Japanese Test and Chie's Friends

Posted on 2009/12/13 12:15:58 (December 2009).

[Sunday 6th December]
The big event of today for me was sitting the JLPT level 4 exam - although I've been passively/casually learning Japanese for almost a decade (by the simple virtue of being with Chie) I've never really had any formal training to speak of, and have absolutely no qualifications either. Also whilst being around Chie is useful for picking up some spoken Japanese, I've hardly ever spent any time trying to read or write in Japanese. So the last few months I've been having lessons at work, mainly with a view to trying to improve my grammar and written Japanese a bit, so that I can sit this test. It's the easiest JLPT level there is, but it was probably the right level for me given that they're all much more focused on reading/writing than speaking/listening, and they tend to pick up on a lot of grammatical nuances and technicalities which you'd only really understand if you've learnt Japanese formally.

Surprisingly we don't get the actual results until March, but I am moderately confident I did OK - I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Whilst I was out doing the test, some of Chie's friends she used to work with a few years ago in Maidenhead came to visit her at our flat. I managed to catch the tail end of their tea party when I got back from the test, which was nice.

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