Job Discussion Forums

[campbed219a]

Hi there, looking for a bit of advice regarding what JLPT to take in December.

I know quite a lot of the basics of Japanese as I've been attending night classes for over a year now. I study a couple of hours a day and meet up with a Japanese friend once a week for language exchange. I will be moving to Japan in six and a half weeks.

I'm wondering whether it's too much of a risk to go straight to sitting JLPT3 in December and missing out JLPT4? I'm pretty sure that 4 would be a a breeze as I've put in quite a lot of work at home already and, by that time, would have 3 months living in Japan on top of that.

Question is whether I'll have enough to pass 3......... Anyone been in a similar situation or know what kind of jump there is from 4 to 3?

In terms of studying, I'm working my way through Japanese for Busy People II and expect to move onto book III when I'm in Japan in 8 weeks or so. I also use various websites, podcasts, etc. I'm hoping that my listening comprehension will increase rapidly when I start living in the country.

Any advice appreciated.

[Inflames]

Have you looked at any of the JLPT study books yet? If you look at them, you may discover that you don't know some key things. How is your reading ability? There is a section that tests that. The best advice would be to buy a book with (or just look online for) practice tests and see how well you do, then choose from that.

[Apsara]

InFlames gives good advice. Take a practice test for each level, and if you pass 4 easily then there's no point taking it, as it isn't really worth anything as a qualification. You are better off studying towards 3, even if you don't pass it this year.

[campbed219a]

Cheers guys. I'll do some practice tests and use them as a guide.

[wayne432]

Companies generally look for 1-2.
1 - Native level
2 - Business level

Those two are usually looked at like that, 3 could be conversational I suppose. On a rare occasion, a company will accept levels below 2. Also depends on the position of course.

[Brooks]

I think you should take level 4 and try for level 3 next year.
Level 3 is harder than level 4.

[wayne432]

I'd say go for 3... 4 isn't really worth much imo

[ntropy]

I took the Level 3 test without taking the level 4 test first. I should have jumped straight to Level 2.

Level 3 was a snap for me.

I agree with the advice of getting some of the practice books and using them to judge what level you are likely to be at.

[Apsara]

Level 2 is definitely something you can put on your resume/ CV- one of the requirements for the in-house proofreading job I have now was a minimum of JLPT Level 2, and I have seen other jobs advertised by various agencies also asking for Level 2 or better.

[Zzonkmiles]

Level 4 is better than nothing. You can probably skip this test, but if you don't plan on going far in the language, this will be a nice little goal.

Level 3 is useful for dealing with students and staff at a school. It may even be a requirement for working at a school. Level 3 Japanese means you have more than a superficial understanding of Japanese and can hold general conversations.

Level 2 is important. This means you are capable of handling yourself in business settings and is an official requirement for employment at many companies outside of teaching.

Level 1 is mainly useful for studying at a Japanese university or getting a job where you are expected to deal with the language on a daily basis. People working in the media or with the public usually have Level 1, which means you have a strong vocabulary and can easily tailor your language for various situations.

[NorthofAmerica]

Get a level 3 practice test. I was in the same situation and after flirting with 60% twice in a row on practice tests decided to wait a year. Now 3 looks like a breeze. Still wish I had done 4 just so I could have the certificate:)

Also, I used Japanese for Busy People 1 and 2 and stopped. I would recommend getting away from those books. The grammar is solid but there are so many holes in the vocab (like JfBP1 having ageru, morau, but NOT kureru) and most importantly THE ALMOST TOTAL LACK OF KANJI and repitive furigana even on words like "nen" mean you will never get a handle on kanji using them. They even ignore including certain readings of kanji in their descriptions for some reason. WTF?

The first book helped me get a handle on some things but after that I found it really lacking. Good Luck!

[campbed219a]

[Apsara]

There is a load of texts at bookshops in Japan like Kinokuniya which are actuallu JLPT preparation texts as opposed to general texts, although there are fewer for the lower levels. To get a better score I really recommend becoming familiar with the test layout, the kinds of questions asked and in particular, the timing, which catches a lot of people out the first time. Time in the reading section is particularly tight.

[campbed219a]

[Apsara]

How that works is that many words use the same kanji in different combinations, therefore you would still need to learn kanji to be able to read that vocab. 300 kanji and 1500 vocab words doesn't mean that 800 of those words are in hiragana and katakana only.

When I type Japanese on this site it doesn't come out for some reason, so I can't illustrate that as well as I would like, but with the kanji for "Nihon" (Japan) for example you also have "honjitsu" when they are reversed, "hon" for book, "hon/ bon/ pon" the counter for long thin things using the same kanji, "nichi" the counter for days etc, so there's 5 words just off the top of my head already from 2 kanji.

So I stand by my claim that kanji is inseparable from vocab in Japanese unless you are leaning exclusively for speaking and listening.