JLPT: Japanese Language Proficiency Test.
Consists of levels 5 through 1, with level 1 being fluent, and level 5 meaning you have approximately the communicative competency of a 5-year-old.
Someone I know (*ahem*) happens to have decided to take the level 4 test the first weekend in December. She has adopted some really effective study strategies, and thought it prudent to share them.
(1) Assess your current level of Japanese proficiency. You think you're somewhere around level 5? Good. Sign up for the test that is a level ABOVE...to *challenge* yourself.
(2) Before you can begin to "properly" study, invest in some good coloured pens so you can write impressive colour-coded study notes. This not only feels more productive, it looks more productive!
(3) Order study materials that are designed to take you three solid months to get through. But be sure to order them with just over two months until the test. Wait two weeks before cracking open these books, and once you've done so, only open them a few times for the first week or two.
(4) In the time you have left, try to learn about 150 new kanji. At least they aren't all entirely "new"; you're already "familiar" with a lot of them, but definitely don't have all of the various readings memorized. Ganbatte ne!
(5) Feel awesome about the amount of Japanese you are learning - listen to the teachers in the staff room when they express how impressed they are with your studies. Because they are most definitely genuinely impressed! Way to go you!! You can pat yourself on the back. Immediately after, feel deflated when they flip through your textbooks and comment that, Wow, you are learning the kanji of a fourth grader!
She may be feeling overwhelmed at the sheer volume of material to go through and study and review and review again, but at least the looming test date is giving her ample motivation to study Japanese, and studying Japanese more intensely gives her a feeling of satisfaction. All good things, even if the outcome is a "Fail".
Showing posts with label Japanese language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese language. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
How are you?
I hadn't realized how much I rely on this one tiny bit of English as a way of easing into conversations: "how are you?"
As I'm slowly acquiring some Japanese, I remain at a loss as to what phrase to use in place of this while conversing with Japanese acquaintances. "O genki desu ka?" essentially means "you are well?", and is the closest equivalent that I am aware of. As far as I can tell, though, this is not exceedingly common, especially in casual conversation. I have only heard it used a couple of times, and once quite jokingly with students who were causing some mild mayhem.
I could be wrong, or there could be something quite simple that I've been missing all along and just haven't learned yet. But in the absence of such knowledge, I wonder why it might be that we ALWAYS follow our greetings with an inquiry as to the other's wellbeing, and why this doesn't seem to be the case in Japan.
I wonder...are personal feelings a less common conversational topic? More private than public? People seem to avoid discussing how they really feel about things, instead remarking on the state of situations and how they have affected other people and things. In my observations this seems to be the case, but I write this with a bit of hesitancy about making an easy blanket statement about the entire culture. I'm still sorting my way through everything, and quite possibly have just missed these kinds of subtleties. However, maybe there is more of a reservation about inward, personal matters than I'm used to.
On the other hand, though the surroundings I have grown up in seem to value being emotionally open (in some ways), we very rarely answer the question "how are you?" truthfully. Possibly with those closest to us, but usually it's an automatic "Good; you?"
This is one reason I find the "greetings" at the start of English classes in Japan so interesting and yet not quite natural.
"How are you?"
"I'm fine/sleepy/tired/hungry/hot/cold/happy, and you?"
Hm. I don't think I've ever responded to that question by elaborating on my body temperature.
As I'm slowly acquiring some Japanese, I remain at a loss as to what phrase to use in place of this while conversing with Japanese acquaintances. "O genki desu ka?" essentially means "you are well?", and is the closest equivalent that I am aware of. As far as I can tell, though, this is not exceedingly common, especially in casual conversation. I have only heard it used a couple of times, and once quite jokingly with students who were causing some mild mayhem.
I could be wrong, or there could be something quite simple that I've been missing all along and just haven't learned yet. But in the absence of such knowledge, I wonder why it might be that we ALWAYS follow our greetings with an inquiry as to the other's wellbeing, and why this doesn't seem to be the case in Japan.
I wonder...are personal feelings a less common conversational topic? More private than public? People seem to avoid discussing how they really feel about things, instead remarking on the state of situations and how they have affected other people and things. In my observations this seems to be the case, but I write this with a bit of hesitancy about making an easy blanket statement about the entire culture. I'm still sorting my way through everything, and quite possibly have just missed these kinds of subtleties. However, maybe there is more of a reservation about inward, personal matters than I'm used to.
On the other hand, though the surroundings I have grown up in seem to value being emotionally open (in some ways), we very rarely answer the question "how are you?" truthfully. Possibly with those closest to us, but usually it's an automatic "Good; you?"
This is one reason I find the "greetings" at the start of English classes in Japan so interesting and yet not quite natural.
"How are you?"
"I'm fine/sleepy/tired/hungry/hot/cold/happy, and you?"
Hm. I don't think I've ever responded to that question by elaborating on my body temperature.
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