JLPT

Sunday was the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, or JLPT. There are four levels (kyu), with 4-kyu being the easiest and 1-kyu being the hardest. I took 3-kyu and am uncertain if I passed it. The test is divided in three parts: kanji/vocab, listening, and grammar/reading. I rocked the kanji and I think I did really well on the grammar. But I bombed the listening. I do not use the word 'bomb' lightly. Out of the 23 questions, I think I got 1 right. That's okay though, because I need a possible sum of 240 points out of the 400 to pass, regardless where the points come from.

The listening section was lame. Each dialogue ran for about a minute, and you only got to hear it once. I would be following along okay, then a trick would be thrown in, and I was lost. It was the listening-equivalent of that cup game, where they put a ball under one of three cups and you have to keep track of it.

An example dialogue:
Male: That town over there is famous for ships and fishing.
Female: What about this town?
Male: I don't know, but pig is my favorite food.
Female: What? Why did you say that?
Male: No reason. This town is famous for beef and milk.

Question: What color shirt is the man wearing?

So regardless if I pass or fail, I feel I'm ready for 2-kyu. Ready to start studying for it, that is. Will I be ready by next December? We'll see. Let me put into perspective the jump from 3-kyu to 2-kyu.

Total vocab:
4-kyu: ~700 words, ~100 kanji
3-kyu: an additional ~700 words, ~200 kanji

Here comes the fun part:

2-kyu: an additional ~4000 words, ~600 kanji

The jump from 3-kyu to 2-kyu is huge. So I started studying the day after I took the test. I'm looking at about 20 words a day for the next year, which gives me weekends for review and time to be finished two months before the test.

I've been told that fluency in a language is knowing 14,000 words. By 3-kyu standards, I am 11% fluent. In a year, I will be 40%. Bell curve, yea!

Yesterday was kindergarten again. Have them once a week and hate teaching them. Individually, they are cute. But as a group, they merge into an evil-Voltron intent on destroying me. We were playing musical chairs, which I have learned is the best game to do with them. They behave and they don't have to speak English. But it's English cause the music is in English, see... So a kid sits down, another kid wants the seat and pushes the kid out of the seat. The other kid gets up and knocks the other kid in the jaw. Not some baby push or girl slap, either, but a fist. Kid starts wailing, and that kid gets scolded for pushing the kid out of the chair in the first place. Kid who punched him was allowed to keep playing.

I only mention this because I didn't blink an eye. This kind of stuff has become normal to me. I just thought, "Silly kids..." and in the back of my mind, "Nice punch...". What's happening to me?