Now I am learning japanese by reading hardcore light novels...
Thanks to that I am able to squeezed some kanji into my brain.

This post has been edited by XPAWNED01: Jul 10 2013, 05:42 PM

so hardcore la u... i cant even manage to understand momotaro story

lulz. Having hard time reading light novels. Not that powerful..
I start with one of the difficult light novels: Monogatari series.
Dunno anything about Momotaro story in japanese. Only read them in malay during childhood. lol

hey there So you're a fan of Yossie huh? Shes still around in Angry & Hangry (duo unit with Ishikawa Rika). Probably you'd wanna utube to see her progress nowadays

About the blog translation, haha.. no laa.. not that great.. I still remember when a lot of people had to tell me that I translated things wrongly. But its true, its kinda frustrating when nobody is out there to translate ur favorite members blog/show.

damnn sonn, japanese speech contest! u must be a master oh well, those female-only expression thing, had a japanese girl to tell me that i use too many of those I really wanted to bury myself when i heard that lol. but now im a bit more careful.

thanks for the heads up

Hm, I'm not surprised really. If you wanna "man-up" your speech, you've gotta watch more yakuza or samurai films...just take care you don't end up talking like a gangster.

Frankly speaking, reading LN is a hell of a mountain climbing method to improve your japanese. I do get brain-processing congestion with reading and understanding it. Without realizing it, you'll realize how tough and rough was it. But on the other hand its quite effective.

Really effective for me. Tough at first but after getting used to it, it is pretty fun method.

on a side note it doesn't help much on JLPT. JLPT requires u to study its text book. Reading LN will improve ur japanese language in another way but not the exam.

The recent 2013A JLPT just held few days ago on 7/7/2013. 2013B will be held on December, so good luck to those will be taking.

I learn Japanese informally and still got no interest in getting JLPT cert and qualifications.
Maybe I'll reconsider taking them later...

Certification could help u get salary raise if ur company acknowledges it.

Took N5 last year 2012B and N4 recently 2013A.
I will depend on my N4 result to determine if I'm ready for 2013B N3 exam.

to me, JLPT benefits only when ur looking for a job in japan. Or to become a translator etc.

if we just have japanese frens that we wanna talk to, i think any form of japanese learning would suffice.

Got many colleagues taking JLPT, but still cant speak

That's true, Unlike MUET does all sort of writing, speaking test.
I think my conversation is still below average. Being able to understand and reply properly. Still sometime u don't use the word much, and u needed it to reply in conversation makes u feel bad unable to memorize the express the word out.

Speaking huh... never actually speaks Japanese to real people outside there besides my malay friend who studies in Nagoya. Speaks to her when hangout with her to test my Japanese, which is still below average.

Well for me, I plan to take JLPT N4 next July. Not gonna make it this Dec, just started studying Kanji this month. So far, I probably can only recognize about 80 kanji and write 70+. two weeks worth of study, but it's getting tougher with more to memorize. And I need to continue brushing up my grammar/vocab. I kinda regretted abandoning it for two years. I'm not taking any classes, self-study but almost everyday, so it's quite fun actually, at my own pace. Bought several books at Kinokuniya last week. Not cheap but for the sake of improving.

Since you guys are talking about reasons for JLPT, as for me, I'd like to challenge myself and see how much I can score or just to test my level of understanding. I also plan to one day maybe work in Japan so the certificate might help a little (hopefully if my future company wishes to send people over to Japan branch or anything like that). However, I do agree that speaking wise, you gotta have people to talk to only then you'll improve.

Recently, I met some Japanese fans (thanks to a certain fandom) on Twitter and I began to type in Japanese, I find it quite fun and trains me to express myself (sadly only in the form of writing). Nobody around me has liking in the language or share any interests in Japan so I've got nobody to talk to. But sometimes, I utter Japanese words or phrases subconsciously

well the bolded will be usually the self-study reason. U'll see that question in the questionnaire during registration for exam.

Everything in JLPT are MCQ & Listening but no writing nor speaking.

Personally, I don't expect Malaysians to be able to string together a decent conversation at JLPT N5 and N4 level. Our rote learning style focussed on grammar and writing makes it an impediment. Even at N2 or N3, some might find difficulty if they only focus on textbooks and passing the exams. Veteran teachers tell me that their students from 20-10 years ago were much more adventurous and asked a lot of questions in the class.
If you are a non-otaku type who don't talk to Japanese much or listen/watch Japanese stuff, you are seriously gonna fail the 聴解.

However, there is an importance in at least trying to adhere to the JLPT syllabus and going to a proper class, because it formalizes the understanding of the language. We are not just learning language, but the grammatical and cultural rules that go with it. If you don't want to unintentionally sound like a country hick or a clueless teen idol, then speaking in 丁寧形 and 標準語 is the base from which to start exploring..

This was from the 2009 L1 (old syllabus, equivalent to the current N1) JLPT test. This is the ultimate example of why watching Anime can help you pass your JLPT



teriyaki sauce

^ Loooool, for real?! XD

I took N4 last year (July 2012) and passed. And I took the N3 exam just last week.

I agree as well that JLPT doesn't quite test how well you know the language, considering there are no essay writing or speaking test involved in the exam. But that is also partly the reason why I took the JLPT: I can't write kanji.

I recognize quite a lot of kanji, but don't really study how to write them. Even more so since I basically self-study instead of going to classes. I take the exam for the certification, and to give myself a way to measure how much I've learnt so far. I'm currently making myself learn how to write, but I'm doing it at a leisurely pace

Listening-wise, I tend to listen to a lot of seiyuu web radio shows. Some radio shows are tied to a specific anime series, but there are some that are the seiyuu's own radio show. And in radio shows, it's not unusual for the host to talk quite fast (because they have limited time, usually about 30 mins to 1 hour). And they also talk like how they usually talk in real life, full of slangs and abbreviations. I won't say that I understand everything they say, but I certainly learn lots of new words this way, and it's also how I get used to how Japanese people speak.

Oh, I like to listen to drama/narration CDs as well.

I own this book called Tsuki no Sango, written by Nasu Kinoko, of Type-Moon in case you might be familiar with the name, and has a CD with audio of Sakamoto Maaya narrating the story. There was already a fan translation of it somewhere on the internet, but I was such a huge fan Maaya and Nasu and wanted so much to listen to the story being told in Maaya's voice that I went ahead and imported the book from Japan

I can listen to the recording and read the book at the same time, so whenever I come across a word I'm not familiar with, I can listen to how it's pronounced and try to search from there instead of having to check the radicals every time.

This post has been edited by astraeus: Jul 11 2013, 04:54 PM

I remember a few of the older teachers in my language school who attempted the test that year were totally confounded by that question...

I am doing what have you done so far;
1. Listening to seiyuu web radios
2. reading light novels
3. listening to drama cds
4. playing visual novels.

Number 2 is the best so far in helping me memorizing kanji, with the help of references of course.
Number 1 greatly helps to train my ears and brain--good for informal studies of daily communications.
If anyone ever wants to try listening to web radios, Hanazawa Kana HitoKana radio and Duraraji ( ) are my recommendations.

This post has been edited by XPAWNED01: Jul 11 2013, 05:29 PM