So, I learned that I passed N1...Since I took it, I've been just reading and watching things I like in Japanese, and adding new words I see to Anki, and I admit my Japanese study seems kind of aimless lately without any kind of big goal to try for. Nothing to really take my Japanese to the next level.

So I'll ask the people who passed N1 a while ago: What Japanese-related goals did you aim for after N1?

For people who passed N1 recently: What Japanese-related goals do you plan to aim for after N1?

Move to Japan where the language is an end in itself.

I think where you go after N1 depends a lot on what you want to do with the language... if you want to live in Japan and work at a Japanese company, that will entail a couple different areas to focus on (keigo, technical jargon for your field); on the other hand, you might be interested in classical literature, or modern literature, or politics... you can find some niche, or some field, that would be both interesting and a little bit of a stretch for you.

If you have any interest in modern Japanese literature, reading five or six novels by people like Kawabata, Soseki, Dazai, Mishima, Oe Kenzaburo, and so forth is an interesting and worthwhile challenge.

Recently passed N1. My plan is to read some novels (I'm hoping to read 20 novels, but given how much I procrastinate on the internet...), watch more anime and TV raw to fix my listening problem, and apply for internship positions in Japan (my school has such a program).

N1 is a paper test on reading and it absolutely does not entail "fluency" as I know I'm nowhere near fluent. It's nevertheless a new beginning in the journey - everything feels possible now that I'm not bogged down by "basic" details of the language.

Well, I was already reading stuff for fun before I finished JLPT1.

If you mean study wise, I took a crack at the 3,300 四字熟語 deck. I finished about half of it, and it was really helpful. I feel like I pretty much know them all, and I read novels, VNs, etc... on a regular basis. I also decided to learn over 3k kanji (jouyou + jinmeiyou + some others) just for fun, and currently know about 3.2k. Now I rarely encounter new kanji, even in more difficult texts.

If writing is important (living in Japan?) I'd go for kanken 2kyuu or so, and eventually jun 1kyuu. I just anki-d the vocab for jun 2kyuu and 2kyuu since writing isn't something I'll be doing until I move to Japan.

Other than that, my I just mined for new vocab by reading content with more difficult kanji and vocabulary. I might try grinding jun 1kyuu vocab eventually, but I don't feel it's necessary at the moment.

Just keep working towards being native level in everything. Why aim for anything less if you're serious about the language?

There are plenty of goals to come up with even if you manage that.

afterglowefx Wrote:Move to Japan where the language is an end in itself.

Do you mean, "where it isn't an end in itself"?

I think he actually means end, as in "means to an end".

Oh, yeah. That would make sense. (｀・ω・´)

Everybody's talking about me >.>

Haha, yes, as andikaze said--after the insane amount of work required to hit N1 and the relative lack of opportunity for using Japanese pretty much anywhere except Japan, it only makes sense to live here (if only for a year).

Although for me it was totally the opposite: I wound up in Japan almost coincidentally and have no choice but to learn the language!

But it's fun, right? And girls sound totally cute when they speak it. Would be a shame to miss what they're saying. This alone can be motivation and goal for many people

Living here, you get in touch with a lot of people, too, and leading a life as an adult, you can't be satisfied with being stuck at any level.

andikaze Wrote:But it's fun, right? And girls sound totally cute when they speak it. Would be a shame to miss what they're saying. This alone can be motivation and goal for many people

Get into 両声類　and you can start speaking like that yourself. (╹◡╹)

I didn't know such a thing existed, dizmox, until I looked it up on youtube and found a bunch of instructional videos. That shit is crazy. Once I hit a decent level of fluency I'd love to give it a try, if only to make fun of people!

andikaze, learning Japanese was initially a little less than fun, but that's probably because I started with Rosetta Stone. Now that I'm conversational I see the rewards every single day. Unfortunately 95% of the people I talk to are kids, which isn't great for my language development!

Coincidentally, I'll be driving through Kumagaya Monday night on my way down to Chiba. Unless I just say to hell with it and spend the ￥2000 on the expressway =\

afterglowefx Wrote:I didn't know such a thing existed, dizmox, until I looked it up on youtube and found a bunch of instructional videos. That shit is crazy. Once I hit a decent level of fluency I'd love to give it a try, if only to make fun of people!

Well you can do it English too! It's just the same thing as transgender voice training, but for some reason it's not popular in the west... I can only think of that Nick Pitera video.