N3 is not intermediate

Don’t let the JLPT being split into 5 tests fool you. Just because the N3 is in the middle it doesn’t mean that you know 50% of japanese or stuff like that. I’ve genuinely seen someone say that since he passed the N5 he knew “20% of japanese”.

The N3 includes around 500 kanji and 3500 words, while the N1 has 2100 kanji and 10k+ words, a huge difference, especially because kanji get less useful and more complicated as they go, so they get much harder to learn. So you can say you know 1/4 of all jouyou kanji, but you’re still like 1/8 of the way through learning them.

So as an N3 learner you still haven’t even reached the everlasting “intermediate hell”. You’re still a beginner.

17 comments
  1. I agree, we should all hold ourselves to native standards and focus on passing the Kanken 1. (Joking of course lol)

  2. Considering the vastness of the valley between an of the street beginner and someone at N3, this comment isn’t just unpleasantly smug, it’s incorrect. You might argue that it’s “early intermediate” if you do feel a need to use this hill to prop up your ego, but N3 is capable of expressing complex thoughts in multiple ways and at least partially shown the long road to literate. That’s not a beginner, and it’s certainly nothing to scoff at just because it makes you feel superior.

  3. You’re making a good point, but N3 isn’t “beginner” either.

    With N3 most people can interact with and in Japanese in a meaningful way. They can have conversations on familiar topics, read simple texts and write short essays. Some linguists call this pre-intermediate, essential or basic level. In Japanese it’s sometimes referred to as 初中級(しょちゅうきゅう).

  4. Eh, part of this is that different learning resources have different criteria for what constitutes beginner/intermediate/advanced Japanese. I wish Japanese learning materials more often adopted a well-known standard like the CEFR when describing their books/courses/exams. The expected linguistic outcomes for the JLPT levels aren’t quite as detailed as the CEFR guidelines for reading and listening skills. At any rate though, not sure I’d agree with N3 being beginner. Seems more like a B1 (lower intermediate) level to me.

  5. You radiate an essence of false confidence, a lack of humility, and a complex of superiority. Maybe English isn’t your first language, in which case I would understand that this may have been unintentional. Otherwise, I hope some day you realize that you can make it through life happily without ever putting others down.

  6. Which language scale are we going by? And I don’t think ability in any other language is rated by an arbitrary list of words and characters. More about what you can do with what you have.

  7. Sure, but counterargument would be- knowing “20% of japanese” which you are mocking let’s you cover 50% of words needed to be used (number is pulled from my a**, just wanted to show that not all words are equal.
    When you’re learning english, you’ll use word “do” much more frequently than “anticipation”, and knowing former gives you much more than knowing latter. So the argument of 50 kanji and 3500 words vs 2100 and 10+k words is flawed. ten rare words gives you less in terms of your communication skills than knowing two common ones.

  8. I agree with this, especially if you look at how the JLPT stacks up against the CEFR. Not to mention that 常用漢字 are nowhere near the full extent of what you need to read literature.

  9. I’m sorry if it’s not cool to bring it up like this, but I notice this guy keeps making and deleting these “call out” posts here and I’m wondering why the mods are okay with it. If I recall, the first post I noticed from him was straight-up belligerent and ended with him calling everyone “retards”. I know he did well with that “people keep reposting the favorite kanji thread because everyone’s a quitter”, but it feels like every day I see a new heavily downvoted “call out” post from this same really trolly “salt” account and I’m not sure why the mods don’t just ban it? lol

  10. I don’t think so, many things included in N1 are not even used by native speakers in daily japanese. In my opinion, N4 is already intermediate, you are able to have a quite proper conversation with a native speaker and understand them.

  11. Not even C2/JLPT N1/whatever last test there is, is the end. It’s just a measurement of what skills you have, how you can wield the tools given to you in a certain setting. What you make outside of that setting is your own thing. You might be fluent or simply good at remembering. You might be comfortable using the language or simply not be able to construct meaningful sentences.

    At the end you will always learn, you will always forget, you will always relearn. There is no end when it comes to learning.

  12. >Don’t let the JLPT being split into 5 tests fool you. Just because the N3 is in the middle it doesn’t mean that you know 50% of japanese or stuff like that.

    Yeah, I can get behind that.

    >So as an N3 learner […] You’re still a beginner.

    That’s just bullshit or at least, not well put.

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