Month / November 2017

by Inhae

Book review: 嘘をもうひとつだけ by 東野圭吾

「嘘をもうひとつだけ」is the 6th book of the Kaga series 加賀恭一郎シリーズ by Higashino Keigo. If you are not familiar with this series, it features detective 加賀恭一郎 Kaga Kyoichiro and is composed of 10 books. The first novel of the series was one of the first novels written by Higashino Keigo (「卒業」was published in 1989*) and the last one 「祈りの幕が下りる時」is very recent since it was published in 2016.

Why I love this series

I really like detective Kaga because he is very different from other contemporary detectives that all seem to share the same flaws: bad temper, tobacco or alcohol problem (if not worse), a haunting past, very disagreeable manners and tone, conflicting relation with hierarchy, impossible personality and so on.

Kaga Kyoichiro is, on the contrary, described as a very polite person, always using the most beautiful honorific language. To be honest, as every Japanese learner maybe, I have always been unwilling to learn the honorific verbs and expressions. But, reading several books featuring Kaga somewhat made me see the honorific language as something cool and something I want to master.

The fact that Kaga has been a kendo champion also plays on his personality. He is always calm and composed, observes the opposite party and asks relevant questions. His investigation is very thorough. If he sometimes seems to know everything, it is the result of a careful and methodical investigation associated with some logical deduction.

Another point that makes detective Kaga different from other police detectives is that he is often seen from the point of view of another character. As a consequence, it is difficult to know what he thinks, what conclusions he has reached and who he suspects. This is even truer given that we often see Kaga, not from the point of view of a colleague, but from the point of view of the suspect or one of the suspects. This is to me the most interesting feature of the series. The reader finds himself or herself on the side of the suspects and Kaga’s appearances, questions and deductions are quite frightening.

Why you can start by 「嘘をもうひとつだけ」

As I said in the introduction, 「嘘をもうひとつだけ」is the 6th book of the series. However, if you want to read one book of the series without really wanting to read all the novels, this one is a good choice.

First of all, 「嘘をもうひとつだけ」is not a novel but a collection of short stories. They are not supposed to happen before or after the other stories, even though the first short story hints at the second novel of the series by saying that Kaga is familiar with the world of the ballet. But this is just a detail that does not matter at all for the understanding of the story. Therefore, you don’t need to have read the other novels to read this collection of short stories, and nothing in it will spoil the previous cases.

Furthermore, these short stories are a great presentation of detective Kaga. To me, they could be trailers for the series, showing how Kaga works and providing a condensé of the most exciting moments of a detective novel: the discovery of the crime scene, the interrogation of the suspect, the final confrontation, etc. In fact, I think that you could read this book to see whether you like or not this style and if you do, go on with the other novels.

Why 「嘘をもうひとつだけ」 is easy to read for Japanese learners

I already said that some novels by Higashino Keigo were relatively easy to read. It is even more applicable to「嘘をもうひとつだけ」because it has the advantage of being short. The whole book is only 269 pages long, and each of the 5 short stories is around 50 pages long. They are mainly composed of dialogues, which makes them even easier to understand.

Another thing that greatly facilitates the understanding is that they are all structured more or less in the same way, with very little characters involved. Either the story is entirely composed of a long dialogue between Kaga and another character (the first and the last short stories), either the story follows the same pattern: it opens with one character confronted with a murder, and detective Kaga will appear several times, resulting in the story being composed of several dialogues, flashbacks and some short narrative parts.

Conclusion

The reason why I loved 「嘘をもうひとつだけ」is because they really feature detective Kaga. Even if he is not the central character of the stories, he is very present, contrary to the 5th and 6th book of the series. The cases were very intriguing too and even if I do prefer reading long novels, reading this book was very entertaining, and I highly recommend it!

* The publication date is the one from 講談社文庫

by Inhae

Things I want to do after the JLPT and planning for next year!

These last months have been almost entirely devoted to preparing for N2. I am very happy that I did it because it helped me improve my vocabulary and grammar knowledge with the result that I can read books in Japanese more comfortably now than I could this summer. I also worked a lot on improving my listening skills because the listening part of the test that I took on July (JLPT N2) made me aware that listening was my weak point.

But now, I am very glad that all of this is almost over. I don’t plan to study that much this week because I feel that it won’t change anything anymore. Instead, I am more focused on what I will do after the JLPT. I won’t try N1 because I really want to do something else than preparing for a test. I think that sometimes, I just don’t know what to study next and feel like I don’t have any concrete goals. At these moments, deciding to sit the JLPT is a great booster that gives me a clear line to follow without asking myself why I do it. But sometimes, I feel that, on the contrary, I am full of ideas that I want to concretise, that there are hundreds of things I want to do to study Japanese in my own way. This is exactly how I feel right now.

When I was a child, I always thought of New Year’s resolutions as something to be done on January 1st. I would sit down at my desk and write in my journal some stupid things I already knew I would never achieve. That’s why I stopped making any resolutions on January 1st. In fact, if good resolutions are taken out of nowhere just because today is the day when you feel everything start fresh and new, no wonder that I should soon give them up. Instead of deciding on one day what my plan for the next year will be, I will give myself the whole month of December to think about it. As December will mostly see me preparing our Winter trip to Kyoto, I think that it is a perfect moment to take some distance from my studies and do some preliminary investigation concerning where to go next. Instead of talking about “resolutions” I would rather see it as “things I want to achieve”, or simply “things I want to try”.

  • First of all, I want to read more in Japanese. There are two lines I want to follow:
    • I want to read a lot of Higashino Keigo’s novels or short stories. I have bought a new book which is called 「パラドックス13」and is very long. I feel that if I can read a 562 pages novel in Japanese, I already have achieved what was my first goal when I started learning Japanese. Next year, I also want to finish the Kaga series, I still have 4 books to go.
    • I also want to try reading more challenging books. I have some titles that I want to read next year. Among them, books by Mishima Yukio (The Temple of the Golden Pavillon), Kawabata Yasunari (The Old Capital) and Dazai Osamu (No longer human) and Natsume Soseki (Kokoro). I may not be able to read these novels at all, but trying it is one of the things I want to do in 2018.
  • I also want to write in Japanese on a regular basis. Writing had never been a concern to me before, but in November I participated in the Kotobites writing challenge. Through this, I realised three things: 1- writing in Japanese is much easier than I thought, 2- writing every day is much more difficult than I thought, 3- the benefits of writing are worth the effort. I already have an idea about a writing planning that I could set for myself. I think of writing a structured text about a social issue once a week. This would mean writing a little, maybe not every day, but several days a week, and try to really work on it by looking for specific vocabulary and use at least up to N3 grammar points.
  • I want to read the news and be able to also read articles about politics. This implies to get a little familiar with Japanese political state, which I am not. One of the most difficult things when reading about another’s country politics is that, even after having gone through all the difficult words, I sometimes just don’t know who is who, who they are talking about and why it is important. I have a book called 「朝日キーワード2018」that I plan to study as soon as the JLPT is over, I am sure it will help!
  • Speaking is not a priority for me because I don’t live in Japan and anyway, I am not a very social person 🙄, but I hate having a French accent, it ruins all my confidence. Sometimes, I rather say that I don’t speak English at all because I am ashamed of my pronunciation. I don’t want this happening with Japanese too, that’s why I want to work on pronunciation and a little on speaking.
  • As for listening, here again, I would like to follow two paths:
    • First, do more listening exercises, with materials aimed at Japanese learners
    • Try to understand “real” Japanese by watching more films and dramas. I really want to watch more Japanese films but I don’t know where to start. Making a list of dramas and films to watch can be a good plan for next year.
  • I want to read about Japanese history, especially the 19th and 20th centuries.

These are things I have been thinking of lately. I don’t think that I will be studying much in December so I still have time to plan all of this more concretely. For example, make a list of the books I want to read or think of how I will write in Japanese. Also, I would like to link everything to this blog. It should be easy given that I post about books on Wednesdays and I usually post about reading a news article on Friday. I think that maybe I could post a writing subject every Monday and post my writing on Sunday. Not that I think that it interests anyone but, you know, for accountability.

Anyway, this was my draft of next year’s plan. I don’t except sudden progress but I do hope to see a difference between the beginning of 2018 and the end of 2018. Language learning has to be considered in the long-term! Anyway, I don’t think that it is too early to start making plans for next year and doing this definitely boosted my motivation! 😄

by Inhae

Japanese News:

Today, I will study an article published on NHK News Web about the Zama 座間市 murder case in which Shiraishi Takahiro 白石隆浩 killed 9 people.

In fact, I heard this report this morning, on the site NHK Radio News (report from the 24th November, 9:00 to 9:05). It appears that what the journalist said on the broadcast is the exact same contents than this article. I tried to understand as much as possible by only listening before reading the article.

Link to the article

I find this article easy to understand, even by only listening to it. It talks about the youngest victim of  Shiraishi Takahiro 白石隆浩, a high-school student of only 15. The article explains how the police could retrace her last known movements. We know that she bought a new tee-shirt, entered a station and probably changed to her newly bought black tee-shirt in the toilet while throwing her belongings (phone and IC card) away. It seems that she was told to do so by Shiraishi Takahiro to prevent the police from finding her living place.

Name and places

I always find that names and places are the most discouraging thing when reading an article in Japanese. I can’t pronounce them, which means, that even if I know the name because I read about it in the English Newspaper, I sometimes won’t be able to recognize it. Names and places are not words I want to memorize and I will certainly not put them on my Anki deck so it seems that the problem won’t solve itself. Maybe I should put some efforts to remember at least common family names and Japan prefectures…? I feel that knowing at least the kanji and pronunciation of the 都道府県 would make it easier to read or listen to the news.

  • 神奈川県座間市: かながわけん ざまし: Kanagawa prefecture, Zama city. This is where Shiraishi Takahiro lives and that’s why he is often referred to as the Zama serial killer.
  • 群馬県: ぐんまけん: Gunma prefecture. This is where lived the youngest victim, a 15-year-old high-school student.
  • 白石隆浩: しらいしたかひろ: Shiraishi Takahiro, still referred to as the “suspect” 容疑者 in our article.
  • 八王子市: はちおうじし: City of Hachioji. This is the city of one of Shiraishi’s victims.
  • 相模原市: さがみはらし: City of Sagami. This is a city near Zama city. This is where the high-school student bought the black tee-shirt.
  • 小田急電鉄の片瀬江ノ島駅:
    • 小田急電鉄: おだきゅうでんてつ: this is the name of a railway company, Odakyu Electric Railway.
    • 片瀬江ノ島駅: かたせえのしまえき: Katase-Enoshima Station. This is where the high-school student got off.

Some words worth remembering

Police related words

  • 捜査関係者: そうさかんけいしゃ: 捜査 means “criminal investigation” so the “persons related” to the investigation can be called, I think, the “investigators” in English.
  • 取材: しゅざい means “data collection” and is often used to describe the work of journalists gathering information.
  • 疑い: うたがい is a word that appears more than once in our article. Its first meaning is “doubt” but here it means “suspicion”.
  • 警視庁: けいしちょう is the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department
  • 容疑者: ようぎしゃ a suspect

Other words and expressions

  • to say that someone is missing, there is the expression 行方がわからない. The word 行方・ゆくえ means “sb’s whereabouts”.
  • 家を出た際の服装. The clothes (she was wearing) when she left home.
    • 際・さい is an N2 grammar that means “at the time…”, “when…”, “on the occasion…”. When I heard the report, I didn’t recognize it because I am used to hearing it combined with に: 際に.
    • I think that contrary to 出掛ける, the expression 家を出る means leaving home definitively, for example, when you turn 18 and go to university or when you get your own apartment. I guess that this meaning is implied here, that is, that the girl didn’t have the intention to come back. The article does not say anything about her intentions though, only that she certainly followed the instructions of Shiraishi.
  • 防犯カメラ・ぼうはんかめら: security camera. 防犯・ぼうはん means “prevention of crimes”

That’s it for this article, it was relatively easy to understand, I found. This whole affair is very shocking, I am not really following the progression of the investigation but when I see or hear some news about it like I did this morning, I try to understand what is said. Social issues are much easier to understand in Japanese than political ones.

by Inhae

Currently reading: 噓をもうひとつだけ by 東野圭吾

Even if I am still struggling with Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavillon 「金閣寺」 that I am reading in Japanese, I just couldn’t resist the temptation to start a new book by Higashino Keigo.

I was missing Higashino’s universe, and I was eager to read the next novel of the Kaga series 加賀恭一郎シリーズ. Also, I wanted to read something easy and relaxing. In the Temple of the Golden Pavillon, the protagonist has befriended Kashiwagi, who is a real stumbling block to me. Kashiwagi’s long and cynical speeches are leaving me behind and I felt a little demotivated to read this book lately.

Anyway, I had to order 「噓をもうひとつだけ」, the 6th book of the Kaga series, because I couldn’t find it in any bookshop. I was afraid this might mean that this book was not very popular. I finally received it, and as far as I can tell, it is by far the easiest book I have read in Japanese so far (excluding books for children or manga).

「噓をもうひとつだけ」 is not a novel but a collection of 5 short stories, all featuring detective Kaga. I have already read 3 stories, and the reason why they are so easy is that they are mainly composed of dialogues. Each story is about 50 pages long, so there is no time for long descriptions. They are very similar too, all structured more or less the same way. This makes the whole book very relaxing to read.

I usually do not like short stories, but as I want to read all the books of the Kaga series in publication order, I could not skip this one. Now I can tell that I am very glad I didn’t.

I will write a review of this book when I finish it, certainly next Wednesday. All I can tell by now is that reading this book is very resourceful to me. Just before the JLPT, it makes me gain self-confidence and allows me to relax while still doing something in Japanese. As I start being used to Higashino’s writing style and am more and more familiar with detective Kaga’s way to track down a suspect, I feel a lot of self-confidence whenever I open a book of the series. I think it’s important to have something to return to when you feel demotivated, something you love and can understand easily.

 

by Inhae

Some last listening exercises before the JLPT

x9788927710165The Korean publisher Darakwon has an interesting series to practice the listening part of the JLPT. It is called 新일본어 능력시험 청해 콕콕 찍어주마. It exists for every level, but N4 and N5 are grouped in the same series. I only have the N2 book for listening, which is called: 新일본어 능력시험 청해 콕콕 찍어주마 -N2 대비-, this is the book I will present in this post.

Two weeks before the JLPT, I am mainly revising grammar points and doing practice tests. Even if the grammar is my weakest point, I am most worried about the listening part. I think that, concerning grammar and vocabulary, I will either know the answer or not. It’s more about knowledge than performance. But to me, listening is all about performance. There are almost no unknown words in the listening scripts of N2 to me, but sometimes, or even often, I just don’t recognise things that I know.

As a consequence, I feel like I need to do some extra practice concerning the listening part. This is where the Darakwon book comes in handy.

Contrary to Japanese series like the Shin Kanzen master series or the So-matome series, both structured in lessons, the Korean series published by Darakwon is focused on training. Concerning the listening book, both the Shin Kanzen and the So-matome books provide you with progressive lessons, exercises that focused on a particular skill, advice and so on. In the Darakwon book, you will only have a series of exercises as they appear in the JLPT. This is the structure of the book:

  • Question type 1: 9 questions
  • Question type 2: 9 questions
  • Question type 3: 9 questions
  • Question type 4: 29 questions
  • Question type 5: 11 questions
  • 2 complete listening tests (50 minutes each)

Of course, you are provided with the Japanese script of each audio. There is also a Korean translation of the script and some vocabulary Japanese-Korean.

The advantage of this book is to have so many exercises. It gives a lot of material to study, even for those who don’t prepare for the JLPT. Having both a dialogue and its script offers a lot of different ways to study, from listening to pronunciation exercises or even writing (listening to the audio and try to write down the dialogue).

If we exclude the questions from question type 4 (all very short), the book contains 76 dialogues or monologues (38 in the exercises and 19 in each test).

I am both studying this book for the JLPT and for general improvement. I am doing every question, but after having answered and corrected myself, I also use these audios to do some further exercises. I usually listen to it several times, until I am able to understand every single word. I also try to repeat each phrase without looking at the script. I am convinced that doing pronunciation exercises helps improving one’s listening skills. Many people say that learning to write kanji will help you recognise them. Well, I think that the same is true concerning what we hear. Actively producing something (either a kanji that we write or a sentence that we repeat) will higher the probability that we will recognise it later.

I don’t know if publishers from other countries have this kind of book, that is, a collection of exercises in a given field. In any case, this is a link to Darakwon website where you can see the series 新일본어 능력시험 청해 콕콕 찍어주마 for each level. This series also covers the other parts of the JLPT. There is a book for vocabulary, grammar, kanji and reading, too. But given that they are a little pricey for their contents (15000 won), I find that the listening book is the most worth it.

Reference:

新일본어 능력시험 청해 콕콕 찍어주마 -N2 대비- (1 MP3 CD), 다락원 Darakwon publisher, 2010. 15000 won. ISBN: 9788927710165

 

by Inhae

Japanese News: Tokyo Olympics countdown in Ginza

This is an article published on Asahi website yesterday evening about the Tokyo Olympics countdown clock.

Link to the article

I don’t know why the clock was unveiled yesterday, that is, 981 days before Tokyo Olympics. The article does not say whether this date was strategic or not.

Anyway, let’s see what words I can learn from this article!

The countdown clock カウントダウンクロック made its appearance 登場・とうじょう on November 16th. The clock that is 3 meters high was designed and built by the brand Omega. Omega is the official 公式・こうしき timekeeper タイムキーパー of the Olympics. The clock represents the Japanese flag 日の丸・ひのまる and can be seen before the Omega shop 店舗・てんぽ in Ginza, Tokyo.

The unveiling お披露目・おひろめ ceremony セレモニー featured Chad le Clos, London Olympics Gold medalist in the swimming race 競泳・きょうえい and the actress Nanao who said:

２０２０年へのカウントダウンが始まってわくわくしている。皆さんが素晴らしい結果を出してくれるよう祈っています

source

I am excited that the countdown for 2020 has started. I am praying for everyone to get fantastic results. 

(I wonder if the presence of くれる allows us to translate that she is speaking of Japanese participants or hoping for good results for Japan)

Omega has been the official timekeeper since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932. It has been decided that Omega will stay the official timekeeper until 2032.

Omega has introduced technologies such as false start フライング detector 検知器, touchpad タッチパッド for swimmers to stop the clock and high-speed cameras.

discover japanOur article ends here, but I would like to add some information that I found in the magazine Discover Japan, issue of September 2016. This issue was all about Tokyo Olympics. They presented the Olympic partners, among whom, Omega.

I found similar information about how Omega has been the sole 単一・たんいつ official timekeeper 公式時計 of the Olympics since 1932. Their technology has a 正確無比・せいかくむひ, an unrivaled accuracy. “正確な” means “accurate” and is used to say “an accurate clock” or “the correct time.”

Omega has also actively 積極的 introduced 導入・どうにゅう innovative measurement techniques 計測技術・けいそくぎじゅつ. Among them, a camera system that was more accurate than the human eye 目視より正確な (目視・もくし means “visually”) or electronic starter pistols that provided the runners with both a visual and sound signal: 閃光と音で知らせる. I have learned the word 閃光・せんこう last week while listening to a Tenniscoats song!

In 1932, Omega was the only brand to produce watches with technology such as スプリットセコンド機能 and to offer a high level of reliability concerning the accuracy: 正確で信頼度の高い. Since 1932, Omega has polished 磨き上げる・みがきあげる the precision with which we can record Olympics’ performances. For example, the touchpad for swimmers that was also mentioned in our Asahi article has been introduced by Omega during the London Olympics in 2012.

Finally, Discover Japan says that we can expect new exciting systems by Omega for the Tokyo Olympics:

東京大会においてもオメガらしい、ワクワクするような時計システムを編み出して、大会を盛り上げてくれそうだ。

Discover Japan, September 2016, p.77

 

by Inhae

Book review: 日本語能力試験、模試と対策 by ASK Publishing

If you are learning Japanese, you may have come across ASK Publishing’s books more than once. They have published a lot of material to study Japanese, with some really good methods to take the JLPT. Their most famous series is certainly the So-matome series, which prepare test takers for any level. They also published 多読ライブラリー, which a fantastic series to start reading Japanese, even at a beginner level.

Today, I would like to present two books, which are 日本語能力試験、模試と対策, volume 1 and volume 2.

Each volume is composed of two complete tests, so if you buy the two books, you have 4 practice exams to do.

Structure of the book

jlpt vol1

cover of volume 1

First, each book comes with a “how to use this book” section. I don’t know why, but I really appreciate this kind of introduction. It makes me feel that the authors of the book really had a progression course in mind and want you to use their book as it was intended to. The explanations are available in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean.

Understanding the JLPT

Then, each volume takes you through the type of questions that will be asked during the exam, with sample questions. Again, the explanations are given in 4 languages. In volume 2, the explanations are more detailed, with more sample questions and strategic advice, including things you should particularly pay attention to, how you should proceed and in which order do things and so on. In volume 1 similar advice are given at the end of the separate booklet.

Two tests

jlpt vol2

cover of volume 2

Each volume provides you with two tests. If you have trouble managing your time, I recommend practising with one of these books. The book tells you what amount of time you should devote to each type of question. This is a very good way to see where you are losing time and check if you are quick enough on the “language knowledge” questions to be sure to have enough time left for the “reading” section.

The book also has a “tag” system to easily find a part or know where you are when taking the practice test.

Listening script, answers, score, explanations and answer sheets

Note: In volume 1, the listening scripts are provided at the end of the book. In volume 2, they are incorporated in the answers’ explanations, in the separate booklet.

Each book has a separate booklet with answers, explanations and a table to calculate your score. I like to be able to calculate my score for each part because I can compare it to the results I got when I took the JLPT N2 in July and see if I made progress or not.

Then, the booklet goes through each question with detailed explanations. To me, this is by far the greatest advantage of these books. There is nothing more frustrating than to check the answer, see that we did wrong, but not understanding why. The explanations provided in these two books are clear and go to the point. I never had difficulties understanding why my answer was wrong after reading them. I also appreciate having these explanations in English (they are also written in Japanese, Chinese and Korean) because even if I could understand them in Japanese, it would take me more time and maybe even discourage me from reading them at all. After studying with the Shin Kanzen series, where everything is in Japanese, reading English explanations is quite a relief!

Finally, advice and strategies are given at the end of the separate booklet in volume 1, whereas in volume 2, similar advice was integrated into the part that presented the different question types.

I almost forgot, but each book comes with 2 audio CDs, one for each test. They are not mp3 files, which I find convenient because I can play them directly on my CD player without using my computer. It may sound strange, but I feel more in “exams conditions” in this way. I can remove my phone and my computer from my desk, play the audio and resist the temptation to play a track two times.

Conclusion

books_n2

JLPT Official Practice Workbook N2

If you are looking for practice exams, these two books are a good choice because they provide detailed explanations for the answers. On the website of the JLPT, you can find references for JLPT Official Practice Workbooks. Their advantage is to have a decent price, but if you can afford one of the two ASK books (1,600 yen each), I would opt for this choice because the JLPT Official Practice Workbook has no explanations whatsoever relative to the answers. It’s useful to test yourself and see what score you can achieve, but without explanations, it is hard to understand one’s mistake and thus, progress. Plus, having two tests instead of one allows you to see if you progressed or not.

As for which one to pick, I would say that the contents are the same but I find the structure of volume 2 a little more practical. It’s best to have the strategies and advice together with the questions presentation and the listening script together with the answers’ detailed explanations.

by Inhae

JLPT practice exams and drills

The more I study for the JLPT, the more I feel that I already gained a lot by studying all the Shin Kanzen series books (almost finished!) and that this reward is more important than actually pass the JLPT.

But passing the JLPT with a good score (did I say “perfect” at the time? 😳) was a goal I set for myself in August, so I am still working hard to achieve it.

Now that I have almost completed all the Shin Kanzen books, I can focus on practising. I use several books, all by ASK publishing, the publisher of the So-Matome series, another very good series to prepare for the JLPT. There are 4 practice books that I recommend for N2 (links go to the publisher’s website):

The first two books are composed of 30 sessions of “drills”, that is, typical JLPT questions concerning the “vocabulary” part for the first book, and the “grammar” part for the second book.

The last two books are each composed of two complete tests with answers and detailed explanations.

Benefits of practice

The first reason why I bought practice exams was to get used to the JLPT structure and questions type. But in fact, the benefits are much bigger than just getting prepared for the test.

Grammar

Grammar is my weakest point. (I thought it was listening, but it is grammar). I still have to study a lot because if I were to take the test today, I would score enough in the grammar part to pass, but not enough to be proud of myself.

There are still a lot of grammar I mix up. Typically, grammar points that look similar, for example, those with either こと or もの. My strategy was to read regularly example sentences for each grammar of N2. But I realise that doing practice tests is less boring and more efficient. This is how I practise the grammar drills of the book listed above:

  • First, I do the exercises without help and see how many questions I can answer with confidence.
  • Then, I go through the questions for which I wasn’t sure again, but this time I can use my grammar book. I note my new answer under the first one.
  • I check the answers. Usually, if the first answer was wrong, the second is right (the one I picked while looking at my grammar book).
  • If answers are still wrong, I correct myself with the grammar book.

You might say that there is no point in making drills with the grammar book available. But I am still learning while practising. Because I had to actively look for the grammar point in my book to answer a particular question, I tend to remember it better than by just reading it again and again.

Vocabulary and Kanji

I always think that there is not much to do about vocabulary. There is a certain amount of words one can remember per day. Then, it is just a question of how many days remain before the test.

I tend to have a Confucian attitude concerning vocabulary, what I know, I know, and what I don’t know, I don’t know. And the day of the test, there is nothing I can do against it. I don’t know a lot of onomatopoeia for instance, but so it is. Anyway, every time I come across a word I didn’t know in an exercise, I add it to my Anki deck.

Reading

I feel confident with reading. At least, I feel confident that I will understand what I read, but I am sometimes puzzled by the questions and the choice of answers provided.

For example, one question was “what do you need to reserve the meeting room?”. The right answer was the one with the documents one needs to provide when making a reservation. But the text also stated that only such and such persons could make a reservation. Among the answers was one which contained the documents need + being so or so (namely, the requirements to be able to use the room). I picked this one because to reserve the room you have to be either so or so. But it was the wrong answer.

Listening

I improved myself considerably in this area! I am very happy because I did put some extra efforts on listening and I feel that it paid off. I already made a complete test in more or less real exam conditions. I was surprised to see that I could understand quite well the audio but there is still a big problem concerning the listening part: I can’t concentrate. I can concentrate well when reading for a long time in a foreign language, but definitively not when listening. Only hearing 男の人と女の人が話しています makes me feel drowsy. As I am sure that the heater will be turned on to the maximum in the classroom where I will sit the exam, it won’t help.

I also must underline that the Shin Kanzen book helped me considerably to take notes while listening. It was a challenge at first, but I got used to it and I could answer the last questions of N2, which I usually fail because I could not take notes properly. For example, I found the last question impossible to answer. The last question of N2 is a long dialogue: First, someone presents 4 different things, for example, 4 different menus in a restaurant. Then a boy and a girl discuss what menu each of them will take. The question is always, what will take the boy, what will take the girl. Because I couldn’t take notes quickly enough, I was never able to answer this question. Now I find it very easy, just because I can take notes more efficiently.

Conclusion

If you are preparing for the JLPT, don’t neglect the benefits of practising tests. I think that one should do at least one complete practice exam before the test, just to get familiar with the JLPT question types and see how to manage one’s time. But, if you can, I recommend doing more exercises, particularly for the parts that are the most difficult to you. I, myself, will go on practising, especially grammar of course, and make the best of the three remaining weeks!

 

by Inhae

Japanese song: Baibaba Bimba by Tenniscoats

Today is a cloudy day, with big grey clouds crawling over grey buildings. It looks like a perfect day to listen to Tenniscoats’ old songs and feel both melancholic and creative.

There are not much lyrics, only a few lines:

ある暖かい閃光の上
その匂い瞬くんだ
足元かける
またでかい水蒸気なんだと

I had to check three words because I didn’t know their pronunciation. 閃光・せんこう is a glint of light, 瞬く・またたく means “to wink” and 水蒸気・すいじょうき is “vapour”, “steam”. I think she sings “いい匂いして” or something like that, instead of what is written above.

When she drums on the guitar, the guitarist says something that could be マイクが入っているよ…?? I am really not sure, I should stop watching YouTube videos and do some listening exercises for the JLPT 😫! But I find this kind of calm and repetitive song perfect to listen to while studying, especially on a cloudy November day.

Anyway, I will not venture in a translation of these lines and leave you with the images or feelings it evokes to you.

by Inhae

Reading notes: 舟を編む, part 3

These are my reading notes for the third chapter of 舟を編む with the new characters appearing in this part.

I have started reading Yukio Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion before beginning this third chapter and I must say that, compared to Mishima’s work, 舟を編む seems incredibly easy! I remember saying that it was a challenging book to me, but compared to the efforts I must do to read Mishima, reading 舟を編む has become a relaxed activity!

In part 3, we will follow Nishioka and learn more about him. (Part 1 was focused on Araki and part 2 on Majime).

Characters

四日市洋子・よつかいちようこ

Yoko is working at the sales department of the publishing house. She is a friend of Nishioka and the first to mention Majime to him.

三好麗美・みよしれみ

Nishioka’s girlfriend. They have a loose relationship.

愛人弁当の教授

A professor specialised in Middle Ages. He provides Nishioka with specialised words related to Medieval literature.

 

Notes

p.125 天パ

I knew the word 天然パーマ which means “naturally curly hair” but I could not figure out what 天パ was, although the characters were talking about Majime’s hair! Sometimes, it’s best to take a break and come back to the book with a rested head.

p.129 こだわり

Nishioka remembers being scolded by Araki concerning the word こだわり which should not be used other than with a negative meaning. こだわり means “obsession with sth”, “fixation about sth”. This is a pejorative meaning. But, my dictionary also gives another meaning, positive this time: “a determination to get things right”, “care”, “concern”. Concerning this second usage of the word, Araki acknowledges its existence but says that it is a wrong usage 誤用・ごよう (misuse). To Araki, こだわり’s original meaning is 拘泥・こうでい, which means “worry too much”, “be overscrupulous about”.

I have no doubt that Araki is right, but the second meaning (the positive one) of the word こだわり did enter the dictionary at some point…

p.131 おませ and おしゃま

おませ and おしゃま both mean a “precocious child” but おませ can be used both for a girl and a boy whereas おしゃま is used only for precocious girls.

p. 158 西行・さいぎょう

One of the words provided by the professor specialised in Middle Ages literature is about 西行・さいぎょう, a renowned Japanese poet of the Heian period. The professor evokes the poem 願わくは花の下にて春死なんそのきさらぎの望月のころ, which I found on the English Wikipedia page of Saigyo. As you can see, there is a slight difference between the version found in my novel and the one on the Wikipedia page. I don’t know enough about ancient Japanese poetry to explain this difference.

 

p.163 – 168

Further discussing 西行 Majime and Nishioka evoke several words related to 西行. 西行 first meaning is obviously the poet Saigyo. But Majime and Nishioka ask themselves if this word can also have other meanings and be used as a noun rather than a name.

As I have recently posted about having an electronic dictionary, I would like to note that the different meanings of 西行 were present in the 日本語国大辞典 that I have on my device. This is an example of how useful it can be to have a good dictionary when reading a novel with literary contents or references.

富士見 and 不死身

不死身 and 富士見 both share the same pronunciation: ふじみ. 富士見 means “looking at Mont Fuji” and 不死身 means “immortality”. Because of the paintings 絵姿・えすがた representing Saigyo looking at Mont Fuji (富士見をしている西行さん), the word 西行 can mean “immortality” (“不死身”をしている西行さん).

遍歴する人、流れ者

Because Saigyo travelled to various provinces 諸国・しょこく,  the word 西行 is used to describe someone who travels around 遍歴・へんれき, a wanderer, an itinerant 流れ者・ながれもの.

The meaning of these two words derived from Saigyo’s name is explained by Majime, but I have also checked my electronic dictionary, and more precisely the 日本語国大辞典, just to be sure. What is funny is that Nishioka, who didn’t know these meanings, checked the same dictionary in the novel and has to admit that Majime is right.

タニシ

According to Majime and the 日本語国大辞典, the word 西行 has the meaning of “タニシ” which means “river snails”. According to the dictionary, this comes from Saigyo’s habit of walking around 歩き回る.

西行桜・さいぎょうさくら

西行桜 is the name of a piece of Nogaku 能楽, a form of traditional Japanese theatre.

西行被・さいぎょうかずき

This word comes from the picture representing Saigyo watching the Mont Fuji. 西行かずき means wearing one’s hat on the back of one’s head. The “hat” is, in fact, a 笠・かさ here, a conical straw hat. In fact, there is another word to say “wearing one’s hat on the back of one’s head”, namely: 阿弥陀被り・あみだかぶり. This word comes from  Amida (Amitabha). One can also say (帽子を) あみだにかぶる, using に as if it were an adverb.

西行背負い・さいぎょうじよい

Carrying a furoshiki 風呂敷包み diagonally across one’s back.

西行忌・さいぎょうき

This is simply the anniversary of Saigyo’s death.

But, as Nishioka remarks, from all these definitions, only the first two should enter the 大渡海. Both 西行被 and 西行背負い’s meaning can be easily guessed or understood. Same for 西行忌. As for 西行桜, it can be understood from the context because it will surely appear in a conversation about Nogaku. タニシ cannot be guessed, but as Nishioka says, nobody uses the word 西行 to say “snail” anymore.

On the contrary, both the meaning of 不死身 and 遍歴する人、流れ者 cannot be guessed from the word 西行. The only way to know these meaning is to look up the word 西行 in a dictionary.

Conclusion

I enjoyed reading this part very much.  As the focalisation was not on Majime but on Nishioka, I found this part to be very different from the previous one. In part two, we get to know what Majime thinks and how he sees Nishioka. Here, we learn who Nishioka really is, how he thinks, and how he sees Majime. Changing point of view confers a deepness to the novel that was not present in the film (mainly focused on Majime). It’s great to see the making of a dictionary through different protagonist’ eyes.

And if you are curious about the painting 富士見西行 (source):