Job Discussion Forums

[Canuck2112]

I wrote the 2kyuu...I definitely passed it but it wasn't as straightforward as I thought. The reading tripped me up (as it tends to do)

How were your tests this year?

[fatimablush]

I did 3-kyuu and I thought it was hard but I definitely could have studied more. The listening section was more difficult than the previous years I thought. Kanji was no problem.

[may be going]

sorry to cut in on this thread. i hope others who took the test on sunday share their experiences. my question is to those who took the test or have taken the test in the past.

why do people take the test? i don't mean this in a negative way at all, i just want to know. is it for personal satisfaction or is there a tangible benefit involved? does it help back in your home country or does it help you in japan? again, i'm not being negative, i just want to know why people take the test, be it 4kyu, 3kyu etc.

i think my japanese conv. is ok and getting better. my kanji is terrible so i doubt i'd even pass 4kyu. but if i wanted to do it, what would be in it for me (i need the extrinsic factors to really get my study juices flowing)?

[fatimablush]

There are many reasons people take the test. I think for many of us living in Japan, taking the test forces us to study. I think it is nice to have some sort of official qualification of Japanese ability even if it is at the lowest level. Levels 1 and 2 are the higher levels, 3 and 4 are the beginner levels. The test booklet describes level 4 as having mastered half of a beginner level course, and level 3 as having mastered an entire beginner level course (if I remember correctly). For 4-kyuu, you only need to know about 103 Kanji, and about 300 words. There is a huge jump between 3-kyuu and 2-kyuu.

I took 4-kyuu last year. I think that not many people take 4-kyuu because they feel like it is too low a level to be worth the money to take it. I personally think it is good to start from the lowest, to find out what you know and what you don't know.

You have to pay 500 Yen for the application package and another 5500 Yen to apply. In my case I wrote the exam in Sendai, which is the only place in Tohoku that offers the exam, so I had to come the night before and stay in a hotel, hence a lot of money towards writing an exam.

People who want to work in Japan in a Japanese environment who need Japanese in their daily life will take 1-kyuu and 2-kyuu. The higher the level of test, you tend to notice that the people taking the test tend to be long-term residents in Japan. I saw many Chinese, Vietnamese, Philipinos and Koreans taking the higher levels.

When I took 4-kyuu last year, it was mainly native English speakers who took it, and not that many.

Also, if you live in a rural area like I do, it is simply just something to do!

[Apsara]

I took 2-kyuu. I thought one of the reading passages (the oen about education) was particularly hard to answer but the others weren't so bad, although some of the questions could be tricky- even subjective I thought. I have heard others say they found the listening difficult but I found it straighforward.

Grammar is my weak point so not sure how I've done there, although I felt it went okay. I will definitely pass but I'm hoping for a decent mark- I'm hoping for 85% absolute minimum as I want to try 1-kyuu next year and if I haven't done too well this time then 1-kyuu in one year is probably out of reach.

My reasons for taking 2-kyuu this year, after a very long hiatus (I took 3-kyuu at university in NZ in 1994!) were that I needed some motivation to bump up my level of Japanese a bit, especially for understanding written and more formal Japanese. I have been here almost 10 years and use Japanese at work, my husband is Japanese etc so for everyday use my level was fine. I was starting to get a bit sick of being semi-literate though- even though I could already read at least 1,000 kanji there were (are) still big gaps in my knowledge, there is still plenty I don't understand, especially when it comes to newpspapers, watching the news, talking about something outside my usual experience.

I currently do a bit of simple translation for the company I work for- translating event flyers etc into English although occasionally something a bit more challenging. As a long term goal I would like to do more translating and with 1-kyuu under my belt that should be a more realistic target.

Anyway, now we just have to wait until mid-Feb to get the results! Good luck everyone.

[Canuck2112]

I wrote, and have written the JLPT tests for a few different reasons:

1.) It lights a fire under your @ss. I'm quite lazy, and previous attempts at self study usually had failed if there was no clear goal in mind. Signing up for these tests sets a goal..."I have to know _____ by the first Sunday in December".

2.) A piece of paper. I don't intend to stay in Japan much longer. Having an internationally-recognized Japanese certificate is worthwhile IMO...even if its only a 3kyu or 4kyu. You can't really put "Shooting the breeze with snack-girls in broken Japanese" on a resume.

3.) A decent benchmark of where you're at. I myself got lulled into a false sense of "fluency" before I started these tests...what with being able to discuss sushi preferences and what not...but when you look at the overwhelming amount of vocabulary required for 1kyu (and to a lesser extent 2kyu), it gives you an idea of where you stand.

4.) I get a kick out of watching the proctors menacingly brandishing their yellow and red cards during the explanation before each section. They're quite in sync with one another. I get the feeling that some of them may have failed Flight Attendant school and pursued JLPT invigilation as a fallback.

[Brooks]

for work at some universities, it looks good on your resume.
Ni kyu is the bare minimum.
Some universities require proof of Japanese ability, and some give interviews in Japanese. So taking the test is a good excuse to study.

I couldn't take the test this year since I have the school festival to go to this weekend. I was working Sunday.

Next year I will take the test and adjust my schedule around it.

I thought the proctors were just university students.

[Quibby84]

Some jobs in the states that I looked into for my husband (like teaching Japanese in elementary schools, or working with Japanese companies, or Nintendo in Washington) require a certain level on the test. A lot of the jobs I found asked for a two or one on the test...that is one reason to take it....

[fatimablush]

In the second part of the listening section, does anyone know why we have to mark the wrong answers, and not just the correct answer like in the first section? It just seems like extra work to me, but I figure there must be some reason for it, but can't think for the life of me what it is!

[may be going]

well i'm glad my question generated some discussion. i think i'm at the 'shooting the breeze with the general public about pretty regular topics' stage in my conv. listening always gets me because i just can't seem to get round verb conjugations quickly enough to the instant translation. i know i know translation shouldn't happen but i guess i'm not that good.

a number of my colleagues took 4kyuu and 3 kyuu on sunday and i believe that my spoken japanese is much better than theirs. how is the test set out? kanji, listening, reading, grammar etc? oral proficiency is my strong point (stop the sniggers) but grammar and the rest, oh dear......

how long do you think consistent study would take me to get up to the 100-200 kanji needed to be on my way with the levels tests?

[fatimablush]

I have written 3-kyuu and 4-kyuu. For those tests there are 3 sections, Kanji/Vocab, Listening, and Grammar.

In Kanji/Vocab, more than half of the section is knowing the hiragana or kanji of a given word (there is no English given). Basically you are given a sentence. A word either in hiragana or Kanji is underlined and you have pick the right Kanji or hiragana that matches. The other questions are picking the answer that is similiar to a given sentence, or picking the correct usage of a japanese word in a sentence.

Listening, there are 2 parts. First part is 12 questions, you are given a booklet. Each question has 4 pictures, and you pick the right picture that corresponds to the dialogue that you hear. Second part, you hear a dialogue or monologue, you listen to 4 statements, and pick the correct one, but also have to mark the incorrect ones as well.

Reading and Grammar, you basically have to pick the correct particle, correct form of verb etc... that goes in the sentence. There are also reading passages with maybe 3 things missing, and you pick what goes in it.

You can always buy the test when it comes out next year, It will probably come out in April or so. They put 3-kyuu and 4-kyuu together, 1-kyuu and 2-kyuu together. It's about 1200 Yen and you get the CD. I had bought tests from the previous two years to practice.

Buying the test is good because it gives you all the statistics on pass rates for every country (although I'm sure you might find it on the web). If you Wikipedia JLPT, there is a link to a study site that a guy has made that has all the Kanji and a vocab list for each section. You can also buy flashcards which are extremely useful.

For 4-kyuu kanji, it is not difficult at all. Many of the Kanji are extremely easy. 10 of the kanji or knowing numbers 1-10 and that's pretty basic, also days of the week, simple ones like river, mountain, woman, man etc.. It shouldn't take you that long, but I would advise actually writing out the kanji because sometimes they try to confuse you with direction of strokes.

[fatimablush]

You can always buy last year's test from 2006 now if you want to see how it is. You can find them at Maruzen or maybe Kinokuniya.

[cornishmuppet]

This year? 2kyu. Very hard for me. I passed 3kyu last year at the second attempt, and god, does it look easy now! I didn't really get motivated until November and although I studied my a ss off for that month I think I was still short. Listening/Vocab wasn't too bad, but the reading was just too long and I was clock-watching too much to concentrate properly. There were a couple of pages where my policy was basically, 'pick all the ones and pray'.

Why? Motivation firstly, and secondly, the desire to leave Japan with something to show for it. I sent off for my large sized 3kyu certificate last year even though anything below 2kyu is pretty much no use for getting jobs, but it made me happy and made me feel I'd actually achieved something. I agree its very expensive all included, and its a joke that we have to wait ten weeks for the results when all they have to do is feed them into a computer. No doubt the time is spent drawing up all those damn graphs they put in the back of the previous year's test booklet when it gets published in bookshops around Aug.

[ripslyme]

[southofreality]

Only thing left is 1 kyuu, but my kanji knowledge is too low to have passed at that level this year, so I didn't bother.

Hopefully, next year I can get motivated and knock the rest of the remaining, necessary ones out.

Probably won't get around to it, though.