My Trip to Morioka and the JLPT
If you’ve been following my Twitter then you know that last weekend I went out to Morioka in Iwate prefecture to take the Japanese Language Placement Test. Even though I was going to take a test, the group of us who went down to Morioka had a really good time (don’t let Lim’s face in the above photo tell you otherwise) and I thought I would take a moment to let you know all about how it went down.
I really wasn’t sure if I’d even take the test going into my year abroad here. I had heard about it before, but considering my skill at the time I didn’t even consider it. However, shortly after my parents went back home from their trip here in Japan with me, I learned from Lim that he was signing up for the JLPT, as well as JJ, who is the awesome Canadian guy on the right in the above photo. I decided at this point, why not, I’ll give it a shot. My Japanese had actually improved more rapidly than I imagined, and at the recommendations of everyone I skipped signing up for level four and went straight for three. Within the JLPT there are a total of four levels of difficulty, ranging from one to four, with one being the hardest and four being the easiest. I could also gauge what level I should take based on the classes I had taken thus far: Hirosaki University claimed that Elementary Japanese was equivalent to level four, and since I would have taken half a semester of Upper Elementary Japanese (equivalent to level three) by the time of the test, signing up for level three just seemed to make the most sense. I really only wanted to see how well I could take the test, kind of like a personal challenge for myself. A lot of people do take the test in order to get into work in Japan, since employers will use it as a way to establish a prospective employee’s Japanese ability.
I went out to the local bookstore (Books Kikokunya, I think), picked up an application form and subsequently mailed it out for the price of about 5000 yen. Now was time to play the waiting game. The documentation included with the application said that I wouldn’t be receiving the details about where and when the test would be until November and afterwords I wouldn’t be receiving the results until February. In the meantime, I didn’t do any specific study for the JLPT – like I mentioned above, it seemed clear that I would be able to acquire the knowledge I’d need for the test just through taking classes as normal. However, this isn’t the case for everyone. My buddy Lim told me that he would be able to find some work through a professor he knew if he could score 350/400 on level one. Because of this, he spent practically everyday since the end of summer right until the test focusing on just test study, even skipping the last two weeks of class before the test to just study for the JLPT. Clearly, this test is a big deal for some people. It was kind of interesting seeing what some of my other Korean friends who were going to take the test said – mainly, that they weren’t studying at all despite taking level one soon as well.
About half way through November, I received my test information, which included the details about the testing place and my “test pass,” which had my picture and information on it that I would need to enter the test room. Now all I had to do was worry about how we would be getting down there. I went up to Lim’s room, which honestly resembled a dimly-lit cave at this point. I hadn’t seen him in a while because of his studying, but we were still able to work out that we would be taking the bus down there the morning of the test.
I was up at 3am that morning, but it wasn’t such a big deal. The last couple of days I had been getting little sleep, so I was able to get to bed by 6:30pm the night before. I met Lim out in the lobby of the kaikan, where we decided to go to the convenience store and grab some coffee before we would meet up with Hwang. The night before it had been snowing so the roads and sidewalks were all dusted with white. We got our stuff, went back to the kaikan, met Hwang and made our way outside. We decided that because of the snow, it wouldn’t be the best idea to take our bikes to the station. So instead, we began walking and decided to grab a taxi along the way. At this point, it started snowing. It was still well before dawn and chilly, so seeing the quite white snow falling down into the empty streets brought about that wonderful sense of calm that winter brings with it. Lim had quite another idea about it – he told me that snowfall is considered lucky in Korea, a sign of good fortune. He was quite happy about this considering he would finally be taking the test he had been studying for for the past several months.
We found a cab and got to the station, there, we met up with Park (who’d gone ahead by bike) and JJ, who would be joining us on this early morning bus ride. The bus showed up promptly at 5:05am and we were on our way to Morioka. Along the way, I chatted with JJ, enjoyed some Bon Iver (a great compliment to the snowy dark), and a sunrise:
After about two hours, we had arrived at Morioka, the capital and largest city in Iwate prefecture. We would be taking the test at Iwate University, so after having a quick breakfast at a shop in front of the station, we hopped on a bus and made our way there. Comparing Iwate University to Hirosaki University, I would say that Iwate is a bit bigger, but honestly not by that much. Iwate and Aomori are very similar prefectures in terms of size and population, I believe. We also ran into something unexpected at the University as well, which was that we would be taking our tests in different buildings. JJ and the Korean guys were all together taking levels one and two, whereas I would be a building away taking level three. We said our “ganbatte“s and split up. The test took place in a large lecture hall, with several smartly-dressed Japanese people who were clearly the test administrators.
The whole testing process was about one would expect from a test of this type. Protocol was heavy and followed to a T, everyone was quiet, bubble sheets, number two pencils, the whole nine yards as they say. I hadn’t taken a test like this since I had taken the SAT back in my junior year of high school. The first part of the test was vocabulary/kanji. You had to pick the correct hiragana/kanji based on what was given in the question. Part two was listening – a question was given, after which a conversation played, and then the question was given again. The last part was reading/grammar. Everything was about what conjugations, particles, etc., to use. In between each part of the test we got a healthy 20 minute break. During the first break I actually ran into someone I knew: Nick, who is an English teacher at the same school where my host family’s daughters go. He told me that he had taken level four last year and was just taking the JLPT this year as a kind of goal to work towards during the year. Turns out that Nick is thinking of going back to the States and getting a masters degree in teaching English. His interest is primarily in teaching, not in Japanese, but despite that he can speak just as well as any white guy I’ve met in Japan can.
After about five hours had come and gone, the test was over and I turned in my last bubble sheet. The test had gone really well and I’m going to be shocked if I don’t pass. Nick actually told me that the JLPT is structured around my textbooks, Minna No Nihongo, or vice versa (I can’t remember exactly). Because of that, a lot of the questions were very familiar looking and on the whole the test wasn’t too difficult. So I guess if you want to pass either level four or three of the JLPT, then invest in those textbooks. Outside, I talked to JJ a bit out how his test went. He had taken level two, and like me didn’t spend too much time studying specifically for it. He told me that it went OK, but he was iffy if he had passed. If he did pass, he told me, it would be by a slim margin. As for the Korean guys, I couldn’t really get much out of them. Lim kept saying how he had “messed up,” but I don’t really believe it. I chalk it up to them being humble about their abilities, because practically every Korean person I’ve met speaks Japanese like a native and quite a few have already passed level one. That evening before we took the bus back to Hirosaki, we celebrated by having some bi bim pap at a Korean restaurant, along with a few beers (as you can see in the first photo in this post).
If you have any specific questions for me about the JLPT, don’t be shy! Leave a comment below or send me an email, my email address is on the right side of the site. Later!
Hirosaki 08-09
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bus, English teaching, Iwate, JJ, JLPT, Lim, Morioka, test, traveling
Themocracy
You should tell your friend Lee to smile more! He’s absurd looking(sorry). How do you meet so many Koreans? Do you approach them, or do they approach you? Do you work together? Don’t you have any Japanese friends?
i like your wordpress.
I just saw the comment from someone saying that your friend Lim is absurd looking and needs to smile more and I totally disagree. First of all, I think he is very normal looking and even attractive. And second of all, why should he smile more? He is entitled to smile as much or as little as he likes. What is it with people who are always trying to force other people to smile? I remember many years ago when I was going through a devastating time in life and I guess it showed and people would always say to me, “Smile. It can’t be that bad.” I would respond, “How the fuck would you know if it is that bad or not for me?” Anyway, Lim doesn’t look unhappy. He just looks like he is sometimes on the serious side. Nothing wrong with that.