Postby takonoma » March 21st, 2008 4:30 pm
Thanks for the web site recommendations, people. It's always nice to try a new resource - helps things sink in a bit more when you do the same thing, but in a slightly different way.
I'm taking the 2級 again this year.
I didn't pass it in 2007, with my main problem being reading. Too slooow. Too many kanji I just didn't know. It was my first time to attempt a JLPT, and I realised a few months beforehand that I was unlikely to pass at that level, but it proved to be good experience, and a very good motivator. Since the exam, I've been working hard on reading, and am getting faster already. And, really ENJOYING it! Reading in another language feels like flying!!!
Some thoughts on the proficiency exam: Before taking the test, I used various websites with kanji flash cards, beside my own homemade ones, and other study tools. There are so many of these flash card resources available. But, to be honest, sitting down with a list and working your way through it isn't a very good way to learn. I used this method when I first started studying kanji, and rote-memorised all of them for 4級 and 3級. That was fine for basic kanji, with a very manageable number. But the number of kanji has a blow-out for levels 2, and 1. I had a tough time remembering the less frequent readings for some of those kanji. And many look quite similar, and share similar radicals. If you have never really used them, it's easy to get mixed up. The proficiency test does its best to catch you out on those points. Also, a lot of flash cards give a one-word translation, and a few example words, but that gives you no idea to the way those words are used, what kind of collocations they appear in, and their level of formality or nuance. This makes them hard to use in real life, and so you either end up producing stilted, nonsensical sentences, or don't use them, and quickly forget them. In levels 1 and 2, it seems a substantial amount of the vocabulary of the proficiency test tends to be used in literary rather than spoken Japanese. Feel free to disagree with me, but I believe if you try to learn from flash-cards, much of it just doesn't stick. Even if you do succeed in rote-learning a few thousand readings, does this equal real learning? Flash-cards are a revision tool. It is better to learn kanji through context, i.e. reading. With repeated exposure, you build up your vocabulary in a more natural and meaningful way. You also stand a much better chance of taking it from passive to active knowledge. What do other people think about this issue?
Also, I'm spending a lot of time on learning and applying sentence patterns, because I realised after the exam that they are vital to dealing quickly with the test. Not just learning them from a list, but with the assistance of a good textbook to provide context, and a good teacher to help me iron out the kinks from what I end up saying and writing. Studying sentence patterns has been surprisingly helpful with my speaking, too. Things are coming out a bit more smoothly and with a bit more confidence, I feel.
I know I'll get there. Anyway, the more we know, the more fun it gets, right?
By the way, I was a bit disappointed with the way the listening test was conducted (I took the test in Azamino, Kanagawa). In a room with hundreds of people, the small portable CD player up the front of the room was difficult to catch from my seat at the back of the room, and especially with people shifting about in their seats and moving papers. At one point, noise from outside of the room could be clearly heard, and so they replayed that section of the test. I couldn't help but think that surely a CD player with better quality sound than that could have been organised. Did anyone else have an experience similar to this?
