JLPT Day

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test, JLPT for short, took place a few days ago in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The JLPT is a test to evaluate the proficiency of the japanese language and is held twice a year. One in summer and one in winter. The participants can choose one of 5 different levels with N5 being the easiest and N1 being the most difficult one. The japanese government planned to use the JLPT certificates in regards of long and permanent resident visas in 2008 but I am not up to date if this is already in process or kicked into the trash can.

So last sunday I took the train to Düsseldorf to partake in the test after two years as well. Since last time I failed the N5 Level (Level 4 then) test I once again challenged it. The last time I lacked a lot of motivation to learn and didn’t really study that much or efficient. But this time was different. I studied a lot and felt rathe confident that I would pass N5.
Arrived over an hour early and there were already a lot of people waiting so I had to find a seat on the hard stairs. Time flew by and 340 applicants found their way to this beautiful city.
After a few words of the staff members and even a member of the japanese cultural institute of Köln, where they said that this is the 27th year in row the test will take place in Düsseldorf, the applicants were seperated by Level and Examinee Number.

For N5 this japanese test is divided into three different groups.

• Vocabulary
• Grammar and Reading
• Listening

After each part there was a 30 minutes break so the test took a total amount of 4 hours. Starting from speechn of the staff members until I left the building. In my opinion, the breaks are way too long.

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test is a multiple choice test. One gets a problem or text, in japanese, and 3 to 4 different answers. You have to choose one and write it onto the answersheet. So even if you don’t know the answer you have a 25% or even 33,33% chance to guess the right answer. In order to pass the exam a specific amount of points is required for each section. If you miss to pass even one section, the whole exam is failed. That was not the case a few years ago but I like this new passing criteria because one has to know all parts of a language to really master it.

Well, the first section was about vocabulary and contained 35 questions. The questions asked for the kanji of a hiragana written word in a sentence, or the katakana version. Or there was a word missing in the sentence and the examinee had to choose the correct word. And a few questions wanted to have a smiliar sentence with the same meaning.
For the vocabulary section we had 25 minutes. It took me about 15 to answer them all, even though I had to guess four. The rest of the time I checked my answers.

And after the first break it was the grammar and reading section with a time limit of 50 minutes.
31 questions were one had to choose the correct particle, the correct way of writing a word in a sentence, order a sentence with 4 empty slots and choose the right word requested by a specific empty slot, read a text and fill in the correct words or answer questions about what happened in the text.
At the grammar part I had to guess more than before because there were a lot of words I haven’t seen up till now. Guess thats because I self study? But the reading comprehension was easier to answer.

After the second break the final section was going to begin. Listening. I feared this part the most because it is really difficult for me and I remember the last time were I understood almost nothing! But this time I am pretty confident I nearly mastered the 24 questions with a few exceptions.
The listening section can be devided into three different parts. In the first two parts you can see 4 pictures in the questionboklet and the audio describes a scene. Then you choose one of those pictures to be your answer (or you have only one picture but with four numbers).
In the second part of it you can see one picture if an arrow pointing to one person. The audio gives you a scenario and the answers you have to choose from.
And the last part had only the audio part and no visual effects. Here I failed two questions because I didn’t fully understood the scenario so I had to guess.

It was easier than last time and I am pretty confident that I passed the N5 and that this will be the first successful step of getting fluency in japanese. Next year I try to challenge the N4.
Have to study hard untill then!

For a few more informations about the JLPT you can either visit the JLPT article on wikipedia or the official JLPT website.