3 posts tagged “recorded posts”

Today I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Level 2. I'm pretty sure I did a lot better than I did on the practice test yesterday. I think the test this year was designed for Keith. Only the words that Keith knows were put on the test.

Well, we won't know for sure until the results are announced. I will receive my score and certificate in February. I think I'll take level 2 again next year, and the year after that, and every year until I can get a perfect score. I don't want to study for it anymore. I should just be working on reading articles and looking up the things I don't know.

The grammar is really the hardest section on the test. I can't study the grammar for this test. I can't memorize all 173 grammar points and whether they follow a noun or an adjective or a verb. But if I can get a feel for it, I'll be able to get those questions right.

There are usually four choices per question. In the vocabulary section there are words which you have to choose the reading because they are in kanji. I remember one where I didn't know the reading or meaning of it. But out of the four choices, I knew what three of them meant and I was pretty sure that none of them were the correct answer. So I chose the unknown answer.  After the test, I looked up the word and when I saw the reading I knew that that was the answer I had chosen.

Today I've been studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験) JLPT. The test is tomorrow. I didn't study at all in November. I studied before that though.

I took the 1999 test today at home. I bought the test about 5 or 6 years ago. I did worse on vocabulary and listening than I did on the 2005 test last year. But I did better on the reading and grammar section. So overall, the score I got on my practice test is not much better than the score I got on the test last year. I got 58% today, while at least 60% will be needed tomorrow to pass.

A whole year has passed since I took the test last year. I guess I haven't learned much since then.

今日、日本語能力試験のため勉強していた。試験は明日です。11月にぜんぜん勉強しなかった。その前には勉強したけど。

今日、家で平成11年度の試験をやってみた。５、６年前にその試験を買った。去年の実際に受けた試験の結果より、「文字・語彙」と「聴解」はよくなかった が「読解・文法」はよかった。全体として実習試験は去年の試験の得点とほぼ同じです。今日、結果は 58％ ながら、明日、合格になれば 60％ が必要です。

去年に受けた試験以来満１年間が過ごした。この間何も習わなかっただろう。

Today, I tried to say in Japanese something like, "That is the same thing Mr. Kuma said"  and was not immediately understood.  Afterwards, thinking about it, I thought maybe I was not speaking loudly enough.  No, that couldn't be it.

Then I realized that I must not have said it the natural way. That's right! I don't know how that would normally be said. In order to be understood, you need to speak the way people usually speak. Even if it's hard to hear, the mind can process the audio and fill in the _______.  But when you speak in an unnatural way, people can't understand you so easily.

So the key to being understood is to speak like a native! :D  I mean, you have to use natural expressions and phrasing. Should we study them? No!  Instead, we can just expose ourselves to lots of the language. This is what is known as massive input.  I first learned about massive input from Steve Kaufmann.

By the way, the title of this article is an example of unnatural phrasing. The difference between, "why no understand" and "why they don't understand" is that one is natural and the other is not.

So the next time someone doesn't understand you, it might not be your accent. It might just be your wording. So now you know... why they don't understand.