Here are some words for the Kanken 1. I hope to go through at least 10 words a day. Definitions and examples will be in Japanese because you don't need to be using English to study for this thing anyways. It took a while to even find definitions for some of these words.

推鞫（すいきく）: 罪人を取り調べること。
螽蟖・螽斯（しゅうし）： キリギリス
凶歉（きょうけん）： 穀物の実らない農作物が著しく不作であること。
幺麼（ようま）：価値のない、つまらないこと。
閹奴（えんど）：去勢された奴隷。
怫欝（ふつうつ）：気が滅入ること。
廟謨（びょうぼ）：廟堂のはかりごと。朝廷の政策。
鴻慈（こうじ）： 荊柏のこと。鴻基におわす尊いお方の慈悲だということで、感謝を込めた別名。
鷁退（げきたい）：風に強いとされる鷁（想像上の水鳥）が、大風にあって吹きもどされ後退する意）六位の蔵人の極臈（ごくろう＝最上位）が欠員がなくて五位に昇ることができず、蔵人を辞さなければならない時、極臈を辞して、末席の新蔵人になること。また、一般に官位の昇進において不遇であることを例えていう。
甍棟（ぼうとう）：いらかむね

These come the following example sentences

執拗な推鞫にあった。 　
螽斯の化を享受する。 　
凶歉に備えて貯粟する。 　
幺麼を重用して朝政を乱す。 　
宦官に閹奴を用いる。 　
怫欝として籠居していた。 　
廟謨既に定まって上下心を同じくす。 　
頻りに鴻慈に浴し、未だ鷁退の歎有らず。
朝猿甍棟に響き、夜水帷薄に声す。 　

Just when you thought the words alone were hard.

THis is hard for normal Japanese ppl too right? I remember reading the wiki and seeing the list of famous people that passed the test. There are some surprising people like a member from kattun. Afterward I saw their names I thought they're so smart lol

I personally will never study for this. I don't see the point and I have lots of Japanese crap to read and watch. I immerse myself in Japanese a lot and I must say I've never seen any of the words in the list. is it useful for reading old texts or something if you're into that?

If there were decks that covered 100% of what you needed to know for each level I would have a go at it for fun.

The DS games don't seem that great for studying and I don't have time to be making a huge deck for this kind of hobby task...

Edit: Just ordered cheap used copies of the STEP books for 準２級　and ２級 off Amazon, will see how they go

Yes, most Japanese people couldn't pass it. I've never seen any of these words before.

Quote:is it useful for reading old texts

Not really.

I would have to disagree with you slightly yudantaiteki about whether this could help you with older documents. Like you've said, you mainly focus on the Genji Monogatari. This, though, is a different style, and it's not one that test makers of the Kanken 1 like using. Most of these I've come to find out are from Kundoku texts or translations of Kanbun text. These are some times 100~200 years older than Murasaki Shikibu, although I could be wrong.

Even if you've never seen these words before, some of them should be apparent.

凶歉
閹奴
甍棟

Are perhaps the easiest of these 10 words. The last one here you should have at least seen the first character. If not, you may recognize the word by its kun reading irakamune. I know the word iraka is used in the Genji Monogatari.

As far as lists with all of these words, I've actually found this one site, where these are coming from--but without definitions. I also have in my bookmarks a list of about 7000 words that you are expected to know for this.

Adding this with the older exams, I have two in my possession, 2011 and 2012--so if anyone has links to the older older ones and their keys I'd be very happy--this I think must add up to a decent percentage of what you need to know for the test.

Where are you getting these definitions from? I tried looking up some of the words in Koujien, and only some (~50%?) were there. Of course, searching online brings up a few more results, but there were still a few words not covered.

imabi Wrote:Most of these I've come to find out are from Kundoku texts or translations of Kanbun text.

This is a little OT, but out of curiosity, what sorts of kanbun do you read? I learned how to read kanbun myself, and I've read some Chinese stuff, such as 論語 and 三国志演義, but I'm interested in Japanese-origin kanbun, particularly about government/politics (fictional or non-fictional). Any suggestions?

All of these words were relatively easy to find online. It doesn't take more than a minute. Sometimes I did have to use things in Chinese.

I only read Kanbun texts with Kundoku next to it with the paragraphs that come along with my study for the Kanken. Aside from that, I haven't done much study into that matter in particular.

To each man his own, but I don't see the point in taking an exam that even most native Japanese educated people don't pass. For me this level is useless (no harm intended).

Completely understood. It's just one of my main goals because I want to know as much as possible in Japanese in my lifetime, and this is something that can eventually be attained. The words themselves is not what helps the most, but the sentences and their definitions lead to more Japanese.

Tori-kun Wrote:To each man his own, but I don't see the point in taking an exam that even most native Japanese educated people don't pass. For me this level is useless (no harm intended).

Given the emphasis Japanese society places on qualifications, it may have value. Everyone in Japan is familiar with Kanken. There's a good chance your résumé will go to the top of the pile if you have a Kanken certification versus the JLPT certification of your competitors.

Though that is definitely probably true, the biggest drive is just that I simply love learning new Kanji.

vileru Wrote:Given the emphasis Japanese society places on qualifications, it may have value. Everyone in Japan is familiar with Kanken. There's a good chance your résumé will go to the top of the pile if you have a Kanken certification versus the JLPT certification of your competitors.

Sure but anything beyond jun 2 would be overkill. There are hosts of other qualifications that would serve you better if your goal is employment.

Maybe 日本語検定 would be good for employment...

I could care less about employment. I just do it primarily because it is intriguing and fun for me.

imabi Wrote:I could care less about employment. I just do it primarily because it is intriguing and fun for me.

couldn't*

Had to fix this in order for me to overcome my jealousy towards your Japanese ability.

Pretty sure they are both fine and mean the same.

blackbrich Wrote:Pretty sure they are both fine and mean the same.

For all intensive purposes it's a doggy dog world out there, so I could care less about writing in correct English...

blackbrich Wrote:Pretty sure they are both fine and mean the same.

I would agree with you. Sometimes intended utterance does not manifest in actual utterance. Quite honestly where I come from ”could care less” is used much more often.

Here are ten words for the 漢検1級. These definitions were all taken, except the first one, from online dictionaries.

扣（ひか）える：控える
濘（ぬか）る：雨や雪解けなどで、地面の土がどろどろになる。ぬかるむ。
衵（あこめ）:
１ 中古の男子の中着。束帯のときは下襲(したがさね)と単(ひとえ)との間に、衣冠・直衣(のうし)のときには袍(ほう)・直衣と単との間に着用した。打衣(うちぎぬ)。
２ 女子の中着。表着(うわぎ)と単との間に着用した。
３ 女児が上着として着用した、袿(うちき)より裾を短く仕立てた衣服。
[補説]「あいこめ」の略で、衣服の間に込めて着る衣の意という。
鷽（うそ）: アトリ科の鳥。全長16センチくらい。頭は黒く、背は青灰色。雄はほおの辺りに淡紅色の部分がある。山地の樹林にすみ、フィーフィーと口笛を吹くような声で鳴く。うそどり。うそひめ。
紊乱（びんらん・ぶんらん）：秩序・風紀などが乱れること。また、乱すこと。
篩（ふる）い分ける：
１ 篩にかけてより分ける。
２ 多くの物の中から選び分ける。選別する。
浩瀚（こうかん）：広大なこと。
鬆（す）：
１ 大根・牛蒡(ごぼう)などの芯(しん)にできるすきま。
２ 豆腐・卵などを煮すぎたためにできる多数の細かい穴。鋳物などに急に高い熱を加えたときにも生じる。
剔抉（てっけつ）：
［名］(スル)えぐりだすこと。特に、欠点や悪事を、あばきだすこと。
逧（さこ）：小さい谷　　　　　　この漢字は国字です。

例文

獲物が逧に逃げ込んだ。
大根に鬆が入っていた。
浩瀚な蔵書を有している。
場末の往来はひどく濘っていた。
風紀の紊乱を危惧する。
社会の病弊を剔抉する。
剣を扣えて清歌す。
笛のような美しい声で鷽が囀る。
衵姿の童女が現れた。
良いものと悪いものを篩い分ける。

Enjoy!

If you use "could care less," you're required to say it in a sarcastic tone. Since that isn't possible online, you have to use sarcasm tags:

Example:
<sarcasm>I could care less what you think of my plan."</sarcasm>

Well, language acquisition is all about how others use language around you. As people do not do this where I've grown up all my life it is hard for me to accept that as part of the semantic rules in my mind. There is indeed a tone that goes with it, but I don't think it's limited to just sarcasm. Also, it's very well possible to convey sarcasm online without tags. Whether people get it or not is another story.

Regardless, Japanese is better.

Yes, it is indeed possible to express sarcasm online, but in the case of "I could care less", because of its established rampant misuse in spoken English, it just comes across as ignorant rather than sarcastic.

I understood imabi's tone but maybe because my social interactions with that sentence structure in this type of situiation is greater. And you understood as well or you couldn't "correct" it. It's not incorrect if that's how it's used; language evolves.

Henceforth I will use the expression "an inch is longer than a mile" as much as possible. It's not incorrect if that's how it's used; language evolves.

The fact won't change but if you use it to mean that sometimes the little extra effort can make a huge difference or something similar and it catches on then all the more power to ya.