Today Dennis took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, while Michelle was happily shopping at an antique market in Machida. The JLPT test is the official, government regulated method for determining the level of proficiency of foreigners in the Japanese language. It is held not only in all areas of Japan, but in more than 60 other countries. The number of examinees has steadily increased since 2000 and is around 600.000 people now of which only 120.000 in Japan itself. Around 65% fail this test. Some people take the test to just measure their level for fun, but many schools, universities and companies also use this test as a mandatory requirement for entering a company, for a promotion or for following classes. Due to this, the test is a huge undertaking.
The test has 5 levels, ranging from N5 (easy) to N1 (diffficult). To give an indication N5 is enough to have (simple) conversations with Japanese in day to day life, while N2 is required for foreign (English language) teachers and enables them to cope with every situation in daily life and at work. That is why N1 and N2 are the most popular (80% of all examinees). Dennis registered for level N4 in May via their website which required not only the name and address but also a picture. Each test costs 5500 yen (around 55 euro), which is a high enough amount to prevent that many more take the test just for fun. About 3 weeks before the test, Dennis received a card that indicated he would take the test in Setagaya, roughly 30 minutes away. The card contained name, examinee number and the picture.
In the train the number of foreigners started to grow and, very Japanese, at every corner you had to turn from the station to the Setagaya University there were people with signs to indicate the direction. Arriving there, the number of foreigners was huge of course! For N4 alone, there were already at least 250 people at this site and, surprisingly, most of them were students. (Later, statistics confirm that only 30% of the examinees are working.) This immediately gave it a 'school' air, including that in between the three sections of the test there were breaks where everybody went into the hallway to loudly talk to each other, eat some snacks and take a drink ;) Although English was used predominantly used, funnily enough sometimes the only common language between a group would be Japanese.
There were about 65 people per room and at the start of the test one of the three staff ladies explained the rules. In Japanese. Which clearly not everybody understood. No phones, dictionaries or books allowed. Only a pencil (no pen!), eraser and wristwatch were allowed to be on the table. Surprisingly, there were no clocks in the university room. No peeking at your neighbours. A small violation of the rules would give you a yellow card and with the second yellow card, you would get a red card which would prevent you from being graded. Next all names and examinee numbers were checked by the staff ladies. Then another round to check if the faces were the same as they had on file. Who knew it wasn't allowed that somebody else takes the test in your stead?
The first part of the test was vocabulary knowledge. Although it was only 35 multiple-choice questions, the 30 minutes limit was still very short! Too short actually. In this you have to choose the right (hiragana) meaning/pronounciation for a kanji, choose the right kanji to use, make the correct sentence from a set of words (word order) and choose sentences with similar meanings.
After a break of 30 minutes the next section started. With a complete deja vu, the exact same rules were explained again, names and id numbers were verified and you had to keep your head upright for them to check the photo id's. The next 60 minutes were grammer and reading exercises and included choosing the right particle to use, which conjugation of a verb is correct and answering questions about both short and mid-sized texts you had to read. Again the time is a bit too short to finish it all nicely, so you really have to hurry.
After the second break, the listening practice started. During this deja vu they added a speaker test. A short dialogue was played with considerate volume after which the staff lady nicely asked 'if everybody was able to hear it'. With the audio playing, there was no need to keep track of the time (35 minutes). Every time a short dialogue presented a situation and you had to choose the best answer. The four possible answers could be given visually (4 pictures), in text or via audio only. The question is for instance where you are meeting your friend (4 points on a map), what students have to bring to school or which weather it is tomorrow. It also checks typical Japanese situations like what to say when you enter a friend's house. Halfway the audio test, there was a 'break', but since it was only 15 seconds, I'm not sure why they added it at all.
The test is a nice way of putting some pressure and focus on your study. Dennis isn't sure if he made it succesfully, so we'll just have to wait until mid September for the results!