Re: Questions about two sentences


<james.annan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1164585849.485768.309840@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ben Bullock wrote:

I remember learning a whole list of funny conjunctions for the JLPT level
one test which have been absolutely no use at all in the ten years since I
passed the test,

I've heard this complaint several times about JLPT *1* - perhaps it is
mostly just you repeating yourself

No it's not me, because I never repeat myself. Let me repeat that. I never repeat myself. Is that clear? I never, ever repeat myself. I hope you understand that now. You will never hear me repeating myself, so don't ever claim that I repeat myself, because I never, ever do. Repeating oneself is unacceptable. That is why I don't repeat myself. Ever.

, but even if so, I'm prepared to
believe it is true and have no intention of slogging my way through
that exam next year (assuming I pass level 2 this time).

I'm not forcing you either way.

Rather, I hope
to get to the point that a level 2 passee theoretically has: "the
ability to converse, read, and write about matters of a general nature"
:-) Expecially the "converse", which is (astonishingly) completely
absent from the JLPT.

I don't think it's astonishing - it's cheaper to mark exams with graphite pencil marks in circles than to hire highly trained people to give interviews for language exams. My wife is trying for "First Certificate in English" again in December, which is a real language exam, not a Mickey Mouse bull*** one like TOEIC or JLPT, and she had to pay 18,000 yen or so for the exam fee.

I wish there were real language exams for Japanese in the same way that I wish there were real language exams for European languages. I've mentioned this before about the JLPT, but most of the countries in Europe have language exams based on the same criteria, so that the exam for German at a certain level is roughly equivalent to the exam for English or French at the same level, which is a nice system. Unfortunately I don't think this kind of thing will happen in a hurry in Japan, especially since Japan is still obsessed with the meaningless garbage results of the TOEIC exam.


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