The Ultimate Study Guide for the JLPT show

The Ultimate Study Guide for the JLPT

Summary: The JLPT Boot Camp podcast covers tips and tricks for the JLPT or Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Every week I go over a different aspect of how to study and what to do for the test. I cover all the tests, N5, N4, N3, N2, and N1.

Podcasts:

 JLPT BC 122 | Speed Reading Update | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:25

After the test results last month, I’ve started to rework my studying a little more to get ready for the December test. At this point, I feel like I know the skills I need. I just need to over-learn everything so it’s automatic. I feel like that is really what N1 is about, testing if […]

 JLPT BC 122 | Speed Reading Update | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:25

After the test results last month, I’ve started to rework my studying a little more to get ready for the December test. At this point, I feel like I know the skills I need. I just need to over-learn everything so it’s automatic. I feel like that is really what N1 is about, testing if […]

 JLPT BC 121 | Just Call me Mac | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 23:08

Your typical full name in Japan is made up of 4 kanji – 2 kanji for a first name or given name and 2 kanji for the last name or surname. There are somewhere around 600 or so extra kanji that are used just for names, but names also use common kanji like the most […]

 JLPT BC 121 | Just Call me Mac | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 23:08

Your typical full name in Japan is made up of 4 kanji – 2 kanji for a first name or given name and 2 kanji for the last name or surname. There are somewhere around 600 or so extra kanji that are used just for names, but names also use common kanji like the most […]

 JLPT BC 120 | Building up Reading | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:15

Last month, I said I was going to start reading Kazoku Geemu, but I got sidetracked for technical reasons. Apparently, you need a kindle device, or kindle for Android to read the eBook version (Kindle of iOS doesn’t work). I don’t happen to have either a Kindle device or Kindle for Android at the moment […]

 JLPT BC 120 | Building up Reading | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:15

Last month, I said I was going to start reading Kazoku Geemu, but I got sidetracked for technical reasons. Apparently, you need a kindle device, or kindle for Android to read the eBook version (Kindle of iOS doesn’t work). I don’t happen to have either a Kindle device or Kindle for Android at the moment […]

 JLPT BC 119 | City Vision | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 18:40

Tokyo and Osaka are two massive clusters of people living fairly close to each other. Tokyo is ranked as the largest metropolitan area by population in the world with about 32 million people, whereas the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area is ranked as the 9th largest with around 17 million people. It’s larger than any American metropolitan area […]

 JLPT BC 119 | City Vision | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 18:40

Tokyo and Osaka are two massive clusters of people living fairly close to each other. Tokyo is ranked as the largest metropolitan area by population in the world with about 32 million people, whereas the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area is ranked as the 9th largest with around 17 million people. It’s larger than any American metropolitan area […]

 JLPT BC 118 | Adventures in Translation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 16:56

One of my original goals when I first decided to study a little harder and take my Japanese to the N1 level was to become a translator. I’m currently teaching English now, and I enjoy it, but translation has always seemed more fun for me because it is like a puzzle you have to solve. […]

 JLPT BC 118 | Adventures in Translation | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 16:56

One of my original goals when I first decided to study a little harder and take my Japanese to the N1 level was to become a translator. I’m currently teaching English now, and I enjoy it, but translation has always seemed more fun for me because it is like a puzzle you have to solve. […]

 JLPT BC 117 | What Japanese TV Commercials say about Culture | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:32

You have always heard about the wacky celebrity endorsements for Japanese products. Heck, there was a whole movie that featured a Western celebrity endorsing a Japanese product. And it's a staple joke that has gotten around, a few times. Compare this to the states where actor endorsements are nearly non-existent. But sometimes should be existent, I mean, can we get rid of the Kohl's lady already? In general, if a celebrity were to endorse something it would hurt their image, or so the theory goes. Sports players and politicians are seemingly exempt from this, as well as voice overs. So it seems like celebrities need to not “appear” in commercials. But, why is there this rift? Shouldn't it be okay to see your favorite celebrities in a commercial without them looking like a sell-out? Why is everyone in Japan exempt from this? In the 80s The 80s was a magical time of celebrity appearances in commercials on both sides of the Pacific. In Japan, almost any respected company had somebody from overseas endorsing their products. It was a heyday of celebrity endorsements. You could see all sorts of people making fools of themselves on TV. There was a lot of interest in America and foreign culture during the bubble era in Japan and it shows in the advertising. Check out some classics from the Italian Stallion and Mr. Terminator: In the states, something similar was happening. We had Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and David Bowie endorsing Pepsi for example. These were simple commercials that didn't actually say anything about the product, just that it was cool: Nowadays Celebrities are still present in Japanese commercials. There seem to be less overt endorsements than there were in the past though. The foreign actors sometimes don't make any comments at all. They just seem to blend in to the overall scene.  They don't come out and scream 'buy this thing now!' For example, the continuing saga of Tommy Lee Jones and Boss coffee is interesting in this respect: A lot of companies have opted for domestic stars recently as well. For example, most of the major brands like Coca-Cola use Japanese celebrities like Exile (an army of dancing pop singers): Compare that to the commercial running in the States (and probably other English speaking countries): Notice the non-existent celebrities?  No more pop stars in coke commercials anymore.  Depressing, I know. What does it all Mean? In my opinion, people in Japan are a lot more interested in other people, especially people they 'know'. By 'know' I mean, they have seen them a lot on TV or around. People will generally connect with the celebrity because they see something of themselves in that character. Somebody they want to be. It's like the commercial is asking “Are you this kind of person?” then buy this. Whereas the commercials in the States (and for a lot of the Western world), the focus is more on what the advantage is to you the consumer. You get no calories and great taste. You save money and look great etc... I think this is interesting and worth noting because commercials show what tends to drive somebody to do something (e.g. buy coke). In other words, commercials tend to show what triggers somebody into action, what motivates them. In Japan, it seems more like people are the stars, while in the States, it is more about appealing to how useful the product is to the viewer. Of course there are numerous exceptions to this. For example, there are Japanese commercials that tout the low cost of a cell phone carrier and American commercials with famous people doing famous things. But, in general, you can see a clear difference between the two different kinds of advertising. Anyway, this is just a random observation from a guy living in Japan. So, what do you think? Are there more people persons in Japan? Let me know in the comments.

 JLPT BC | 116 Listening to Different Podcasts | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 24:02

After writing about my experience last month, a few of you mentioned that you rarely studied kanji individually, but instead got used to kanji from reading. I do feel like a lot of the kanji I've really made automatic was from reading, doing lots of reading. I'm going to try something a little different though. Since I already use memrise on a regular basis for reviewing and maintaining lists there, I started thinking about adding lists there that practice kanji in a little easier way. For me, I think kanji is a little easier to remember when it is grouped together, so I've started grouping kanji together for the higher levels of kanji starting with N3. But, I do have plans to build an N5 list soon as well. I'll be writing up an article soon with more details, so stay tuned for more. Listening Practice I had been listening to old listening drill CDs (So-Matome and Kanzen Master) for the 1st part of this year, but I got to a point where I had practically memorized all the recordings. So, I wanted to change that up a bit, get some different kinds of listening. And that lead me to take another look at native Japanese podcasts. My biggest issue with Japanese podcasts is that a lot of them seem to be poorly produced. For example, there are sounds of paper shuffling, and photos being taken (supposedly inside a studio not live). Or, for some reason, they have distracting music running in the background the whole time. I still think podcasting has a way to go in Japan unfortunately. I did happen to find some nice gems though. One podcast that have been listening to fairly recently is ザ・ボイス (The Voice). It's a show where they “pick up” 7 news items and they have a commentator discuss it for a few minutes. They mostly go over heavier topics like North Korea, disputes with China, the Fukushima incident, and Abenomics (the prime minister of Japan's plan to reboot Japan's economy). I'm not going to pretend like I understand every point of these podcasts because I don't and unless your Japanese is at a pretty high level, or you are used to news in Japanese it will be quite difficult. I tend to be able to understand the main point as well as a few details, but I usually have to go back and double check some things. Another podcast that I found interesting and bite-sized is フラット35 My Home My Life, which is basically a weekly 2 minute PSA in the form of a radio drama. For those of you who aren't buying a house in Japan, Flat 35 is the name of a special kind of loan that has a flat rate for 35 years. So, the radio drama is mostly about a young couple buying a house, which may or may not be of interest to you. The podcast reminds me a lot of the シーソーメール(She Saw Mail) podcast that is no longer airing, and unfortunately they pulled the episodes offline. It is an interesting radio drama that I wish they had more of. We can only hope they make more. July Test I feel like I am in a bit of the same situation as last time with the JLPT. My reading speed has improved and I've gotten a little better at comprehension, but I still keep making stupid mistakes with reading. I'll either misread the question, misread kanji or grammar structure, or just be careless. What is frustrating is, as soon as I see the answer I know what I did wrong. Or my other problem is narrowing the answers down to 2 and guessing the wrong one. Anyway, I really haven't been seriously studying specifically for the test, so I'm interested in seeing the results. Sometimes I feel that if you concentrate on drilling too much, you end up not being to use the language, just answer questions about it. Looking Forward to It I'm actually looking forward to taking the test, to see how I score. As always, I'm also looking forward to hearing about everyone's results, so after the test, please be sure to come back and visit. Good luck!

 JLPT BC 115 | 5 More Things I Wish I had Known | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 19:28

Okay, so I said I had a top 10 list of things I wish I had known and I did have a top ten list of things. But, through the process of writing up and thinking about those top ten things, I happened to come across 5 more things I wish I had known before ...

 JLPT BC 114 | Less is More? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 18:02

3 months ago I said I was making changes to try to reduce my studying time. And I have been able to meet that goal with a little success. I've also noticed a lot of benefits of dropping the drills and being a little more mindful of my studies. The biggest issue is SRS, spaced repetition systems, practice. These systems are very handy for keeping vocabulary, kanji, and even grammar fresh in your head. But, it can be a little difficult to tone down the amount of studying you do with them. For example, I haven't added any new words to my stack of words I practice at Memrise for a good 2 months and I still have a few minor issues getting all my words reviewed every day. Part of that is because we are still working out some kinks with definitions (some of them are too long, too ambiguous, or not quite correct, etc...) In general, it takes a long time to 'shut off' SRS. The iPhone app iKanji has some of the same issues. I'm just now getting to a point where it is pretty manageable after I went a little crazy trying to cram in all the N1 kanji. It is very easy to get carried away with SRS or other similar learning systems I think. After all, they give you a measured, sometimes visual representation, of how much you know. But it is best to keep them to a minimum and fill your schedule with more cross-training exercises. That way, if something comes up you'll be able to take a small break from studying Japanese and not come back to a mountain of words to review. Less is More? I found myself last year getting caught up in a trap trying to spend every waking moment drilling Japanese. Cramming in drill books and vocabulary apps whenever I had free time. And I think that you do need some drilling so that you have been exposed to a lot of different styles and vocabulary, but there is a definite need for cross-training as well. And also spending all your waking hours pushing yourself to the max can really burn you out quick. I've come to the realization lately that I haven't really changed up my pattern that much because I'm too afraid I'll end up wasting time. I was too focused on learning X amount of kanji and X amount of vocabulary. And those are great metrics to help you see your progress, but they shouldn't govern everything you do. There is a famous quote that gets batted around about managing that I think applies to this situation - “What gets measured gets managed.” I think it really rings true here because it is very easy to concentrate on the numbers of language learning and not take a time to do something a little more, unmeasurable. It is good to go off the beaten path a little bit here and there even if it isn't the most efficient thing to do with your studying. It's important to experiment and see how you learn, not how language gurus learn. That takes some experimentation, some dead ends, and some failures. I also think you need to take a few short breaks here and there and veg out or else you'll get burnt out. I took a small break from heavy studying over the Golden Week Break (4/27-5/6) and watched a few movies in English. It was great to just kick back and not have to focus so much on what is being said. And afterwards, I could start studying again and feel really interested in Japanese instead of feeling like I was eating my Brussels sprouts. The one thing I would recommend though is to keep it separated. If you need a break from studying do something completely different like go for a walk or play a video game (if you don't do gaming to study). One thing to avoid is if you use your smartphone to study with, hide the distractions, (like Facebook or Angry Birds), because you just might be tempted to keep playing games or checking Facebook and not make it back to studying. But zoning out every once in awhile isn't a particular bad thing. There is actually some pretty good research that proves zoning out is a critical state. So, go zone out every once in awhile.

 JLPT BC 113 | The Top 10 Things I wish I had Known Part 2 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 25:09

 A month ago, I published the first half of this top 10 list of things I wish I had known before coming to Japan. And a few of you commented on some other things that you wish you had known as well. But, as promised here's the rest of the things I wish I had known before I came to Japan. How to cook and keep rice Taking care of rice seems like a pretty simple task, just wash it, throw it in your rice cooker, and it eat it when the machine dings. Of course, you'll have to wait a good 20 to 30 minutes to get fresh rice but that's how I used to think that's all you needed. Until one day I noticed I had some strange colored rice mixed in with my other rice, and there was a small moth flying around near my bag of rice. Stupid me, I thought you could just leave your bag of rice in the cabinet and everything would be okay. But, it turns out moths like to lay eggs in rice and although they probably add some extra fiber and protein, you probably don't want to eat them. So, be sure to seal up your giant bag of rice so they can't get inside. Another inconvenience is the time it takes to cook rice. If You want something quick and easy in the morning or with your curry at night you are out of luck because you'll have to wait a pretty long time for your rice. I used to just use this time to check email or veg out. But, you can actually cut down your cooking time by freezing your rice. What I typically do these days is cook up a big batch of rice and then freeze up smaller fist-sized portions of rice wrapped in plastic wrap. Then later when I want some rice, I just need to throw it in the microwave and three minutes later I have fresh, yummy rice. Pack Light If you're moving to Japan for an extended period of time, your first inclination might be to pack everything you "can't live without". Then you lug around a heavy suitcase on your way to your new place. Start unpacking and you can feel at home. Or at least that's how the idea goes. But, I would recommend trying to keep your packing to a minimum. Just pack clothes, maybe a critical electronic device (tablet, laptop, iPhone) and that's about it. There's a couple of reasons for this. First, you can, in general, buy most things you really really need when you get here. Recycle shops, stores that sell secondhand electronics and books, are pretty common and sell a lot of the little things you need for pretty cheap. And it might sound strange but you don't want your house to be too comfortable. You want to have a reason to get out and explore. Even the small, seemingly boring exploring of walking up and down regular city streets can be an adventure in a foreign country. Seishun 18 Kippu Last month, I talked about getting around on buses, but you could also travel on the cheap by train with seishun 18 kippu. It is a five day pass for local trains on JR the biggest train network that links up most of Japan. This is a pretty versatile tickets because you can actually share it with your friends. For example, two of you can travel all day on local trains. Doing this will use up two days on the ticket (of the five). You also don't have to use the days consecutively, so you can travel on Monday to a place, stay there a few days and then move on and not lose days on your pass. The downside is that it is only available during certain time periods, so check to see if it is available and how long it is valid before you buy one.  You can pick them up at any JR station or they are available for a slight discount (-Y200) at the ticket places you'll typically see in the city. Hyperdia This is an amazing website that can calculate all the possible ways you can get from point A to B, including planes and the shinkansen.  There are plenty of options that you can tweak about the search as well.  For example, you can search only local trains if you want to use your seishun 18 kippu or calculate how much a commuter pass (定期券, teikiken) would be.

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