Has anyone taken or heard of someone, who is a native English speaker, taking Eiken, the Japan-specific English proficiency test? I was thinking of taking 1-kyuu just for the heck of it. A lot of my Japanese friends say that it would be difficult even for a native English speaker because there is a translation section that requires high Japanese ability. I've been cruising some Japanese threads about it and the Japanese online community seems to be in consensus that even native English speakers would have a difficult time passing it.

Eiken is pretty low level. TOEFL measures a much higher ability, as does TOEIC.
Gf's father has Eiken1 and he can't speak English. From what I gather, a good Japanese high school student who maybe goes to somewhere like ECC can pass eiken1. You are probably just seeing the reverse of non-Japanese thinking JLPT1 would be hard for a Japanese person to pass.

If you want to prove your English cred, get TOEFL. If you want to test your Japanese in another way, there is a huge selection of Japanese tests aside from JLPT.

I've looked at Eiken 1 prep books just for fun in the bookstore -- any native speaker with even a high school education should be able to comprehend the English and answer the questions that are asked in English. If there's translation into Japanese as part of the test obviously that part would be hard for native English speakers.

I haven't heard of people doing it. What would be the point?

Having looked at both TOEFL and Eiken 1 questions I'd be very surprised if a native English speaker found either of them difficult. Although of course any questions in Japanese would be difficult for English speakers (but I don't see any in the practice test, just English).

From my understanding those English test are designed to test the English of none "native speakers." That is people who haven't completed a certain amount of studies in English. Eiken has been specifically written for Japanese speakers. There seems to be some translation in the lower (3-5) grades, but the words for the translation have been jumbled. The translation is only given as an aid for the student to make a grammatically correct sentence in English.

You can find the 英検の試験問題 online. Give it a try.

Here's the level 1 Eiken test from October. There's no translation, and as you can see, it would not be difficult for a native speaker.

http://www.eiken.or.jp/listening/grade_1...i-1kyu.pdf

Yeah, this basically proves that you have the English knowledge of a middle schooler. Just for lols I would write a thoughtful and articulate essay entirely in katakana. Or make it really dated and difficult to read, with thous and thees everywhere.

I guess it's pretty similar to JLPT 1 in some ways. It kind of shows that you can roughly understand the meaning of texts aimed at adult native speakers, but not much other than that. It's still quite an achievement to pass it though, I don't know many Japanese people who could pass it (including some people who can speak English pretty well). Equally though there are obviously some people who can pass it, but still have very poor English conversation skills.

Ease aside, there would be zero point to taking it. Eiken is mostly used for college and high school applications. It would be like a business man in the states taking the SAT. That being said I have seen some English teachers (native and Japanese both) who take the TOEIC and use their perfect score to attract potential students.

Thanks guys, I guess if I take anything English-related it'll be TOEFL or TOEIC. Anyways, hoping to pass N1 on my second try next month. orz

Good point about equating Eiken to JLPT. I have to think though that Eiken 1-kyuu might be a little harder than N1 (for second language students of the respective languages) because of the essay section. I'm pretty sure my 6th grade elementary school students could pass N1.

I doubt that there are many Japanese people who can pass the test above. I think that even some of my Japanese friends who spend several years abroad would have a pretty hard time passing it. I would say it's on a much higher level than JLPT N1 if you really want to compare those two.

It might be a bit harder than N1 but I guess the multiple choice questions probably aren't so different in terms of difficulty.
Writing an essay obviously makes it a bit harder, but it depends what sort of standard is expected from the essay and how it's marked. Anyone know what the pass mark is roughly?