While I was on vacation two weeks ago, I went to a Japanese restaurant and ordered tonkotsu ramen. I was surprised to see it listed as "tonk
otsu" on the menu rather than tonk
atsu, which is how I thought it was spelled. I checked Jisho afterward, and apparently Japanese uses
both tonkatsu
and tonkotsu. They're two different words for two different foods (pork cutlet and pork bone broth, respectively). I always assumed they were both the same word and hence constantly got it wrong. It's nice to finally have that cleared up.
Crawling to a brutal JLPT beating in December 2023I decided to take the 2012 N3 JLPT practice test again, which I previously took
a year and a half ago, and then again
a year ago before I got frustrated by my poor scores and ragequit.
I'm hoping to sit the N2 in December, so I would hope that I am well beyond the N3 level now. As it turns out, the N3 was still really challenging, but I did at least do much better than when I took it a year ago, so that was nice.
My new scores were
Vocabulary: 30/33
Reading and Grammar: 30/39
* Grammar: 14/23
* Reading: 16/16
Listening: 19/27
* Task-based comprehension: 3/6
* Point-based comprehension: 4/6
* Summary: 3/3
* Utterance expressions: 2/4
* Quick response: 7/8
For comparison, here were my scores the first two times I took the test way back when:
Vocabulary: 28/33
Reading and Grammar: N/A
* Grammar: skipped
* Reading: 13/16
Listening: 17/27
* Task-based comprehension: 4/6
* Point-based comprehension: 5/6
* Summary: 3/3
* Utterance expressions: 3/4
* Quick response: 2/8
Vocabulary: 23/33
Reading and Grammar: 25/39
* Grammar: 12/23
* Reading: 13/16
Listening: 14/27
* Task-based comprehension: 3/6
* Point-based comprehension: 5/6
* Summary: 1/3
* Utterance expressions: 2/4
* Quick response: 3/8
On the
language knowledge section, some parts were stupidly easy while others were still challenging, e.g. I (still) couldn't figure out what the correct sentence for korobu was or remember the onomatopoeia for walking (burabura). Fortunately, I did manage to get a couple more questions than before, scoring 30/33 compared to 28 and 23 before, so that was nice.
Grammar has always been my weakness on the practice JLPT exams, and taking it again was still torture, even at just the N3 level. However, I did score a bit higher than before (14/23 vs 12/23), so that was nice at least. It also took me only 28 minutes this time, compared to 39 minutes before. Still, I really wish there was a way to study grammar and get better at this.
The
reading section was a pleasant surprise, as I managed to get a perfect score for the first time! (after getting 13/16 both times before)
Finally, on
listening I did well on the
quick response section for the first time, but still struggled with the rest. This is another place where I really wish there was a better way to study for it, especially those darn Utterance Expressions. It's especially hard because it feels like if you miss even a single moment, it is often impossible to answer the question.
Aquariums Don't DanceI encountered a new word with new kanji, ukatsu (careless). Jisho says that it is normally written in kana.
Also, the game translates fugu to English as "swell fish", which seemed like a dumb mistake to me, as I'd never heard that before. But apparently, "swellfish" is a real term that some people use.