AしてからでないとBできない is justifying why you can't do B just yet (e.g. as a response to a customer who asked you to do B), AしなければBできない is justifying why you have to do A.

Man, so many good posts here lately! I'm glad that I'm not the only one who is slogging thru study at this point.

I think I've heard about しろくまカフェ a few times at this point but never read it. I'll probably check it out. I feel like a change from yotsuba.

Oh, also. It looks like if you are outside of Asia then on Wednesday at 10am (Japan Time) you can go here to see your score:

http://www.jlpt.jp/e/guideline/results_online.html

It looks like scores for people who took it in Japan and asia are already out.

It's been a month so here are my Anki stats

I. Kanji
  A. Young + Learn: 135
  B. Mature: zero


.... that's it.

This pitiful Anki stats just goes to show that I have a long way to go and that I shouldn't give up. On the plus side, I read 20 pages of a manga without giving up. That's huge for me since I don't read material for a very long time and I'm building a habit of reading. Now that I'm more accustomed to my school schedule I know how to squeeze in my Japanese studies.

So, all the posting you guys have done kicked me in the butt and got me to finally finish Yotsubato #3. I want to say that I read about half of the book in the last two days. And I didn't use a dictionary for the last few stories.

The hardest part for me at this point is the length of the stories. Even though there isn't much text on the page, i still find it hard to concentrate on written Japanese for more than 5-10 minutes at a pop.

I think that I want to read more Yotsubato, but for now I kinda want to put manga on hold. When I do pick i up, I think I want to try yoroshiku kafe, just to get more variety in there.

It's definitely nice to have these wins over manga under my belt. If you're on this thread and haven't read any manga yet, I recommend it, if for not other reason than the satisfaction that comes from reading an entire volume of something in Japanese.

(2016-01-23, 4:08 pm)ariariari Wrote: Man, so many good posts here lately! I'm glad that I'm not the only one who is slogging thru study at this point.

I think I've heard about しろくまカフェ a few times at this point but never read it. I'll probably check it out. I feel like a change from yotsuba.

I think you'll like shiro. It's got cheezy puns but they're easy to understand. Plus before the very first mini story, it teaches readers how to use a French press! I think there are more mini cafe lessons in the manga too. Plus it's only a 5 volume series! I wanted this to be my first manga series I finish so I can congratulate myself that much faster! xD

Man, it's awesome that we're all reading stuff at the similar level. It will be fun to see what we're reading in 6 or 9 months!

Have any of you tried the Level 4 Graded Readers or any Magic Tree House books? I find them good practice.

The Magic Tree House books (translations of American kids books actually) are really well written and interesting enough for adults. They push me vocab and grammar wise, but I can still get 90% of what's going on. And they don't give the visual crutch of pictures to the extent that manga do.

I've also bought a used copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . It's definitely a step higher than the things I mention above. But it has copious furigana and is still within reach.

Update on my N3 score: I think that all the people who took the test are now hitting the results url and I can't connect. lol

(2016-01-26, 12:16 pm)poiprotocol Wrote: Have any of you tried the Level 4 Graded Readers or any Magic Tree House books? I find them good practice.

The Magic Tree House books (translations of American kids books actually) are really well written and interesting enough for adults. They push me vocab and grammar wise, but I can still get 90% of what's going on. And they don't give the visual crutch of pictures to the extent that manga do.

I've also bought a used copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . It's definitely a step higher than the things I mention above. But it has copious furigana and is still within reach.

I have read four or five of the magic tree house books. I'd read many of these with my kids when they were younger, and being so familiar with the stories and characters made the books an easy way to break into reading for me. I got pretty bored of the formulaic structure of them by the last one I read though, so I have a couple more on the shelf I may or may not get around to reading.

(2016-01-26, 8:08 pm)ariariari Wrote: Update on my N3 score: I think that all the people who took the test are now hitting the results url and I can't connect. lol

For those who are interested: I didn't pass, and I published the breakdown of my score on the 2015 N3 thread here.

Hey guys,

As a solution to the "JLPT is only offered once a year where I live" problem I'm thinking of taking the J-CAT test soon and again in 6 months. You can learn more about the J-CAT here and here.

I think it would be fun if a bunch of us took it together now and again in 6 months. The biggest problems I have with JLPT is that it's pass-fail and only offered once a year. The combination makes the exam a pretty high pressure affair. This seems like a reputable way to measure progress with less pressure. 

I'm trying to finish my N3 kanji book and my N4 grammar book within 6 months, so getting a snapshot of my ability before and after should be useful for me.

(2016-01-27, 1:13 pm)ariariari Wrote: Hey guys,

As a solution to the "JLPT is only offered once a year where I live" problem I'm thinking of taking the J-CAT test soon and again in 6 months. You can learn more about the J-CAT here and here.

I think it would be fun if a bunch of us took it together now and again in 6 months. The biggest problems I have with JLPT is that it's pass-fail and only offered once a year. The combination makes the exam a pretty high pressure affair. This seems like a reputable way to measure progress with less pressure. 

I'm trying to finish my N3 kanji book and my N4 grammar book within 6 months, so getting a snapshot of my ability before and after should be useful for me.

I hadn't heard of the J-CAT before. Just read the thread on it and it sounds awesome. Another idea... did you ever take the official practice exam? I took it the day before the real test, and it helped me immensely.

Downside is the official book that is a one shot deal. There is only one test in it. I know that on the N1-N2 threads, there are lots of recommendations for practice exam books and some of the studiers by an assortment and take them monthly, etc. I don't know if N3 has the same variety of exam books available aside from the official one.

(2016-01-27, 1:27 pm)poiprotocol Wrote: I know that on the N1-N3 threads, there are lots of recommendations for practice exam books and some of the studiers by an assortment and take them monthly, etc. I don't know if N3 has the same variety of exam books available aside from the official one.

Looks like the selection is a little narrower for N3 (the 3A one-mock-test-per-book sets are only N1 and N2), but there are some, for instance this is the N3 version of the ゼッタイ合格 mock test book that I have for N1. It's got three complete mock tests in it, including CDs for the listening test section. Buying that and then doing one test from it every three months or so would provide a reasonable measure of progress I think.

(2016-01-27, 1:43 pm)pm215 Wrote:

(2016-01-27, 1:27 pm)poiprotocol Wrote: I know that on the N1-N3 threads, there are lots of recommendations for practice exam books and some of the studiers by an assortment and take them monthly, etc. I don't know if N3 has the same variety of exam books available aside from the official one.

Looks like the selection is a little narrower for N3 (the 3A one-mock-test-per-book sets are only N1 and N2), but there are some, for instance this is the N3 version of the ゼッタイ合格 mock test book that I have for N1. It's got three complete mock tests in it, including CDs for the listening test section. Buying that and then doing one test from it every three months or so would provide a reasonable measure of progress I think.

Looks like when I first published this my answer for some reason didn't get published. Just wanted to say thanks - this looks like a great resource.

Also, I just registered for j-cat. They need up to 72 hours to (i guess) manually confirm your registration and send you a password. It looks like it takes much less time than the JLPT. The website says from 45 to 90 minutes.

(2016-01-27, 1:43 pm)pm215 Wrote: Looks like the selection is a little narrower for N3 (the 3A one-mock-test-per-book sets are only N1 and N2), but there are some, for instance this is the N3 version of the ゼッタイ合格 mock test book that I have for N1. It's got three complete mock tests in it, including CDs for the listening test section.

Thank you for sending that ゼッタイ合格 N3 link. It looks perfect for periodic check-ins. Didn't know they made the multi-test booklets for N3. Cool.

Forgot to mention, but the book includes all the scripts for the listening parts, and brief discussion of why the grammar/reading answers are what they are. So you have more feedback about where you went wrong than just taking the real test gives you.

I haven't heard back from the jcat people yet, but one thing that seems great about it is that there's only 1 scale. So during your entire time studying Japanese you can easily see improvement and compare your level. With the JLPT it's pass/fail and the levels change. So between passing the N4 in December 2014 and failing the N3 in December 2015, I get no outside verification or quantification of my improvement.

In retrospect, I wish I took the jcat around when I picked up Japanese again in early 2014.

I just registered for a J-CAT account too. Hoping to get access in time for the weekend.

Hey everyone! Read about the J-CAT topics too and I'm registering now. Did you guys also have to add a school in your registration? It's not a big deal to me since I still go to school but what about those who aren't? Hmm..

I personally think it's most likely just for statistical purposes. If someone doesn't have a school they can put down then they could probably just fake it. I signed up and took it twice, 5 months apart, using the same email and school and everything except I used a fake name the first time. They don't seem too strict as long as you don't try taking it a bunch in a short period of time then they probably won't care.

Also, both times it took about 32 hours for them to approve my account. You guys will probably get your accounts activated in a few hours since they seem to approve around 10am-12pm JST.

Here's my jcat score:

listening: 26
vocab: 40
grammar: 38
reading: 35
total: 139

Their scoring system:

< 100: basic
101-150: pre-intermediate
151-200: intermediate
...

"basic" learners can exchange basic ideas
"intermediate" learners can manage daily communication
"advanced" learners can manage academic and professional communication.

It seems about right to me. I met a Japanese person at a meetup recently who works in a similar industry as me. The next day I followed up with an email in Japanese. It wasn't hard to write, but his reply had me racing to the dictionary every sentence So I definitely can't manage daily communication yet.

I'm a bit disappointed at my listening score, but only because I aspire to be well-rounded. Also, because when I lived in Japan I felt that my speaking and listening were higher than my reading and writing. So it's just kinda weird to see everything go in the opposite direction.

But I guess because I have so little use for listening and speaking now, it's kind of natural that my skills aren't equal. I also have no real interest in working on my Japanese listening ability right now. Oh well. I already made a note in my calendar for 6 months from now. I'm looking forward to seeing the score move up? Will it break 150 next time? Oh, the excitement!

Turns out my library has しろくまカフェ. I just placed a hold on it ...

Nice! Let me know how you like it

New reading goal. It turns out that a while ago I got a few of the Japanese graded readers, and I want to read them all , or at least most of them, by the end of the year. The ones I have are:

level 1 vol 1
level 1 vol 2

level 3 vol 1
level 3 vol 2

I think that I bought these a long time ago, and went thru some, but not all of them. now seems like a good time to finish them