Kraemder's attempt at JLPT N1 (Japanese)

[Rotasu]

Yeah the kanjis looked pretty easy. I could read them meaning I shouldn't have to use a dictionary too much. Yes, this means I could read it to myself in Japanese, not just understand the meanings of the individual characters. I bought a book - Gate, the one the anime is based off of, and I just figured it would be good because I like the anime. The kanjis are all really hard. At least in the beginning. I assume it's because the author is adopting a formal tone like a news report or something. Anyway, since trying to read that book, I scan the kanji of a book to get a rough idea of the difficulty I'll have reading it.

Ahh so it's a mix of meaning/reading/familiar. Hmm maybe I should get working on RtK but just meaning focus. I always hate it when I have my phone in JP and there is a word with just 1 kanji and I know I would know the word if I just knew the meaning of that kanji xD

[kraemder]

I think I would do the same thing in German too back in the day. I would just scan a page to look at the vocabulary or try reading a page too see how well I could understand it. It's just interesting to me with Japanese that it's really about the kanji. Just focusing on the kanji I'm finding I can get an idea on how hard the text will be for me to read.

For the record, I'm generally not satisfied seeing words whose kanji meanings I know but I'm not sure of the proper way to read them. Of course, I may choose not to look them up in the dictionary if I've already looked up other words on that page since I don't want to lose the flow and slow down my reading pace too much.

However, since I haven't focused on RTK per se in a while, it's not that common that know the RTK keyword for a kanji but not its common reading. I usually know both or neither or just the Japanese.

[kraemder]

Short update. I'm still alive and in Tokyo. I still wonder why I used to be so addicted to posting blog entries before coming to Japan but now not so much. I guess I'm here and it satisfies whatever it was that was lacking before. Whatever.

I found a job with Berlitz as an English teacher. They're going to sponsor my visa to work in Japan and once I pass the preparatory course then I sign a one year contract with them. Initially I wanted to work in a Japanese school but the companies offering that work wanted me to already have a work visa and had no interest in sponsoring a work visa for me. Unless I was applying from the US. They are retarded. That's something you have to get used to I guess. I'm really happy thought that I found this job and it should work out well. They have an office near the sharehouse I'm staying at so I don't have to move which was very important to me.

I also signed up for the JLPT N2 this July in Japan. Honestly, I have every expectation to pass. Sure, passing the N2 is an accomplishment that requires a pretty good knowledge of Japanese but still I would be shocked if I didn't pass. I have a friend at the sharehouse from India and she's going to try for the N1. I was looking at some of the N1 material (vocab book) and it's a step up. I'm going to start studying N1 material now actually even though I know it won't be of much use on the test. I know most of the N2 stuff already. Although the N1 vocab book impressed me, I was able to read the N1 読解 passage at the beginning of the book just fine. It was -slightly- harder than N2 but not much. I suppose it gets harder as you go. But I'm guessing you can only cram only so much N1 grammar/vocab into a reading passage without using the more common stuff from N2+. But as I read native material I know the N1 material would be helpful if I knew it which is why I want to get started on it as soon as possible. Plus I think it would be fun to have a study partner. There's a lot of foreigners in Japan and a lot at this sharehouse but not many reach the advanced level in Japanese. I'm glad to have someone in the sharehouse with me who is so advanced. She works at a Japanese company and is stuck with the Japanese work schedule which means overtime all the time. One of her coworkers was literally hospitalized due to overwork. Nobody was surprised at her company. She's a fantastic person and she's still young so I don't think she'll end up in the hospital but I feel kind of bad. As much as I like Japan the work culture here is pretty freaking twisted. At least in Tokyo. She is thinking of transferring to another office in another city where they will hopefully be more humane.

[kraemder]

For whatever reason I don't update on these forums the way I used to when I was in the States. Probably because living in a share house I'm busy socializing.

I'm in the middle of taking the JLPT N2 test. We have a break before the listening part. I think I did ok on the grammar/reading etc. I can't say if I passed. I know I got stuff wrong but that's to be expected. Some of it was frustrating - the kanji check. I wasn't sure if my answers but if I were to read the words or type them in my phone I wouldn't have any problem. Which makes me think that part of the test wasn't very useful for me or Japan. But whatever. Although I didn't finish the reading section it was much better than any time I've ever taken the JLPT be it N4 or N3 or N2. I guess I should get back now.

[kraemder]

I almost feel like I shouldn't have even bothered to show up for the listening portion. I think I was just too tired and not able to focus. I would listen but I forgot stuff way too quickly and ended up guessing for most of the questions. I closed my eyes thinking that would help me focus and it did the opposite.. I literally started dozing. Dozing while standing up or sitting up is a talent I've gotten since coming to Tokyo. I pretty much always suffer from lack of sleep so I try to compensate. Just like the Japanese people around me. So I was familiarly dozing off and even rationally thinking maybe if I nod off for a few seconds I'll focus better.... as if. What I should have done was bring coffee and or energy drinks for the break. I had onigiris and yogurt drink but no caffeine or sugar. Dumb. I don't think I was particularly sleep deprived. I got at least 7 hours of sleep, although the night before I only got 5 thanks to my wonderful work schedule.

So I think my chances of passing are 50/50 and I'm really hoping for a pass. It would be such a relief. If not, I'll be taking it again this December. In terms of level I'm really there I think so I can't just give up.

[cathrynm]

Oh, cool. Advantage of being in Japan I guess. Good luck. I'm taking the N2 this December myself.

I just got back from China a few days ago -- not sure if they have June JLPT in China or not?

[kraemder]

Oh, cool. Advantage of being in Japan I guess. Good luck. I'm taking the N2 this December myself.

I just got back from China a few days ago -- not sure if they have June JLPT in China or not?

I haven't checked but I think that it's offered in the summer throughout Asia. I think the test is more popular in Asia than in the west? At least in Japan they are way more Asians taking the test than westerners at the N2 level. In my classroom I saw one other westerner, a girl. So I was the only western guy in my room taking the test. Outside during the break I didn't hear any English but I heard a ton of Chinese. Strangely I also heard German. Two girls were speaking it. One had western features and the other had Asian features. Both sounded awfully good and were probably native speakers. Taking the test was a little different experience than in the States. Now I know why I heard rumors about how stupid strict the test givers are. There were two young girls. One read a Japanese script and the other stood looking at us (the raider was looking down so had no idea if we were doing what she said). They didn't speak in normal Japanese of course, they used keigo as all Japanese do when they talk to foreigners. And she sounded like Ben Stiller but maybe speaking a little faster because she was a little nervous while Ben Stiller sounds more relaxed than anyone I know. So most of us tuned her out I think. I know I had issues focusing on what she said. They literally had an envelope to put your phone in and then put the enveloped phone into your bag. This was confusing to me because it made no sense (to me). I suppose it didn't bode well for the listening part of the test which I think was my worst section by far .

[kujichagulia]

You are awesome. I wish I had the desire to take the N2 (or any JLPT). I know the certificate would be nice to have, but I just don't have the desire to do a test.

[kraemder]

I'm going to try to update more now here. I was thinking that it's a waste because I really enjoyed updating in the past. I bought a Logitech keyboard for my iPad Air... One of the residents fathers came to stay here and he had an iPad and a Logitech keyboard and it looked really nice. I have a good laptop iMac pro but the iPad is just more portable. Anyway I think his keyboard was better but I bough the ultra light keyboard by Logitech for the iPad Air. I'm using it in bed right now. The typing experience is pretty nice but as a case I'm sort of on the fence. It offers little to no protection which is not a big deal to me since I'm not one to drop my devices. I know most people drop their phones and tablets every day... So often I wonder if they do it on purpose. I drop mine about once a year or so and the devices are not so fragile that it matters. Virtually no scratches. I think you need to drop it a lot or be really unlucky. But I think a nice purpose of a case isn't just the protection it offers but nice viewing angles for watching movies and using the touchscreen. This is where the keyboard case seems a bit lacking. It's mostly a keyboard that has a magnet to stick to the case. So if I don't want to use the keyboard but use it as a tablet I guess I just take the keyboard off... Then I don't really know what to do with it. I might take it off and forget it somewhere possibly. But as I type on this I really like the experience. I am lying down and touch typing without any problems and the angle is even a little awkward. So props for that.

I don't know why but in the latest update to iOS Apple changed the way you switch keyboards. It used to be command and space bar but now it's control, shift, space bar. So there's a button on this keyboard for switching languages but it does nothing because the keyboard came out before the update to iOS. What a waste. I wonder if they don't have some sort of bios update utility or something for it. I'll have to check. I don't plan on replacing my iPad just yet although it's a couple years old now. I'm sure the new keyboards for the new iPad take this change into account.

I had a date with a Japanese girl last night. I study the hell out of Japanese but living in an English speaking share house and teaching English I don't get a lot of speaking practice. We spoke Japanese on the date for the most part until the end when I was drinking beer. Unlike just about everyone else, I tend to get worse at speaking foreign languages when I drink and I'm more likely to switch to my native tongue. I think she was happy to speak English though. Her English and my Japanese are about the same. I don't know how well the date went. It was our first date together although we've been acquaintances for a while because she used to live in the same share house with me. I'm not the best at meeting new girls to date so I hope she had a good time. I think she's really cute and smart so I like her.

I had another Japanese lesson this morning on Skype. It's just a free talking lesson and it's cheap.. About ten dollars for an hour. For Japanese that's really cheap. People living in Japan usually charge 15$ and up.. The cost of living being high in Japan and all. I also had a Spanish lesson but I skipped it. Taking the JLPT this weekend and all I didn't study any Spanish and wasn't up for the lesson. I probably shouldn't have booked it. It's with a guy from South America. He charges $9 and because his cost of living is so low it's a lot for him. Some languages you can get lucky like that. My Spanish is really rusty but my passive understanding is still good. I was never really fluent before but now I tend to speak Japanese when I'm supposed to speak Spanish because the Spanish is so rusty. It's embarrassing. I think it'll get better quickly though if I just consistently put a little effort into it.

I'm going back to manga for my reading material for Japanese. I had wanted to read books a lot. I didn't think that manga was helping my Japanese enough but I've noticed that I just get bored reading books in Japanese right now so I should do what's fun I think. Having a full time job, reading manga to relax is good enough I think. I'm using Anki and the Core 10k deck too. I have been really good keeping my reviews up to date since coming to Japan. Not a big shocker - I'm more motivated. I have the deck setup as a sentence deck. Listening and reading. I had tried doing closed delete a bit but it just got too hard when the intervals got spread out. Reading is passive but at least it's in my head so if I get an opportunity to use it actively I'm not starting from scratch. I'm also saving vocabulary in Midori. Right now I'm adding stuff from manga and just living in Japan. If it gets too much I'll drop the vocab I get from reading as less important.

[kujichagulia]

ラブラブだね！ Glad to see you're having fun in Japan, kraemder!