Books shown in this video:
JLPT N5-N4 practice book
JLPT N3 practice book
JLPT N2 practice book
Road to N1
Road to N1 is the name of the vlog series in which I try to work towards achieving JLPT N1 level. It is the highest level of the JLPT and some say that even Japanese people have a hard time not making any mistakes. It is a big goal and something which is still very far away for me to achieve.
Why N1?
I have been living in Japan now for some years and my Japanese is still not sufficient enough for everything that goes above having simple conversations. I wanted to set a goal for myself to work towards so I would stay more motivated to actually learn this language as it is quite difficult at an lower-intermediate stage to actually force yourself to keep studying as you are not seeing the same kind of increases in knowledge like in the very beginning when you just start out learning the language.
So N1 it is, not because I need it, but because I want to have a goal to reach for. After N1, what are my plans? Well I’ve heard about this Kanji test which also seems quite interesting, that will probably be next. However, one day there will come a moment that I will stop studying Japanese all together as I have been learning this language now for so many years. If I am fluent enough I’d like to go over to a different language, probably korean as it has been interesting me for some time. I really like languages with a different writing style compared to our abc.
Do I hate the JLPT?
As a last point I want to clarify that I don’t hate the test. I mainly just dislike the fact that it is seen as the perfect test to test your knowledge of the Japanese test. In my opinion there should be some other tests which are also widely accepted in Japan. Maybe some tests which actually have a speaking/conversation part, actual writing instead of multiple choice. I understand that this would take a lot more time to check, especially when there would be 1000’s or even 10 000’s tests to check or conversations that need to take place and rated, but it would be a better representation of your actual skills and fluency.
But that’s just my opinion. :p
