akira hikikomori

N2

Hey guys, so glad this comm exists even if it's dead! I'm signing up for N2 and it'll happen 3 months from now (on July 2nd, 2017). I'm also going to be an exchange student in Japan for autumn semester (or for a full year if I'm really lucky) so I wanted to ramp up my studying for that as well. I thought I'd write my study plan here and see if you guys can help me improve it.

I've already finished: Genki 1, Genki 2, Tobira. I'm taking Japanese classes and they're going through Tobira right now so class is like a review / clarification for me.

Now I'm:
— Grabbing words from manga for class (the first volumes of Doraemon, Rantarou, Chibi Maruko-chan, and Gegege) and doing them on Memrise. I learn the kanji forms even if the manga uses hiragana. I'm learning 50-100 words a day, kanji and hiragana included.

— Reading Yotsubato (after that I don't know what to pick) and listening to movies on YouTube as immersion practice. So when I do Memrise or read manga I have a Japanese movie playing in the background, I mean. I can understand about 90-95% of Yotsuba without looking anything up and I think that's the best comprehension amount for learning by context, so I wanted to find other not-super-boring manga where I understand a similar amount.

— Whenever I'm reading a manga that has furigana, I read everything ALOUD.

— I just started Remembering the Kanji for kanji meanings/handwriting practice only (not caring about pronunciations as I'll learn them via vocabulary eventually), and I'm trying to do 50-100 a day. On the JLPT knowing meanings seems to matter way more than pronunciations. After I finish I might learn all the pronunciations specially...

I'm studying 3-4 hours a day every day but I'm trying to find ways to be able to study more. When I have free time in-between needing to study that manga vocabulary for class, I'm studying words and grammar from "A Dictionary of Intermmediate Japanese", and if I can finish that I'll move on to the "Advanced" one. I'm also thinking more and more about doing memory practice so all this memorization goes a lot faster, but I don't know what I can do that would end up working so fast / not end up sucking up too much time from studying. Like if I sit and try to think of a good memnemonic etc for EVERY SINGLE WORD I'm going to end up memorizing a lot less words, I think... Maybe not? What do you guys suggest?

ling - forever young

JLPT Dec 2013

Anyone taking JLPT this December?

I'll be taking N1.

JLPT's website has some free practice tests for all 5 levels.  LINK.

Any other good sites to find free study games or practice tests?

EDIT: I found a site called Memrise where you can take quizzes and post your own, in order to study vocabulary.  Some things are focused by JLPT level and others are by other categories.  It seems like a helpful way to study Japanese in a test/game-like situation.
phi zennin shibou desu

Game recommendations?

Hello! Hopefully someone can help me out. This community has been kind of dead lately, but it's worth a shot.

I'm going for N1 this summer. I doubt I'll pass, but I'm working my ass off studying. I'm doing about half test-specific textbook studying, and half reading/listening materials intended for native speakers. But, stuff like that can get boring when you do it for hours everyday.

So, any game recommendations? Specifically for the DS systems? Currently I'm playing 善人シボウデス, which I'm really liking because it's half-game and half-novel, and many of the dialogs have audio to go with it. I'd like something similar (lots of focus on reading and listening), if anyone knows of anything that sounds like that.

Thanks for any advice, and good luck to anyone else who plans on taking the JLPT this summer :3
uruha passion
  • risibee

Listening test part 2, multiple negative answers?

 I just attempted the listening section of 2004 4級。

I thought the instructions for part two, as per the example were to select some of the given answers 1-2-3-4 as ただしい and the incorrect scenarios as ただしくない。 It even reminded me not to forget to fill in both parts.
To me this suggested that in some scenarios, more than one of the given answers would be true. So you could end up with two shaded in ただしい and two shaded in ただしくない
If there was always only one correct, why have this option to tick right and wrong?

With this in mind I did the test, and indeed came across some that seemed to have more than one correct answer.

For e.g (this is from memory so maybe a little out) when talking about a song a boy said he really liked the song, a girl said she liked a little but it was loud.

The answer options were

the boy likes it - ただしい
the girl likes it - ただしい
they both like it  - ただしい
the boy hates it - ただしくない

However in the answer sheet there is no mention of this strange multiple way of answering each question and it just lists one correct answer per question. I am confused now how to mark my attempt! In those with only one correct I seem to have got it right, but as with the e.g above I would have marked more than one as correct, would this then just be marked as 0 then? I would have put it down as just the boy likes it if I had thought I was only meant to give one answer. 

Thanks to anyone who can clear this up for me =)
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uruha passion
  • risibee

First time JLPT-er!

Hi

I have been on and off studying Japanese for 4-5years now but at a very slow rate, sometimes going months not learning anything new.
Recently I decided to make something of this, so I have signed up for the new bottom level JLPT N5.
I am taking it this December in London.
Please give me some advice for a first timer, anything is useful!

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Oh woe! [Holic]

N3 Listening files?

Hi everybody!

I hope this kind of post is allowed here ^^ If it isn't, let me know and I'll delete this as soon as possible, okay?

I'm looking for N3 listening material: good books, or files adapted to the new level. I've been searching through the web, but since N3 is a very new level (as you already know) there isn't much yet. I thought I could try listening 3kyuu/N4 audio files, or maybe N2 ones, but my Japanese teacher suggested me to look for a more suitable level: 3Kyuu/N4 would be too low (and I've already passed it) and N2 would be too high for me.

I'd also like to ask you a related question: One of my weak points in this test (and in languages in general XD) is the listening part. I scored less than 60% in the listening section in 3Kyuu last year (but I passed because I did well in the other sections, specially grammar). For some reason, I can't understand most of the conversation and I usually fail with the tricks ^^; This really frustrates me. Any suggestions, please? ^^; Thanks in advance!
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Nobuta wo produce: ノブタパワー

Application form: Question

Hello again.

First of all, thanks to everyone who commented on my last entry :)
I'm about to fill out the application form for the JLPT in Japan, but have 2 questions:

1. "Region code": Nowhere in the application guide they tell you what this is about. Do they want me to choose my original home country or where I live now?
2. Name (as printed in passport): I'm not sure whether they want my last name first or not. On my gaijincard my last name is printed first as is normal in Japan, but in my passport my last and first name are not printed in one line, so you can put it either way, I guess. So what's the correct order for the application form in Japan? :(

Sorry to bother you again and thank you very much in advance! :)
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N2: Reading - How to improve?

Hello!

I'm currently preparing for N2 in December.
Actually I wanted to take it in July, but I missed/forgot the application deadline! *headdesk' (x_x)
I did a mock test back in September 2009 (so 1 year ago) and passed it with 76%.
As grammar was my weakest section back then I focused on that this year (but I was very busy and didn't do much studying until now ...).

Anyways, I'm working on my reading skills for the test right now and somehow it's getting frustrating.
I use the Kanzen Master book for reading (2kyuu).
I did the placement test first as they suggest and got a mere 57% with 論説文 being the weakest (16%).
The book suggests that you concentrate on the text types you were weak at, but with my 57% I feel that I should do all of them and started with the short sentences.
Again, I get like 50-60% correct. Very frustrating.
Another thing is the time management!!! I've never enough time!!!
I'm very strict, even with the short text parts when they give you 3-5 min. in the book, I just stop and take whatever answer I think could be right when the time is over.
Maybe I shouldn't do that now and rather get used to the text styles etc.???

I know people often suggest "just read a lot", but that alone won't help!
I think you have to especially prepare for the test format (and time management).

Also, I've never ever actually prepared the kanji or vocab section for N2.
My kanji ability has been on N1 level for a long time - generally. I know kanji beyond that, but there might be a few kanji compounds that show up in the test that I've never seen before as I haven't prepared for the test specifically.
Same with vocab - just that my vocab might not be N2 level - no idea. Anybody knows how I quickly can test if my knowledge is good enough or how to fill in possible holes - other than taking mock tests that is.


Who else is taking N2 this year?

Thanks a lot in advance! I'm really thankful for any kind of suggestion!
Eileen

Choosing The Test Level

I'm hoping to take the JLPT in Chicago this December, but I have no idea what level to test at. I've been studying on my own since late 2000. I'm mostly self-taught, with one community ed class and a few months of auditing a community college class. I consistently did well on the tests. (Real life [e.g., my job] got in the way of the class, though, so I had to stop attending.) Recently I started using Japanesepod101 intermediate level. It's got enough I can understand and enough new material to make it challenging.

I haven't started looking at it yet, but I have the level 3 questions and answers book for 2004-2006.

Thanks for any suggestions anyone can offer about what level I should choose.
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