俺 is N1
That’s all you need to know not to take JLPT lists very seriously.
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Of course, the contents of the list are up for debate:
- Most JLPT lists, including the one from Jisho.org, derived in part from this, pre-2010 compilation of old tests - JLPT Resources - Free Japanese Vocabulary lists and MP3 sound files
- はじめての日本語能力試験 N1 単語 3000 | Bunpro - this textbook has 1000 N1 vocab Bunpro does not.
- One step further - combining all the uploaded textbooks on Bunpro results in a larger word “gap” across the entire curriculum
But there’s a reason 俺 doesn’t show up until N1. Figuring that out brings you one step closer to knowing what material is valuable to study and what material isn’t.
Furthermore 拙者、余、爾汝 and 吾輩 didn’t make the list. That narrows things down quite a bit!
As a normal person, I agree with the sentiment, but to a person trying to get a few more points to be able to immigrate, perhaps the time spent thinking on this will be quite valuable. I can’t, in good faith, say that they shouldn’t take the lists at least somewhat seriously.
I think you will probably agree with this (or sorry if you don’t, dont mean to put words in your mouth), but I feel the need to make it clear why I wrote what I did to people who don’t.
The point is that delaying 俺 and other incredibly common words just because it’s marked N1 makes absolutely no sense and will only make it harder for you to get good input outside of study material. If someone wants to pass JLPT fast that’s even more the reason to study words outside of the JLPT order and ideally words outside of JLPT as well so they can get real quality input with minimal effort by engaging with the language outside of study material. Not understanding a bunch of common words in favor of understanding uncommon JLPT words isn’t going to help train language intuition and will just make studying for JLPT harder past N5.
If someone insists on using the JLPT vocab lists the best thing they can do is sort them by frequency and learn from N5-N1 at the same time, but even then it does not make sense to neglect words outside of the JLPT lists as they will make it easier to get to the level to understand the highest JLPT level. There are so many great and immensely interesting resources made for natives that will boost your understanding very fast, but if you only know JLPT words it will be needlessly hard to understand even the easier ones and studying just becomes more of a chore. Someone who studies frequent words outside of the JLPT lists will most likely make it to N2-N1 faster than someone who doesn’t even if it means “more words need to be studied” because it unlocks higher level material with a higher comprehension and higher speed than neglecting everything other than JLPT. This in turn gives you the ability to get more quality input in a shorter amount of time which means higher retention, easier reviews, and more time for input, including more time for the missing JLPT words later on.
Basically to summarize, studying outside of JLPT order and outside of JLPT lists will most likely make you pass JLPT faster.
If you can qualify for a student visa with N5/4 then yeah I guess just do the N5+4 deck, but anything higher than that neglecting the language itself is just making progress slower even for JLPT.
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the specific ca = キャ katakanization is pretty weird to me phonetically speaking because カ would almost always feel better but at least it’s consistent-ish enough that you can guess it if you know it happens
cancel = キャンセル
camp = キャンプ
cathay pacific = キャセイ
catch = キャッチ
career = キャリア
campus = キャンプス
and many more I can’t think of right now
same happens with ga = ギャ
gap = ギャップ
gang = ギャング
gal = ギャル
and then there’s others were they just map カ like you would expect
camera = カメラ
calorie = カロリー
etc
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I think exam vocab lists are flawed in general because studying for exams =/= studying for real life so its not really a problem with the vocab list, its a problem with the concept of studying a vocab list for a test
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