My score was 258 out of 400  (240 is passing). I just barely passed, but I’ll take it.

My scores were:

Vocab/Kanji – 74/100

Listening –  56 / 200

Reading/Grammar – 128 / 200 

My overall score is about what I was expecting based on all the  practice tests I did, but the scores for the individual sections were a little different.  On all the practice tests, I would consistently get about 85% on the Vocab/Kanji, 75% on the listening, and 55% on Reading/Grammar.  However, on the actual tests I made a few careless mistakes on vocab and I also ran out of time and left a couple questions blank, and my listening score took a hit because I had trouble hearing the questions over the noise of the 300 people in the classroom turning the pages of the test booklet in unison.  But my reading score was helped out by a few lucky guesses.  

I took the test after studying Japanese for 3.5 years, although my first two years of study were not very productive.  Starting out, I didn’t really know how to study Japanese well.  If I could start again knowing what I do now, I probably could learn everything from those first two years in 6 months.  So I’d guess that I passed 2kyuu with about 2 years worth of efficient study.

Since I took the test in December, I haven’t had much motivation to study, but soon I’m going to start commuting to Tokyo for my new job, so I’ll have about 2 hours on the train each day.  If I can use that time to study, I might be able to make good progress towards 1kyuu.  I think a good goal might be to try for taking the 1kyuu in Summer of 2010.

For me I started studying Japanese at UT, taking the basic Japanese courses. One hour a day, Monday to Friday. These were done in the typical language course style, but with obvious additions to make Kanji a part of the curriculum. We would have our usual lessons with some silly situation, a conversation with new vocabulary to learn, an important grammar point, some role plays to try out, etc. The main focus was on grammar and vocabulary. It was about learning everyday Japanese, and of course the very basic kanji. The kanji we learned was the most simplistic at first, as well as leaning the most necessary kanji for our needs. We would learn the radicals early on too, but the most important thing was to learn how to write it, the vocabulary with it, and their readings. But the big problem was that since time was short, we would have a limited amount of kanji to study each week. I never fully grasped the importance of the radicals or their meanings, because it was always about learning the vocabulary. This is a major hinderance in learning Japanese I feel as gaining a quick understanding of it will help out greatly later on. And yet years later I would admit that I didn’t fully grasp a lot of the concepts of some parts of the language at that time, kanji particularly. However for college level classes, I thought they were good, and thankfully avoid of romanji, which I simply can’t read at all. For basic Japanese speaking skills, this type of class is OK I think. You learn what you need to survive, and get by to get that “あなたの日本語は上手ですね！” However this was not what I wanted, I wanted to really speak and understand the language. After talking with my teachers and other people, I was told that really the only thing that could do that was total immersion. It’s something I agree with as well. Sure you can learn the language on your own even, but without the immersion or the chance to practice the language in a real environment, you can never really achieve full fluency I feel. At UT I had  very limited chances to use my Japanese. In class it was hard with so many people crammed in there, each trying to get a chance to speak. And our vocal tests were more script memorization than anything. In fact I probably used it more at anime club than outside it. I realized that it was time to take a chance and go learn the language in Japan. 

So in 2001 I went to Sophia University in Tokyo. In reality I had no idea what classes I would be taking when I got there, but I knew that being immersed in the language would help me a lot. When I spoke to the counselor there, she asked me if I had planned on taking the JLI courses. I, not knowing what JLI was, inquired about it. Sophia had developed a program that taught Japanese at a very intensive level, called the Japanese Language Institute (JLI). It was a two year program that, if you passed and completed it, you would be at the 1 kyuu level of the JLPT test. Even though I would only be at Sophia a year, I could take the program and truly improve my Japanese they told me, and they highly recommended it to me since I had recently switched my major to Japanese and it was the focus of my coming to Japan. It was a difficult program, but they were proud of their successes and they felt I could do it. It would involve taking 18 hours of Japanese classes a week.  1 and a half hours of grammar a day, 1 and a half hours of kanji a day, and two days with a hour and a half of conversation practice. The classes would be taught in Japanese only, and would require a heavy commitment from me both in class and outside it. I decided this was the challenge I was looking for, and I felt that with 4 years of study, including some intermediate Japanese classes under my belt from UT, I could eaisly test out of the first semester of JLI and move into the second.

I was wrong. But what ended up happening did more to improve my Japanese than anything before or since. 

Next time, I will talk about how I truly started to fully understand Japanese and really learn the language by discussing my time at Sophia.

Doing that, I got a 72 on the Kanji/vocab, a 108 on the Reading/grammar and a 51 on listening…for a grand total of 232 or about 58%.  60% is passing, but hopefully some of my uncertain answers that I marked wrong will turn out to be correct and push me over the edge.  I think I can narrow my score into the range of 58-62%.

My listening score was about 20 points lower than all my practice tests.  I’m going to blame this on:

1) The speakers…loud enough, but with some distortion.  To be fair it was very light…but it was enough to make me strain to hear some of the mumbly male voices

2) Noise – The JLPT people are so strict about cell phones ringing, etc; however, you can make as much noise as you want turning the pages…every we moved to the next page, I had to strain to hear the beginning of the next question over the rustling of 200 test booklets.

3) The listening section with pictures seemed a little harder than previous tests.

4) Nervousness, which probably didn’t help my listening ability, either.

Waterfall at Shosenkyo

First of all here is a pic from my birthday trip to Shosenkyo, a place near my home. Very nice.

I don’t know about everyone else but I can’t wait for winter vacation. Life and work really has been so busy lately, but at least the wonderful snow topped view of Mt Fuji from my home is keeping me feeling happy. I wish I had a camera these days.

I should be studying for the JLPT like sneaky, but of course something came up so I’m not taking the test this year. So instead I’m studying my Japanese by playing Metal Gear Solid 4 on my new PS3. Any studying is good, but I hate that I didn’t keep my promise  to myself last year of taking the test this year no matter what after giving up my paid for test to help that horrible company I used to work for.

As for what’s happening with me, well for the first time in 14 years, I went to the dentist. I got a cavity in one of my teeth a few weeks ago so I finally got the courage and went. Thankfully my other teeth are ok, and the dentist was very nice and helpful. But I will need a little work fixing that tooth, my broken tooth from years past, and getting my gums back to normal. But I was so glad to hear the word maru so many times when the dentist was looking at each tooth. Plus the cleaning made me feel great!

• Do one practice test a night
• Do at least 30 minutes of flashcards on Anki each day

One good thing about the test is that it doesn’t test actually writing of kanji. The closest it comes to that is having you select the correct kanji from a group of similar looking characters.  Having finished Remembering the Kanji, that is a pretty simple task. But if I actually had to write something, I would need to spend some time reviewing.