The “intermediate plateau” is a common term that’s often used in this coummunity, but what does it really mean? I’ve gathered 3 common answers I’ve received over time on this topic and with this post I want to ask you which one has subconsciously been YOUR definition of “intermediate”, to find out what the general consensus is.
# (1)
N4/N3 is intermediate. This follows the logic that since most JP learners don’t get past the N5 anyway, anything that’s above the norm is above beginner level. N2+ is advanced.
# (2)
N2 is intermediate. This is usually the most common opinion. Here N1 is usually considered advanced, and since the N2 tests half of the kanji and half of the vocab compared to the N1, it makes sense for N2 to be in the middle.
# (3)
JLPT is too easy and doesn’t test enough skills. Anything below N1 is barely the start. Taking the N1 and passing it without a close to perfect score (160+ points) makes you a beginner. This follows the logic that everything that appears in the N1 is normal stuff seen in everyday life, and struggling with it means that you’re still learning, or haven’t yet mastered, the basics. Here passing the N1 with a high score makes you “intermediate”, while “advanced” simply means being fluent, both conversationally and passively.
7 comments
It’s a difficult thing to define and doesn’t serve any real purpose, I guess. But I’ve definitely seen way too many beginners on this sub say they’re stuck in intermediate hell or the intermediate plateau.
If we’re speaking in terms of the JLPT (studying for N2 myself) I’d consider N2/N1 just entering intermediate and anything less is beginner.
If I had to define “advanced” I’d say of course N1 plus a lexicon of at least 20,000 words, and the ability to hold an hour-long spoken conversation.
But what do I know…🤷♂️
it doesnt matter. either im using japanese or im not. i dont care whether im a beginner, intermediate, advanced or something else
I mean I don’t consider N level so much as I do text books. As that’s what I see the term as being most useful for. Elementary, intermediate, and advanced text books have different albeit varying brackets of info. So I say anyone using an intermediate level book and not yet starting any advanced books is an intermediate learner.
2.5. N2 is definitely intermediate imo, but passing N1 alone is definitely not advanced I’d say. I also don’t like that advanced is conflated with fluent in the third example.
I’d probably put it as
– beginner: N5~bottom two thirds of passing N3
– intermediate: top third of passing N3 to bottom two thirds of passing N1
– advanced: top third of passing N1+
What the “intermediate plateau” felt like, to me, was that I had gotten through all the stuff that’s taught in textbooks, and I had a good enough vocabulary to read almost all native content with a certain amount of struggle, effort, and vocabulary gaps…
But I felt like I could never learn *enough* to reduce that amount of struggle and effort and vocabulary gaps by any meaningful amount.
By definition, once you are at a high-intermediate level in a language, the words you’re learning are all (or almost all) low-frequency words. And there are a lot of them. If you go from knowing 2000 words to knowing 3000 words, you see a measurable jump in your ability to understand text. If you go from knowing 12,000 words to knowing 13,000 words, you don’t see a measurable jump. It feels like you’re making no progress at all. And even though you know a lot of words, the word you don’t know still feel like a meaningful barrier.
For me, that level was around N2 to a while after I’d passed N1.
I don’t consider N1 intermediate. I consider it advanced. (Albeit, perhaps, at the low end of “advanced.”) But when I talk about the “intermediate plateau,” I’m talking about around an N2-N1 level.
I lived in Japan for pretty much 8 years, passed N1 (73%), worked using Japanese for 3 of those 8 years and I still wouldn’t say I’m advanced. There are soooooooo many words and idioms, OMG especially idioms, that I don’t know. However, I would definitely say that N2 is Intermediate. It’s more than enough to understand the radio, standard TV programmes and general stuff on the news, go to the doctor/hospital, open a bank account and work using Japanese(to some extent and it depends on the field of work). I can only speak for myself, but with N2 I did all of the above. I would even say that N2 is leaning towards upper intermediate when it comes to just day to day life in Japan.
The gap between N2 and N1 is massive. It felt like that to me anyway. With N2 I had no problems in my day to day life, but when it came to work boy did I struggle the first year. Definining intermediate is very hard, but I personally would say N2 is intermediate.
Comparing it to the OPI, N4-N3 are the intermediate series, N2 is advanced and N1 is superior.