Oh no, a co-worker told me かがみの孤城 has manga and anime.
Book off has volumes 1-5 for 1,500円
I still haven’t read any ノラガミ 12 volumes or half of 赤髪白雪姫 6/12, or most of ソマリと森の神様 3/9
Help me resist the urge (・・；)
Now at page 202/358 かがみの孤城
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I finished Yotsuba volume 4!
And in terms of textbooks, I will finish my last JLPT N4 prep book today. That’s a total of 14 books over the past two months (though you could say the different Shin Kanzen Master books should count as 1, as well as Nihongo Sou Matome… so that would make it only 9. And two of those 9 are essentially just vocab lists which I used to check if I was missing any vocab in my flashcards. Still, they were backlog and therefore I will count them).
Also finished Genki II this week… that one was one of my goals for the year, but deciding to take the JLPT in July moved that goal up a bit haha. Still, that one felt like an insurmountable mountain, and I have DONE IT!
Going to wait a while before I start Quartet though. JLPT first, and then some time to recover from the very intense daily studying I’ve been doing over the past months.
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Wow that’s awesome!
Nah let’s count them as 14 books, you can be proud.
Best of luck for your N4 test and you are right to take it easy for a little bit ro recover, would be a shame to burn out now.
Also well done for volume 4 of Yotsuba, 12 more to go haha.
I just finished the first story of monogatari, it was only 14 pages long but the vocab was high N5 and higher so I had to make a lots of notes even with the translation written under it. The illustrations were very cute though 
I’ll start the second story next week.
I also finished a jrpg sakura short novel called “三人兄弟” even if it was for beginner level I only undersood 50 to 60 % of it. So I will definitly reread it in a few weeks.
I still have no idea what is a 左衛門尉清経 
I also read 2 chapter of 聞き耳ラヂオ on satori reader and my experience was quite smooth!
I will also try to read the first chapter of yotsuba before the week ends but that might be a bit too much with all the review I still need to do.
Hoping everyone is enjoying their week end, we have a heat wage in France right now.
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Ah, yes, of course I won’t be buying it! I have far too many series to be read that I actually own. Yes…yes…
No, but seriously, I’m not ready to tackle anything without furigana so that one will have to wait. I’m intrigued though!
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I had to look it up too
左衛門尉清経 Is a gate guard of the left gate in the imperial palace in Kyoto. He is equivalent to a lieutenant or magistrate level rank. The last 2 kanji are the guard’s name.
左衛門 - (さえもん) left gate guard
尉 - (じょう) lieutenant/ magistrate/ 3rd highest rank within the department
清経 - (きよつね) Kiyotsune (name)
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Hmmmm…I see I see…
This is also kinda me - I’m not confident enough to really hit anything without furigana yet…
And yet I have xxxHolic, the first volume of Atelier, and a random romance I picked up that I discovered has no furigana…so really…
Well, rehab aside, that at least sounds great for your studies! 頑張ってね！
Yeah, I’m with Urazi on this, count that as 14! If they were on your list to tackle and you’ve now done what you’d intended with them, then that’s books off the backlog 
Oh this makes me feel better about only knowing the first few kanji, lol
No reading YET. But this week! This week I believe! Will begin! 時間つぶし！
(Also, JLPT voucher came in the mail last week, so that looming deadline feels much loom-ier now. Oof.)
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Hoo thank you!
I defaulted to the idea he was a policeman of sort.
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Well I only knew the first, third and last one and none made sense til I say the translation so you’re doing better than me 
Good luck with the JLPT. I’ve still not plucked up the courage to attempt a real one but I have done several N5 and N4 previous tests with fake test conditions (I have a voice over track for each of the N5, N4 and N3 tests that is timed, which has the spoken instructions and a weird test hall like vibe including dropped pencil noises, background coughs and people occasionally seat shuffling, it’s kinda surreal ).
Tbf, that’s pretty close in my mind, so you got the gist of it and that’s what matters with extensive reading 
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Ganbare! Best of luck for your test.
That sounds awesome haha, where did you find that?
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It was supplied with an online course that also gave me several past tests (Japanese with Hikari)
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Well, I didn’t say they made sense…
Thanks though! I’ve done the N4 and N3 previously, so I’m not too stressed about the test conditions (except maybe whether or not there’ll be decent AC…), but whether my vocabulary level and reading speed and listening are up to snuff…remains to be seen.
Kind of wild that your practice recording even has the “atmosphere” of the test hall, though 
A warning to anyone who will be taking the test though - when they say no sounds from watches/phones/electronics, they MEAN it. My first year a guy got red carded 5 minutes in because his phone alarm/ringer went off.
As for reading - I actually did get around to a few pages of Bleach yesterday, and then I’ve got some more time today so we’ll see what else I get to.
Bless the onset of 
時間つぶし
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Same for me. Literally the test started, couldnt have been more than a minute in and his phone rang. They swarmed and removed his ass pretty quick. It was only N5 because I wanted to understand the atmosphere for N3 when I take it this winter, but I cant imagine all these years of studying and getting removed because I forgot to turn my phone off.
Anyway, I havnt been reading quote unquote “proper” books but I have been doing every single Practice test and exam I was able to buy and working through them. So Im feeling pretty confident if I WERE to take the test in two weeks. Unless its those star questions. Unsure if they have a real name but the one where you have to fill in the blank and guess the word that goes where the star goes. Those ruin me.
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Yeah, test conditions are usually similar on e you’ve done one. No AC is always an issue. I’m actually curious about the ones in Scotland because I think there’s only a few and none are that near me (partly why I’ve waited so long) though my hope is that I’ll try for the N3, N2 and eventually the N1 but would like to be well prepared for them before I actually attempt them since a fail means forking over more cash which I don’t have 
I thought it was pretty cool that the recording when you listen through headphones gives that immersive feel to it. It helped me focus better on the test.
Didn’t realize they were so strict with that so will definitely be careful when I go for mine, thanks for the heads up.
Nice 
well done. Definitely doing better than me since I’ve barely cracked oven my ongoing manga (Dragon Quest monster+, it’s set right after the original Dragon Quest Monster/ Dragon Warrior Monster GBA game).
I get the feeling those ones become easier with more exposure to the written language and listening to natural Japanese too. I still struggle with them from time to time but it’s usually not knowing exactly where the particles or counters should go.
I think there’s a part of one of the practice sites that allows you to practice just those type of questions. Will see if I can find it 
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I had the TERRIFYING realization when I finished my N4 that, despite pressing the off button, my phone hadn’t actually turned off. It’s just lucky that I keep mine on silent/no buzz, so it didn’t react to anything during the test. That would have been an expensive and extremely embarrassing way to waste 6 months, for sure.
Oh I know the ones you mean! I actually kind of like them, since I’m more confident putting words in order than trying to remember/produce them myself.
Not to say that said confidence is necessarily accurate, but at least I don’t stress out as much thinking about it XD
Yeah, I’m taking mine over here in Japan. I’ve always taken the December test previously, but I missed the deadline this year and I didn’t want to wait a whole year to hit the N2 (especially because it’s already been ages since my N3 pass as it is), so I decided to risk the summer round.
I’ve heard mixed reviews about whether they have/use the AC at the testing locations, so I’m really just kind of praying they do at mine. I do not handle heat well and it will absolutely make it harder to concentrate if I’m taking the test on a day when The Air Is Soup.
Yeah, they do not play around with it. Be careful about smart watches/etc, too.
Well, given that the past month or two my updates have boiled down to “nope too busy,” I’m just glad I’m finally getting back around to something.
Speaking of - managed to finish my BLEACH volume (like the last 1/3 or so) and tore through volume three of 魔りました入間君, so I’ll be using this last bit of time to FINALLY get around to volume three of 魔男のイチ!
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We only have the December option here in Scotland so I don’t get a choice but it is on a Sunday so that’s not too bad
I found an N2 test page (there’s 3 pages of them but unfortunately they only do N2 and nothing further).
I’ve seen them called JLPT star questions or JLPT sentence ordering questions or JLPT sentence composition questions. I just found out that in Japanese they are called “ 文の組み立て”.
The fact that overseas its only once a year, and then this year they removed the option of the JLPT for non-residents is crazy. The N3 sold out so quick for the summer that Im gonna need to be on the ball if I want my space once it hits.
Having a whole year to study though must be both a blessing and a curse I would imagine. Because I bet some people try to rush the 6 months, which like at an early level you could do but at these higher levels? Nah、the year is needed.
Would be curious to see passing scores across the board though for international and Domestic Japan. Mostly just pass/fail percentages.
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Apparently these are the rough pass marks across both international and Japan:
JLPT Pass Rates by Level
- N5 (Beginner): ~50% (Overseas) | ~50% to 60% (Japan)
- N4 (Basic): ~35% (Overseas) | ~35% to 40% (Japan)
- N3 (Intermediate): ~35% to 40% (Overseas) | ~30% to 35% (Japan)
- N2 (Pre-Advanced): ~35% to 47% (Overseas) | ~25% to 30% (Japan)
- N1 (Advanced): ~30% to 35% (Overseas) | ~25% (Japan)
The scores within Japan drop because language schools tend to force people to take the JLPT before they are ready whereas internationally, people will book it when they feel more ready to pass and after they’ve spent much longer on their studying.
There is a part of the JLPT site which has info on the number of applicants etc. Not sure if that’s of any interest to you?
I think also in Japan it is cheaper, widely available, and even if you are not at language school there are lots of external motivations (visa points) to trying to hail mary a pass mark.
I can’t remember where I saw it, but a breakdown I saw showed people in Japan score lower in every category but higher in listening, which checks out for being surrounded by the language in daily life.
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I wasnt aware language schools force the JLPT to be taken. Granted Im aware they tend to have a “sink or swim” mentality though which isnt good, so yea the double whammy doesnt help.
Unless Im misreading the data, doesnt seem like that percentage is actually that higher. With the exception of N2/1.
I think that drop in certification is crazy though. And the people that skip the N5 entirely is insane. I get it, the price point for that is pretty minimal kick back. Anyway, stats are fun to look at from time to time. Wonder if they are starting to hit venue spacing limits with no longer allowing foreigners to take the test in Japan. Or if its a weird thing to curb over tourism?
Nah, it still breaks down to be about the same price wise granted more testing halls. I took mine with a buddy and we were surprised that despite same time and day booking, we had different testing locations within the same city.
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