November 24, 2003
Study for the JPT
I'm studying for the Japanese Proficiency Exam which is coming up in December. I have never taken the test before, but I'm gonna take Level 1, the hardest level. I do this because I'm a genius, or really really stupid. I'll let you know when I get the results.
Studying for this thing though is crazy. Half the time when I ask my Japanese friends what things mean, it goes like... Hey Ken, what does 「...試験に勝たんがために~塾に通う」mean? The answer is usually something like "Hahaha, last time I heard that was in a jidaigeki on TV! Have you been watching samurai movies??" "No man I'm studying for this exam!" Geesh...
You know you're in trouble when you're looking up vocabulary that appear like 5th and 6th in your electronic dictionary. For example, じたい。字体, nope. 自体 nope, 事態, nope, 辞退 yup. That's the one. It's about freakin' time! You people studying Japanese will know what I mean. Same thing goes for when you're typing Japanese too, henkan, henkan, henkan, henkan... how long is this freakin' list?! It's even worse when the word is not in the Japanese-English dictionary and can only be found in the Japanese-Japanese dictionary, like 「検案」。I guess they figure that there is no way that a non-native Japanese person will ever need to use this word or something.
Then there's the words that seem to have only one example sentence in existence. Seriously though, Japanese seems to have a lot of words like that. For example, I look up 喪失 (そうしつ) in my dictionary, and get the example, 「彼は戦意を喪失していた。」 Something like, 'he lost his will to fight'. When I first saw that I didn't know 戦意。 So I looked that up. I get the example sentence, ｢彼は戦意を喪失していた。｣ Does this mean that the only way to use 喪失、is with 戦意?? Isn't there anything else to lose other than your "fighting spirit"???
I also know a lot of vocab that is really unnecessary now. Like, 憤慨 (ふんがい), or how to write 垣根 in Kanji... Or freakin', 山岳(さんがく)I think the kanji GAKU is only used in this word, and this word alone. What the heck.
And then there's the stuff that really isn't going to be on the test, but is just as good to know. Like, 半尻(はんけつ)It literally means "half-butt". You can use it when you're sitting on the edge of a crowded bench and only half your butt is on it. Ask your Japanese teacher about that next week.
-Harvey
Posted by Harvey at November 24, 2003 09:14 AM
I think studying for that test is very worthwhile, but I am just an old decrepit recovering kanji otaku.
一級対策の勉強はそれだけの価値があると思う。日本文学を楽しむために、正式な書類を理解するために、お偉方のお話を理解するために、一級ぐらいの日本語能力が必要ではあるまいか。ちゃんとした社会人として日本社会に参加することを狙っていれば、一級を合格しなくては行かぬ。周知のごとく、日本に長く滞在しても日本語を勉強しようもしない外国人が大勢おる。ハービーはそういう英語帝国主義者にならなくてよかった。応援しているよ。勉強を頑張ってね。ハービーのために万歳三唱！
Why don't you lookup google for the word 喪失... there are many many examples for the word, and some usage that are fairly common, won't name them here, it's an exercise for you. ;-)
いよいよだ。
はびおが、漢字に深い洞察力を持って、試験に臨んでいるのが逞しい限り。Although there might be tons of words, too old to use, your questions and struggle won't be useless.
私、今でも日本語を勉強している。週に一回、１０００文字の長文を要約するの。1/2, 1/4, 要約１００文字という風に。
日本人の私でも、言葉の使い方一つとってもその言葉の背景を知らないと使えないことがたくさんある。
学ぶのやめたら、人間だめになるねぇ～
飽くなき欲求ですな。
I've been meaning to ask you, how did you generate so much traffic to your site?
ハビ男、岳はGAKUだけではないぞなもし。TAKEとも、前に使われる漢字によってはDAKEとも読まれるし、使われるよ。もうちょい調べておくんなまし。
ハビ男の継続性に感嘆するりりーより。
Mavrik: I dunno, I have a lot of slacker friends, and I pay them to come visit. muriyari.
Fred Lo: Thanks for the google tip... I dunno why I didn't think of that...
れい:I can't believe you do that for fun... you're nuts. Someone needs to buy you a GameBoy!
Eric: AHHHH!!!! Maybe some day I'll naturally speak like that.
yeah, I swear I am nuts. But, I do swear i am 考える nuts.
「死ぬまでにしたい１０のこと」観た？あれ、よさげ。Susumu に会うのは１２月になった。ごきげんよう。
その映画見てないよれい~というか、こんな話はemailかけ掲示板でやろうよ!まったく~
you are totally right. まことにもうしわけない。
もっと激しく誤ってよ。Punk.
強烈な誤り!!!身を伏せろ。
間違えた!誤りが、本当の誤になった!
謝りなさい。って言いたかった。
眠いよ。
hello there,
i'm attemptimg to study more about japan in general.
the language aspect (this seriously at least) is a relative recent event. cultur and theology go way back, later on that ..
QUESTION if you dont mind.? , how would you use GOOGLE to search Kanji/Kana etc..
thanks a Otaku newbie for all things Japan
ian, gotta set your comp to do Japanese input. If you've got a windows machine...
http://www.japannewbie.com/winxp_jpn_input.php
Behold. The only useful static page I have ever created for this website!
Also. Go sign up for the discussion board punk.
http://www.japannewbie.com/phpBB2/
Well Harvey, sounds like you're busy learning strange words. But hard work for the sake of hard work makes you strong and disciplined- that's what I just learned from "Last Samurai." And in case you're cast in the next Kill Bill or samurai drama, you had better learn some archaic Japanese!
Eric says not to become a 英語帝国主義者. Who is the Emperor of the English Lanugage Empire, I wonder? Bush sort of speaks Spanish...
I was looking for the best design your site cameinto view
what a place! Keep it up, guys
Some say yes but some say no but as a matter of fact it is the best site on the net
Some say yes but some say no but as a matter of fact it is the best site on the net