t photocopy the coe, they can still do it for you, albeit with a pissed off look.
collection of the passport is from 1:30pm~4:00pm, 3 working days from your date of application. as for guys who need to apply for exit permit, if you’re an nsman already, documentation proof is usually not required though sometimes they do random checks.
in the application for exit permit page, there’s this field that requires you to select the level of study. the minimum is a diploma, and that is what you should select because every certificate is a diploma. don't get confused with the singapore context.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
choosing a language school in japan
i didn’t have the luxury of having tons of school reviews to look through before choosing one, so i had to base most on my instincts. and when i had doubts about schools that i looked through, i decided to go with the school which my friend attended some 2 years before and has one solitary review on an independent site.
you should never fully believe the testimonials written on the school sites. they may or may not be real and they would most likely have been filtered. so try to find independent reviews, especially student blogs or forums.
if you find the site content a little weird, then you may want to look elsewhere. i found a school that publicised on the physical appearances of their teachers. the site read, “all our teachers are good-looking”. i don’t see the value of it. i am heading there for studies. not for some eyecandy although that could be a plus. but if you’re not bragging about how good your teachers are in their field, i’m not sure if that’s the school i want to be enrolled in.
if you have an idea where in japan you’d like to be living in, then great for you. this website, segregates language schools by their locations, so you can just click onto the links and find out what schools are in the region you are targeting.
if you have been attending japanese language classes in your country under native japanese teachers, that’s wonderful. find a school you like and ask their opinion. mostly on whether the school is reliable. some could be famous within japan. if they’ve never heard of it, try looking online. if not, you can either change schools or give it a shot and do the public some good by writing a review on them.
another major thing to consider is whether the region you’re settling in gives you chance to practise your language skills. regions too far up north or some areas down south have their own dialects which may be starkly different from the standard japanese you are learning, especially the okinawan dialect where even japanese from other prefectures can’t recognise its japanese-ness.
other things you have to consider are reasonably intuitive. duration, level and price. some schools offer courses ranging from 1 week to 2 years. however, there are also others that require a minimum study period of a year. so if you’re looking to study for only 3 or 6 months, look for those that offer short-term courses.
not every school offers elementary to upper advanced levels. some only have up to intermediate levels. a friend of mine was studying in sapporo and i was really keen to take up classes there as well. but i found out that the school only offers up to intermediate levels for short-term studies. only long-term classes have advanced levels.
and of course, you have to check your budget, especially if you’re self-sponsored. we don’t really bother that much if our parents are paying, do we? but if you find the pricing too cheap to be true, better be safe than sorry. i found a school offering 50% off the price of most other schools but i couldn’t find any reviews on it so i decided to play safe by opting for a more well-reviewed one.
last, but not the least, visa. a friend of mine is heading to tokyo for her studies and according to her, the school only applies visa for them for as long as they intend to study. depending on where you are from, you may or may not require visa for 3 months of studies. she applied for a 6-month course and i was told that she would only be getting a 6-month visa. the school i’m heading to in aichi gave me 15-months student visa even though i only applied for a 6-month study period. this means that if i were to extend my studies, i wouldn’t have to do visa runs.
you should never fully believe the testimonials written on the school sites. they may or may not be real and they would most likely have been filtered. so try to find independent reviews, especially student blogs or forums.
if you find the site content a little weird, then you may want to look elsewhere. i found a school that publicised on the physical appearances of their teachers. the site read, “all our teachers are good-looking”. i don’t see the value of it. i am heading there for studies. not for some eyecandy although that could be a plus. but if you’re not bragging about how good your teachers are in their field, i’m not sure if that’s the school i want to be enrolled in.
if you have an idea where in japan you’d like to be living in, then great for you. this website, segregates language schools by their locations, so you can just click onto the links and find out what schools are in the region you are targeting.
if you have been attending japanese language classes in your country under native japanese teachers, that’s wonderful. find a school you like and ask their opinion. mostly on whether the school is reliable. some could be famous within japan. if they’ve never heard of it, try looking online. if not, you can either change schools or give it a shot and do the public some good by writing a review on them.
another major thing to consider is whether the region you’re settling in gives you chance to practise your language skills. regions too far up north or some areas down south have their own dialects which may be starkly different from the standard japanese you are learning, especially the okinawan dialect where even japanese from other prefectures can’t recognise its japanese-ness.
other things you have to consider are reasonably intuitive. duration, level and price. some schools offer courses ranging from 1 week to 2 years. however, there are also others that require a minimum study period of a year. so if you’re looking to study for only 3 or 6 months, look for those that offer short-term courses.
not every school offers elementary to upper advanced levels. some only have up to intermediate levels. a friend of mine was studying in sapporo and i was really keen to take up classes there as well. but i found out that the school only offers up to intermediate levels for short-term studies. only long-term classes have advanced levels.
and of course, you have to check your budget, especially if you’re self-sponsored. we don’t really bother that much if our parents are paying, do we? but if you find the pricing too cheap to be true, better be safe than sorry. i found a school offering 50% off the price of most other schools but i couldn’t find any reviews on it so i decided to play safe by opting for a more well-reviewed one.
last, but not the least, visa. a friend of mine is heading to tokyo for her studies and according to her, the school only applies visa for them for as long as they intend to study. depending on where you are from, you may or may not require visa for 3 months of studies. she applied for a 6-month course and i was told that she would only be getting a 6-month visa. the school i’m heading to in aichi gave me 15-months student visa even though i only applied for a 6-month study period. this means that if i were to extend my studies, i wouldn’t have to do visa runs.
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