JLPT Training Day

JLPT 2-kyu will be tough, very tough. And because it’s so tough, there are countless books on the market for intermediate to advanced grammar, vocab etc. It seems unavoidable that the Japanese language section at your home grows and grows. If you go a Japanese language school, you will get additional books, because it wouldn’t be fun to use books already on the market, right?

Just a few of the books: Grammar dictionary (basic and intermediate), Kodansha’s compact Kanji guide, JLPT prep books from Unicom (vocab and grammar), Nintendo DS, JLPT Level 2 mockup test and more…

So both Wye-Khe and I own lots of books, either from the school or bought in preparation for the JLPT. Before today’s meet-up, there was a vow to bring any language book from home to the Starbucks table for a book group shot.

My backpack was never that heavy – filled with two big books about Japanese grammar, my notebook, Nintendo DS (which I use currently as my electronic dictionary) plus all the other books, it was full. But organizer Wye-Khe still had more books – although if I would have brought all my books from Germany with me, the result would have been more even.

So all books were piled up on the table for a big photo and even though the photo shoot was in the middle of weirdness (namely Harajuku) and the Japanese are quite used dealing with strange things, we attracted the attention of three women sitting at the table next to us. The result was some giggles, a free conversation lesson and three women looking interested at Japanese language tests and grammar books. “Is there something, that is even hard for you?” I asked in Japanese while they were studying the mock test. “Nope.” they answered and “That’s a pity.” I replied. It’s a good thing that Japanese people can’t take the JLPT – I guess it would be embarrassing for the rest.

At the end of the meet-up, there was a short photo shooting with the program Photo Booth and my Mac’s web cam.