Hello! This is Keith. I have received the results of my attempt at the Kanji Kentei Level 7. This test is the level that an elementary student should be at by the time they complete the 4th grade. They should be able to read and write 640 characters, including knowing a lot of vocabulary and being able to get the おくりがな correct.
Let me say that for level 8, you need to get 80% to pass but for level 7, you need only 70% to pass. The average score for level 7 is 84.3%. Level 7 is greater than Level 8, by the way.
As expected, I scored 95%. I got every question correct on reading (読み). You have to actually write the readings. And I got every question correct where you have to write the correct Kanji character.
Again, the hardest part of these Kanji tests is not the reading or writing, but the vocabulary. There are a lot of words that can be made from all these different characters.
My score was 190 points out of 200 possible points. I missed 5 questions.
Showing posts with label Keith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keith. Show all posts
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
A reply to Kosuke: Why I study for the Kanji Kentei
Hi Kosuke. Thanks for your concern. Sorry for the words that I wrote which are disturbing you. I only mean to show that I have no delusions that this kind of study is going to have a permanent effect.
By way of example, I had been preparing for the level 8 test last spring but I missed the registration deadline so I didn't take the test in June. At that time I was doing quite well on the past tests and could have passed the real one easily. After that time, I did not study any more. About 5 months later, I started to prepare again for the level 8 and my proficiency sunk to a failing level. I had to work my way back up.
Maybe the same thing will happen again. I don't know. I have a 日本語 journal over on Vox, and recently I have started writing in it. If I keep up this habit, then I won't forget how to write Kanji. Kanji is not something we can study once and learn, and then set aside, and expect it will be there for us forever. Kanji is much more like physical fitness. If you want to be able to write Kanji, you have to do it regularly. So that is the purpose of my Vox blog. To keep Kanji fit.
You ask, what's my purpose for taking the Kanji tests? The purpose is to have a certification that shows I have studied Kanji and can read and write Japanese. The certification is especially important for employment. Without it, you can talk all you want about your Kanji ability, but some interviewers will just doubt you anyway. I think all Japanese people know how difficult it is to keep up handwriting skills in this computerized era where we don't need to write by hand anymore. If Japanese people find it difficult, then of course they will have a hard time believing that you (whomever you are), a foreigner, finds writing Kanji easy. Why should they believe you? They have their own experience so they know it's not easy. But if you at least have passed Kanken tests, then you can prove that you have Kanji ability equal to a Japanese. Even if you've forgotten how a word is written, the certification backs up what you say. With no certification, if you've said you can write Japanese but then you get stuck on a word, you just look like a fool. Who will get more respect? The person who strongly said he can read and write Japanese but then gets stuck when he tries to show it, or worse, writes it wrong. Or the person who has passed the certification test and doesn't need to show that he can write.
Think about it? Why would any Japanese person believe that you can read and write Kanji? If they ask, how can a learner convincingly tell them, yes I can? Simply saying yes is not very convincing, so without some proof, you either have to talk big or show the money. Just talking does nothing to rid the doubts. So, I think being able to say that you've passed the Kanken (level 2 or whatever) allows you to remain humble and satisfy the inquisition, as well as avoid being put on the spot to prove it.
If one is not taking the certification test for this purpose, then one does not need to take it at all. If you have the self-discipline to study Kanji for a short period every day, you can get quite far. If you don't, then probably the test is not going to really help, because after you finish getting the certifications, you probably will stop writing Kanji and they will slowly slip away. Being able to read does nothing to keep up the ability to write.
Everybody needs to realize that writing Kanji is a lifetime commitment. Are you willing to keep up with it? If not, then just save your time and stick to reading only and composing on the computer.
By way of example, I had been preparing for the level 8 test last spring but I missed the registration deadline so I didn't take the test in June. At that time I was doing quite well on the past tests and could have passed the real one easily. After that time, I did not study any more. About 5 months later, I started to prepare again for the level 8 and my proficiency sunk to a failing level. I had to work my way back up.
Maybe the same thing will happen again. I don't know. I have a 日本語 journal over on Vox, and recently I have started writing in it. If I keep up this habit, then I won't forget how to write Kanji. Kanji is not something we can study once and learn, and then set aside, and expect it will be there for us forever. Kanji is much more like physical fitness. If you want to be able to write Kanji, you have to do it regularly. So that is the purpose of my Vox blog. To keep Kanji fit.
You ask, what's my purpose for taking the Kanji tests? The purpose is to have a certification that shows I have studied Kanji and can read and write Japanese. The certification is especially important for employment. Without it, you can talk all you want about your Kanji ability, but some interviewers will just doubt you anyway. I think all Japanese people know how difficult it is to keep up handwriting skills in this computerized era where we don't need to write by hand anymore. If Japanese people find it difficult, then of course they will have a hard time believing that you (whomever you are), a foreigner, finds writing Kanji easy. Why should they believe you? They have their own experience so they know it's not easy. But if you at least have passed Kanken tests, then you can prove that you have Kanji ability equal to a Japanese. Even if you've forgotten how a word is written, the certification backs up what you say. With no certification, if you've said you can write Japanese but then you get stuck on a word, you just look like a fool. Who will get more respect? The person who strongly said he can read and write Japanese but then gets stuck when he tries to show it, or worse, writes it wrong. Or the person who has passed the certification test and doesn't need to show that he can write.
Think about it? Why would any Japanese person believe that you can read and write Kanji? If they ask, how can a learner convincingly tell them, yes I can? Simply saying yes is not very convincing, so without some proof, you either have to talk big or show the money. Just talking does nothing to rid the doubts. So, I think being able to say that you've passed the Kanken (level 2 or whatever) allows you to remain humble and satisfy the inquisition, as well as avoid being put on the spot to prove it.
If one is not taking the certification test for this purpose, then one does not need to take it at all. If you have the self-discipline to study Kanji for a short period every day, you can get quite far. If you don't, then probably the test is not going to really help, because after you finish getting the certifications, you probably will stop writing Kanji and they will slowly slip away. Being able to read does nothing to keep up the ability to write.
Everybody needs to realize that writing Kanji is a lifetime commitment. Are you willing to keep up with it? If not, then just save your time and stick to reading only and composing on the computer.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Speedanki
A really good place to study (if you wish) vocabulary for the JLPT is at Speedanki.com. Speedanki has the Kanji vocabulary for each level of the previous JLPT. The old 4 levels. As you probably know, the JLPT will now have 5 levels. But still, the vocabulary you need to know is not going to change all that much.
I will begin preparing for the Level 1 JLPT. Speedanki has 1228 cards at that level. Other vocabulary you need to know at that level which wasn't on lower levels is vocabulary written in Katakana or Hiragana.
What's my plan? How will I use Speedanki? I'm going to do 10 new flashcards a day. That's pretty easy. I'll review up to 10 previous days' words, which makes 100. I think if I "master" the words on the first day, and then see them again for 10 days, they should be pretty well stuck in my memory.
Here's how I do it: I go through 10 cards from the unread deck which is where all of them are initially. After trying to guess and checking the answer of the card, I click on the "read" option which moves it to the "read" deck. After I have done this for 10 cards, I then move to the Read deck. Then I go through them a couple of times until it's no longer a challenge. This usually takes 3 or 4 times through.
After that, I study the Familiar deck, which will have no more than 100 cards. After 10 days, every day, 10 cards will move from Familiar to Mastered and 10 cards will move from Unread to Read.
That will take me about 4 months to get through the deck of cards for level 1. After that, I'll have about 3 or 4 weeks I think, to whip through them all again and see how well I remember them and which ones need refreshing. I'll also want to start reading news articles every day at that time in order to rev up my reading speed and sentence comprehension.
Then I'll take the JLPT in July. I'll consider it a practice test just to see how close I am to passing. If I continue reading every day until December, I think I'll be ready to pass the test by then.
I will begin preparing for the Level 1 JLPT. Speedanki has 1228 cards at that level. Other vocabulary you need to know at that level which wasn't on lower levels is vocabulary written in Katakana or Hiragana.
What's my plan? How will I use Speedanki? I'm going to do 10 new flashcards a day. That's pretty easy. I'll review up to 10 previous days' words, which makes 100. I think if I "master" the words on the first day, and then see them again for 10 days, they should be pretty well stuck in my memory.
Here's how I do it: I go through 10 cards from the unread deck which is where all of them are initially. After trying to guess and checking the answer of the card, I click on the "read" option which moves it to the "read" deck. After I have done this for 10 cards, I then move to the Read deck. Then I go through them a couple of times until it's no longer a challenge. This usually takes 3 or 4 times through.
After that, I study the Familiar deck, which will have no more than 100 cards. After 10 days, every day, 10 cards will move from Familiar to Mastered and 10 cards will move from Unread to Read.
That will take me about 4 months to get through the deck of cards for level 1. After that, I'll have about 3 or 4 weeks I think, to whip through them all again and see how well I remember them and which ones need refreshing. I'll also want to start reading news articles every day at that time in order to rev up my reading speed and sentence comprehension.
Then I'll take the JLPT in July. I'll consider it a practice test just to see how close I am to passing. If I continue reading every day until December, I think I'll be ready to pass the test by then.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Kanji Kentei Level 7
This is Keith here... I will be taking level 7 of the 日本漢字能力検定 (にほんかんじのうりょくけんてい) on February 12th. I am preparing for the test, which is different than studying Kanji. Why is it different? Because I'm simply taking copies of the test that were administered in the past. I have special books with those.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Keith's day 4
I am in front of the TV (Japanese TV) all day. I have been keeping that up since the day before this Kanji Challenge began. So sometimes I see on TV, one of the new characters I am now studying. I might even find one of the words or hear a word that is on my list. I wish they appeared all the time but that doesn't happen.I wish I already knew all the words and was only learning to read them now. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's so much easier to learn to read a word that I already know than to learn to read a word I don't even know yet. I think on my second pass through the flashcards, I am able to read those words that I already know even if the Kanji is totally new for me. Even if I have some familiarity with the Kanji character, it is harder to read when I don't know the word.
I think this has something to do with the intangibility of words. The Kanji characters themselves are very tangible. They have shape and you can see them. It seems easier for my brain to give me the word that I know when I look at Kanji than to try to come up with an unknown word for a familiar character. In fact, it's very simple. I remember in the past when there were times that I looked up some Kanji word only to find out that it was a word I already knew but had never seen in Kanji before. After that it could be read easily without need for review.
Here are the characters I studied today:
統 佐 拒 距 推 哲 掲 射 占 郷 著
諸 破 壊 撃 襲 爆 犯 逮 批 刑 帝
粋 赴 恵 房 展 殿 幼 稚 肝 蔵 倉
創 裕 沈 没 添 仰 刊 被 微 肩 腸
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Keith's day 3 Kanji
Today I got started a little later than usual but still had plenty of time. I think it takes about 3 or 4 times through to get them all learned once. After that, it's just review to see which ones are weakest. I like it when some of the characters I am studying look similar because then I will take a closer look at them to see the difference and try to remember that. Otherwise I don't notice the details as much and tend to just recognize the shape.I realized today that when I make my second pass through, I'm still going to need new quiz files for the new words I study. So today I created the new file for the first group. I'd like to have the files all finished when I start the second round. Who knows, I might be busy then and so it will really help.
I'm using the book Kanji in Context which has about 9,000 words for the 1947 Kanji. If you were to study just 25 words a day, you would have studied all of the 9,000 words in the book in one year. If you studied 100 a day, it would only take 90 days to go through the book once.
Here are the Kanji I studied today:
乏 勢 灯 鉱 縮 積 布 依 吉 燥 乾
江 液 汚 染 鮮 卸 御 盛 宮 犠 牲
誠 討 誇 秩 矛 盾 掃 余 述 迫 眼
睡 瞬 隣 舞 核 構 兵 革 絹 鯨 桃
This time it took only 50 minutes to enter the data for the 44 characters.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Keith's day 2
Today I went through another 44 Kanji characters in exactly the same way as I described yesterday. I forgot to mention that I put the 2 different types of questions into one file so they are mixed together when the quiz order is created. Therefor, I'm not just doing one type and then the other type. I think this is better than doing them separately because it keeps my brain from falling into a pattern. It's a lot easier to just read a full word than it is to try to remember which word I am learning for a single Kanji.I also want to point out that it is many times easier to learn to read a known word than an unknown word. With a known word, once you read it you understand it immediately and the work is over. But after reading unknown words, then you have to sit there and try to remember what they mean.
With my two types of questions, I have over 80 "cards" to go through at once. Keep in mind, I'm not doing any writing. So far, this method is too easy. I need to add something. I think it should require a little more involvement with the characters. However, that would require more setup work. It will likely be more difficult when I get to the more "advanced" level characters as there will be many more words I do not know.
Here are the Kanji I learned today:
針納絶総為孝蓄抵抗条喫潔忠尺釈択描拝抜振折揮輝防妨憲騒博葬蒸宗浮奨励露宴宣貴賃貨貧縁恩霧
This takes me through character 859 in Kanji in Context. I think it took me around 90 minutes to type in the data for these 44 characters. Of course, I was watching TV at the same time.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Keith's day 1
Today is the first day of the 2009 Kanji Challenge. How are you doing? Here's how my day went.
Looking at my list of the Kanji numbers, I have 44 rows on a page, so I decided it would be easier to keep track of how far I need to work down my list by just doing one column a day. So that means I'm going to try to do 44 a day.
First I looked up each character in Kanji in Context because this is the book I used when I went through them to determine which characters I need to study. Then I figured the only way I'm going to be able to review the words for these characters all day is by having them together because I can't look them up every time. So I decided to use a quiz web page that I created a couple of years ago. It uses javascript and php to read a list from a file and create a random order quiz. Basically a flashcard quiz.
In my quiz file, I put two types of question. The first type shows the Kanji word and the answer is the reading in Hiragana. I'm using the first word listed for the Kanji in Kanji in Context. This question type will ensure that I am learning (at least for today) how to read new words.
The second type of question I have created shows just one character and the answer is that vocabulary word I am reading. With this type, I am forced to take a better look at the character since it is by itself. With the other type of question, I could just be able to read the word because of the accompanying Kanji or Okurigana without really noticing the target character.
I would like to have a third type where I need to choose the correct character from similar-looking Kanji, but that would take a lot of effort to create. Just typing in the 44 characters and a single word for each into a text file took a lot of time and was rather tiring. I had to take a break after entering the first 10 of them.
Not all of the characters from my first group are completely unknown characters but I included them even if I sort of knew them because I felt my recognition was too weak. I couldn't be sure if it was the character I was thinking it was and I would probably have to check to confirm it if I found it in something I read.
Here are the characters I studied today:
怒逃屈封筒賛達損懸尊導倫輸往芝皇聖禅嫁婿飾設施濃富紀素徳航慢養善需延即償散敷酔軒郡弾弓矢
Looking at my list of the Kanji numbers, I have 44 rows on a page, so I decided it would be easier to keep track of how far I need to work down my list by just doing one column a day. So that means I'm going to try to do 44 a day.First I looked up each character in Kanji in Context because this is the book I used when I went through them to determine which characters I need to study. Then I figured the only way I'm going to be able to review the words for these characters all day is by having them together because I can't look them up every time. So I decided to use a quiz web page that I created a couple of years ago. It uses javascript and php to read a list from a file and create a random order quiz. Basically a flashcard quiz.
In my quiz file, I put two types of question. The first type shows the Kanji word and the answer is the reading in Hiragana. I'm using the first word listed for the Kanji in Kanji in Context. This question type will ensure that I am learning (at least for today) how to read new words.
The second type of question I have created shows just one character and the answer is that vocabulary word I am reading. With this type, I am forced to take a better look at the character since it is by itself. With the other type of question, I could just be able to read the word because of the accompanying Kanji or Okurigana without really noticing the target character.
I would like to have a third type where I need to choose the correct character from similar-looking Kanji, but that would take a lot of effort to create. Just typing in the 44 characters and a single word for each into a text file took a lot of time and was rather tiring. I had to take a break after entering the first 10 of them.
Not all of the characters from my first group are completely unknown characters but I included them even if I sort of knew them because I felt my recognition was too weak. I couldn't be sure if it was the character I was thinking it was and I would probably have to check to confirm it if I found it in something I read.
Here are the characters I studied today:
怒逃屈封筒賛達損懸尊導倫輸往芝皇聖禅嫁婿飾設施濃富紀素徳航慢養善需延即償散敷酔軒郡弾弓矢
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Keith's plan A
This is Keith on July 15th, Wednesday afternoon. I just finished my count of the Kanji that I need to study. Using the book, Kanji in Context, I went through it and wrote down the number for any Kanji that I felt I don't know. Previously, I estimated that I need to study about 800 characters, and the total from my count is 829 characters!
Ahmad has posted that the 2009 Kanji Challenge starts tomorrow and ends on the 31st of August. If my count is correct, that is 47 days. What I would like to do is go through the characters I need to learn twice. So that means studying 36 characters per day.
On the first pass through, I will take a good look at the vocabulary listed for the character but I will concentrate on learning only the first word in the list. So at the end of the day, I will be able to read 36 new words. At the half-way point in the Challenge, I hope to know and be able to read 829 new words.
During the second-half of the Challenge, I will make a second pass through the characters. During the 2nd pass, I will try to learn any additional readings for each character and one word for each reading. Of course, I will also get to review the words I had learned during the first pass.
I have not yet figured out what exactly I'm going to be doing to learn these words. Hopefully a lot of activities. Or maybe I will just be staring at them all day. If I spend my time as I am currently planning, I will be in front of the Japanese TV broadcast all day and so I will do my Kanji activities at the same time which means I could be working at this Kanji Challenge all day, just about every day.
I finished my counting today with the TV going and I'm also writing this post with the TV going. Will I also be able to learn the words I'm working on while the TV is going? I don't know, but if those words get used on TV I think it will have a positive impact.
Even if I don't manage to put these words into my reading ability, I hope that I will be able to remember having studied them before. That usually helps later when the words show up naturally. If nothing else, it creates a bit of excitement and creates a link between activities. Whenever a word is just in an isolated event, it is difficult to get it to stick in your mind, even if that event was a natural encounter. But several events will allow you to make connections.
So the next thing I need to do is to think about what I can do to learn the Kanji in the words each day. I'll post again.
Ahmad has posted that the 2009 Kanji Challenge starts tomorrow and ends on the 31st of August. If my count is correct, that is 47 days. What I would like to do is go through the characters I need to learn twice. So that means studying 36 characters per day.
On the first pass through, I will take a good look at the vocabulary listed for the character but I will concentrate on learning only the first word in the list. So at the end of the day, I will be able to read 36 new words. At the half-way point in the Challenge, I hope to know and be able to read 829 new words.
During the second-half of the Challenge, I will make a second pass through the characters. During the 2nd pass, I will try to learn any additional readings for each character and one word for each reading. Of course, I will also get to review the words I had learned during the first pass.
I have not yet figured out what exactly I'm going to be doing to learn these words. Hopefully a lot of activities. Or maybe I will just be staring at them all day. If I spend my time as I am currently planning, I will be in front of the Japanese TV broadcast all day and so I will do my Kanji activities at the same time which means I could be working at this Kanji Challenge all day, just about every day.
I finished my counting today with the TV going and I'm also writing this post with the TV going. Will I also be able to learn the words I'm working on while the TV is going? I don't know, but if those words get used on TV I think it will have a positive impact.
Even if I don't manage to put these words into my reading ability, I hope that I will be able to remember having studied them before. That usually helps later when the words show up naturally. If nothing else, it creates a bit of excitement and creates a link between activities. Whenever a word is just in an isolated event, it is difficult to get it to stick in your mind, even if that event was a natural encounter. But several events will allow you to make connections.
So the next thing I need to do is to think about what I can do to learn the Kanji in the words each day. I'll post again.
Friday, July 10, 2009
introduction and first post
Kanji Keith here, writing the introduction for the 2009 Kanji Challenge. My friend, Ahmad, had the idea to make this Kanji Challenge in order to create a group of Kanji learners to provide support and encouragement to each other in learning the Kanji. Not only do we intend to learn a bunch of Kanji, we are also going to do it as quickly as possible!
What do we mean by learn?
Our goal is to be able to read the characters only. We are not interested in writing them. Who really writes Japanese characters anyway? That is a skill which is not used when reading. And we want to be able to read Japanese. If we were to write in Japanese, it would be on the computer 99% of the time anyway. We can always work on writing by hand later if it should become a desired skill.
We might not learn the Kanji perfectly. Maybe we'll forget a lot of what we learn. Kanji characters can have many readings in Japanese. Some have only one reading. Many have two readings. Quite a few have 3 or 4 readings. And some have too many readings to count. But I think what we want to do is learn the most frequent readings, and not waste time trying to nail down every reading perfectly.
What are the guidelines to the challenge?
We are discussing that right now, so we'll have an update and new post soon. We'd like to get the challenge started real soon. One point is to learn 2009 Kanji characters. Ahmad thinks he can do this in 2 months. As for me, I'm going to have a headstart. I think I already know around 1200 characters real well. So I need to learn 800~900 more. I'm thinking about spending 2 hours a day to learn 30 a day. I think it would probably be best to break it up into 4 sessions of 30 minutes each. I'll be discussing more of what I'm going to do in future posts.
So everybody is welcomed to join the 2009 Kanji Challenge. It doesn't matter where you are starting from. If nobody joins us then I guess it'll just be me and Ahmad. But we'd really like some competitors, I mean, co-learners to take on our challenge.
What do we mean by learn?
Our goal is to be able to read the characters only. We are not interested in writing them. Who really writes Japanese characters anyway? That is a skill which is not used when reading. And we want to be able to read Japanese. If we were to write in Japanese, it would be on the computer 99% of the time anyway. We can always work on writing by hand later if it should become a desired skill.
We might not learn the Kanji perfectly. Maybe we'll forget a lot of what we learn. Kanji characters can have many readings in Japanese. Some have only one reading. Many have two readings. Quite a few have 3 or 4 readings. And some have too many readings to count. But I think what we want to do is learn the most frequent readings, and not waste time trying to nail down every reading perfectly.
What are the guidelines to the challenge?
We are discussing that right now, so we'll have an update and new post soon. We'd like to get the challenge started real soon. One point is to learn 2009 Kanji characters. Ahmad thinks he can do this in 2 months. As for me, I'm going to have a headstart. I think I already know around 1200 characters real well. So I need to learn 800~900 more. I'm thinking about spending 2 hours a day to learn 30 a day. I think it would probably be best to break it up into 4 sessions of 30 minutes each. I'll be discussing more of what I'm going to do in future posts.
So everybody is welcomed to join the 2009 Kanji Challenge. It doesn't matter where you are starting from. If nobody joins us then I guess it'll just be me and Ahmad. But we'd really like some competitors, I mean, co-learners to take on our challenge.
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