Crap, I didn't see that they were offering it in London this time... and Dusseldorf, too. Although it looks a lot easier to apply for the London site. (And there's a direct flight from here to London, too... and no need to set up 800 different things to do it, too.)

Hmm... definitely have to ponder that now, considering that Japan is a bit of a mess, and applying for the summer JLPT there is a royal pain in the butt.

EDIT: Yeah, I'm thinking London now, if they don't wind up canceling the test. >_>a

Application to SOAS in London submitted. They will take applicants from anywhere, and you can apply online for the Summer JLPT, so that's quite a few less hassles. Only downsides are that the fee is GBP70, and London is generally expensive compared to... well... everywhere, it seems. Hotels are pricey there... even dumpy ones. Even the dorms can run $70 a night.

But fewer hoops to jump through = happier me.

Wish I could have gone to Japan to take the JLPT, but it's just not feasible now. With all of the displaced people and the generally unsettled situation there, it just didn't make sense. I'll wait until things settle down a bit.

Hmm, I wonder if I should do it this summer or not. I'm tempted to just leave it till December when it'll be easy as pie and I won't have to come back from the town where I'm working. :/

Out of curiosity...do any of you take the JLPT to prove it to yourself? I'm debating taking it at one point, but since (right now) I don't really think I'll ever live/work in Japan (I'd LOVE to travel there, though!) I don't really know if...if it's worth it, I guess?

The job I'm looking at doing (social work/therapy) I don't think would be easy to transfer over there, so that's why I probably won't work over there.

Would it be even worth it to look at taking the JLPT?

I just signed up for July N1 at SOAS. It's a 30 minute tube journey for me, so even though £70 is a bit harsh, it's cheaper than going to Warsaw like I was considering. I've now got just over three months to get my mediocre listening and reading skills up to speed. If the Unicom 読解 workbook is anything to go by, the reading questions are freaking long. I have the grammar, vocab and kanji well covered though.

Does anyone have any convenient links to past exam papers? The site I found before had some tedious points system that forced you to make redundant posts to download stuff.

nohika Wrote:Out of curiosity...do any of you take the JLPT to prove it to yourself? I'm debating taking it at one point, but since (right now) I don't really think I'll ever live/work in Japan (I'd LOVE to travel there, though!) I don't really know if...if it's worth it, I guess?

Well, I took the JLPT2 some years ago mostly as a sort of motivation to continue studying after I came back from Japan. On the other hand last year I thought about taking JLPT1 but decided against it because with travel to/from the test site it would be about a hundred quid and I didn't think it was that important to me. (As it turned out I'm glad I didn't sign up because December last year had a random crisis in the middle of it which would have clashed horrifically with taking a weekend out to go do the JLPT...)

So, er, it's a personal decision that will depend on how you feel about it and how much it's going to cost you. I guess that's not very helpful advice :-)

nohika Wrote:Out of curiosity...do any of you take the JLPT to prove it to yourself? I'm debating taking it at one point, but since (right now) I don't really think I'll ever live/work in Japan (I'd LOVE to travel there, though!) I don't really know if...if it's worth it, I guess?

The job I'm looking at doing (social work/therapy) I don't think would be easy to transfer over there, so that's why I probably won't work over there.

Would it be even worth it to look at taking the JLPT?

why not just take one of the previous year's test at home?

radical_tyro Wrote:

nohika Wrote:Out of curiosity...do any of you take the JLPT to prove it to yourself? I'm debating taking it at one point, but since (right now) I don't really think I'll ever live/work in Japan (I'd LOVE to travel there, though!) I don't really know if...if it's worth it, I guess?

The job I'm looking at doing (social work/therapy) I don't think would be easy to transfer over there, so that's why I probably won't work over there.

Would it be even worth it to look at taking the JLPT?

why not just take one of the previous year's test at home?

Where would I find one?

I'm planning on taking JLPT level one this winter, still a long way away but that's a good thing. Since I was originally not studying for JLPT, I was just studying to get better at jp, more and more. I don't plan to stop learning, even after I get it. It's just a benchmark for me. Saying "You've got this far, why stop? Go for the gold!(native-level fluency) and take it home!"

I just signed up for N1 today!

I'm taking the test for a number of reasons to be honest. Originally I did take it just to prove it to myself and find out where I was at. Also the very first time I sat ２級 was really for motivation cos I was at a low level (less than a year of study) and I studied hard as for it. Even though I failed it, It's one of the best decisions I made!!!

I've not been to Japan yet but am planning on going for a year as an exchange student through uni in two years time. I want to have N1 when I go plus 漢検3級　(at least) so I can beg them to let me take all my classes in Japanese

edit: does anyone understand me when I say "hard as"?? Or is that just New Zealand English??

@mezbup
I understand you. Feels like plain english to me. I could be wrong though

hard as F.. Yeah I think they teach that first graders in Japan.

Haha good! It's just we have this expression "sweet as" that is like the catch phrase of kiwi english... anyways sometimes people from other English speaking countries are like...
"sweet as what?" and totally don't get it. Haha, so I just wondered if maybe using "as" in that way was just a kiwi thing? But it's not so, sweet as.

Hahahaha if you hadn't explained it I probably would have asked "hard as what"

mezbup Wrote:Haha good! It's just we have this expression "sweet as" that is like the catch phrase of kiwi english... anyways sometimes people from other English speaking countries are like...
"sweet as what?" and totally don't get it. Haha, so I just wondered if maybe using "as" in that way was just a kiwi thing? But it's not so, sweet as.

"Sweat as what?" hmmm

mezbup Wrote:edit: does anyone understand me when I say "hard as"?? Or is that just New Zealand English??

I understood you... but also thought "he sounds like a Kiwi".

Edit: should say something on topic. My enthusiasm for taking the N1 this year is waning... I was initially pumped when i got my N2 results but I really have no immediate need of the certificate. Maybe i should just set myself the goal of sitting it December 2012 and skip the stress.

Those of us taking it in London should get together after the exam for an RTK pint or something. (Probably not a good idea to do it before the exam, huh?)

As for why I'm taking it, I talked to some headhunters who strongly recommended it, otherwise I would have waited until December.

I just really need to work on how to answer the reading comp questions. I understood the passages just fine, it was the questions that left me scratching my head, because I didn't practice them very much.

Well, that and time management so I have enough time to answer the reading comp questions. Yikes.

mezbup Wrote:Haha good! It's just we have this expression "sweet as" that is like the catch phrase of kiwi english... anyways sometimes people from other English speaking countries are like...
"sweet as what?" and totally don't get it. Haha, so I just wondered if maybe using "as" in that way was just a kiwi thing? But it's not so, sweet as.

It's common in England too. There's also 'safe as' which basically means cool. I can imagine certain people I know not understanding this sort of slang, so it might have more to do with your street cred than what English dialect you speak :lol:

N1 in December.

Just applied to SOAS for N1 in July. Thank goodness for this thread! I never would have thought I could take it in July.

On a side note: I also use 'sweet as' in the UK. I haven't heard 'safe as' though I have heard 'bare safe'.

pudding cat Wrote:Just applied to SOAS for N1 in July. Thank goodness for this thread! I never would have thought I could take it in July.

On a side note: I also use 'sweet as' in the UK. I haven't heard 'safe as' though I have heard 'bare safe'.

quite the opposite for me. I only heard "sweet as" or "safe as" but never "bare safe". Not sure, maybe it's only in Canadian English?

ta12121 Wrote:

pudding cat Wrote:Just applied to SOAS for N1 in July. Thank goodness for this thread! I never would have thought I could take it in July.

On a side note: I also use 'sweet as' in the UK. I haven't heard 'safe as' though I have heard 'bare safe'.

quite the opposite for me. I only heard "sweet as" or "safe as" but never "bare safe". Not sure, maybe it's only in Canadian English?

Defintely not Canadian English...

KMDES Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:

pudding cat Wrote:Just applied to SOAS for N1 in July. Thank goodness for this thread! I never would have thought I could take it in July.

On a side note: I also use 'sweet as' in the UK. I haven't heard 'safe as' though I have heard 'bare safe'.

quite the opposite for me. I only heard "sweet as" or "safe as" but never "bare safe". Not sure, maybe it's only in Canadian English?

Defintely not Canadian English...

the last one doesn't make sense to me for some reason. It does and it doesn't at times lol

Hmm, ended up biting the bullet and applied for N1. I'd rather leave it to winter but I really could use it for my CV. :/

dizmox Wrote:Hmm, ended up biting the bullet and applied for N1. I'd rather leave it to winter but I really could use it for my CV. :/

same here. Plus it's just something to show yourself