日本語のコーナー
JLPT Shackles, Begone!
I AM FREE!
well, sorta. JLPT is over since last Sunday, and while I’m still not 100% sure that I’ll pass (50-50 chance, could also be 60-40), I’m happy to say that it wasn’t as frustrating (exciting?) as last year. I had the same proctor (who didn’t seem to have recognized ‘The Girl Who Haggled For Time’ — aka me — from last year, or so I hope!), but thankfully enough what happened throughout the exam wasn’t a deja vu of my Great Booboo.
We’re not allowed to talk about the exam, they say, because our test will be invalidated if the Japan Foundation finds out we spilled the beans. But what do you know, gaijins are pretty cool people and doesn’t afraid anything, so they talked about it anyway, specifically these two items in the JLPT1 listening section which pandered to the otaku audience — there’s the Evangelion-esque question which I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of by now, and also a Dragon Quest parody question, where this one loli was asking her beloved oniichan how to get this special Ice Necklace item. THANK GOD FOR OTAKUS. I was so amused by the Eva-esque question that I almost didn’t catch the question being asked (and it’s the last one too). The whole GAR talk between the Captain and Asuka still replays in my head LOL.
That said, I still don’t think I did well in the listening. After all those practice drills… *sigh* Might be too early to say, but doubting the answers I have to about half of the listening items sure isn’t a good sign. I’d be jumping for joy if I get about 70% or higher!
Reading & Grammar is pretty safe, though I didn’t ace it like I hoped (damn!). Ran out of time to thoroughly read the last two short essays and ended up doing some [semi-founded] guesswork. I got 148/200 last year despite my booboo, and my semi-conservative estimate for this year is 150/200.
The kanji section was a breeze (thank you Kanzen Master!), with just a few mistakes (at most 5, if not, I’m not going to forgive myself!), but the vocab section… I weep for it. I’ve already noted 5 mistakes, which is likely to increase (x2 = 10++ points), though I am hoping for a 75%. Please?
If all’s well that ends well, then I’ll get that Highly Coveted JLPT1 certificate (and my additional monthly allowance!), if not, then I’ll just have to let it go and move on, move forward and continue studying. In fact, I have to do a bit of studying right now because I have an exam for our Business Nihongo crash course tomorrow!
How did everyone’s JLPT go? absolute0, cuteproxy, kritik, 0rion, double… who else took the challenge?
Credits to crowdesu for the above pic.
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9 comments for “JLPT Shackles, Begone!”
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Having skipped the exam “twice”, I never got the courage to follow through to JLPT2 after passing 4 because technically I don’t have any formal studies on Japanese at all. I don’t think I could get by my luck and stock knowledge with that. One of my resolutions next year would be to enroll somewhere formally to some kind of lessons, dunno where though.
Anyway, advanced congratulations to you and all others! I’m pretty sure you can make it this time. LOL at the otaku-inclined questions though, this time it wasn’t coincidential (Was it you IIRC who chuckled when you saw/heard something “Naritai Jibun” at an earlier test?)
I AM TELL YOU NOW GOOD JOB KID HANG IN THERE!
Congrats on completing the mission for yet another (and hopefully the last) year! Things went pretty similarly for me in terms of the section by section breakdown, although overall I’m extremely confident about how the result turned out this time. I managed to ace the kanji and grammar portions that gave me a lot of trouble previously, but of course I screwed up a fair number of the vocab yet again, hauuu~.
Sadly, that Escheresque Touhou picture fits the vibe of the test entirely too well.
Mine was pretty alright. I should be able to pass, I think. Either way, it’ll be JLPT1 for me next year.
Interesting, I would think that the kanji and vocab would be kinda close in skills O.o interrelated for the most part no?
I did fine with level 2. I think i got over 90%… As my wife says, I should’ve gone for level 1 but i think it’s good to do this now and then get a shiny N1 next year (if i can!) . Congrats, sounds like you’ll squeak by!
you definitely did well because you used Jenny Mnemonics
I hope you passed!
I didn’t bother registering and probably won’t do so next year because I have not found any incentive for Japanese knowledge. Mandarin Chinese, sure, but not Japanese. 
It’s nice that your business values your certifications!
Good luck! I’m sure you’ll pass, second time’s the charm =3.
Guess all that training in the mountains under a waterfall worked!
@bluemist: You can fare pretty well if you expose yourself to tons of light novels and jdramas! And with the new JLPT format, there’s likely a chance that you won’t have to study the JLPT1 grammar patterns like I did. I should take a look at those exams and report about it somehow.
and yeah I was the one who mentioned about the coincidental Naritai Jibun reference, way back JLPT2
@0rion: good to hear! My result will most likely be on a ‘giri giri safe’ mark, here’s to hoping it really is safe!
@double: given the results of your mock exam, I’m pretty sure you did well. Otsukare!
@Ryan: oh please feel free to ask me about it, though I’m not sure how my knowledge of the current JLPT system will be much of a help once the changes are rolled out next year T_T
@animekritik: asdffsd. Wish I could get a portion of your vocab database and overall l33t skillz! Aim for that shiny N1 next year yes! I plan to take the N1 next year too, regardless of whather I pass this year’s JLPT1 or not, just so there’ll still that little goal I’ll be aiming for (the company will shoulder the exam fee anyways)
@foomafoo: LOL. We’ll just have to see if my Jenny Mnemonics was indeed effective!
@Caitlin: thanks! and I sure hope so as well! Anime/manga/jdrama/novels/japanese culture whatsoever is not enough to motivate you to study?
@Kabitzin: second time after quite an Epic Fail first time, especially! That rigid waterfall training sure paid off!