i want to take the test for fun.
its just to test myself to see what i know...

as for the jet program, theres different positions..depending on the position you might need 1 year of japanese at minimum (plus a bachelors).
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http://www.kanjistep.com has practice tests... i dont know how accurate they are though... i got a 100 on the level 3 and a 60 on level 2... but that was with a lot of guessing... i really dont even know close to 1000 kanjis

are you guys non-Chinese? cuz i'll be impressed if you're not.
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lisasan wrote:

are you guys non-Chinese? cuz i'll be impressed if you're not.

i'm non-chinese.. vietnamese to be exact.


thanks for that site kuroikenshi!
i took the level 4 placement test at that site, and got an 80%..
decent i guess, since i haven't taken japanese for 1-2 years..
its a good site to practice, and brush up on my japanese.
_________________

SARS High Quality Asian Drama FanSUBs:
http://www.sars-fansubs.com/
..dorama & fansubbing obsession blog.. http://blog.goo.ne.jp/amrayu78/

amrayu wrote:

i'm non-chinese.. vietnamese to be exact. thanks for that site kuroikenshi! i took the level 4 placement test at that site, and got an 80%.. decent i guess, since i haven't taken japanese for 1-2 years.. its a good site to practice, and brush up on my japanese.

*clapclap*
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<kizuna>

groink wrote:

Like many of the IT certification exams available, are there any sort of study guides available to prepare for these exams? --- groink

any good japanese bookstores should carry the sample tests from a certain year. got a few last year when i was preparing for levels 3 and 4. bonjinsha's are quite good, considering they have a cd for you to practise the listening comprehension with. the following link shows you the books that they have published
http://www.jptrading.com/SE2/JLPT/test.htm

amrayu wrote:

i'm non-chinese.. vietnamese to be exact.

vietnamese language is not easy too! there are so many tones and all to take note of.

wai wrote:

vietnamese language is not easy too! there are so many tones and all to take note of.

yes, a lot of tones!!! more than mandarin or cantonese.
_________________

SARS High Quality Asian Drama FanSUBs:
http://www.sars-fansubs.com/
..dorama & fansubbing obsession blog.. http://blog.goo.ne.jp/amrayu78/

amrayu wrote:

yes, a lot of tones!!! more than mandarin or cantonese.

oh yes...but i think the north has one more tone than the south? or is it the other way round?

are there any good websites that teach vietnamese? took a semester worth of it and have nothing to use it on!

I think vietnamese has 6 tones right? while chinese has 4, I believe. Not sure about that north/south vietnamese tone though.

tejizo wrote:

I think vietnamese has 6 tones right? while chinese has 4, I believe. Not sure about that north/south vietnamese tone though.

cantonese has 6 or 9 i think, and mandarin has 4..
vietnamese has too many to count.. theres 7 tonation symbols (i think), but these can be used together in combinations to create more tones!! its kind of hard to explain..
theres also many dialects in vietnam..but you can understand most dialects if you know just one, certain words are different also. (but some people don't understand other dialects at all)

sorry wai, i dont know of any good vietnamese language websites.
_________________

SARS High Quality Asian Drama FanSUBs:
http://www.sars-fansubs.com/
..dorama & fansubbing obsession blog.. http://blog.goo.ne.jp/amrayu78/

lisasan wrote:

are you guys non-Chinese? cuz i'll be impressed if you're not.

lol.. from countless people I know i don't know if 'being Chinese' has anything to do with being good at Japanese. Kanji readings and such may be easier to memorise, but still..

So yeah, I'm Aussie. I'm taking the level 2 test at the end of this year, although I've been told by my teachers I have the skills to pass the level 1 bills. I'm in no rush,.. so I'm going to take level 1 next year just after I graduate university. (^o^)/

As for the proficiency test, you can't take 'level 2 in the morning and level 1 in the afternoon'. Simply because.. well, the site itself says clearly in the FAQ:

Q2 Can I take two different levels at a time?
A2 No you can only take one level.

As for mizune's advice:

mizune wrote:

If you know Japanese fairly well, I think your chances of getting stuck out in the boondocks is a bit higher because you have a better chance of survivng where fewer people speak english. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but some people expect to land *plop* in a cool, hip Japanese city with lots of things to do and whatnot. Reality is you could end up in the melon capitol of Japan (Hachiryu-shi, Akita-ken), where just about the only places open in the evening are the bars... ^_^;;;

That is so true and I can't count the amount of times I've heard people complain about being put in the countryside because they can speak conversational Japanese or whatever.

Nevertheless, good luck to all those who are preparing to take it on this year!

Personally I think being fluent in chinese helps alot when learning japanese... Not just with memorising the kanji, but also understanding it. On alot of occasions it is possible to guess the meaning of the sentence from the kanji words used in the text...

As for the morning/afternoon thing... it is possible here in singapore... may not be possible there though i guess ^^

May i ask what is JET and what is ALT?

im american... so kanjis were a big blur to me when i started... and to be honest, now theyre more like a big wall between me and fluency!! but its not so bad... going at the rate i am at i hope to be able to take the level 1 test by the end of 2005, at which point ill be a senior in college (which is, i think, not so bad considering i only started two years ago...)

dont let anyone tell you chinese speakers dont have an advatnage... luckily for us non chinese speakers, even the "chinese" readings of kanjis have been so mangled that they are unintelligible at times for chinese speakers... however, in reading and such, where it is not so necessary to read aloud, chinese speakers would be able to (as someone said before) know the meaning of the sentence just by the kanjis... oh well, at least we have a leg up on katakana (though those are pretty mangled too)

windrider wrote:

Personally I think being fluent in chinese helps alot when learning japanese... Not just with memorising the kanji, but also understanding it. On alot of occasions it is possible to guess the meaning of the sentence from the kanji words used in the text...

yes knowing chinese (writing), does help with learning japanese. that would explain why half of my japanese classmates were always of chinese ancestry. they have an advantage of writing and knowing kanji which is the toughest part of learning japanese. while non-chinese, such as myself have to start from scratch..

amrayu wrote:

cantonese has 6 or 9 i think, and mandarin has 4..

didn't know that cantonese has that much .. 9? haha, that's just too many

Moccona wrote:

lol.. from countless people I know i don't know if 'being Chinese' has anything to do with being good at Japanese. Kanji readings and such may be easier to memorise, but still..

right right, 'being Chinese' has nothing to do with being good at Japanese. Learning and being good at a particular Language doesn't have anything to do with one's descendant THOUGH knowing certain language can really help you learning other language. Knowing (not being ) Chinese has an advantage in recognizing the Kanji since most (really .. most, except the ones derived recently from English) Japanese Nouns and Verbs are composed by using Kanji, but still they have to learn the pronounciation, grammar, syntax, and many other things since they are all different.

amrayu wrote:

yes knowing chinese (writing), does help with learning japanese. that would explain why half of my japanese classmates were always of chinese ancestry. they have an advantage of writing and knowing kanji which is the toughest part of learning japanese. while non-chinese, such as myself have to start from scratch..

I agree .. Kanji maybe one of the toughest parts to master Japanese. I have to start from scratch too

windrider wrote:

May i ask what is JET and what is ALT?

JET is a programme stands for Japan Exchange and Teaching programme.
don't know what ALT though .. u mean JLPT? That's Japanese Language Proficiency Test

tejizo wrote:

JET is a programme stands for Japan Exchange and Teaching programme. don't know what ALT though .. u mean JLPT? That's Japanese Language Proficiency Test

This was taken off of the JET program website:
Positions
Two positions are offered. One may apply for either of the two but not both.

CIR (Coordinator for International Relations):Those engaged in international activities. These participants are placed in offices of local governments or related organisations such as international associations, universities, convention bureaus and so on.

ALT (Assistant Language Teacher):Those engaged in language instruction. These participants are placed mainly in local boards of education or publicly run junior and senior high schools. There may be a very limited number of cases in which the participants are placed in private junior and senior high schools through the prefectural offices or designated city offices

Oh yeah. In the JET programme, does the participant live by themself? Or are they given a roomate? I'd prefer to live by myself so I can decorate my place with Gundam models and stuff

ParaParaJMo wrote:

Oh yeah. In the JET programme, does the participant live by themself? Or are they given a roomate? I'd prefer to live by myself so I can decorate my place with Gundam models and stuff

I'm not sure myself....but I think with JET in most cases (if not all), they are placed to live alone. But yeah, many are placed in the boonies anyway, so the rent is low...no reason for a roomie I know a couple people in JET, and I know a couple people on their way to JET this year.....they got accepted and are waiting for placement news. As for those I know already in JET, one is a CIR and was placed in Kyoto. She lives alone. One is an ALT, she was placed in Oita, and she lives alone.

I think many other eikaiwa schools place you with roomies. A girl I studied abroad with, her sister was in Nova and had a roommate or two But...she was placed in Tokyo, so the rent is high. Maybe that has something to do with it as well. A friend of mine got into Aeon, but she doesn't leave until October. I think she will have her own place.

Well, you've convinced me to try at least try Level 3 this Dec. I hear that there is almost no (or at least very little) difference between L4 and L3, so my friends who have taken both tell me I'm good enough to skip to L3. I've studied Japanese for about 3 years, but have taken this session off, and it gets rusty really fast! I'll need to do some major catch-up studying in summer school.

Oh, and yes I'm 100% not Asian at all, so I'm learning this language from scratch. I do know that my friends from Singapore/HK/Tawian, etc admit that their knowledge of the characters (knowing the often same meaning, being able to write them already) helps them excell in Japanese when it comes to the kanji.

I'm not sure if I'd go for JET, but I do keep my eye on the program. I'd actually most likely try for CIR, though, since I'd be more interested in those types of jobs. I've been out of Uni for a decade and am a professional businesswoman so the teaching part may not be my cup of tea.

I tried out the practice proficiency tests on kanji-test.com.

I got an 83% on the level 3.

I tried the level 2 test twice. First time I got a 48% just skimming, and got a 70% trying hard. I hate giongo and gitaigo.