I’d recommend Benjiro - Beginner Japanese on YouTube. He has 23, 1 hour long videos with him talking with native speakers.
It is one of the few listening practice sources where I can understand most of what is being said.
1 Like
From the “living in Japan helps your listening” end of things: It does! …but it also kinda depends.
There are places in Japan (most urban centers, really) where there will be a LOT of English support – so if you turn your brain off, it’s really easy to not be absorbing any of the Japanese even though it’s all around you. So I’d say it can definitely be a massive help, because there’s a lot of opportunities to immerse an practice, but you do still need to be putting in the effort.
You won’t get amazing listening skills from simply existing here, yanno?
2 Likes
I also live in Japan and the first time I took N2 I hadn’t studied much for it at all. Specifically, I did zero listening practice for the test. My listening score was still at a passing level (over the 50% mark) by quite a bit.
Daily conversations and just being able to parse what people are saying, regardless of understanding it or not, really helped a lot more than I expected.
2 Likes
Yeah, I live with a japanese family and chat with my friends in Japanese which definitly helps
1 Like
Absolutely, I chat with my coworkers and that’s always great.
(Although to be fair we flip back and forth between Japanese and English depending on the topic, importance, and which coworkers are involved lol. Texting my coworker about sportsday is in Japanese, confirming the schedule for the next week of classes is in English, teaching each other a new phrase tends to be a mishmash of both.)
It’s fun when we teach each other vocab and phrases – I’ve learned 熱中上, 狐の嫁入り, and 空が高い recently! (Yes, those last two are kind of old-fashioned/literature-oriented, but I’m like that in English sometimes so I’m enjoying learning it in Japanese too 
)
2 Likes
Well, I went back and forth on whether or not I should go for the JLPT N5 this December. I only started learning this year. I decided about 2 weeks ago when I first noticed this thread that I would like to try for the N5 to give myself a goal to work towards, but then I realized I was too late anywhere near me in the U.S. and all the registrations had closed. Anyways, on a whim I decided to check if registration was open at my nearest Canadian facility, Toronto. Wouldn’t you know it, it was the last available day to register, so I figured why not!
I signed up for the test in Toronto. My wife and I are going to make a weekend out of flying up there and exploring, and then I will take the test. I’m excited and nervous. It’s been well over a DECADE since I have actually taken any kind of real test. I’m working on studying and finishing up all the grammar here, and furiously trying to learn as much vocab as possible. I can’t believe we are only 60 days away 
.
My goal is to not need to study anything new for the last 2-3 weeks before the test so I can just focus on reviewing and making sure it all sticks in my brain 
I don’t even know if it is actually possible for me to be ready at this point, but here goes nothing!
10 Likes
Even if you don’t feel 100% ready, it’ll be a good experience for learning what the test is like – especially if it’s been a while since you took a formal test. They can be pretty gung-ho about the rules (seriously, turn off your electronics, they do not mess around if your phone goes off) so I think it’ll be good to see the test either way.
Plus, the studying you’re doing right now won’t disappear, whether or not you pass the test. The JLPT makes for a good form of motivation/benchmark for a lot of us (myself included), and the work you put in prepping for it will never be wasted.
So have fun, and good luck!
7 Likes
Yeah good to go for it. For me, I discovered that there was a big difference between “I think I’m kinda at that N5 level” and “I know it well enough to pass an exam at N5 level”.
Curious what this one means? Don’t seem to be able to find anything for it.
1 Like
Typo for 熱中症 (heatstroke)?
3 Likes
Yeah, it helps if I type things properly XD
It is in fact heatstroke
1 Like
I finally gave Nihongo con Teppei a try, the one for beginners.
Quite nice and easy to follow, between five a six minutes of quite diverse topics. 面白くて簡単ですよね.
@I-k-d さん と @IcyIceBear さん、 おススメを教えてくれてありがとう!
良い週末を
5 Likes
いいよ〜 its nice how even though its easy its not super boring haha
1 Like
I’m still using Nihongo con Teppei as a nice podcast to listen to, even after advancing through some JLPT levels (using his more advanced podcast and the Teppei+Noriko conversation podcast too).
5 Likes
I took my first N4 practice test today as a baseline and just barely passed it. Only 5 weeks left until the test. I bought the Shinkanzen Master reading and listening books and I hope they’ll help me get my score a little higher in that time.
My results:
げんごちしき・どっかい - 70/120 (38 required to pass)
ちょうかい - 31/61 - (19 required to pass)
ごうけい - 101/180 (90 required to pass)
頑張ります。。。
2 Likes
Which practice test did you take out of interest? I’m looking for some N4 ones to do.
I have the N4 はじめての日本語能力試験 book as well as a book version of the official practice test.
I had to import the はじめて book because I couldn’t find it on Amazon or at the Kinokuniya US website. This is the one I took yesterday.
So I looked at some of the official N2 questions that somebody else linked on this site a few days ago. I redid the vocab/grammar section that I took last year. Last year I got 24 points and last night I scored 33. I didn’t try to compare the reading section but I’m assuming that would likely increase a tad too. I’m cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.
My kyudo teacher often says to not think about hitting the target, and instead just focus on what I’m doing, which allows the target to be hit. I dunno, maybe I should have that same mindset for the test.
2 Likes
One month to go!
How will you be spending the final month?
I’m really intending to do Shinkanzen Master books …
But ...
Still haven’t actually started them yet … 
7 Likes
I intend on crying so much that through my tears all of the answers will blur into something that makes sense.
8 Likes