I started a new job and I’m struggling to find as much time for JP as I did. Still studying every say just wish I could do more. I’m behind this month.
9 Likes
Nice. Last year I’ve watched a couple of their N3 live streams and I really enjoyed them. Very lively and lots of examples to make the discussed topic tangible.
Hope you’ll be back in enjoying Japanese very soon either by reading books, watching movies or listening to some crazy underground music (… or simply stuff you enjoy 
)
Congrats. Hope you’ll get back into the flow soon 
…and for those of you who are interested in learning more about Yûma and how they got into swimming here comes a new set of six questions for the fourth N5 podcast from the JLPT stories
- 水泳– JLPT N5 / June 08 2019 / Yûma
Also, this will be the last week I am going through N5 podcasts. I’ll switch to N4 from now on.
Q1
Japanese: 泳ぎ始めた時は何ですか。
English: When did he started swimming?
Suggestions answer: when he was an elementary school student
Since before he enrolled with elementary school
Since elementary school
Since second year elementary school
Since last year of elementary school
Q2
English: How did he get started?
Suggestions answer: Together with his dad
Swimming club at his school
Swimming club at the local swimming pool
Together with his dad
Together with his mom
Q3
Japanese: すぐに、水泳クラブに入りましたか。どうしてですか。
English: Did he join the swimming club immediately? Why is that so?
Suggestions answer: No, because his parent encouraged him to get better first
Yes, because his parent encouraged him it will get him become better
Yes, because he saw other elementary students practice swimming in the local swimming pool
No, because his parent encouraged him to get better first
No, because he felt he should become better first
Q4
English: Does his parent continue swimming when Yûma joined the swimming club?
Suggestions answer: Yes, they swam for themselves and sometimes they played together with Yûma in the pool after the club finished
Yes, they swam for themselves and sometimes they played together with Yûma in the pool after the club finished
Yes, they swam for themselves but stopped playing together with Yûma in the pool (even after the club finished)
No, but sometimes they played together with Yûma in the pool after the club finished
No, they only started it to get Yûma interested in learning how to swim
Q5
Japanese: 水泳が上手になった時は何ですか。
English: When did Yûma made progress as a swimmer?
Suggestions answer: When he entered middle school
Elementary school, second year in summer
Elementary school, last year
When he entered middle school
Middle school, third year
Q6
Japanese: 今まで、部屋の中の物は何ですか。
English: What is still in Yûmas room?
Suggestions answer: medal and picture with his parent when Yûma won the swimming competition
The medal and record of achievement when Yûma the swimming competition at his last year in middle school
The medal and picture with his parent when Yûma the swimming competition at his last year in middle school
The medal and picture his parent took when Yûma the swimming competition at his last year in middle school
The medal and picture with his parent when his parent won the swimming competition at Yûmas last year in middle school
5 Likes
I feel that!!
I know language learning is a marathon and not a sprint etc etc but sometimes I’m just so impatient. Like, I just wanna understand things properly already, geesh 
There’s just… so many words.
It helps to focus on the fun things like you said.
I try to focus on enjoying the things I can already watch/read (with a dictionary most of the time, but still) instead of the “end goal” (whatever that even is) that’s still way too far away anyway.
And that is fun, absolutely, but man, I still get impatient, I can’t help it 
Also same 
I’m not taking the jlpt this year but some day in the future I will probably face the same dilemma.
Unfortunately I have no advice, but fingers crossed that keigo isn’t that important on the exam and it will go well for you!
Good luck!!
4 Likes
Was registered for July 4 in Thailand. We just found out, cancelled 
Oh no I’m so sorry, that must’ve been disappointing to find out 
Check-in (#6) June 6th
How does it work?
These check-in posts were suggested by @banditraider and will be made bi-weekly (on Sundays). Please answer the questions over the indicated period (so, the past two weeks). Feel free to respond, whether you’re studying more casually, or even if you’re taking the actual JLPT! It might be a nice way to hold yourself accountable, or just see how you’re progressing over time (if you regularly respond). The format and included questions aren’t set in stone at all, so if you have any suggestions, please reply!
Q1: How have you been sticking to your study schedule during the past two weeks? (period 05/23 - 06/20)
- I have stuck to my schedule 75% - 100% of the time
- I have stuck to my schedule around 50% of the time
- I have stuck to my schedule 0% to 25% of the time
- I do not have a clear schedule, but I have studied Japanese regularly
- I do not have a clear schedule yet, but I am in the process of making one
- I have not started studying for the JLPT yet
- Other (please comment)
0 voters
Q2: Have you made any changes to your study routine (if you have one) or methods during the past two weeks? (period 05/23 - 06/20)
- No
- Yes, I have changed my routine so I spend less time on Japanese than I originally intended
- Yes, I have changed my routine so I spend more time on Japanese than I originally intended
- Yes, I have cut some methods from my routine
- Yes, I have discovered new studying methods that I would like to add to my routine (please comment!)
- Yes, I have decided to switch my focus to a different skill (e.g., listening instead of reading)
- Yes, but I haven’t changed my routine/methods in any of the ways mentioned above (please comment!)
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
Q3: How confident are you for the JLPT, right now?
- Very confident
- Fairly confident
- Neither
- Not very confident
- Not confident at all
0 voters
Q4: What is your strength in Japanese, right now?
- Listening
- Reading
- Speaking
- Vocabulary
- Kanji
- Writing
- Grammar
- My skills are all at a similar level
- I don’t know
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
Q5: What is your weakness in Japanese, right now?
- Listening
- Reading
- Speaking
- Vocabulary
- Kanji
- Writing
- Grammar
- My skills are all at a similar level
- I don’t know
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
All polls close in 2 weeks, just before the next check-in post.
Please leave a comment if you feel a question or answering option is missing/should be changed! Also feel free to leave any other comments you might have!
5 Likes
I love how I always tick on ‘Reading’ as my strength and then I go back to my book that I’m reading. ^^" I don’t even try to pretend that I’m putting emphasis on improving my other skills. Finally my local library opened again, and I rented an N2 preparation book… yeah you guessed right, it’s 読解.
My plan is to work through this one, see if I can actually solve the reading problems, and then concentrate on the other parts. Like listening, mainly.
I am learning new words via Anki every day (25/day, might change it to 30-35 though, because now I spend less than 30 min every day with Anki), and also new grammar with Bunpro (5-10/day).
3 Likes
I’m quite late, but I’ll join. I’m already considering using N4 as sort a progress marker anyway so would be neat to have a more concrete deadline to aim for.
For the past couple of months or so I’ve been a bit more consistent with my studying. It’s following a period of struggling before that. I felt like I was focusing too much on certain aspects and neglecting others which I think demotivated me at times. So recently I’ve stuck to:
- Going through WK reviews daily and slowly adding new lessons
- Working through a Genki 2 based memrise deck
- Reading grammar explanations in Genki then loading them into Bunpro
As of writing, I only have chapter 20-23 left before I finish adding all the vocab on memrise. I’m a bit further behind when it comes to the grammar (still on chapter 17) but I plan to focus more on that once I finish adding all the vocab items.
Outside of that I’ve also been listening to JPod101 episodes most days and doing a few lessons with a native speaker who gives me reading assignments. More so for fun and to vary my studying method a bit so I’m not solely using SRS. But I think it’s good in the sense that I’m being exposed to conversation and not simply studying the concepts in isolation.
Probably going to be difficult for me to finish in the span of less than a month since I’ll be studying something else full time, but maybe there’s still a chance I can pass. The thought makes me motivated so I welcome the challenge 
3 Likes
An inconvenience for me. Thai students are missing out on grants from Japan Government,
study abroad plans dashed. Really sad
1 Like
Welp, the JLPT for Singapore has been cancelled. This is despite us having a soft lockdown until 21 June and daily cases are now around 10-15 people for a population of arond 6 million. 65% of the population have also been vaccinated. Our highest number of daily transmission cases this year is around 50.
5 Likes
I continue to go about this in a very disorganised way haha. I originally intended to do the N5 test, I’m now thinking I’ll try N4. However the new element I’ve added to my study routine (other than reading a whole bunch via the read every day challenge here) is that I’ve been watching one segment of this 日本語の森 N3 video every day: Here I like it as it’s covering quite a lot of grammar I’ve come across reading, as well as being extra listening and reading practice given that it’s taught in Japanese.
…however it won’t be very helpful for N4 at all haha, especially given that my real weakness is most likely vocab But I don’t have enough time for any more SRS on top of WK and Jalup (I mean I would if I sacrificed reading time for SRS but no way I’m doing that) so…🤷
Scotland isn’t holding the JLPT until July 2022 at the earliest anyway so doesn’t matter too terribly much regardless. Will be interesting to see how the practice test goes!
5 Likes
Finished with all my textbooks & both sample tests!!! 
I realize this event is for 2012 mock test, and I shouldn’t “spoiler” anything regarding 2018 questions, but since I did both I want to share my results for both.
Btw, I preferred the 2018 test, because it has much nicer resolution.
I didn’t use any weighting method for calculating my results.
| N3 | 2012 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| kanji and vocabulary | 79% | 91% |
| grammar | 70% | 74% |
| reading | 87% | 87% |
| listening | 89% | 71% |
Listening was a nice surprise, after how much I complained about it. It still got the most unstable score of all sections. But I expected 50-60%, especially since that’s what I got on average during textbook’s exercises (Sou Matome + SKM).
Taking into account that kanji&vocab&grammar are counted as one section, my overall result would be this:
2012: 83%
2018: 80%
Well. I would be satisfied if it was a real score 
Now my next big plan is to finish WaniKani, but first to reward myself with some reading for the next few weeks months.
8 Likes
Check-in (#7) June 20th [Last check-in before Mock JLPT!]
How does it work?
These check-in posts were suggested by @banditraider and will be made bi-weekly (on Sundays). Please answer the questions over the indicated period (so, the past two weeks). Feel free to respond, whether you’re studying more casually, or even if you’re taking the actual JLPT! It might be a nice way to hold yourself accountable, or just see how you’re progressing over time (if you regularly respond). The format and included questions aren’t set in stone at all, so if you have any suggestions, please reply!
Q1: How have you been sticking to your study schedule during the past two weeks? (period 06/06 - 06/20)
- I have stuck to my schedule 75% - 100% of the time
- I have stuck to my schedule around 50% of the time
- I have stuck to my schedule 0% to 25% of the time
- I do not have a clear schedule, but I have studied Japanese regularly
- I do not have a clear schedule yet, but I am in the process of making one
- I have not started studying for the JLPT yet
- Other (please comment)
0 voters
Q2: Have you made any changes to your study routine (if you have one) or methods during the past two weeks? (period 06/06 - 06/20)
- No
- Yes, I have changed my routine so I spend less time on Japanese than I originally intended
- Yes, I have changed my routine so I spend more time on Japanese than I originally intended
- Yes, I have cut some methods from my routine
- Yes, I have discovered new studying methods that I would like to add to my routine (please comment!)
- Yes, I have decided to switch my focus to a different skill (e.g., listening instead of reading)
- Yes, but I haven’t changed my routine/methods in any of the ways mentioned above (please comment!)
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
Q3: How confident are you for the JLPT, right now?
- Very confident
- Fairly confident
- Neither
- Not very confident
- Not confident at all
0 voters
Q4: What is your strength in Japanese, right now?
- Listening
- Reading
- Speaking
- Vocabulary
- Kanji
- Writing
- Grammar
- My skills are all at a similar level
- I don’t know
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
Q5: What is your weakness in Japanese, right now?
- Listening
- Reading
- Speaking
- Vocabulary
- Kanji
- Writing
- Grammar
- My skills are all at a similar level
- I don’t know
- Other (please comment!)
0 voters
All polls close in 2 weeks, just before the next check-in post.
Please leave a comment if you feel a question or answering option is missing/should be changed! Also feel free to leave any other comments you might have!
2 Likes
Sorry for the amount of mistakes in the last check-in I have my thesis defense next friday, so I’ve been very busy with preparations (and actually finishing my thesis lol). There should be no mistakes this time 
Next Sunday I’ll work on coming up with a guideline for scoring the Mock JLPT!
Good luck to everyone with the last two weeks! I’m probably going to get most of my studying done in the last week 
4 Likes
I stopped expressly studying for the mock test and decided to take a yolo approach to it 
If I do well, that’s nice. If I don’t, I’ll know what to focus on going forward 
6 Likes
I decided to sign up 
JLPT here might be cancelled due to covid again, so I started to take it a bit easier and I’m probably just gonna do a mock test instead 
4 Likes
The JLPT has been cancelled in Murica might as well tryvthe 4th level here!! Uhhh hooe I don’t fail🐺
1 Like
Dang it, I can only plan my vacation on the 4th of July 
Guess I’ll be taking it on a later date.
2 Likes
My motivation has been sapped a little by the December test being cancelled here in the UK 
I’ll still be joining you all for the mock test on the 4th though, good to have an idea of how I’m getting on even if it’s not going to be able to help me decide which test to take now!
4 Likes
I really dropped the ball on keeping up with my study plan (and WK in general) the past few months but I’m still planning on taking the mock test anyway. It can’t hurt, and I’ve never taken a real JLPT either so it might give me a good idea of what to expect in the future.
Major kudos to all of you who’ve been studying diligently!
4 Likes