社会人特別選抜試験

English translation: special selection exams for mature applicants

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Japanese term or phrase:社会人特別選抜試験
English translation:special selection exams for mature applicants
Entered by: Catherine Dawson

18:26 Feb 7, 2005
Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Medical - Education / Pedagogy
Japanese term or phrase: 社会人特別選抜試験
I'm translating a university website and have come to the section on entrance examinations. Really not sure how to translate the above - the university department is medical so it's obviously a special exam for people entering into a vocational field - professional special selection exam?? crap English!! Is there a generally agreed phrasing?
Have 一般選抜、推薦入学II特別選抜試験 as general selection / preferred applicants special selection exams but stuck on the shakaijin.
Catherine Dawson
Local time: 16:37
special selection exams for mature applicants
Explanation:
I would translate 社会人 in this case "mature applicants". There are many hits for "mature applicants" and "mature students" who are "mature" = older who do not enter tertiary education straight after secondary education. It is common in the UK and there are hits from Canada and Ireland but I am not sure if it is a common term in the US.

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Note added at 25 mins (2005-02-07 18:52:27 GMT)
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For ¥"mature applicants¥" see:
Trinity College Dublin
http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/admissions_info/mature.html
St. John¥'s College, Cambridge
http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applicatio...
University of British Columbia
http://students.ubc.ca/welcome/admission.cfm?page=mature
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
http://www18.polyu.edu.hk/e-prospectus/pg/misc.jsp?cms_menu_...

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Note added at 1 day 17 hrs 52 mins (2005-02-09 12:18:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Gloss on comments.

On ¥"selection exams¥"
Shame that English does not have a neat expression capturing the idea of 選抜試験 - I think it would be ¥"Auswahlprüfung¥" in German but that is no help. Whatever version you opt for, I would keep exam(ination)s somewhere since that is the mode of selection.

On ¥"adult¥" or ¥"mature¥"
Looking through the eligibility for many 社会人特別選抜試験, it is a common requirement that the candidate must have been in employment for a number of years (some say 3, others demand 5). The problem is that in Japan the legal age of majority is 20, but elsewhere it can be lower (in Europe generally). The problem is that being an ¥"adult¥" has a legal meaning. So ¥"adult¥" would make sense to the Japanese audience but not necessarily to others and why would a Japanese person look up the English version? ¥"Mature¥" is suitably flexible and defined by the university concerned.
Selected response from:

mstkwasa
Local time: 16:37
Grading comment
Thanks - mature students, of course. My brain hadn't made a connection it needed to. Definitely "mature" rather than "adult" when referring to higher education. cheers everyone.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4special selection for adult students [adults]
jsl (X)
3 +1special selection exams for mature applicants
mstkwasa


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
special selection for adult students [adults]


Explanation:
"special selection exam(s) for", suggested above, may be grammatical, but is collocationally wrong, considering that only one example of "special selection exam" is found in Google. According to it, however, "special selection for" is more common (approximately 7,500 hits), e.g., special selection for international students, special selection for returnee students, etc.

Also, those who are "社会人" will eventually become "社会人学生", so "社会人" should be considered as "adult students" (or simply "adults").

Also see the actual examples below:



    Reference: http://www.hokudai.ac.jp/science/english/H17DCE.pdf
    Reference: http://www.kmu.ac.jp/~gakumu/admission03.html
jsl (X)
Local time: 01:37

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  mstkwasa: I agree that "special selection exams" are not elegant and personally I would prefer "special entrance exam" or similar. I think "exam" has to be there, since you could have a special selection by lot, height, age, amount of hair left...
8 hrs

neutral  sumc: Agreed with "exam" or "test" after selection, and applicants instead of students (Also better with mstkwasa's suggestion)
1 day 3 hrs
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13 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
special selection exams for mature applicants


Explanation:
I would translate 社会人 in this case "mature applicants". There are many hits for "mature applicants" and "mature students" who are "mature" = older who do not enter tertiary education straight after secondary education. It is common in the UK and there are hits from Canada and Ireland but I am not sure if it is a common term in the US.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 25 mins (2005-02-07 18:52:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

For ¥"mature applicants¥" see:
Trinity College Dublin
http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/admissions_info/mature.html
St. John¥'s College, Cambridge
http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applicatio...
University of British Columbia
http://students.ubc.ca/welcome/admission.cfm?page=mature
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
http://www18.polyu.edu.hk/e-prospectus/pg/misc.jsp?cms_menu_...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 17 hrs 52 mins (2005-02-09 12:18:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Gloss on comments.

On ¥"selection exams¥"
Shame that English does not have a neat expression capturing the idea of 選抜試験 - I think it would be ¥"Auswahlprüfung¥" in German but that is no help. Whatever version you opt for, I would keep exam(ination)s somewhere since that is the mode of selection.

On ¥"adult¥" or ¥"mature¥"
Looking through the eligibility for many 社会人特別選抜試験, it is a common requirement that the candidate must have been in employment for a number of years (some say 3, others demand 5). The problem is that in Japan the legal age of majority is 20, but elsewhere it can be lower (in Europe generally). The problem is that being an ¥"adult¥" has a legal meaning. So ¥"adult¥" would make sense to the Japanese audience but not necessarily to others and why would a Japanese person look up the English version? ¥"Mature¥" is suitably flexible and defined by the university concerned.

mstkwasa
Local time: 16:37
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thanks - mature students, of course. My brain hadn't made a connection it needed to. Definitely "mature" rather than "adult" when referring to higher education. cheers everyone.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  kumasan: 社会人特別選抜試験.  I think the exam. is opened only for general public, not for students. An exam. is by nature a competition =選抜。Thus, it should be translated as: Special examination for general public(only).
10 hrs

agree  KathyT: We also say "mature-age students" in Australia.
10 hrs

disagree  jsl (X): Maybe, collocationally not widely-used.
16 hrs
  -> As I said, I take your point on "special selection exam". I used the expression in accordance with what the asker has already used. Why do not we agree that "special examination" is appropriate as kumasan has suggested?

neutral  sumc: Agreed with "adult applicants"
1 day 10 hrs
  -> People above the age of 18 are commonly seen as adults (certainly in the UK) and are allowed to indulge in all sorts of vices (smoking etc.) and to vote. The legal age of majority differs from one country to another, hence "adult" is problematic.
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