JLPT n5 in 6 weeks?

Hi everyone :3
I joined bunpro last Thursday, aiming to pass N4 this summer :crossed_fingers:. Being a beginner I’m currently learning N5 grammar and vocab on bunpro.
I’m at a pace of 2 grammar lessons and 4 vocab lessons a week.
I should be starting N4 lessons in 6 weeks, which leaves me less than 4 months to learn N4.
Besides bunpro, I’m also on wanikani/kaniwani, and I’m currently at level 10. And I plan to take Japanese conversation classes on a volunteer discord, 1 hour a week.
Do you think it’s achievable, or should I aim for N5 instead? If you have any advice, feel free :smiley:

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N5 for sure.

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I think you can manage JLPT N5 in 6 weeks, but it’s gonna be a lot of information and will determine the rest of your journey with the language.
A couple questions for you to to get a better idea of what you want to do:

  • Do you have any experience learning languages?
  • Why are you learning Japanese?
  • What is your long-term learning goal?

Starting off from nothing, you have a lot of freedom on how to start learning, but it’s also easy to make mistakes/develop bad habits that may follow you later into the journey (I rushed though the start and still can’t use particles correctly D:)
If you slow down a lot once you get to N4 you shouldn’t get too overwhelmed, but everyone learns differently. If you notice you start struggling as you start N4, it may be better to switch gears to just doing the N5 exam, or waiting for the next exam to come around and jump straight to N4.

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I think it’s best to take it slowly and make it enjoyable rather than making it harder and more confusing by rushing things, take your time and make sure you have a solid base before undertaking N4 ! best of luck and enjoy your japanese learning journey :slight_smile:

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Not really, I’ve learnt English, but I’m only good at listening or reading, rather than writing or speaking.

I’m going to continue my studies in Japan, my school is mainly in English, but I’d really like to get out of the English sphere, although I’ve heard that English speakers in Japan are very friendly :smiley:
I also have to do an internship at the end of my course and I’d like to find one there and avoid going back to my country T^T

I know I may be a little bit too ambitious. Thanks for the advice, I’m still going to try the N5 in 6 weeks and if I feel overwhelmed, I’ll slow down even if it means abandoning the idea of taking the N4. I guess it’s best to build a solid base first…

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It depends on your field and what kinf of intersnship you are looking for, but in order to study in japan in japanese universities (ie not a school exchange) the required level is N2.
As for internships in companies you can find one in an international company that doesn’t require you to be fluent in japanese but it’s quite challenging as a lot of students are dreaming of doing an internship in japan. You’ll have better opportunities for internships if you have the N2/N1 lvl.
My engineering school was in a partnership with a uni in Japan and I did a 6 month exchange course (remotely because of covid…) and I also found an internship in a well known car manufacturing company before that (canceled because of covid…) so anything is possible.

I don’t know how many years you have before your internship but reaching N2 wihin two years is possible, but it’s best to have no deadline and follow a routine that suits your current daily life.

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irrelevant to your question; but are you going for Language school or University?

How can I too be in Kaniwani? I didn’t understand how to get V2 token.

Kaniwani requires a wanikani subscription. If you have one you can go into your account settings on wanikani, open “API Tokens” and create a V2 Token for Kaniwani

One of my advices would be to make sure you practice conjugations and give it enough time to sink in. N4 will build on the conjugation rules and if you rush through them at N5 it will just be harder on N4. I remember complaining to a friend about the number of rules for う-Verb (Past), but with time they just became natural.

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Thank you !

Hmm I see, luckily my school doesn’t require a minimum level of Japanese as the whole cursus is in English. So I don’t need to rush all the way to N2.

It’s one of the main reasons that motivates me to study a lot, but I’m aware that I won’t be able to reach a N2/N1 level by the time my internship comes around (in less than 1 year).

:pensive:

I started studying Japanese really late T^T

Is there a huge gap between N5/N4, N4/N3 and N3/N2 ?

Are you asking if I am taking formal education for Japanese, or asking if I want to be a Language teacher in the future?
I’m self taught for the past 2 and a half years, and I’ve been tutoring a couple friends who’ve started their Japanese journey over the past 4 months or so. I’m very passionate about learning Japanese and would like to be a proper tutor/teacher at some point, but I’ve have no formal training/education in Japanese.

Thanks for the tip.

How do you use bunpro? Do you do cram sessions right after you do a review session? Do you do cramming sessions outside review sessions? Should I enable ghost :0 ?

Yes, it more than doubles between levels…
On top the JLPT is becoming harder and harder over time. Also the questions somewhat become harder between levels too. Eg larger reading passages .

If you have already paid for the JLPT, there is no going back :smiley: There are 122 days until 6th July…
It could be possible…

Try to spend the last month mainly practicing JLPT style questions. Its not just about studying, its also about being able to use the language.

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In my case I barely cram. I have ghosts enabled for grammar and vocab. I think the ghosts give a good idea of weather or not you are going too fast, so when they start to pile up I slow down on learned items to reinforce the weak points.

And rather than doing cram I think its more interesting to look for other resorces outside of bunpro to improve my understanding. I would highly recomend using something like ChatGPT to improve the understanding of nuance or to compare/contrast similar grammar or vocab.

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