JLPT Day!!

8.30pm and I'm absolutely exhausted!!!

Today was the JLPT! 

I was up at 8am and I'm not joking - even at that time I was feeling insanely nervous.

A hearty breakfast and a quick review later, I was ready to walk out of the door. If all else failed, at least my make up was looking really good today!

The uni wasn't as far away as I thought actually. I got an express train from Ikebukuro and was at the right station in under 20 minutes. It wasn't hard to find the building - I just followed the humungous crowds of Chinese people! HAHA!

I was at the test site at 11 - the doors didn't open until 12, so I was hanging around outside with everyone else. No joke - I was literally shaking with nerves. And what made it worse was I was one of only a handful of people looking at a text. I gave up after a bit coz, well, there really was nothing that I could do at that point. I ended up talking to this German guy who comes to Japan for 2 weeks every month. What does he do? Only works for the effing UN!!! Social development for developing countries!!! So amazing. I was talking to him and he was telling me that if I wanted any kind of work in the UN or Foreign Office, Japan is NOT the place to base myself. Definitely something to think about there.

So the doors open and I make my way into the test room. Over 100 people in that room and I was the only Westerner. The other candidates were all Asian, with the majority being Chinese. Of course. The girl in front of me just would not give up talking to me!!! 

A funny little story:

Girl: Nihao.

Me: Er....nihao

Girl: *a whole load of Chinese*

Me: Huh?

Girl: *even more Chinese*

Me: 中国語全然分かりません。(I totally don't understand Chinese)


Girl: なんで中国語話せないの？中国人でしょう？(Why don't you speak Chinese? You're Chinese right?)


Me: えっ？冗談でしょう？　(What?! You're joking right?)

Girl: あれ？中国人じゃないの？何人ですか？　(Huh? You're not Chinese? Where are you from?)


Me: イギリス人ですよ。　(I'm English)


Girl: ええ？！本当に中国人みたいね。　(You totally look Chinese)


Me: 私と話さないでください。(Don't talk to me, please)


(I wasn't being rude here - the woman was reading the instructions and we were all supposed to be quiet and not talking. This girl wouldn't shut up and I didn't want her to get me into trouble!!)


Girl: 君はとてもきれいですね。いいなぁ。　(You are so beautiful)


Me: *no response*


Girl: *starts talking to her Chinese friend in Japanese about how "beautiful" I am.


Seriously, even when the test had ended, this girl was looking around at everyone's test sheet (including mine) and changing her answers!!! Mine defintiely wouldn't have been the best one to copy from, that's for sure!


The first part of the test was Kanji. The first question, no problem.....and then it was kinda hard from there! LOL! Of the 981 kanji that I know, in the first 5 questions, NONE of them appeared! DOH! I answered based on logic of the readings of the individual characters, but combined, I didn't have a clue. 


What annoyed me about the first part of the test was that it wasn't really about the grammar. It was about the VOCABULARY. I have spent weeks studying grammar forms, so that when it comes to choosing the correct answer, I would be able to answer based on process of elimination through verb forms etc., so it wouldn't matter if I knew the meaning of the word or not. The section where you had to put the words in order was no problem, but the section where you had to choose the correct words was tough. I could read the kanji - I just didn't know what it MEANT. It used to be the other way around. 


But through the whole thing, it was the reading that tripped me up. Not because I couldn't read it and not because I couldn't understand it....but because the OPTIONS for the answers were so damn confusing! I'm reading some of them and I honestly thought they were all right - but we only had to choose one. It was hard to try and distinguish between them because they were paraphrases of the text and there were some words in there that I just couldn't make out the meaning of.

Typical. I understand the damn text but can't figure out the options for the answers. DOH!

So in the end, it was kind of a guessing game. It left me with a lot of time at the end to go back and try to figure out those options clearly. I was then able to change a few of the answers to what I really believed were the correct ones instead of my guesses. So that's something - it's all down to not having enough time (or vocabulary) to really figure them all out.


Then it was time for a break - looks like I wasn't the only one who couldn't work out those options - a lot of people were bitching about it outside. I was just mad that all those grammar points that I had been so worried about didn't even come up. Looks like the way to go is just learning word list after word list. At least now I know!


The second part of the test was listening. This is my strong point, but after that first section, I was starting to panic about it. When the test started and we had completed the first 2 sections, I actually had to turn to the front of the booklet to check that I was really sitting the N2 test.


WHAT A JOKE!


Man, it was so EASY! I was like HUH?! Even though I know my listening is strong, I thought I would still struggle with that section because of the level. But no, it was no problem and apart from about 5-7 questions, I answered them all confidently. The only reason I didn't for the other 5 - 7 was because I kinda zoned out and missed the question! HAHA! I knew that was gonna happen at some point. But I'm not worried about that section at all - I know I for a good score.


So I really have no idea how it went. The problem with the test now if that you have to pass every single section. Before, it was just an overall score, with an overall pass mark. But now, even if you get 100% in one section and it pulls your overall mark up over the pass mark, if you fail any other section, then you fail the whole thing. You only need 19/60 for each of the 3 sections and then the pass mark is 90/180. Even though I'm not confident, I'm hoping I at least hit that 19! Let's see if that lucky guessing pays off!


Won't be hearing until February so we'll just have to wait and see!


xoxo