(Since I searched it in search bar and did not really get too many results… I felt that this is a good post to write because in some ways, there is no end to ‘studying Japanese’.)
JLPT N1 is the goal for a lot of people, and that is for a good reason. After all, JLPT is the biggest Japanese test there is (for foreigners), and out of all of the JLPT levels, N1 is the hardest. However, that brings me to the next question: what is after N1?
I mean, the obvious one after JLPT is Kanji Kentei, but there are people who are too tired for tests. Personally, I am done with tests. I was sort of glad that I got the test stuffs over (for certificate purposes). Studying JLPT N1 definitely helped me with vocabulary, but I don’t think I have the energy within me anymore (to study for any more tests).
I have heard some people say “I got JLPT N1. I am happy with it.”, but I have also heard some people say “I passed JLPT N1, but I feel like I opened a new floodgate”. For those who feel like they opened a new “floodgate”, what do you do to study? Or are you satisfied with N1/N2/etc.?
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There’s always 古文 and 漢文 if those kinds of texts tickle your fancy.
* Relearning JLPT material with the intention of making it feel relatively easy.
* Learning kanji writing (at the very least it leads from okayish recognition to great recognition including recognition of quiet messy handwriting).
* Switching media consumption almost entirely to Japanese, consuming materials on a variety of topics. As an additional practice, you can summarize consumed material in writing or speech (I like this idea for speaking practice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAU2zx2Ri_M)
* Taking Japanese MOOCs like [https://gacco.org/](https://gacco.org/)
* Learning keigo (not just grammar but practical usage).
* Interacting with Japanese natives if possible.
For a few months, I was making weekly notes about my studies, you can check them on [my profile](https://www.reddit.com/user/thehershel/comments/sh972d/japanese_learning_notes/) if you’d like.
Passing N1 is just a start I guess.
Just do what you did to study up until N1, just now don’t focus on grammar or kanji. Read books, play games, watch anime. Find your weak points and work against them. Learn enough words and train your ear well enough and you’ll be able to consume Japanese like a native would. Keep up your Anki and put new words in until new words are sparse enough it seems pointless. I always liked to set yearly goals and try to stick to them. One year my goal was to learn 15,000 words, and when I had reached that goal, I kept going. I also started reading a lot more that year, so I noticed that I had gotten my vocab up enough for fantasy and sci-fi, it I hadn’t trained my ear well enough to keep up with them in speech, so the next year my goal was to watch 500 episodes of unsubbed anime.
TLDR is that as long as you are consuming content and actually studying it (that is, studying the words and perhaps choosing the content you consume deliberately), you will improve
N1 is the beginning. There is so so much more after it. Listen to Shinbou Jirou Zoom podcast. Start at 1.5 times speed and then slow it down each pass. Try dictation of it and that’ll keep you busy for a few years.
Use Japanese after passing n1
All my books, games and devices are in Japanese
there is also >[Nihongo Kentei](https://youtu.be/b89-4LlhSTk)<
You can still use the study materials for those tests without taking the test. I would recommend that for the kanji kentei to build your vocab more.
Similarly, I would keep going through JLPT materials for a bit longer. I passed the gengo chishiki section of the N1 with full marks but I find quite a few new words or words I still don’t fully grasp the meaning of in the Somatome series I’m busy working through.
Consume content about a variety of different topics (politics, law, biology, physics, etc.) obviously with an emphasis on what you find the most interesting and what you might want to talk about at some point to someone. You could also use textbooks for school kids about different topics if you are in Japan. Of you use Spotify, you could find podcasts on there too.
I just use Japanese. I live in Japan, so yeah. I also became a translator, which “forces” me to read a lot of Japanese every day.
I don’ t think I’ll attempt to pass another proficiency test any time soon since I don’t really see the point. JLPT N1 can give some perks (job applications, university scholarships, etc.). But other tests don’t serve much purpose outside your own satisfaction, for which I don’t really get one from standardized tests.
Lifelong learning from now. Live in Japan so reading, watching movies, news etc and daily life offers plenty of opportunities. It’s not a floodgate I would say it’s more a realisation of how infinitely deep the water is and learning to be comfortable with that.
Start reading native materials (e.g. novels) if you havent. The amount of vocab will grow with your read. For me, I have learnt so many names of food and clothes/wear in Japanese which are not in JLPT exam curriculum.
Serious thought experiment: how do you study English, if you do? Use the same methods. Read native language material. Google words you don’t know, etc
Why would you keep studying at that point? I don’t know exactly where N1 stands, but surely it’s a high enough level of proficiency that you can move on and practice or just *use* Japanese?
I think that after N1 it’s more like consuming native content than studying. I still review my Anki decks but I don’t add many words anymore. The struggle now is more about output than input, at least for me.