{"id":7250,"date":"2014-07-07T14:24:33","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T05:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/?p=7250"},"modified":"2014-07-07T16:48:16","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T07:48:16","slug":"9-amazing-facts-about-taking-the-jlpt-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/archives\/2014\/07\/07\/9-amazing-facts-about-taking-the-jlpt-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Amazing Facts about Taking the JLPT in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"
    \n
  1. Buying\u00a0a (simple) wristwatch is surprisingly\u00a0difficult in the year 2014. <\/b>Quite like pocket calculators and rotary phones, wristwatches have become the province of obsolete Forbes-reading execs… and people with a test to take. If you are between 25 and 60 and still own a wristwatch, you have a serious hoarding problem. Amazingly, even 100en stores do not sell these any more.<\/li>\n
  2. The wristwatch is not really optional for the JLPT<\/strong>. Since I knew I would be short on time anyway, I figured I could wing it without one, and just go through as many questions as fast as I could. As it turns out, not only aren’t there any clock in the exam room, but the proctors make a point not to give any 5-minute warning before the time runs out (it’s in the test instructions). The first you hear of their voice, is to tell you to drop your pencil right this second<\/em> (under penalty of elimination). This is how one ends up with over a dozen blank answers in their final sheet (where filling at random would have guaranteed at least a couple points).<\/li>\n
  3. One can always make oneself feel better<\/strong> by telling oneself that they are not there to get the JLPT through cheap tricks and strategising. I’m still getting a wristwatch for next time.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  4. The vast majority of (N2) JLPT test-takers (in Tokyo) are Asian<\/strong>. At least 9 out of 10. Yea, I’d be all over it too if I had grown up reading Hanzi.<\/li>\n
  5. The ridiculous level drop between the written and listening sections<\/strong>, tells me the JLPT organisers are keenly aware of their target demographics (see point above).<\/li>\n
  6. Similarly, girls outnumber guys about 5 to 1<\/strong>. I was perhaps one out of 3 white boys in the entire 80-some exam room. I wonder if that gender make-up holds up for lower levels.<\/li>\n
  7. How to spot the true (male) Western otakus during exam\u00a0break<\/strong>: they are the ones with the Naruto plushies hanging from their clamshell keitai (note for business idea: set-up a booth in Akihabara to resell obsolete 1990s clamshell phones to FOB Japan nerds looking for the true<\/em> Japanese experience).<\/li>\n
  8. There is apparently no automatic JLPT exemption\u00a0for “years spent in Japan”<\/strong>. Believe me, I asked.<\/li>\n
  9. In conclusion, I’d be very surprised if I passed<\/strong>, but it did actually motivate me to go back and study a bit more seriously, so it wasn’t all such a waste (let’s see how long this mood lasts).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Buying\u00a0a (simple) wristwatch is surprisingly\u00a0difficult in the year 2014. Quite like pocket calculators and rotary phones, wristwatches have become the province of obsolete Forbes-reading execs… and people with a test to take. If you are between 25 and 60 and still own a wristwatch, you have a serious hoarding problem. Amazingly, even 100en stores do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","category-25"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7250"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7262,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7250\/revisions\/7262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unknowngenius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}