Kanji Aptitude Test (kanken)

[chchan45]

The Kanji Aptitude Test will be held next Sunday and I am going to take it in London. I am just wondering how many of you have taken it in the past?

If you are going in taking it this time, perhaps we can meet up over the weekend and cram in some last minute revision.

If you are interested in taking it in the future, please get in touch (preferably after next Sunday for obvious reasons) and I am happy to answer any questions.

[keatonatron]

I started studying for level 7, then got bored and gave up. It's simply not necessary to know all the names of the radicals and correct amount of "ticks and flicks" in normal, everyday life.

[hungryhotei]

I'm taking 5級, but it's not looking very good at the moment. I'm going to have to put in a lot of work this week.

Whether or not I pass it, the study that I've been doing for it has been great for my Japanese.

[two_heads_talking]

sometimes the endevor to accomplish something is greater than the accomplishment.

[chchan45]

I agree that it is a very good way to pick up vocabulary. Ultimately it should help my listening as I will be able to recognise more words quickly without thinking too much.

I have not bothered with learning the radicals at all because it does not help with my learning, so I expect to lose 5% of the marks. The 4 letter idioms are much more fun and they carry twice the marks.

[Harisenbon]

keatonatron wrote:
I started studying for level 7, then got bored and gave up. It's simply not necessary to know all the names of the radicals and correct amount of "ticks and flicks" in normal, everyday life.

I got the kanji kentei game on my DS, and I'm having trouble getting past level 7 because you have to know all the　四文字熟語. Seeing as I only know 4, I can't get very far.

[chchan45]

hungryhotei,

Good luck with your studies and I hope that you do well.

My examination slip says that the examinations begin at 1pm but I will have to leave home at 7am to be (reasonably) sure of getting to SOAS on time. To make it even more fun, I will have to be at work at 7am the following day as well.

With the falling leaves and the clock change, lets hope that British Rail does not play up with the wrong kind of leaves, drivers getting drunk on the Saturday night and ending up in a police cell, or whatever excuse they can come up with.

[WacKostRacKo]

chchan45 wrote:
With the falling leaves and the clock change, lets hope that British Rail does not play up with the wrong kind of leaves, drivers getting drunk on the Saturday night and ending up in a police cell, or whatever excuse they can come up with.

I expect they will think of something...

[Yudan Taiteki]

I have taken and passed levels 5, 4, and 3. I think it's a fun test, and assuming I go back to Japan at some point I want to move on to jun-2 and 2 (jun-1 and 1 are just insane -- even 2 is pretty hard but that at least seems humanly possible.) It improved my kanji writing ability quite a bit.

Someone earlier suggested knowing the names of the radicals is not useful -- it is if you have an electronic dictionary. The radical-based kanji lookup is much faster than stroke counting, but you have to know the names (of some of them) to type them in the blanks.

[Infidel]

knowing the names of the radicals is also useful when discussing writing characters.

[Mukade]

keatonatron wrote:
I started studying for level 7, then got bored and gave up. It's simply not necessary to know all the names of the radicals and correct amount of "ticks and flicks" in normal, everyday life.

I beg to differ.

As said previously, knowing the radicals can help tremendously when describing kanji. In fact, anytime a Japanese person describes a character to you, it will be using the radical names. If you don't know the names of at least the most commonly occuring radicals, you'll still always be "just another one of those foreigners who can't fully master Japanese."

And those "ticks and flicks" are necessary if you ever want your handwriting to go beyond the level of looking like a First-grader's. It's those ticks and flicks, as well as the proper bends, curves, hard corners and the like that will determine the quality of your characters.

I don't know about you, but I got sick of "that look" a long time ago.

By "that look," I mean when a Japanese person looks at your handwriting and gets that condescending "aww, isn't that cute" look on their face. :@

[Matsumoto_hideto]

Mukade wrote:

keatonatron wrote:
I started studying for level 7, then got bored and gave up. It's simply not necessary to know all the names of the radicals and correct amount of "ticks and flicks" in normal, everyday life.

I beg to differ.

As said previously, knowing the radicals can help tremendously when describing kanji. In fact, anytime a Japanese person describes a character to you, it will be using the radical names. If you don't know the names of at least the most commonly occuring radicals, you'll still always be "just another one of those foreigners who can't fully master Japanese."

And those "ticks and flicks" are necessary if you ever want your handwriting to go beyond the level of looking like a First-grader's. It's those ticks and flicks, as well as the proper bends, curves, hard corners and the like that will determine the quality of your characters.

I don't know about you, but I got sick of "that look" a long time ago.

By "that look," I mean when a Japanese person looks at your handwriting and gets that condescending "aww, isn't that cute" look on their face. :@

I beg to differ. I dont know any of those ticks or tricks you talk about and A lot of Japanese people tell me how beautifully I write in japanese.


maybe its just because i have to be more careful that japanese ppl are when writing.

[Mukade]

Matsumoto_hideto wrote:
I beg to differ. I dont know any of those ticks or tricks you talk about and A lot of Japanese people tell me how beautifully I write in japanese.


maybe its just because i have to be more careful that japanese ppl are when writing.

Or that this experience is not that different from:

You - こんにちは！
Japanese Person - わああ！日本語が上手ですね！


I got a lot of the same types of comments on my writing back when I was doing my study abroad in '97. Now that I look back at my old notes, however, I realize that my writing actually looked like a four-year-old trying to write like a computer printout. There's no way Japanese people found my writing good.

What they were saying was "wow, your handwriting is really good."

What they really meant was "wow, your handwriting is good for a foreigner."

Those are two very, very different statements.

[Mukade]

Harisenbon wrote:
I got the kanji kentei game on my DS, and I'm having trouble getting past level 7 because you have to know all the　四文字熟語. Seeing as I only know 4, I can't get very far.

I know that the 四字熟語 can be challenging. Along with the synonyms/antonyms and the "choose the correct kanji from a group with identical readings" sectons, they are the biggest hurdles to me passing 順2級 right now.

But I think you know a lot more than 4 四字熟語.

Keep in mind that any group of four characters presenting a concept can qualify for 四字熟語, not just those old slogans and idioms.

So, for example, all the following are considered 四字熟語:

一生懸命
非常階段
五初ｹ順
三寒四温
露天風呂

[Oyaji]

Q. Select the correct kanji for the following hiragana 「じゅん２級」

a. 順 b. 純 c. 準



(Sorry, I couldn't resist considering the theme of the thread.)