受講生33　男性

試験の様子

会場: 京都国際会館。

面接官: 日本人女性と若い白人男性。女性が名前と住まいを質問した後、男性が手元の質問リストを見ながら、順々に質問をするパターン。

質問内容

（以下、J：日本人試験官、N：ネイティブ試験官、A：受験者）

N: Japan has many beautiful traditional style gardens and you can see pebbles in the gardens. What are they?

A: It is one of the ingredients of a traditional Japanese garden which expresses nature of beauty with these components. For instance, you can also see sands and rocks in some gardens. The sands and rocks represent water flow and mountains respectively. This simplification is influenced by Zen Buddhism.

N: Throughout the Japanese history, which time do you like?

A: I prefer Edo period which is the time from 400 years ago to 150 years ago. Japan had isolation policy and we developed Japanese distinctive cultures such as kabuki and ukiyoe during the time.

N: People hold portable shrines in typical Japanese festivals. What is the purpose of the portable shrines?

A: The portable shrine is a temporal place where deities stay during the festivals. People carry the portable shrine around the town. Shintoism is a polytheism that the deities exist in many places in the same time ubiquitously. You can call the deities for a special purpose by preparing such a sacred place.

N: Given that you are a tour guide and you take visitors to Meiji Jingu. At first what do you introduce to them?

A: When I take the visitors to the shrine, the first thing they can see is a torii gate. I will introduce it to them at first. Torii gate consists of two poles which are connected at the top with two bars. This has the meaning of a barrier to prevent evils from entering into the shrine. This is the first thing I explain to the visitors.

N: What is the difference between Japanese sake and shochu?

A: The sake is a fermented alcoholic drink which is made from rice. The shochu is a distilled alcoholic drink made from various items such as rice, sweet potatoes or wheat. Alcoholic content is also different. The sake contains 15 to 20 % of alcohol while the shochu has 25 to 45% of the range.

N: OK. This is the last question. In New Year’s Eve, many people visit temples to ring the bell 108 times. Why do they ring the bell 108 times?

A: Human beings seem to have 108 bad ways of thinking or negative feelings such as envy or anger. Ringing the bell the same counts as these feelings is regarded as eliminating the bad things so that you will be able to have a new year with clean mind.

試験を終えて

庭園の小石や明治神宮、除夜の鐘など、よく知らなくてパッとズバリの答えが出てこないものもありましたが、分からないなりに臨機応変に対応できたかなと感じています。明治神宮については、神社なのでまず鳥居があるだろうから、そこから説明して次の質問を待とうとか(展開質問はありませんでしたが)、除夜の鐘では｢煩悩｣に相当する概念の言葉が出てこなかったものの、手持ちの知識で言い換えながら説明しました。

CELの通常の授業に加え、｢2次試験の気になる点すべて教えますセミナー｣で、面接の心構えを学び、直前の｢2次試験Intensive Classes(模擬面接クラス)｣で、適切な回答の長さをおおよそ体得できたのが生かされたように思います。丁寧に、簡潔に回答するように心がけました。この｢2次面接試験レポート｣の昨年度分に一通り目を通し、頭の中で事前に場数を踏めたのも、落ち着いて対応するのに大変有効でした。

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