Well, last Sunday was the big day at good ole Fukushima University. I took my Japanese Language Proficiency Test. N2 last week. (N2 is the second highest level. There are five levels.) I’ll post my thoughts after the photos.
Poster about Fukushima University students volunteering.
After the test, walking home from the train station.
Pretty Fukushima City
My husband’s reward after the test…Pistachio Berry
Yummers!
The top is not ice…it’s some sort of sugar. Yeah, this is luxury ice cream
The Test.
Okay, well, you are not supposed to drive there, and anyway there are no parking spaces. I took the train there, two stops from Fukushima City. Fukushima University is sort of out in the country. There is really not much there at all.
Remembering last time (and everybody waiting outside for the test doors to open), I head straight to the library. On its first story, it has a place to study and snack, so I ate my bento there. Then I looked around the library for a few minutes because I have not been there in a long time. They have lots of new English books concerning the 3/11 earthquake. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my library card, so I didn’t check any out.
So at exactly 11:59, I walked over to the test building, which was the next building over. At 12:00 exactly, they let us into the building and I sat down and relaxed and so on. The guy on my left was from Nepal. The gal on my right was from Vietnam. Like last time, the test room was uncomfortably crowded.
So how was the test? I actually finished it. Of course, I was going through it as quickly as possibly, not leisurely like I would like, but yes I finished it. Such a change from last time where I got hung up on an essay and spent way too long on it and didn’t finish at all.
Surprisingly, I thought the hardest part was kanji and vocabulary. When I first started taking the test about three years ago, I felt this was one of the easier sections, but I think they have made it harder over the years. Same with the listening. It was easier, I believe, three years ago but has gotten harder.
Grammar was surprisingly okay. And reading–the most difficult subject for me–was surprisingly okay for me. I am not saying it was easy, but I felt like I got some of the answers correct and all you need is “some.”
My testing skills are improving, and let’s face it my ability is improving. Frustrating though was the kanji and vocab. I feel like if I failed, it was this section’s fault. Just so many words I didn’t recognize.
There you have it!
I will get my results early next year, so stay tuned!!!!!
We Speak Japanese and English 
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