Ok if this is already a thread, then i'm sorry. But I've always wanted to ask this. How do you rate you're skills in Japanese? Take JLPT? all tests from level 4 to 1? Will that mean you have a high level of Japanese? Or living in japan, and understanding being able to function normally in the society means high level ability in Japanese?
For me personally, i've gotten pretty far into Japanese. (maybe high-intermediate, or maybe I'm being too generous too myself....well in terms of at least understanding and reading i suppose) But how would one rate there overall level in japanese? Thanks in advance!

シット

シットわかれないぞ....リオ様

自分の成長度を測ってみるのは駄目です。

Tests only test what's on the test. That accounts for something I guess.

How would you rate your level in English (or whatever your first language is)? If you can answer this question then you'll have your answer.

Three months ago after a few months giving tours to Japanese tourists at a spa in Hawaii, I realized I was completely fluent. In December, after arriving in Osaka, I found out people in Japan don't actually speak Japanese. They use some kind of Speedy Gonzales rapid fire type lingo. They don't even bother to pause every few minutes to compliment me on my fluency while smiling ear to ear.
I would have to rate at the same level as リオ様.

まだまだで～～す。　（ため息）

@kazelee
Hmmm rate my first language. That would be english of course. It's a hard question. Sure i go to school,work,hang out friends,etc,etc. I guess being able to function in all the same situations as i do in english would probably be a good place to start.
まだまだ俺は日本語....

@bodhisamaya
Hmm so how long did it roughly take you to become fluent? I hear fluency comes up on people slowly. So i guess if i can doing the things i'm doing, input+immersion+practise writing+practise outputting. It will all come together. It's only been 5 months and a few weeks of immersion, well aside from 3 months of kanji+hiragana+katakana. But those i learned a while ago.

AWESOME

I am not fluent. I had myself fooled into believing I was though because I was answering the same questions day after day in my workplace. The Japanese people I was speaking to on my little island of Kauai were overjoyed to have anyone to ask questions to and were overly appreciative as a result.
I am at a level I can survive in Japanese society if I can get those I am speaking to to pretend they are conversing with a five year old and have their vocabulary and rate of speech reflect that. In chat rooms, I can keep up rather effectively with my friends only because I have the aid of Mozilla's Rikaichan add on.
I have been studying Japanese for maybe 30 months.

My Japanese is terrible. I finished RtK and Tae Kim, and am about 200 cards into 2001KO, but my active vocabulary and speaking ability are both so poor I'd say they're almost non-existent.

That said, I'm not very vigilant with studying, especially now I'm on sentences. Life/uni gets in the way.

ta12121: Why? Do you need a description for a job/school application?

Various organizations have created proficiency scales. You might want to look at the US Govt's ILR Scale. Note that each of the 4 skills are assessed separately. There are examples of the different speaking levels (ESL)

If you read the history of the ILR scale, the US Foreign Service's attempts to initiate mandatory language testing suggests how difficult accurate assessment can be (and how unreliable self-assessment is.)

I don't rate myself - the longer I study, the worse I get.

Thora Wrote:I don't rate myself - the longer I study, the worse I get.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

I rate my language level by actually using it and seeing how far it gets me. At the moment, I'm able to read and enjoy shonen mangas. I can't -fully- read them, mind, but I can read enough that I read whole books without a dictionary. (Usually because I'm too lazy to go look things up, though.)

I also keep on-hand a selection of books that I can't read yet, but want to. I've got a couple books (one was on recommendation from here!) that I am very, very close to being able to read without a dictionary/grammar guide.

Speaking, however... I doubt I could keep up with an elementary school student. I judge this by watching TV shows and trying to follow along with and without subtitles. Chi's Sweet Home is still a little rough for me, which seems pretty pathetic when I write it down. lol

Of course, the important thing to remember when judging your skill level is that as long as you never give up, you haven't failed and you will continue to improve.

bodhisamaya Wrote:

Thora Wrote:I don't rate myself - the longer I study, the worse I get.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

So true.

The only way to get any half way decent ability is just to がんばる for several years.

you're = you are

your= possessive pronoun (as in "your ability")

Thora Wrote:Various organizations have created proficiency scales. You might want to look at the US Govt's ILR Scale.

IMO, If you goal would be to reach level 5 by this scale, you will fair better than some 80% of native speakers. Then again, actual "fluency" as referred on this site falls somewhere in between 4 to 4+. Good description though...

you can start by checking your kanji ability

http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/LevelCheck/Kanji/01.htm

@usi35
thanks for the link. Hmm let me see. I can read majority of all the kanji there. But there is a few that i have in my deck, but it hasn't been "memorized" just yet.

ta12121 Wrote:@usi35
thanks for the link. Hmm let me see. I can read majority of all the kanji there. But there is a few that i have in my deck, but it hasn't been "memorized" just yet.

Don't try to study the ones that you don't know, just do the test once a month to check your progress.

@usi35
That's good. So i can use this to see if i improved some some more kanji readings.

usis35 Wrote:you can start by checking your kanji ability

http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/LevelCheck/Kanji/01.htm

just tried it
1900-2000, not bad

I can't believe I forgot some simple ones, just bugged me
There was only like one I don't remember ever learning out of the list, the others I just had a little trouble remembering

I suppose 1900-2000 is the highest you can get on this one, right?

me? 1900-2000? let me check! I'll use this every month and check my progress.

ta12121 Wrote:me? 1900-2000? let me check! I'll use this every month and check my progress.

unfortunately, if you keep doing this you'll remember the list rather than it being like an actual test though.
I have actually seen this website like a year or two ago and tried it and got 900ish I think, was kind of cool to challenge it again

That also probably only covers 常用漢字 and there's a lot outside of it like 大袈裟　彷徨う　範疇　蜃気楼　徘徊　憑く from the top of my head, but of course that's 2000 and beyond