I think the JLPT can be helpful to provide structure mapped to training material, but I fully agree that people shouldn’t get hung up on the exam, or stay too long or exclusively within its guardrails.
What you shared about your language journey provides a very useful counter balance: thank you for that!
7 Likes
21日
| Oct | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 01[N/A] | 02[N/A] | 03[N/A] | 04[N/A] | 05[N/A] | ||
| 06[N/A] | 07[N/A] | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
One thing which never fails to surprise me is what part of the speech natives translate to you. I remember one time the in law grandparents talking about お節料理 (osechiryouri, food for new year) with all its unique dishes and deciding to translate 水 to water for me.
When texting my teacher today she corrected my message, because it sounded too archaic. More specifically 予期せぬ客が来るみたいです would sound more natural as 友達が急にくることになった。What I dont get though is why the explanations need to be in English. I just used the word 予期せぬ so why should I not understand “This sentence is like samurai” and “Like this is more natural”? At some point it is easier for both you and me to just continue in Japanese. Translating only the parts that are above the listeners skill level, is such a difficult task, that it is almost always the most appropriate to just rephrase something slightly easier and let the listener tell you if they do not understand something so you can explain it in even simpler Japanese. “Unsolicited” English translation are driving me crazy, even though you know they just want to help you 
Todays points:
- Wanikani 20 lessons, 102 reviews
- また同じ夢を見ていた 70 - 75/380
- Text to grandparents in law (appr. 400字)
12 Likes
There might be survivorship bias on why so many people tend to focus on passing the JLPT.
In comparison to any ability focused goals achieving a certain amount of points on a JLPT is so easy to measure. You can compare yourself easily to previous results and other people. It has a clear fixed deadline by the exam date, whereas most other goals might feel like running an ultra marathon, not knowing where the finish line is going to be.
So maybe a lot of people who decided to do x in Japanese might have given up along the way, never to be heard from again. So I think JLPT goals also shows great merit as a way to keep motivation up. And once you reach one level, the next one does seem close enough to convince one to continue just a bit more to the next level.
10 Likes
Ooh I relate hard to this. I think it’s sometimes like they have a brain wave of “I know this word in English!” so they share it without any other processing
8 Likes
22日と23日
| Oct | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 01[N/A] | 02[N/A] | 03[N/A] | 04[N/A] | 05[N/A] | ||
| 06[N/A] | 07[N/A] | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
So the inevitable has happened and life comes in the way. Some issues with the supervisor and also an upcoming midterm ate away quite a bite of time and I needed to cancel a lot of lessons and language exchanges. I will try to get these things more in order the coming days, however the last two days have more been in maintenance mode with doing the minimal routine. Slowly reading starts to become more of a nice escape from every day life and less of a chore. I will keep up with this routine a bite more and add some extra study slowly over the days.
Yesterdays and today points:
- Wanikani 20 lessons, 15 lessons, 151 and 120 reviews
- また同じ夢を見ていた 75 - 90/380
12 Likes
24日と25日
| Oct | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 01[N/A] | 02[N/A] | 03[N/A] | 04[N/A] | 05[N/A] | ||
| 06[N/A] | 07[N/A] | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
| Nov | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 月 | 火 | 水 | 木 | 金 | 土 | 日 |
| 01 | 02 | |||||
| 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
October is finished! And while the start has been strong I did fall off the wagon at the very end of it. It is still not decided but an upcoming change of supervisor will hopefully give me the time back to dedicate the amount of time to Japanese that I originally planned.
So with the end of the month comes a small review of what has been accomplished and a bit of reflection.
Things finished:
- Quartet I, the whole book has been worked off
- Writing 3/4 texts to the in-laws
- Reached Wanikani level 38
- 4/4 weekly intensive grammar session
- Except for the last week the language exchange and lessons have been going smoothly
- JLPT mock exams: N3 PASS, N2 PASS
What did not work out:
- I find it difficult to incorporate the listening practice into daily life it does not sound like much, but trying to find a right video took up more mental estate than it was worth for me. Also I have been reducing my usage of all social media (especially those with algorithms) over the past three years and have come to a point, where I could somewhat comfortably quit Youtube, which does help me but not so much the listening practice. I am thinking that starting an anime might be able to make it easier to decide every day what to watch and also lets me not use common social media platforms.
- To be honest with myself, there was maybe one day in the challenge where I actually read 1.5h. The golden time for me to read is during my morning commute, which I, however, use for Wanikani. Throughout my day I work and during breaks I rather talk with colleagues, leaving me with the after work time where chores, cooking, homework, reading and so on compete for attention of a tired mind. I am already in discussion with changing the supervisor as the current one needs results outside the scope of the project and a normal working week. This could make 1.5h a day way more realistic again.
Some changes I want to make:
- Change the reading goal from time spent to pages read
- Read more in the morning
- Choose one listening practice resource and go into depth instead of breadth (less time spent on choosing)
- Have at least one conversation with partner in Japanese per week (Brief them on my knowledge in Japanese first and ask them to reduce dialect usage)
Goals until December 6th
- Wanikani level 38-42 (With my current speed I could manage one more level than I thought)
- Quartet 2 chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 (current speed allows for appr. 1 chapter per week)
- Finish また同じ夢を見ていた (would require around 7 pages per day)
- Establish some time before noon dedicated to Japanese practice
Overall I am quite happy with the results. I never did my Wanikani reviews so religiously since the very beginning. The study log definitely helps a lot with consistency and motivation! I realised that there is quite a bit of difference in your Japanese ability depending on how immersed you were the past few days. In the middle of October talking in Japanese was definitely much easier than in the end, where my study was more in a maintenance mode. From my courses on human mind and how we learn, I know that we do not forget things easily and that as long as I had a good nights sleep on that day, the information has been properly saved on my brain, which means it should be easy to go back to faster and more natural conversations easily. Anyhow, here are the points of study:
Yesterdays & todays points:
- Wanikani 20 lessons, 0 lesson, 68 reviews and 72 reviews
- また同じ夢を見ていた no progress T-T
- 1h language exchange
- Quartet chapter 7 text 1
12 Likes
Have you considered a podcast/vlog?
There are a few there for N2/N1.
Also, depending on how good your listening is, you could also try JapanesePod101 and go straight to Level 4 or Level 5.
6 Likes
For the listening I would recommend podcasts (on any platform, but preferably of the audio type like Spotify or iTunes to avoid distractions) I do it almost automatically when I’m doing chores, or prepare my meals.
I do it for shadowing - I’m not as advanced as you so I don’t understand much ;), but I’m trying to focus on the right pronunciation and tempo. And I’m picking bits and pieces along the way.
5 Likes
Thank you very much for the suggestion!
Most of the podcasts are made for Japanese learners, so they use “artificial” sentences, which might not be the best if you are around N2. However, I found the Sound Library series in this thread which seems like a fantastic podcast!
Did you try the JapanesePod101 teacher service? Originally I was thinking that the 日本語の森 N1 series, might be a good ressource in a few months, as their explanations are completely in Japanese, so that you could do grammar and listening practice simultaneously. However, the one month subscription of JapanesePod with teacher access is cheaper than 1 lesson with a teacher here. I am wondering if there is a limit on how much you can use and what quality the teacher responses usually are.
2 Likes
I just found out that on apple podcasts you can set your region to Japan, which then automatically only shows Japanese podcasts that are made for native speakers.
I will look if I can find a series and download some of the episodes onto the e reader. This way it is probably the least distracting, and even if one distracts themselves on an e-reader, at least they tricked themselves into reading (;
2 Likes
26日
Since the journey to Japan already starts in one month I looked into the prices of physical books there. If you buy them in a bundle they become surprisingly cheap, to a point where the average around 150-250 Yen a piece. I might add another suitcase for the return flight and have the extra suitcase inside another suitcase for the departure flight. This way I could fill up one whole suitcase full of manga and other souvenirs (Daifuku, I love them).
Todays points:
- Wanikani 20 lessons, 125 reviews
- また同じ夢を見ていた 90 - 103/380
6 Likes
I have not tried the teacher service, but what’s nice about JP101 (upper levels) is that they do use a lot of normal - or at least expected - Japanese. So if a character speaks weird it’s usually on purpose for the character and not because of it being a learner (for example, if the character is supposed to be a caricature of a bad guy, or a stereotype of a salesman on TV)
I might try the teacher service next year if I can find a cheap way to upgrade. I have a really cheap 2 year plan for the regular Premium ($84) so I don’t know how expensive it’d be to upgrade further.
A lot of other podcasts also exist, where it’s just people talking about their day.
3 Likes
YUYU日本語 got me from low N3 to low/mid N2. He mostly talks in a vlog style, but just speaks clearly and will define difficult words with synonyms. I’ve mostly leveled out of his content, but I will still listen when I see him talk about an interesting topic.
Most of the WK podcast club picks are for learner oriented podcasts, but 4989 American Life is for native speakers and is a decent level around N2, and there’s a thread on here where we’re listening to them together.
Audiobooks are also another listening resource that should start to open up around N2.
6 Likes
Popping in with some non-learner focused suggestions - I’m not really a podcast person, but sometimes I bump into them on youtube. These are aimed at natives, so might be good practice, although admittedly harder than you’d get on the N2 exam:
https://www.youtube.com/@yurugengo - linguistics
https://www.youtube.com/@CRIMINAL-02 - true crime. probably better if you watch as they’re not podcasts but actually videos, but I admit to sometimes listening without watching while cooking or whatever
https://www.youtube.com/@AudioMovie - they stopped making new content awhile ago, but it’s audio dramas and quite well done
https://www.youtube.com/@sekaimystery - another one that’s actually youtube videos, but can definitely be watched for just the monologue
https://www.youtube.com/@gonzalesmaruyamathedeepworld - interviews mostly. focus on the criminal underworld in Japan
I personally got bored of learner content really early and preferred harder content that was more interesting
7 Likes
27日
I took some time to read in the morning instead of the night today and the differences are huge. Looking up the same word multiple times was rare and generally the reading speed was faster. Afterwards, I had an 1h train ride, giving me some perfect time for reading today.
Overall the setting with an e-reader with custom dictionaries on ko-reader works very well. The speed of the dictionary look ups is good and it recognizes words within the sentences well. As of now I am using JM-Dict and have not many complaints. However, as most other dictionaries it sometimes gives you uncommon readings or definitions first, which is quite dangerous if you see some words for the very first time and dont have a hunch for the reading/meaning should actually be. For example, for 門 (もん, Gate) it shows as the first definition the reading かど. If it was my first time encountering the word, I’d probably just learned the かど reading and not bothered to click through the other definitions.
Anyhow, I am thinking of switching out the current JP-EN to a childrens JP-JP dictionary. The time I arrive to Japan might be a good time to start making the switch.
Todays points:
- Wanikani 20 lessons, 249 reviews
- また同じ夢を見ていた 103 - 149/380
7 Likes
28日
Today I had the chance to talk for an hour with the mother of my partner. She also knows German so the last few times we usually talked in my mother tongue. However, this time we realised that my Japanese was better than her German and for the first time talked the entire time just in Japanese. It must have been a relief for her, knowing that she gets nervous every time she speaks German, so it has been very rewarding to know that my pactice has been useful for her, too!
I will see them again during this challenge, probably around Christmas time, so until then I want to improve even more to surprise them. The father speaks better German than the mother and has experience in holding lectures in the uni at German, however, given that he did not practice for half a decade, he forgot a lot and I might be able to make my spoken Japanese better than his German. When it comes to reading books though, it will be a long time until I can overtake either of the two.
Todays points:
- Wanikani 20 lessons 137 reviews
- また同じ夢を見ていた 5 pages out of daily goal of 10. (154/380)
- Quartet chapter 7, text 2
- 1h talk in Japanese
12 Likes
29日と30日
I listened to some of the sound library podcasts today. I found it difficult to listen to what has been said, because the voice of the narrator sounds too beautiful. The soothing voice and the calm piano background music make it the perfect podcast to fall asleep to, which I mentally admittedly did. Never the less the practice with the teacher has been going well and after telling her the story of how the grandparents in law often switch to random english even though I understand most sentences if spoken slowly in 優しい日本語, I could indirectly tell her that I also want her to speak completely in Japanese with me. Being raised in schools were you were told to tell things directly, this indirect way of asking for something has been surprisingly pleasant and I am impressed how she realised my wish, because I would have not gotten this indirect message.
After passing the N2 mock test I made myself some thoughts what my actual Japanese goal is. Mostly I want to be able to talk with the family naturally, dont want to be limited in my expression by my language skills and hopefully even be able to speak persuasive/eloquent/beautiful Japanese above what you listen to from the average native speaker.
For me it seems to be pretty clear that out of the four language skills, speaking seems to be the most important by far. I am slowly piecing together all the speaking specific skills and their ways to train them to think of a study regimen after this challenge. However, a big focus on speaking and reading should let me improve in speaking whilst still improving my overall Japanese ability. Listening will be indirectly trained as the speaking exercises will include lots of shadowing and also lots of conversations. Writing will be heavily neglected, but as long as I am able to write what I need to on Line I can accept this drawback.
This also means I could not take and pass the JLPT N1 exam as quickly as I could and I might be lacking in some more difficult grammar points. Still I think by reading and talking enough I might eventually come to a stage where I can take the N1 without preparation and pass. Lastly, I am in a fortunate position where there is no need to have certification.
I have the feeling that only few study blogs here go in-depth when it comes to training speaking specifically, so I am considering sharing my findings after this challenge as well.
This is enough rambling you can skip this part as I am just gushing out some random thoughts:
(While listening to the audiobook I was thinking that doing your own might be a fantastic Japanese practice. You train writing interesting and natural sounding texts, you train impersonating different people with their own way of speaking and you record everything afterwards so you can get it corrected and check for yourself. They are a lot of work but maybe if you do one every week and then properly analyze your mistakes with a native you might improve heavily in pronounciation and being able to express yourself in different ways. Also just having cute little stories and recordings to look back to is motivating.)
Yesterdays and Todays points:
- Wanikani 20 lessons, 20 lessons, 198 reviews and 63 reviews
- 1 hour of talking with Japanese teacher
- 20 minutes and 40 minutes of audio book
- また同じ夢を見ていた 29/20 pages (183/380)
11 Likes
I think speaking/listening and writing/reading are two pairs, and for practical language use, usually speaking/listening are more important and also have the challenge that they feel too fast for us learners. (Some people on this forum prioritize reading…)
I look forward to your updates on improving speaking. I haven’t done much myself yet but I think shadowing practice is key.
頑張りましょう!
5 Likes