能力試験 Proficiency Tests

Okay, so no one I think wants to hear about how often I do the laundry and clean my room etc, so from here on out based on what I did that day I am going to just comment on an aspect of Japanese Culture from my perspective. Mostly just what I see.

Yesterday. I went to an English Conversation Cram school(英会話室) to help teach English for a while. It's my part time job. I basically help out by only speaking English... yeah it's not difficult, but I tend to make easy things difficult. Instead of just speaking when I am asked to say something. I tend to try and explain things in really simple english. Like Yesterday I explained what "recently" was. Good luck with that one. The four kids that were there seemed a little confused by that though.

To take a step back, a cram school is a school that specializes in one subject or rather teaches you only one subject at a time. These schools are outside the normal school system. In fact you go to these schools if you are failing in a subject at school, or have a lot of interest in that subject. The schools cost extra but it seems that most Japanese end up at one time or another going to these schools. I don't know if we have an equivalency for this in America or not.

I also learned a little about the standardized tests for Japanese learning English. Of course, there is the TOEIC and the TOEFL both of which show that you have enough proficiency in English to go to college. However there is another set of tests called Eiken (letter A-ken 英検). If you were to translate the title to English it would be English Test. It has 5 levels,　「５から１級」　with level 5 being the easiest, and level 1 being about on the level of difficult for the average native speaker of English. It seems to be like the JLPT (nihongo nouryoku shiken 日本語能力試験) which at level 1 is difficult for natives of Japanese... but not scholarly natives. If you can pass level 1 of the JLPT you have enough ability in Japanese to get a job here in Japan. I don't know how the Eiken relates on that level but it is so difficult that they have a pre level 1. The teacher at the English Cram school I help with has not passed the pre level 1 and near as I can tell her English is excellent.

All that aside, since I at the very least want to be proficient in Japanese, I am aiming for level one on the JLPT 1 as a basic goal. In the next 2 years I want to be able to take the Kanken 2 (漢字試験). Actually I want to take Pre 1 and level 1 but that would be saying I want to learn about 6000 Kanji in 2 years(which I really want to do, but I need to do things other than study Japanese) The Kanken level 1 is beyond the reach of most Japanese, and level 2 could be considered difficult. The Kanken focuses on Kanji, their stroke order, can you write them, can you read them, and can you recognize strange compounds. Yeah, if you like Kanji (漢字) a lot then you might be able to aim for this.

少し日本語で
昨日英会話室でバイトした。　　
TOEICとTOEFLは　亜米利加にとって　外国人の英語能力試験だろう。　　僕は知らなかったんだけど 英検もある。　　　英語のネイティブスピーカーの試験じゃないけど　 一級は凄く難しそう。　　
日本語のネイティブスピーカーじゃない人の試験は　JLPT「日本語能力試験」と「漢字試験」漢験だろう。　　でも　漢検の一級は　日本人にとって　凄く難しい　でも　いつか　僕は合格したい（いま　四級は無理かもしれないと思う）。　　とりあえず　目的は　日本語能力試験の一級だけど。　　それは　一年のあとの目的。　　その為に　もう　勉強するのは　始まった。　　
皆！　頑張りましょう！