I've been gaming several hours a day for the past month since the JLPT ended. I have no idea what to do next -- even if I should pursue studying Japanese anymore for the time being or wait until I find myself in Japan. The JLPT was a good goal to work towards, but now that it's over, I guess I'm back to being lazy. I didn't plan on what I'd do after the test!

Before taking the test, I had a couple workbooks that were only done 3/4 of the way or so that I said to myself "yeah, I'll keep working on them after the test too!" but I don't think I even need to mention that I haven't even unpacked the book-bag I took to the test with the workbooks in them :p

So.. the results won't be available until March. Since the test has ended I've
1. not studied any Japanese. No more Anki, news or stories in Japanese. I think the closest I've come to study is watching a few episodes each of Candy Candy and Akage no Anne.
2. started to study Spanish (now my computer games are all in Spanish instead of Japanese, and I'm studying out of a Spanish book daily)
3. Deleted games in only Japanese (10~12 VNs = nearly 30GB of space... I had no idea they were so big.)
4. tried to draw a comic but soon gave up due to lack of motivation/creativity/inspiration
5. Work like a dog to buy things (like a rebel XSi! I wanted one for the longest time!)


I had told myself that I'd also retake the 2009 1 kyuu test when I forget most of its content (to get an early estimate of my score), but I don't know if that'll happen... I thought about going after kanken, but there isn't enough material online for me to seriously consider it. I think I have to wait 'til I get to Japan to buy a few workbooks to start.

Anyway, now that I know it takes this long to get results, I'm glad I took the JLPT this year instead of after I arrived in Japan (hopefully starting this summer): This way I'll have the results to put on my CV when I'm hunting for a real job in Japan, rather than having to scramble for a job during the last 2-3 months of my stay (although I hope I'll stay longer than 1 year)


So what have you folks doing now, after the test?
I'm sure many of you who have taken 2 kyuu, 3 kyuu, or 4 kyuu are now working hard to succeed at N2, N3, N4, and N5!

March? Not February? Dammit..

I'm not worried bout the results or the next one. I'm enjoying plenty of Japanese stuff daily. If anything i'm learning faster than ever. I'm sitting KanKen 6kyuu in a month but "studying" for that is just getting to me a little... I prefer to just "acquire" haha. I guess since I genuinely really like the materials I learn from it's not study at all so it never gets old or boring. *shrugs*.

Spanish looks fun.

I did 1kyuu of JLPT, and am now studying for kanken4... After that I might take a shot at BJT, JTEST, nihongo kentei, or kanken3.. There is a LOT to work towards after jlpt1.

If you stop studying & using Japanese completely, you WILL forget it, very quickly. It's not like passing JLPT1 somehow cements it all in your brain.

Surprisingly participating in the JLPT has actually motivated me to study more seriously so I have been going at it faster than before the test.

Evil_Dragon Wrote:March? Not February? Dammit..

It's definitely March that the results are released for the US, but I think it doesn't matter where you are.

I'm hoping that my test results are out before my JET interview (that I haven't got yet!) I think that would be really impressive.

ocircle Wrote:I'm hoping that my test results are out before my JET interview (that I haven't got yet!) I think that would be really impressive.

As far as I know, Japanese ability is a negative on JET, especially 1kyuu level. JET is a cultural exchange program so they want Japanese "virgins" as much as possible to come to Japan, experience it, then go home and tell people how great Japan is.

They don't want people who already know a lot about the language and culture since the person will be less likely to be all wide-eyed and excited coming home, and the students also won't be getting someone truly foreign.

Every JET application advice column I've read suggested hiding your knowledge of Japan, and just expressing interest.

Ah, but I'm applying for a CIR position. (not that there's a lot of openings...)
I heard a lot of schools that want a English ALT that speaks some Japanese request a CIR instead. Or I might be working in a city or town hall translating documents or interpreting (ideal case).

But the hope is that they'll see that I can be flexible to work as either a CIR or ALT.

ocircle Wrote:

Evil_Dragon Wrote:March? Not February? Dammit..

It's definitely March that the results are released for the US, but I think it doesn't matter where you are.

I'm hoping that my test results are out before my JET interview (that I haven't got yet!) I think that would be really impressive.

I don't think you're correct here. Everywhere I see says February. And they even said that when they read off the last instructions after the test was actually over.

Where are you getting March from?

Jarvik7 Wrote:As far as I know, Japanese ability is a negative on JET, especially 1kyuu level. JET is a cultural exchange program so they want Japanese "virgins" as much as possible to come to Japan, experience it, then go home and tell people how great Japan is.

They don't want people who already know a lot about the language and culture since the person will be less likely to be all wide-eyed and excited coming home, and the students also won't be getting someone truly foreign.

Every JET application advice column I've read suggested hiding your knowledge of Japan, and just expressing interest.

This isn't entirely true. That's not what they are looking for at all, actually. Sure, they want to send people there that will learn something about Japan and be able to bring that back with them, but the number one thing they want is commitment. It is a GIGANTIC plus to have studied abroad/lived in Japan for a bit before this, as they know you won't get there, freak out about how different/weird it is and quit. Also, knowing the language is a plus as well, as they know you won't get there and become lonely and depressed because you can't communicate anything to anyone.

Really, the biggest part of JET is finding people that won't quit. When people quit, they then have a huge liability on their hands. So, don't suppress your knowledge of Japan or Japanese, simply don't tell them that you want to go there and use Japanese as much as possible, as you are suppose to be teaching English.

It's fine to tell them what your true intentions are. I told them I wanted to get in JET because I wanted to learn Japanese and didn't want to have a long term career in education. I got in fine.

Even if you don't want to keep up with your reviews, you should at least keep your immersion environment going. Just do fun stuff, games etc.

If you don't use it, you'll lose it. You can forget a lot in 3 months.

Your studies in Japanese shouldn't be for the sake of a test IMO, but the desire to learn more about the language. It's a shame how many karate students quit karate after getting their black belt.

Hashiriya Wrote:Your studies in Japanese shouldn't be for the sake of a test IMO, but the desire to learn more about the language.

True, but anyone taking the JLPT1 has probably been studying Japanese intensely for a couple of years and is therefore probably bored to death of it.

it isn't really boring to me, but if you say so

Bored was probably the wrong word. You know that feeling you get when you do something you enjoy so much and for so long that you start to get sick of it?

well, I'm just saying if your Japanese got to a certain point I think I would enjoy doing everyday things like playing video games, book reading etc. in Japanese only... keeping your everyday reading in Japanese versus English at least would help maintain something. even 30 mins a day of studying is better than nothing at all.

Edit: but then again he said he is trying to study Spanish... I would just want some kind of maintenance there myself

Here's where I saw March: http://www.jflalc.org/?act=tpt&id=8
(scroll down to "important dates")

This is the official webite for the US JLPT, in case there is indeed a difference for other countries as to when their results are sent out.


...and yeah, after cramming for the test for the past half year, I think I can say I'm tired of studying Japanese so intensely. I would at least take a peak at my anki deck once a week, but I'm some kind of casual yet vindictive gamer who is trying to make up lost gaming time from the past .... or something like that. Usually I either get tired of the game or overexert my wrist -- in either case I know I'll get over the gaming eventually, but then I'll really have nothing to do!

Maybe come February I'll continue to work on my Anki decks in addition to a few beginner decks for Spanish. ...Although, if I'm remembering correctly, I had a big problem with some of the JLPT decks I had because they included a lot of vocab that you'd only find in the reading section (such as the vocab the test lists at the bottom of each reading section). I guess none of that really matters though, since I wouldn't be studying for the test. And I have other interesting decks I had put off (such as a Common Japanese Last Names deck, Japanese Place Names deck, Verbs only deck "brush teeth" "squeeze out water" ...etc)

As or spanish, I work with a lot of people who mainly speak Spanish, so I thought I might as well learn that to a conversational level. And I took it in high school: it's such a waste it never got anywhere from there.

hell yeah, I passed the test.

74 97 135 306 Pass

ocircle Wrote:hell yeah, I passed the test.

74 97 135 306 Pass

Congratulations!

Edit: I really wish I could look up my results online as well. March it is, I guess.

Congrats!

JET is a huge crapshoot; there's almost no way to predict whether you'll get accepted or not. I talked to someone who had done interviews in the States for JET, and he said that Japanese language is a plus -- he said the three most important things were Japanese knowledge, a "provable" interest in Japan, and previous experience living abroad. In other words, things that would contribute to not fleeing the country after a week. When I was in Japan, I knew a number of people on JET who had college degrees in Japanese and had been to Japan before.

I passed the jlpt3 as well... Just barely though thanks to my horrible grammar at that time... I've improved a bit since then though thankfully

I passed JLPT 2 but barely. The results just came to my house yesterday.

Congrats to all who passed!

I got
54 73 105 232 NOT passed

Well, JLPT1 was too much for me.
I guess I'll try again this year, at least I want to finish with this site before going (I was in frame 1600 or so when I tried), right now I am buried under reviews but working through a plan to finish with them.