Today's Document
tannertan36
Sade Olutola
YOU ARE THE REASON
Not today Justin
dirt enthusiast
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Peter Solarz
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JVL
Andulka
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ojovivo
Xuebing Du
pixel skylines
hello vonnie
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
we're not kids anymore.
Origami Around
Keni
seen from Canada
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Germany
seen from Singapore
seen from Canada
seen from Canada
seen from Türkiye
seen from Armenia
seen from Australia
seen from United Arab Emirates
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@jeannielanguage
J-Music Madness: April '20
J-Music Madness: April ’20
We all know that music is an awesome way to get into the language you’re learning. Whether it’s learning the lyrics by heart and belting out a tune loud enough to bother the neighbours, or simply using it to boost your inspo and connection to the culture, music is a powerful tool in your arsenal.
In my first J-Music Madness roundup, I’m going to share some Japanese songs I’m crazy about. So blast…
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Language Journey July '19: #ClearTheList
Language Journey July ’19: #ClearTheList
Guess what everyone! It’s July. We’ve officially finished the first half of 2019. Hopefully I’m not the only one sitting here scratching my head, wondering where the time has gone. It honestly doesn’t feel like 6 months have passed…I guess that means I’ve been having a lot of fun!
Inspired by Lindsay’s #ClearTheList language learning reflection blog, I’ve decided to write my own. (more…)
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5 Amazing Akita Winter Festivals: #2 Icy Inuko
5 Amazing Akita Winter Festivals: #2 Icy Inuko
The 犬っこ祭り・Inuko Festival is hands down – or should I say paws down? – one of the cutest festivals around. I mean, it’s all about dogs! Who doesn’t love dogs? Akita Prefecture also happens to be the proud birthplace of the beautiful Akita Inu (which are the big cousins of Japan’s renowned Shiba Inu).
Actually, you should all type ‘Akita’ into a Google image search (WARNING: adorable overload…
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5 Amazing Akita Winter Festivals #1: Torch Wielding Namahage
5 Amazing Akita Winter Festivals #1: Torch Wielding Namahage
Winter time conjures up imagery of picturesque snowy landscapes, bunkering down under blankets by a fire whilst drinking hot chocolate (or any hot beverage of choice, really) and perhaps enjoying some winter sports. In Akita, when it hits the dead of winter in February, it sparks a fervent excitement: it’s festival time!
All across the prefecture heaps of traditional winter festivals crop up to…
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How I Read Japanese Step-by-Step
How I Read Japanese Step-by-Step
Earlier this year I said that one of my biggest goals was to try and read more in Japanese. Even though I didn’t read as many books as I had hoped, I have read a lot this year. As a result, I’ve refined my reading process and how to deal with all the unknown words that I come across. Today I want to share it with you.
Step 1: Read without looking up words
I like to try and get a feel for what I’m…
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English VS Japanese! Disney Movie Titles
English VS Japanese! Disney Movie Titles
One thing I’ve always found interesting is looking at the changes in movie titles between English and Japanese. In English, our titles are more figurative and can be a bit ambiguous, creating a sense of intrigue. They’re short. Snappy. Japanese titles, however, trend towards the more literal (and sometimes lengthy side) and give the audience more concrete imagery/explanations on what to expect.
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Japan Travel Log #1: Nebuta, Haunted Carparks and Karaoke Jams
Read about my adventures in #Japan to #Aomori in my first #travel log on the #jetprogramme.
Despite now being into my second year in Japan on the JET Programme, I’ve only just now decided that I want to document my travel experiences. Delayed? I know. I’m late to the party for everything (I’m serious, it took me 8 years since Sherlock season 1 was released to finally start watching it).
In my first ever installment in my Japan Travel Logseries, I’m going to talk about the trip I did to…
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Read Manga with Me: Sherlock ピンク色の研究 (Part 1)
Read Manga with Me: Sherlock ピンク色の研究 (Part 1). This is the first in my 'Read Manga With Me' series, where I break down various panels in manga and help you understand them.
So a couple of months ago I was wandering through my favourite bookstore (despite my self-imposed ban from buying books until I finish 名のないシシャ), when lo-and-behold I made a fantastic discovery: the BBC TV series Sherlock had been turned into a manga! Fast forward to two months later and I’ve finally cracked open its pages.
Front and back cover
Half the reason I bought this series is that from a…
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Japanese News Round-Up: June 4 - 10
My Japanese News Round-Up for June 4-10. Check out what articles I was reading last week and learn some new vocab with me :)
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and read some news articles, but I finally managed it! My ALT work schedule has been a bit crazy since the start of May because I’ve been going to three elementary schools on a regular basis in addition to my junior high school. I love it though. The ES kids are genki beyond words and while I’m dead tired at the end of the day from keeping up…
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Japanese News Roundup: May 7 - May 13
Japanese News Roundup: May 7 – May 13
I read a lot of NHK news articles in my downtime at work for extensive reading practice, and figured that this would be the perfect place to summarise and share what I’ve learnt, note new vocabulary for me and list other relevant vocab from the article.
Of course, if I were to talk about every article I read we’d both be here for a long time, so I’ve condensed the list to the main ones (or the…
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It’s the start of May. You know what that means…July 1st is fast approaching. If you’re in the know, you can probably already guess what I’m eluding to (spoiler’s in the header):
(Phew, what a mouthful)
This year, I’ve registered for the JLPT N2 in July. Raise your hand if you’re also taking the JLPT in July. Now raise your other hand if you haven’t started studying for it yet. Stretch it out. Take a big breath. I’m in the same boat.
At the end of last week I took a look at the calendar. Not one of those mindless glances to double check the date I’m writing. A proper look. The kind where you’re like, “Wow, we’re almost four months down in the year already!” and your brain starts calculating time frames. In my head, I was calculating how long until my summer holidays. The school holidays here start on Tuesday, July 24th. A Tuesday – seriously Japan, what’s up with that?
I digress. To cut a long story short, the JLPT date hit me upside the head like a football coming out of left-field (that’s a true high school story for another time). I realised then that if I wanted any chance of passing, I needed to get stuck into it!
This will actually be my second time sitting for the N2. In December 2017, I took it as a “practice run” for the real thing (July 2018). I say practice run because originally, I never intended on taking it in December. But since it’s cheap and easy to attend in Japan (no flying halfway across the countryside to the venue) I figured what the hell.
If you follow me you’ll already know I failed. I was expecting that though. I didn’t really study for it and I was out of practice for sitting exams. What I wasn’t expecting was being so close to the pass line it wasn’t funny; 5 more points and I would’ve scraped in by the skin of my teeth.
Despite my lack of success, I learnt a lot from my initial attempt about my current Japanese ability and weaknesses in the exam that I’d like to share with you. First, let me give you a run down of what the N2 entails.
The JLPT N2 consists of two separate tests and three overall sections:
Language knowledge (vocabulary and grammar) + reading comprehension (105 mins)
Listening comprehension (50 mins)
When you receive your score card, you get a mark out of 60 for each section, totalling 180. For the sub-categories vocabulary and grammar, you’re graded with an A, B or C based on the percentage of correct answers for your own personal reference.
How did I go?
My language knowledge and listening scores sat smack bang around 30 points (give or take a few), but I lost out in the reading comprehension, sitting well below the fifty-percent mark. That surprised me since I’d always thought that the reading section would be my highest area (and potentially my saving grace). Apparently not.
That part of the test is a funny story really. I ended up miscalculating the time the first test would finish by 15 minutes. When I was down to a few minutes on the clock, with over half of the reading comprehension questions to go, I hit panic mode and madly filled in the answer sheet at random. Maybe I’d get lucky?
When the supervisor didn’t stop us, I realised my mistake: I was 15 minutes too early. So then I had to furiously erase my dark bubbles and attempt to properly read through as many of the passages and questions as I could. I still ran out of time.
Hopefully this time I will accurately calculate when the test will finish to avoid unnecessary stress and erasing like a madman.
Time management is definitely the biggest hurdle in the first test. In the language knowledge section, you either know it or you don’t (but hopefully you can make an educated guess). I took too long deliberating over some of the grammar questions and lost valuable time I could’ve used for the reading comprehension. On a side note, the grammar section was my worst in the language knowledge section.
In the reading comprehension, I first read the longest passage with the most questions. It took a big chunk out of my remaining time, causing me to rush through easier passages and probably miss answers and therefore points.
I’m not sure yet what would be the best strategy tackling the first test, but I aim to sit a couple of practice ones and find what works best for me. At the very least I should be able to get a better feel of the pace I need to go at to not scratch around like a headless chicken at the end.
Studying for this section of the test, I’m focusing on increasing my N2 grammar awareness and extensive reading. For grammar, I’m using the 新完全マスター series. It’s my favourite for the easy layout, good explanations and example sentences.
I then input the grammar into Anki flashcards so I can constantly review what I’ve learnt (otherwise I’ll just forget it).
To get a better understanding of grammar points with similar meanings, I use the youtube video series ‘VS JLPT N2 Grammar’ by Nihongo no Mori.
This series is also good for listening practice because it’s entirely in Japanese. The spoken Japanese is well enunciated and not too fast or too slow – it’s just right (like Goldilocks!).
I also mentioned focusing on extensive reading. In my blog post Japanese Journey 2018: Read More Books, I talked about wanting to improve my reading speed because I feel I read too slow. For the first exam of the JLPT, speed (and accuracy) is key to success, and reading more frequently can only be a good thing. I haven’t actually read that much more on my 名のないシシャ novel, but I’ve read a lot of NHK news articles to branch out into more subject areas and increase my general vocabulary.
The second test, listening comprehension, is an entirely different kettle of fish. Unlike the first test, there is no time management; the entire 50 minutes is dictated by the CD. Surprisingly, this was my best area (I always pegged my listening comprehension to be lower than my reading).
Living and working in Japan, I have a definite advantage on listening because I hear Japanese all the time. It’s inescapable. I also tend to eavesdrop on conversations around me (purely for practice, I swear!) and repeat what I hear quietly to myself to practice speaking.
However, my main weakness in the listening exam was my note taking skills (the lack thereof). I haven’t had to take notes for so long that I didn’t know how and whenever I tried, I stopped listening. There was also the mini dilemma of “Do I take notes in Japanese or English?”.
In the first half of the exam, it wasn’t an issue. The dialogues were short and the answers were written down, which is a good vocab prompt while listening and can clue you in on the dialogue situation beforehand.
The latter half however gives you zilch. There are no answers written on the page anymore, they’re all on the CD. With nothing but a blank white page before me, my focus started drifting and I zoned in and out. At this point, exam fatigue has set in. Others who took the N2 also complained of zoning off partway through.
The long dialogues were the hardest. By the time the track reached the end, I had forgotten everything said earlier on and had no notes to jog my memory on the details. Additionally, every dialogue, question and answer is only said once, so if you’re not paying attention and miss something you don’t get another chance.
To get more familiar with the format of the listening questions and practice actively doing something with the incoming information, I’ve bought the 新完全マスター聴解 book. I haven’t opened it yet, but my old Japanese tutor used to use them in our sessions sometimes, so I’m sure it’ll be good.
With that, I’m going to call it a wrap. Hopefully coming into the exam with a bit more preparation under my belt will see me across the pass line (or even higher!). Now all I have to do is stop watching crime/detective shows on Netflix and actually do some study…
Are you taking the JLPT this year? Let me know what level below in the comments and what you’re doing to study for it!
Already passed? Share your tips and tricks with us!
Check out my latest #blog post about my experiences taking the #JLPTN2 and how I'm studying for it. It's the start of May. You know what that means...July 1st is fast approaching. If you're in the know, you can probably already guess what I'm eluding to (spoiler's in the header):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhiLDhXBWiW/ 📸 🇬🇧 Studying Japanese with the 新完全マスター読解N2. I finally purchased it yesterday, because I thought it was time to get myself into gear and study for the JLPT. P. S. I'm feeling pink today. 🇯🇵 新完全マスター読解N2を使って日本語を勉強している。昨日、やっとこの教科書を買ったの。日本語能力試験のために勉強すべきだな、と思ったから。今日はピンクの感じだね。 🇫🇷 J'étudie le japonais avec le série "Shin Kanzen Master" pour la compréhension écrite. Je l'ai acheté hier car j'ai pensé qu'il faut que commence à étudier pour l'examen. 🇩🇪 Ich lerne Japanisch. Ich habe gestern das Lehrbuch gekauft.
My Japanese Journey 2018: Read More Books
A blog post about my Japanese journey 2018 and my goal to read more books! #japanese #languagelearning
When I was a kid, there was always a book permanently affixed to my hands. A frequent visitor at our school library, I befriended the two librarian ladies who constantly pointed me to different books and series I might like. In high school, with (almost) an entire life’s experience of reading under my belt at that stage, I devoured books with inhumane speed – much like pistachios (y’all know what…
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BhgwxqYBbYW/ 📸
I’m back and remotivated! I took a long break from my language studies to sort out some emotional problems.
Sometimes life, worries and doubts get the better of you. That’s okay. As long as you can pick yourself back up again and move forward ⬆️😊
Here, I’m going through the 新完全マスター grammar N2 book. Very slowly. I’m not a grammar fan, really. But I love it when I see grammar points that I sat down and learnt appear in real texts… And I understand it!
For example, today I came across を通じて in an article about Facebook, and I’d studied it yesterday. Win! 🏆
How to Get Back on the Horse and Achieve your Language Learning Goals!
How to Get Back on the Horse and Achieve your Language Learning Goals!
Does this situation sound familiar? If that’s you don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Personally, I think the New Year period is an awful time to set goals and resolutions. You’re in holiday mode, full of grand and ambitious ideas for the year, and all this free time at your fingertips. Everything seems possible. Then real life hits you when you go back to work or school. Suddenly, time slips…
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🇬🇧 Because it’s never too early to have chocolate with a good cup of tea ☕ 🍫 🇨🇵 Il n'est jamais trop tôt pour manger du chocolat avec une bonne tasse de thé. 🇯🇵 チョコといっしょに紅茶を飲むのに早すぎるということはないからね。
🇩🇪 Ich esse Schokolade und trinke eine Tasse Tee.
📷 https://www.instagram.com/p/BcjnpKthW7q/ Because when you're an adult, you set the rules! Drinking tea ☕ (non-caffeinated, because I'm semi-responsible like that) in my Minnie Mouse mug and eating プリン 🍮 before dinner.