I am aiming to take JLPT N2 in December this year and I am really nervous.
I have been studying Japanese for 7 years and can speak it really well. But my reading and writing are not that great.
I studied abroad in 2015-16. I took JLPT N4 at the end of my study abroad trip and passed. I then just kept in touch with my host family for a couple of years and only used Japanese for speaking. I then took Japanese at university and it ended up being my major. We mainly used Genki texts and then used Tobira for more advanced classes. Graduated in June
Right now I am using Wani Kani, Anki decks, Satori reader, Kanzen Master, and Sou-Matome series to study.
What are your study plans looking like?
What have been your experiences so far with studying Japanese?
Do you feel confident? Why or why not?
Thatās how it feels sometimes. I study an average of 4 hours a day. Luckily I have a job where I am just paid to be present and can study during work.
I do my Wanikani and Anki reviews in the morning and at night. I also do the Sou-Matome series casually and then to Kanzen master more seriously. I also read Satori reader pages before bed as my nighttime reading.
But I do worry about burnoutā¦I wonder how I can maximize my reading speed, New kanji, and new vocabulary retentionā¦while also not burning outā¦
Maybe (and this might be the worst advice youāll ever hear, so take it with a tablespoon of salt)
Donāt worry too much about it? Take your time to do things, and if you fail, just take the exam next year? Unless you need it for a job, itās just a fun thing you can do to say āmy nihongo is this much jouzuā, so donāt study to a point of burnint yourself out for it?
Tobira is up to n3 roughly. As I experienced myself thereās a bit of gap there between it and the n2, and itās kinda hard to bridge that in such a small amount of time. Not only do you need a decent grasp of the material, thereās not much time for each question.
Definitely read a lot and try to up your speed in addition to building your understanding.
Iām doing it for work thatās also why Iām putting so much effort in. That and I have a big knowledge gap to cover if I have a shot at passing.
I just got done with school so Iām honestly used to studying more than this. I just hope what I am doing will be effective. Because I know the brain can only handle so much of the same information at one time.
At uni I was studying multiple subjects so that helped with the burnout.
Thereās a lot of good advice in the other jlpt thread, but if youāre doing this because you need it for work then my suggestion is to make sure you take advantage of the way the jlpt rewards good test taking strategy. That is, get hold of mock/sample tests, take them under timed conditions, identify where you most need to improve and concentrate on that. Time management is really important at N2 and N1, especially if your reading speed is not fast, so you want to find out how fast you need to be going now, not in the real test
Iām also taking the N2 in December. Iām finishing up WK, using Anki every day and Iām almost done with the Shin Kanzen Master series for N2. Iāve been reading Hoshi Shinichiās short-short series for extra comprehension and kanji/vocab as well. I feel like my biggest challenge on the test is to manage my time properly and answer everything.
I plan to take N4 in July 2023 although I am just finishing up with N5 grammar. My tutor and I plan to do some quizzes for N5 before moving onto N4. I should be getting my 2 first Japanese Manga on Saturday, Dragonball and Yotsuba, as I want to start with manga reading before doing more text reading next year. I am trying to improve my listening comprehension through beginner podcasts but thats slow going and ofcourse speaking will come through being in the environment now overtime, I hope anyways.
I am gonna keep reading, listening, speaking, and maybe occasionally write until I think I can pass the N1 with ease. Thatāll probably be in a few years though. I get too caught up in passing and not just proving my knowledge, so I want to just ābeā the level I am taking, not try to āproveā the level I am taking, if that makes sense.
Honestly, unless you feel like youāll burn out, thereās probably no point worrying about it. What I mean is this: are you enjoying studying, or are you forcing yourself to do so? Youāll obviously feel tired at the end of a study session, but do you feel drained and frustrated, or satisfied with your progress and fulfilled?
When I was studying French at the C1-C2 level (so at a level equivalent to the N1 for Japanese, and then higher), Iām pretty sure I read newspaper articles 3hrs a day almost every single day. I was having fun. I got tired after a while each day, but I was very happy with what I had learnt. I never burnt out, topped my year nationally for French at high school graduation even though I skipped class (with authorisation) for half a year to save another academic subject, and now Iām in France doing an engineering masterās degree in French while fairly consistently scoring well for the essay-writing humanities modules Iām required to take.
In short, Iād only worry about burn-out if you feel the toll of the effort youāre making much more than you feel the satisfaction of achieving whatever you do.
The introduction/preface to Tobira says itās meant for Level 2 of the old JLPT (up to 2009), which the N2 is supposed to be equivalent to. However, Iāve definitely seen plenty of structures labelled āN2ā that I didnāt see in any of the 13 chapters of Tobira I did. (I didnāt feel like doing the final two because I felt Tobira wasnāt helping me learn productively anymore.) Thereforeā¦ I think it might still be slightly above N3? But not by much at any rate, and there definitely are other things one needs to learn on top of that.
Most of my N2 grammar knowledge comes from looking things up while watching anime, honestly (and just for the sake of credibility with regard to the JLPT, Iāve just passed the N1). Maybe OP might want to consider doing something like that? (Itās also called āsentence miningā, if we want to sound cool, but yeah, essentially, I find it easier to learn things in context than by cramming using short examples from books.)
Burnout can and will happen. The question is when. I recommend the best thing to do is just listen to your body and do what you want when you want and as much as you want. BUT in the case of the JLPT, set long term and short term goals. For example, I need X number of Kanji for the test, so by these dates I need to have studied this many. Make sure theyāre reasonable too because its not every day you can go 110%. Those burst happen but they donāt last.
Yeah, when I really got into visual novels, I was working my brain so hard for hours a day (on top of wanikani full speed and my degree) that I literally ended every day with brain fog and raw mental exhaustion. But every day I went to bed at a reasonable time and would get plenty of sleep because I was already looking forward to getting to do it the next day and wanted to make sure I was in peak form so I could do it for as long as possible and as well as possible.
Burnout is correlated to time spent on something and the amount of work you put in, but not caused by it.
Burnout, in my experience is usually just unsustainability. Like a build up (or wearing down) that eventually reaches a tipping point. If you have no negative emotions being built up and no joy being lost, I donāt know if it should be a worry.
Thank you this is really good advice. I do feel tired after study sessions but I love the feeling when I have those āah haā moments. Even though I am doing this for work I know I wonāt regret it even if I fail. I have learned so much already pushing myself this much!
