valerauko

Why Gunma?

Yeah that's very true. Unless you've got some prior practice and can stand up and improvise well without losing your mask of confidence, you don't really stand a chance. I've had "group interviews" like that a bunch of times. Personally, I like them a lot. Dunno if I'm a natural teamworker or just the Japanese are incompetent, but I always end up passing such tests with flying colors.

What languages can you speak and understand and also what is your proficiency? Hungarian (native) I was born Hungarian, which is probably a huge blessing. Hungarian is one of those languages you probably stand no chance in learning as a foreigner. It has complicated grammar, insane conjugation and lots of homophones. Too bad that because Hungary is a tiny country with practically no influence abroad and there're but 15 million Hungarians spread around the world, there isn't much practical use to the language. English (derp) I've studied English for about 10 years in school and I've been actively using it in everyday conversations (mostly online) for almost a decade now. Still, I've never lived in an English-speaking environment, so I probably sound very unnatural. At least (according to others) I don't have a bad accent. I need to use American English when fansubbing, and that probably shows, but I love British English a lot. The accent, the slang, it's just better than AmE. Japanese (don't laugh at me) I've lived in Japan for over four years now and I had the language hammered into my brains at probably the best place in Japan (TUFS JLC). By now I'm fluent in both everyday and professional Japanese. I translate about a dozen of anime series every week for various fansubbing groups. My reading speed is laughable when compared to native Japanese and I still misunderstand stuff sometimes (mostly due to the total lack of Japanese background), but I think I'm improving. German (I don't even) I studied German for over six years back in Hungary. I was about to take my advanced exam when I got my scholarship in Japan, and since then I haven't used German whatsoever. I still have a basic understanding of it and I can read and mostly understand youth literature (I still have the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on my shelf in German), but I don't think I could say a whole sentence or take part in a discussion. Probably if I were thrown into a German-only environment suddenly, my old studies would resurface rapidly, but at present I'll just stick to "Ich spreche kein Deutsch." Any new languages you would like to learn? I studied Spanish for half a year or so back in Hungary. I'd love to pick that up again. Also, Russian and Chinese. Too bad unless my future job requires me to learn them and provide courses, I probably never gonna learn them. Have you spoken any basic phrases recently of another language (e.g. travelling)? I can say "I don't speak {insert language here}" in pretty much every tongue I encountered. Other than that, I can say "Please finish boarding and leaving the train. The doors are closing" in Czech and a few swearwords in Chinese. I also picked up a few words of French and Italian, but that's more like the common European vocabulary.

What's your favorite place or city in Japan? If you've been there, write about your experiences. If you just want to see some, write about that. I personally love Kyoto, every single bit of it. I've been there over a dozen times, but it still captivates me. The whole atmosphere, the friendly and very Japanese air, the small temples and shrines all over the place, the wonderful festivals, the great pubs, the very famous sightseeing spots and the not-so-famous ones too, it's all just perfect. Actually I hope to move there after I graduate.

For casual blogging the emergence of microblogging services like Twitter or Facebook statuses sure proved fatal. What's the point in writing about your day, when you can just tweet about your minutes? On the other hand, more thematic and long-winded blogging will persevere (so will illegal MP3 download blogs). While I have trouble keeping my personal blog running, my fansub review blog is well and going.

Orange. My favorite color seems to change every now and then, but it's usually some powerful color (blue, red, green, orange).

Japan is fun, especially if you only come as a tourist.

Sure as hell it's a very popular show (we're getting steady 100k+ downloads every ep), but I don't think it's all that exceptional. It's a shonen show full of action. The art is ages better in the anime than the manga, which is a relief (I hated the manga's art). As for the writing, the plot seems to be quite cliched with all the dark and gloomy conspiracies in the background, and the drama is the standard you can expect from a well-selling shonen (the likes of Naruto). The dialog's quite simple, but I don't mind that. Current goal: translating an episode in 90 min. (I think I couldn't manage it under 2 hours so far.)

To be honest, I prefer writing magazines to reading them. I was subscribed to a few gaming and architecture magazines during my high school years, and my parents had National Geographic, but after a while issues would just pile up and up and I'd hardly open them after the first quick skim through. Writing is a lot more fun. Given there is someone to read it, that is.

According to my experience, you mustn't show any uncertainty during interviews. For example I got to the third round of selection with a few major companies, and I was always asked about solving the most difficult problem their entire industry is facing now. Obviously that's not something you can just solve by a flash of genius. In retrospect I realized that I should've just said "I'd gather data, learn from my seniors at the company, gain lots of experience and incorporate the ideas of others to solve the problem in the end".

I like coffee because it's more effective in keeping me going. Also, taste-wise... Coffee's taste allows for a bit more liberal experimentation. You can easily use it for cakes and other sweets too. It's slight bitterness does great. Black tea with honey and milk is wonderful. Green tea is insanely popular here in Japan (they even have green tea-flavored ice cream!), so over the years I've developed a liking for it, but I still prefer coffee.

Let me sum it up: it made close to no sense. Gendo and his pal are running NERV by themselves? They even built a whole new Eva alone! Why won't Asuka and Mari just go there and shoot the NERV HQ to pieces? They were clearly able to infiltrate it and they could easily fight Rei. Why didn't they attack while Shinji was in the sarcophagus in space? Which reminds me, who put that sarcophagus in space and why? Why wouldn't they just kill Shinji after retrieving him from space? They obviously treat him as a threat. Why not just get rid of him instead of putting poor boy under even more psychological pressure (even though everyone knows how unstable he is)? And all the scheming Gendo does, behind everyone else's backs... He first treats the issue as of utmost importance then when it fails he goes "oh well this should do for now", as if building more Evas would be but a child's play for him. Who impaled Lilith with two lances of Longinus? Where did the second one come from? How did that Angel get into Eva 6? And that preview... Armies of Eva (presumably under NERV's command)... Honestly, as much as I liked 1.0 and 2.0, this movie was a total blunder and I'm afraid with 4.0 the series will be even worse off than with the original TV airing's ending (which was admittedly so fucked up they had to make End of Evangelion to fix it).

Hataraku Maou-sama, Valvrave, Samurai Bride, Railgun S, Henneko, SnK, Azazel Z, DAL, Gargantia. Also trying to finish Un-go and Zetsubou Sensei.

Howdy. I was browsing down the TDFN/AN group on Facebook when I saw a link to this forum... And I was bored so I dropped by to register. I'm Vale aka. valerauko (sometimes Olostur or centurimon), currently unemployed university student and fansubber. Cheers!