Testing, Testing, 1, 2...

So this last weekend, I along with hundreds, maybe thousands of other foreigners, flocked to various testing centers throughout Japan to take the various levels of the Japan Language Proficiency Test or for short, the JLPT.

There are currently 4 levels to the test: from 1-kyuu to 4-kyuu, going from hardest to easiest. Last year I missed the deadline to apply for 3-kyuu, which was far earlier than I thought it would be, but I guess that just attests to Japanese punctuality. If I were to take it this year, I felt that I would pass it easily and that my time might be better spent studying for 2-kyuu, even if it wasn't likely that I'd pass.

For those of you that are wondering, at 4-kyuu you have to know about 100 kanji and 800 words, 3-kyuu is 300 kanji and 1500 words, 2-kyuu is 1000 kanji and 6,000 words and 1-kyuu...well, that's just impossible. No actually it's not, it's just very difficult even for Japanese people. If you can pass 1-kyuu you should be able to read Japanese newspapers.

Thus, you can see that there's a big jump between 3-kyuu and 2-kyuu. I had friends that I considered very good Japanese speakers that were struggling with 2-kyuu, therefore my lack of faith in my skills. When I would express this to my friends, they would be really surprised because they considered ME a good Japanese speaker. I'd have to point out to them that that was because they were only really seeing me SPEAK Japanese, which is by far my strongest skill next to listening.

I'm comfortable switching to Japanese and even if I don't speak it correctly, that doesn't usually stop me from trying to say it; one capability I had to develop while living in Nagoya. But, I NEVER studied Japanese in school and so my reading and writing skills started at a much lower level than most.

One thing I didn't count on over the last year of studying for the test, was developing a very strong complacence about studying, based on my comfort with my Japanese speaking abilities.

A friend of mine who also took the test asked me how it went. I told her that it went about what I thought it would go: the listening was easy, and the rest of it, especially the reading comprehension was really hard. I don't think I passed. And yet, I'm all right with that. I'm going to try to take it again in July, since they're going to begin offering it twice a year starting 2009. She had more confidence in my Japanese, assumed that I would pass it asked me if I would take 1-kyuu next year. I told her no, I'm not planning on it.

I don't think that I will devote more time studying enough Japanese to warrant taking it at any point in the future. Honestly, I'm really just comfortable being able to speak it and communicate with people. I know that there is a part of Japanese culture that I won't be able to access, without being able to read newspapers and books of a certain level, but I'm okay with that. I feel like I understand and fit into Japanese culture to a degree that I'm happy with. Maybe not enough for other people, but it's enough for me.

Plus, one of my New Year's resolutions is to get back onto studying French. I'm really trying to focus on French in terms of cooking and food, since that is what I'll be dealing with when I go to school. The other stuff, I think I can pick up while I'm there, like I did with Japanese.