Georgia requires two Carnegie units of a foreign language for all high school students, including homeschoolers. Our 14 year old daughter chose Japanese as her language. To validate her studies, we are using the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, an objective worldwide standard offered each once or twice per year in selected cities. In Atlanta, this test is offered each December and attracts test takers from the entire Southeast region. The scores for the most recent test posted today.
Last year, she easily passed the entry-level N5 test. This year, she passed the significantly more difficult level N4 test, with a score of 152/180. Passing is a score of 90/180. The breakout scores for each section, Vocabulary, Grammar and Reading, are an equivalent score of A.
To prepare for this test, she has been watching and translating Japanese videos, including anime. She has also been interacting with other Japanese students worldwide using the Internet. We also purchased some study guides for the JLPT itself. She also plays Minecraft with Japanese speakers, but the best preparation was a combination of apps on her phone and tablet. AnkiDroid is a flash card app useful for studying Kanji. The Obenkyo app is excellent preparation for grammar and vocabulary. A dictionary app, Jsho, and a dictionary website, Jisho.org, are also useful references. She also reads Japanese articles on the Internet, and has her Linux computer configured for Japanese.
She has now completed her high school requirements for foreign language, along with calculus, biology and history, and is well along the way to graduating high school at age 16 . Along the way she has racked up over 20 college credit hours.
We’re very proud of her accomplishment!
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5 Comments on "Japanese Level 4 Passed!"
Give her a hug and tell her she is ichiban! You go girl!
Excellence is a quality noticed by its absence but when it is so obviously done in spades by your daughter, a hearty “Well Done” is in order.
well done! that takes some dedication!
learning languages is always a useful and fun skill.
素晴らしい成果はおめでとう! ますます日本語の力を伸ばしていく様頑張って下さい。
Give her parents a well deserved pat on the back, too.