I’m not sure I really follow. Katakana is just another alphabet like hiragana, so I don’t think the level you are at has any bearing. If you were to use Mina No Nihongo as an example, you could be a totally advanced Japanese student, but if you didn’t know Katakana you wouldnt be able to understand half of the conversations from Chapter 3 onwards.
It was pretty much taught in class, straight after hiragana.
Yeah, 1 year seems a bit excessive for N5 (I comfortably passed N4 after 1 year of mostly self study), but I don’t really see why you’d wait to test katakana in N4. As others have said, it’s something you learn right at the beginning and it’s a significant part of reading Japanese, particularly low-level Japanese that is heavily focused on going places and eating foods. バスでレストランに行きましょう is the level of Japanese on the N5. アパート、オレンジ、シャツ、クラス、スポーツ、コンピュータ、I could go on. It’s hard to imagine someone experiencing a beginners class in Japanese and walking away without these kinds of words in their repertoire.
You really think that no people pass N1 without going to Japan… I mean, I don’t really know why you’d have any basis for thinking that, when you consider the difficulty in getting to Japan for most people, but there’s no reason to argue over that. I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find one of the 40,000 people every year who pass it while not taking it in Japan and ask them. N1 isn’t that amazing in the grand scheme of things anyway. Passing it isn’t a magical thing.
JPT December 2016 statistics show that 98,931 people sat the N1 exam outside Japan. Of these, 30,193 (30.5%) were certified. The percentage certified for people taking the test IN Japan was 29.8%. There is, of course, no information about who has travelled to Japan, lived with a Japanese person or has Japanese friends etc.
I completed N5 last year. 39.1% of the overseas test takers were certified and 30.6% of the test takers in Japan were certified.
Regarding katakana, my Japanese class taught katakana immediately after they taught hiragana. THERE IS KATAKANA in the N5 test. It is a necessary part of learning Japanese. If you have never sat one of the JLPT tests, it would not be appropriate to comment on the content of the test.
I couldnt imagine anyone saying they learned japanese without katakana. It is everywhere. I didnt know any when i went to japan and i did just fine. Since then i have learned it. It is super easy to learn, and it shows up all over the place.
When guruing 1 kanji unleashes 953 vocab items
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