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+--- Thread: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread (/thread-13440.html)
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-11
(2016-05-10, 12:30 pm)ariariari Wrote: But for me, I was just like, "Oh, this word is easy, I know this kanji, ...". So I wound up basically focusing on the pamphlet, picking up words and kanji here and there, instead of finishing the actual chapters. This method has worked well for me so far, but now I really want to finish the book (25 chapters), so I'm gonna focus on that for a while.I see what you mean that you could have spent that time reading vs trying to learn every single word first which stagnates progress. What can be done is just to make note of the unknown words/kanji as you read and then later, for example after a chapter, quickly look up the meanings of those words using the pamphlet.
This is what I'm trying to do with the word freq list: create a sort of document with all the words from the series that I can use for my manga reading of shirokuma. Though some of the stories aren't exactly the same, many key words should still be in both mediums which makes it easier for me to Intensive read when the time comes. Instead of first having to look through a jisho, I can first use the list where I already prepared the definitions and readings. It can act as a glossary of terms like in a textbook.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - sumsum - 2016-05-12
I'm planning to go through my textbook 1 chapter/week as well. 20 (+ 1/2) chapters to go and that will only bring me up to ~N4 grammar wise *uhhh* well but I started to get my toes wet with N3 grammar as well.
I used to listen to music when washing the dishes or cleaning the appartment and I've been slowly replacing that with Japanese learning stuff. I'm not yet doing that everyday (sometimes I just need my "brain off"-time I guess
) but even if it's only sometimes, it's more or less effortless extra study time. Currently I'm listening to the 日本語の森 N3文法 series. My aim isn't to remember all the patterns for now (or be able to use them :O), but to gain some basic familarity with the patterns. So that when I stumble across them in other contexts I might be able to recognize them.
As I said my knowledge is a bit messed up anyway. But I noticed for my grammar studies, that I find it much easier to progress, when a new pattern doesn't seem completely new and alien to me, but I've seen it a couple of times beforehand. So my goal for N3 grammar for now is to become counsciously aware of all the new patterns!
Sadly the nihongonomori n3 bunpou series was never properly wrapped up, (apparently they never got around to do the last 6 episodes :/ ) but it still covers a lot and that's pretty cool ^^ I'm not yet sure what I'll to after that. I'll probably listen to it again from the start and then move on to other stuff. There's a vocab series as well, but I don't know if that makes so much sense when I'm only listening. I can't see the kanji that way and besides it seems to be much more dense materialwise so it might need more focused attention anyway... uhhh well, don't know yet I guess ^^
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawToast - 2016-05-12
Reading this thread makes we want to try watching some of these 'easier anime'. I failed to get much from anime the last time I tried, so it would be an interesting experiment.
Still reading away here. I finished reading the Natsume Souseki's dreams from BiJL and started reading "In a Grove". Although I seem to have moved on to Read Real Japanese for a change of pace (and modern prose! No more reading 此処・其処 it's back to the usual ここ・そこ
)
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - sholum - 2016-05-12
I updated my progress in the shiny new 2016 N1 thread, but I wanted to post this here too, since it might be useful for someone:
https://ashitane.edutown.jp/quiz/subject/11/
There are quizzes on particles, idioms, and other things there. Here's a quiz on particle usage (most similar to what shows up on the JLPT):
https://ashitane.edutown.jp/quiz/quizzes/259/
EDIT: Some of the questions I got when I took this are considered N2 and N1 level grammar, just as a heads up; there might be a better quiz for N3 level around somewhere...
I haven't found an option to increase the number of questions (so that you can actually see the entire pool in one go); they might have gotten rid of that option...
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - ariariari - 2016-05-12
Wow, I go away for what feels like a few days and the whole forum erupts with JLPT threads! Loving the activity.
Anyway, I have an update. I realized that I didn't want to increase the rate I was adding vocab, but I still had some extra time I could devote to Japanese. So I finally started going through shin kanzen master n3 grammar. I don't know why I've had such a block on doing this. But anyway, I added cards for all of chapter 1 for things that I either didn't know or felt I needed reinforcement for. I'm currently scheduled to add 1 new card a day into anki. We'll see how this goes.
If this winds up working for me, I could actually see myself doing well on the grammar section of the exam this time!
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - SydNRTgo! - 2016-05-14
Hello, I'd like to introduce myself: I think I'm usually ok at N4 material, and need to work on my understanding of N3 level stuff. I'm not actually planning on taking the test in 2016 (because I hate doing tests if I haven't prepared for them properly) but I'd really love a place to share my progress & friends to keep me honest if I'm slacking off
My background is: I learnt Japanese for 2 years at Uni (starting from nothing) and then spent an exchange year in Tokyo. I understood 400 kanji at that stage, and coped (very awkardly & often inadvertently rudely) with whatever life threw at me that year. I did speak English at home, tho' so it wasn't really a full immersion experience. That was 6 years ago. I then learnt Mandarin for a bit, played around with RTK, learnt & did other non-language stuff...
Now I want to get back into serious, consistent Japanese study. I found KIC in Kinokuniya, really liked it, bought it & I'm planning on going through it (starting at level 2, I just can't stomach revising from the beginning). I think I can learn 4 kanji a day, together with all their alternate pronunciations. I might SRS later on, but for now I'm planning on the old school read, cover, write/say, check... although I have a copy of the kanji on my phone if I want to revise on the bus.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-15
(2016-05-12, 8:18 am)RawToast Wrote: Reading this thread makes we want to try watching some of these 'easier anime'. I failed to get much from anime the last time I tried, so it would be an interesting experiment.
Still reading away here. I finished reading the Natsume Souseki's dreams from BiJL and started reading "In a Grove". Although I seem to have moved on to Read Real Japanese for a change of pace (and modern prose! No more reading 此処・其処 it's back to the usual ここ・そこ
I say give it a go with watching the easier anime you had trouble with in the past! It will be a good way to spend your "reading breaks" with passive input.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - ariariari - 2016-05-15
Hey guys.
First of all, welcome to SydNRTgo! and all the new members. I gotta say, this thread is waaaaay more active than I ever expected. To think, just a few months ago I thought that I was the only person in the world who was struggling with passing the N3!
Anyway, just a quick update to say that I hit my goal in my kanji book for this week. Not only did I finish adding in my vocab from chapter 11, I also finished the exercises in the book. I had to cram in the vocab for the last few days. But I think that hitting chapter 12 by next Sunday should be much easier.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-15
(2016-05-14, 6:17 am)SydNRTgo! Wrote: Hello, I'd like to introduce myself: I think I'm usually ok at N4 material, and need to work on my understanding of N3 level stuff. I'm not actually planning on taking the test in 2016 (because I hate doing tests if I haven't prepared for them properly) but I'd really love a place to share my progress & friends to keep me honest if I'm slacking off
My background is: I learnt Japanese for 2 years at Uni (starting from nothing) and then spent an exchange year in Tokyo. I understood 400 kanji at that stage, and coped (very awkardly & often inadvertently rudely) with whatever life threw at me that year. I did speak English at home, tho' so it wasn't really a full immersion experience. That was 6 years ago. I then learnt Mandarin for a bit, played around with RTK, learnt & did other non-language stuff...
Now I want to get back into serious, consistent Japanese study. I found KIC in Kinokuniya, really liked it, bought it & I'm planning on going through it (starting at level 2, I just can't stomach revising from the beginning). I think I can learn 4 kanji a day, together with all their alternate pronunciations. I might SRS later on, but for now I'm planning on the old school read, cover, write/say, check... although I have a copy of the kanji on my phone if I want to revise on the bus.
Welcome SydNRTgo! I too started off taking Japanese classes in college for 2 years. Never did the abroad program though as my school don't have an exchange option. But they did once every 3 years or so have one of the Japanese classes in Japan as a 6 week course. I was unlucky to have not been taking classes during that time frame (oh well). Now it's 4+ years later for me.
BTW, you should try the J-CAT and see what your strengths and weaknesses are in regards to Japanese. The forum topic about it here.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-15
(2016-05-15, 11:56 am)ariariari Wrote: Hey guys.
First of all, welcome to SydNRTgo! and all the new members. I gotta say, this thread is waaaaay more active than I ever expected. To think, just a few months ago I thought that I was the only person in the world who was struggling with passing the N3!
Anyway, just a quick update to say that I hit my goal in my kanji book for this week. Not only did I finish adding in my vocab from chapter 11, I also finished the exercises in the book. I had to cram in the vocab for the last few days. But I think that hitting chapter 12 by next Sunday should be much easier.
Way to go ariariari! I officially made the halfway point of shirokuma manga vol 1. It was a really slow start but I plan to blast through the rest of it. Read 20 pages last night without realizing it! I'm hoping for more reading sessions like that
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - sumsum - 2016-05-15
Welcome SydNRTgo!
Good luck with your Japanese comeback! I can totally understand not wanting to review the very basics (more below...) What does "KIC" refer to? Is it "Kanji in Context"? How do you like it? Do you have the workbook as well? Haven't read that much about it, so I'm a bit curious, sorry!When I read your post, I noticed that I didn't write about my own Japanese background yet. So let's do just that!
I first started to get interested in Japan and Japanese when I was in middle school... that's about 12 years ago, I guess? I started to study inconsistently a little here and there and I think I looked into about 5 different textbooks, but never got past the third chapter or so? *cough* ... I did get a little further into Japanese for Busy People, but I was still only a few chapters in, when I went on a 11 months student exchange to Japan back in 2006/07. I had lots of fun over there, but I never really bothered to properly study Japanese (stupid me). I communicated a lot in English, which made my English abilities skyrocket (as you may have noticed, I'm not a native speaker), but my Japanese only progressed rather sluggishly.Once I returned I noticed that my Japanese abilities were in a rather strange place. On the one hand I was able to understand a lot and I was able to make myself somewhat understood in most situations - definitely past beginner stage. On the other hand I made mistakes on even the most simple of grammar patterns and was severely lacking formal study - very beginnerish indeed.
I tried to sit down and study properly but... reviewing the basics of the basics was boring me to death... Then life got rather busy and I just gave up for the time being. I made a few attempts to come back over the years but it essentially always came down to the same: Intermediate stuff was too highlevel but I started to hate going over これはペンです all by myself as well <,< And so I got stuck at an awkward mid-beginner level.
Fast forward some years, a few university friends got interested in Japanese! Yay! My chance?! We went to a community college course together, so I got to review the basics of the basics once more, but we really didn't get much further than learning hiragana and katakana (oh wait, I already knew these even BEFORE I went to Japan... ) and a bit -masu/-desu (this as well..). And lucky as we were, the follow up course was cancelled. Cheers. The others lost interest and I dabbled a little more with the course material that we hadn't managed to finish during the course. But that didn't get me far and when I bought a new textbook and faced これはペンです once more, I just despaired.... For my masters degree I switched university and was quite happy once I discovered that my new university had a Japanese Bachelors and Masters program. I asked whether I could join a course for people minoring in Japanese (even though I don't have a minor) and lo and behold I could! And I was even able to join the second course right away. That course covered the second half of the first minna no nihongo book, which a) made me review the first half of the book in a very short time span on my own and b) made me finally finish my very first Japanese beginner book ever! Yay! Only took me 12 years *cough cough cough*
Sadly I couldn't attend any follow up courses because they were too full already (and the people actually minoring in Japanese had priority
) so now I'm on my own once more. But I'm really SO glad, that I had the course to push me through the very beginner stuff and in a relatively short time span as well. So yep, that's roughly were I am at right now. I started working on the second minna no nihongo book on my own. (6 chapters into it) I miss the course, because it set a nice pacing and there were others to work together with, but I managed to keep up my motivation so far
I picked up a few other resources as well in the meantime and I'm currently working through the Core series on iknow (finished core1k and currently working on step 2 of core2k, so it's still a long way to go) and polishing up my kanji skills on wanikani. I guess that are my main resources for now, but I'm dabbing into other stuff here and there as well.As I already mentioned in a previous post, I recently took the J-CAT and apparently I'm not an entirely lost cause. Overall it placed me at roughly N3 level, so it seems I'm still profiting from my stay abroad 9 years back... but my grammar skills are severly lacking and only N5-ish (not really suprising, right?)
I set N3 as my goal for now, because it feels like that's finally a step out of beginner-land. ^^ I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to attend this winter though. Apparently the city I'm currently living in only offers the test in July, and I'm not yet sure if I'll be able to travel elsewhere (I'll probably decide shortly before the signup deadline). But I want to get as much study done as I can until december either way
Ouch the post got a lot longer than I thought it would, sorry
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-15
The これはペンです line brings back terrible memories of my first Japanese class. Weirder when my 先生 would ask us how to spell it...lol I think I'm the only person here aiming for N3 who hasn't been to Japan. Man, I felt like I missed out on something awesome. But of course it's never too late
I most likely will not have the same experience as I most likely will visit for non academic reasons and more vacation but I hope to enjoy it as I have always anticipated.& yes, KIC is Kanji in Context.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - SydNRTgo! - 2016-05-17
Thanks for the welcome ariariari, RawrPk and sumsum
I like Kanji in Context very much so far, but maybe my tastes are a bit odd. I'm not keen on lots of exercises and I'm not keen on long sentences to learn - I know they won't help me remember stuff properly. I also really want to learn all the readings with the kanji, so KIC suits me just fine. I'll let you know how I'm going in a month, tho', maybe I'll hate it by then...
I enjoyed reading your experiences sumsum. And yes RawrPk, it's never too late!
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-18
(2016-05-17, 3:01 am)SydNRTgo! Wrote: Thanks for the welcome ariariari, RawrPk and sumsum
I like Kanji in Context very much so far, but maybe my tastes are a bit odd. I'm not keen on lots of exercises and I'm not keen on long sentences to learn - I know they won't help me remember stuff properly. I also really want to learn all the readings with the kanji, so KIC suits me just fine. I'll let you know how I'm going in a month, tho', maybe I'll hate it by then...
I enjoyed reading your experiences sumsum. And yes RawrPk, it's never too late!
There are many ways to learn a language so don't feel weird about what works for you. The best method is the one that works for you and that's all that should matter. But by all means, please inform us of your progress
I love reading progress posts here as it motivates me! I'm sure others here fell the same also.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - ariariari - 2016-05-21
So I just finished chapter 12 of my kanji book. I can do this.
For reference, I started the month having only finished the first 10 chapters, and with a goal of trying to knock off a chapter a week. So far, so good!
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-21
That's great! I need to make specific goals like this for my studies too. So far I'm doing ok but I find myself using my spare time NOT doing Japanese but doing other things (staring at Twitter and googling recipes). I still study but the time I used messing around could be implemented into that. It seem the times I ever really study are the mornings while eating breakfast or right before bed. I don't really know how to motivate myself to squeeze more study besides my early morning/late evening time.Thoughts?
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - yogert909 - 2016-05-21
If you are into anki mobile, I fit a good amount of study time walking to and from work, lunch, walking my dog, waiting for food to arrive, waiting in line at trader joes, etc. A few minutes here and there add up to close to an hour of study that would otherwise be wasted doing absolutely nothing. I also started listening to jpod101 dialogs in the car so I get some passive study that way - it's a 45 minute round trip to work and back every day..
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-21
(2016-05-21, 10:39 pm)yogert909 Wrote: If you are into anki mobile, I fit a good amount of study time walking to and from work, lunch, walking my dog, waiting for food to arrive, waiting in line at trader joes, etc. A few minutes here and there add up to close to an hour of study that would otherwise be wasted doing absolutely nothing. I also started listening to jpod101 dialogs in the car so I get some passive study that way - it's a 45 minute round trip to work and back every day..
This I need to do more of! Something so simple yet I never thought about it. I can start by ripping the audio from shows I've seen into smaller timeframes and loop it on my phone while I do my everyday tasks (if permitted of course). I can also finally get back into my RTK deck...poor thing has been overshadowed by my Core deck which has 100+ daily reviews. Thank you. Now that I think about it, I'm usually doing my Core reviews right before bed so after all of that I don't care to do anymore thinking hehe
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - umrafael - 2016-05-22
A brief story about me: started studying japanese from scratch in october, 2013. Then, KanKen 10 in 2014 (148/150), JLPT N5 in 2014 (172/180), KanKen 9 in 2015 (150/150) and JLPT N4 in 2015 (139/180). I struggled a lot going through N4 grammar and have been like that with grammar and kanji ever since. I am a very sloooow learner. Anki and RTK just don't work for me at all and I have to keep writing down the same kanji again and again, making memorization at my own pace. I hired a different native tutor in italki in 2016 but I lack confidence for taking N3 this december. I bought Kanzen Master N3 but I'm still reviewing Genki 2 with my tutor... But before N3, I promised a good friend that I would give a shot at both KanKen 8 and 7 this october! My question is: will my kanken studies at such low levels hinder my performace at N3 (with a whole bunch of high level kanji)? The thing is I ENJOY doing kanken drills. KanKen DS3 game makes me kinda motivated to go on and ever since I found Bret Mayer's (first american to pass KanKen 1) YouTube channel ("Bu Sensei" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCekKfzxgcijjvcpI9HoUGSA ) going through each KanKen level, I feel like I'm getting pumped up to take on the challenge..! So, what do you guys think? If I don't ditch doing both KanKen tests this year I might fail N3 or I just might fail at everything anyways?
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - ariariari - 2016-05-22
(2016-05-22, 6:33 am)umrafael Wrote: A brief story about me: started studying japanese from scratch in october, 2013. Then, KanKen 10 in 2014 (148/150), JLPT N5 in 2014 (172/180), KanKen 9 in 2015 (150/150) and JLPT N4 in 2015 (139/180). I struggled a lot going through N4 grammar and have been like that with grammar and kanji ever since. I am a very sloooow learner. Anki and RTK just don't work for me at all and I have to keep writing down the same kanji again and again, making memorization at my own pace. I hired a different native tutor in italki in 2016 but I lack confidence for taking N3 this december. I bought Kanzen Master N3 but I'm still reviewing Genki 2 with my tutor... But before N3, I promised a good friend that I would give a shot at both KanKen 8 and 7 this october! My question is: will my kanken studies at such low levels hinder my performace at N3 (with a whole bunch of high level kanji)? The thing is I ENJOY doing kanken drills. KanKen DS3 game makes me kinda motivated to go on and ever since I found Bret Mayer's (first american to pass KanKen 1) YouTube channel ("Bu Sensei" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCekKfzxgcijjvcpI9HoUGSA ) going through each KanKen level, I feel like I'm getting pumped up to take on the challenge..! So, what do you guys think? If I don't ditch doing both KanKen tests this year I might fail N3 or I just might fail at everything anyways?
Here's my 2 cents: it sounds like you enjoy doing kanken. So why not keep doing kanken? Unless you need Japanese for work, it should be about enjoyment and enjoying the journey.
I failed N3 last December. I knew that I would fail going in. I dreaded it. But once I was in the exam room it didn't matter much. The exam itself is very short considering all the preparation that you do. And now I have a score that I can try to beat this year, which is very useful for me. In fact, while I have no idea whether I'll pass this year, I'm almost certain that I will get a much better score, and that is very useful to me.
Are you able to take it in the summer of 2017 where you live? I wish that that was an option for me. If it was, I probably wouldn't have signed up for the exam in December.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - sumsum - 2016-05-22
I agree with ariariari: If you enjoy doing your kanken drills, it's a good idea to continue! Learning is just so much easier when you are having fun
And Kanken 7 already covers 640 kanji (at least that's what a quick lookup on wikipedia said). I wouldn't call that "such a low level" anymore ^^ Actually the first estimate I found for the kanji you need to know at n3 is also ~650 (on the German wikipedia, but I think it's just an estimate from the old "non-N" tests). Yes not all of them will be the same, but there will be a huge overlap. And it will probably also help with your reading speed a bit as well
Of course if you are only doing your kanken drills, you might run into problems on the grammar and listening parts of n3, but you said you were having a tutor and working on that as well. I think that's fine
Even if you are going slow, you are bound to progress in those areas as well!
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - umrafael - 2016-05-22
Thanks for replying you guys! Well, japanese is a hobby and I don't plan to live in Japan nor will have the money to visit it with my family anytime soon. So, although I'm not in a hurry, I actually did set a "5 year goal" to pass the N1 JLPT test. Of course, I set this plan back in the day when I didn't even knew a single hiragana character so I'm not positive I'll be able to do it exactly this way..! Anyways, I do consider test taking as a very useful learning method. Settings goals and having a date, a score, a challenge... That just gives me the motivation I need! In fact, I am so serious about test taking I have to travel for hours just to take the JLPT and KanKen exams in my country. Unfortunately, no july exams around here. Just KanKen by october and JLPT by december. Ultimately, I want to acquire a decent reading skill soon, so I can get to read more exciting japanese light novels instead of just simple manga and children books. I know I could just try to read whatever I wanted right away but it just infuriating to go to the dictionary every 2 words and still don't get it..! My japanese italki tutor says I should just take it easy as well. She spends a lot of time correcting my grammar mistakes and homework! Perhaps I will just keep trying both KanKen exams and the JLPT so that I can do as many tests as I can intead of worrying about actual results right now! If I get by the end of the year knowing 500+ kanji and a whole lot of vocabulary, perhaps it was worth it! Oh, I'm not done even with KanKen 8 yet! I hope that Bu Sensei channel covers level 7 as well anytime soon! Thanks again for the help guys. Appreciated that.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - ariariari - 2016-05-22
@umrafael Neat. I think that you fit in right here. You passed N4 by a very wide margin, and are continuing to study. What more do you need to justify signing up for the exam and taking it in December?
From what you said above, it sounds like you are aiming for KanKen around October. That still gives you 1-2 months to focus exclusively on JLPT.
Welcome, and keep us posted on your progress!
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - ariariari - 2016-05-22
So I just did something I hadn't done in a while. After watching my weekly shirokuma episode I decided to watch it with subtitles. I felt like I just didn't get enough of what was going on, and felt bad about it. (After all, it's just a kids show, right?)
Turns out that this was an *incredibly* useful exercise for me. Yeah, let's say that 1/3 of it there's no way I should have been able to understand. And that made it hard to focus on the 1/3 that should have just been challenging. I probably only got the 1/3 that was easy the first time around.
I think that I'm going to repeat this exercise when I watch another episode next weekend.
RE: My humble 2016 JLPT N3 thread - RawrPk - 2016-05-22
(2016-05-22, 5:20 pm)ariariari Wrote: So I just did something I hadn't done in a while. After watching my weekly shirokuma episode I decided to watch it with subtitles. I felt like I just didn't get enough of what was going on, and felt bad about it. (After all, it's just a kids show, right?)
Turns out that this was an *incredibly* useful exercise for me. Yeah, let's say that 1/3 of it there's no way I should have been able to understand. And that made it hard to focus on the 1/3 that should have just been challenging. I probably only got the 1/3 that was easy the first time around.
I think that I'm going to repeat this exercise when I watch another episode next weekend.
It's fine to know when to watch with subs. Hell I watched a few with subs. Episode 15 was especially hard that I watched it 3 times! Once no subs, jp subs and eng subs. It was THAT hard for me! Dx All you need to know that the episode is centered around Penguin. Despite that, a very hilarious episode
@umrafael: welcome to the N3 forums! Don't worry too much about the JLPT. This is be the first time I'll be taking the exam and since I had some experience already, I wanted to aim a bit of the high side. Initially I wanted to do N2 but a friend told me N3 would be a more attainable level for someone of my study background. That and I didn't have a lot of reading experience until recently which is essential in the higher levels.
Maybe I'm the oddball here but I actually like that the JLPT is once a year where I am (US) due to the fact I tend to be the busiest in the summer. Also I'm sure my brain would have been putty taking the July JLPT exam lol