I just want to be able to understand Japanese. Reading, listening and speaking, that’s my order of priorities. I never intended to take JLPT. It’s just a hobby.
However, since I’ve/I’m putting so much effort, I’ve since decided I will take JLPT at some point 1) to prove myself; 2) to have something that certifies I actually know Japanese and at which level, which may come in handy sometime, you never know.
I see it not as the objective, but as a byproduct.
I have no JLPT goals – my son and his family live in Japan and we visit from time to time. I started WaniKani to better understand signs when we go there, but I wish I had started years ago. I started a couple of years ago after I retired and had more free time, but now that I’m in my 60s, my brain isn’t storing new info as quickly as it did when I was younger. That being said, as an older adult I feel like it has to be good for my brain health to keep learning, so I purchased the lifetime subscription and intend to keep plugging along.
The JLPT has never been all that high on my list of priorities. However, now that I’ve signed up to take the N2 in July, I’ve been relieved to find that nearly all of the (expected) kanji are familiar to me, which means I can spend my time focusing on grammar and listening comprehension.
It depends on your goals. I don’t plan either to take on the JLPT anytime soon as I’m not required to. I’m just doing WaniKani (and other Japanese language studies) on my spare time to improve my skills in order to be able to communicate with Japanese friends, read books, watch movies without subtitles and play video games in Japanese. These are my goals.
I’d like to take the test someday in theory, but I’m a 2 hour flight from the nearest testing location. It’s not really realistic for me to blow that kind of time and money on a whole trip just to take a test for fun