日本語能力試験が終わった
2017-Dec-03, Sunday 17:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
And I don't think I did very well. 
I was doing fine until the listening section. But the JLPT listening section never repeats anything and has all dialogue at faster-than-native speed (I'm listening to an interview with composer Hiyamuta Takushi literally right now and he's speaking about half as fast because it's not a rehearsed script), so you have to pay laser-sharp attention for forty minutes straight and if you ever lose focus even for a second, you've probably gotten the question wrong. That happened to me more than once because maintaining focus that long is extremely difficult and also my listening is just not that good.
Well, it's possible that I did better than I thought. When we were passing up answer sheets, I noticed that the person behind me and the person in front of me had answers that were broadly similar to mine. I'll find out in February. Until then, I'll keep practicing.

I was doing fine until the listening section. But the JLPT listening section never repeats anything and has all dialogue at faster-than-native speed (I'm listening to an interview with composer Hiyamuta Takushi literally right now and he's speaking about half as fast because it's not a rehearsed script), so you have to pay laser-sharp attention for forty minutes straight and if you ever lose focus even for a second, you've probably gotten the question wrong. That happened to me more than once because maintaining focus that long is extremely difficult and also my listening is just not that good.
Well, it's possible that I did better than I thought. When we were passing up answer sheets, I noticed that the person behind me and the person in front of me had answers that were broadly similar to mine. I'll find out in February. Until then, I'll keep practicing.
no subject
Date: 2017-Dec-05, Tuesday 13:46 (UTC)I think languages are a collection of skills flying in formation, rather than just the singular skills that people tend to think of them as. I'm reminded of a YouTube video I saw where some Biblical scholars were talking about their ability to read Ancient Greek, know a lot about the historical contexts of words and phrases, but can't actually speak a word of it.
no subject
Date: 2017-Dec-05, Tuesday 21:48 (UTC)There's so much that can affect it, too. I remember some of the middle-aged women in Chiyoda talking to me at a festival complaining about their English instruction. They said that their high school English teachers all had strong Japanese accents, so when they heard native English in a native accent, it was gibberish to them.