I have been studying japanese for quite sometime, but I don’t know if I have finally “evolved” from a beginner to an intermediate. How do I figure this out?
To get a gist of what you know and don’t know, maybe try doing JLPT leveled mock exams online?
It doesn’t test your speaking ability though.
Aside from standardized tests, the definition of intermediate can be pretty nebulous.
My own arbitrary standards would say that if you can pick up media aimed at teenagers and can understand 50% of it, that’s probably a good sign.
Even if most of the vocabulary is unknown to you, recognizing verb forms and grammar points without looking at a reference is a good indicator of competency.
And this may sound woo-woo, but reading a sentence in which you do know all the words, and your first instinct is not to reverse engineer the sentence in your head into an English sentence is probably a good sign as well.
what does it mean to be an intermediate?
Take a look here and see which definition appeals most to you:
you are an intermediate when you stop worrying about it
You get a level up animation.
I’d say intermediate is when you can consume media up to maybe a 6th grade level comfortably. You still have lots to learn but you have learned enough to be competent in the language.
Of course there is no officiel definition of “intermediate” but one way would be to look at the [self assessment grid](https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52) of the CEFR levels (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). In general B1/B2 would be considered intermediate, but again this is up fo debate. (Since Japanese is harder for westerners than most languages and a lot of never get very far, the bar for what people consider intermediate might be lower).
As a (probably) native English speaker, what would you consider to be intermediate English? What would you expect that person to be able to do? Think about that sort of stuff and see if you match up.
Like someone said above when do you consider someone intermediate in a language.
For me it is when I am able to understand most of the news, anime (without very niche vocabulary), maybe even some songs. Or when I would be in company of Japanese people and I would understand what they are talking about and how they stand on a topic in any discussion.
I would consider myself higher intermediate if I could explain in Japanese what was said on the news. Or I could take active part in the discussion and contribute to it.
The weird thing with Japanese is that I am able to understand a rather difficult sentence sometimes and not an easy one because of the lack of the vocabulary I master. BUT I don’t think vocabulary should be the measuring point.
ON Netflix they are airing my first errand. It’s called old enough in English. The language used is very easy, if you still need subtitles to enjoy that I would consider yourself still a beginner.
I can enjoy most of it without myself. But I am amazed what these three years olds understand and are able to produce. Because I can’t at times. It’s really weird because a kid was learning the names of vegetables and another one is learning to count or name the colors… but they understand what is being said to them and they are able to express themselves way better than I am able to.
Anyway what I am trying to say is that compared to the kids I can count better and maybe even know more vocabulary. But they are way better at listening and speaking than I am. And they are pretty amazing at conjugating verbs or adjectives as well.
Anyway without looking at vocabulary. I would consider myself lower intermediate if I was at their level. And higher intermediate if I could keep up with six year old… Let alone a sixth grader…. (that is my goal eventually)
Look at kids in your country and how a six year old is able to express themselves. They can do most things independent. They can walk in a grocery store and to some extent describe everything that is in there. And they can easily pick up new words AND use them Way better than I can.
The intermediate speaker is able to use the language creatively, recombining elements and relying less on memorized bits. There is an increase in on accuracy because they’re making it up as they go, as opposed to recycling stock phrases (novice) or finally mastering the language (Superior-Distinguished).
The speaker is at the sentence stage, creating discreet sentences or strings of sentences, but not yet able to create well ordered paragraphs. They can handle simple, straight forward situations usually in the present tense. They can use follow up questions to extend a conversation.
When you have reached whats called the intermediate plateau…you have surely reached intermediate level 🙂
when I studied language at uni my profs roughly laid out beginner as being able to hold a conversation with a five to seven year old, intermediate at about ten to twelve, and advanced as being roughly equivalent of a native freshman in high school
In my experience, intermediate starts when you can read a book written for native speakers (middle school age or higher), with significant assistance like Kindle dictionary lookups or pre-studying vocabulary.
The nature of your studies and your relationship with the language change drastically when you start getting a TON of input, and reading for a couple hours rams more words through your brain than binging a season of anime or living a full day immersed in Japan. By ramming thousands of sentences through your brain one after another you turn the things you’ve “learned” from a pile of memorized facts about Japanese into an internal model of the Japanese language that you can actually play around with in your head to do other things.
Obviously, reading isn’t the only thing and you need to practice other skills, but for me the intermediate phase was (is?) primarily defined by reading dozens of books.
14 comments
To get a gist of what you know and don’t know, maybe try doing JLPT leveled mock exams online?
It doesn’t test your speaking ability though.
Aside from standardized tests, the definition of intermediate can be pretty nebulous.
My own arbitrary standards would say that if you can pick up media aimed at teenagers and can understand 50% of it, that’s probably a good sign.
Even if most of the vocabulary is unknown to you, recognizing verb forms and grammar points without looking at a reference is a good indicator of competency.
And this may sound woo-woo, but reading a sentence in which you do know all the words, and your first instinct is not to reverse engineer the sentence in your head into an English sentence is probably a good sign as well.
what does it mean to be an intermediate?
Take a look here and see which definition appeals most to you:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/zyej3r/whats_your_definition_of_intermediate/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/zyej3r/whats_your_definition_of_intermediate/)
you are an intermediate when you stop worrying about it
You get a level up animation.
I’d say intermediate is when you can consume media up to maybe a 6th grade level comfortably. You still have lots to learn but you have learned enough to be competent in the language.
Of course there is no officiel definition of “intermediate” but one way would be to look at the [self assessment grid](https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52) of the CEFR levels (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). In general B1/B2 would be considered intermediate, but again this is up fo debate. (Since Japanese is harder for westerners than most languages and a lot of never get very far, the bar for what people consider intermediate might be lower).
As a (probably) native English speaker, what would you consider to be intermediate English? What would you expect that person to be able to do? Think about that sort of stuff and see if you match up.
Like someone said above when do you consider someone intermediate in a language.
For me it is when I am able to understand most of the news, anime (without very niche vocabulary), maybe even some songs.
Or when I would be in company of Japanese people and I would understand what they are talking about and how they stand on a topic in any discussion.
I would consider myself higher intermediate if I could explain in Japanese what was said on the news. Or I could take active part in the discussion and contribute to it.
The weird thing with Japanese is that I am able to understand a rather difficult sentence sometimes and not an easy one because of the lack of the vocabulary I master.
BUT I don’t think vocabulary should be the measuring point.
ON Netflix they are airing my first errand. It’s called old enough in English.
The language used is very easy, if you still need subtitles to enjoy that I would consider yourself still a beginner.
I can enjoy most of it without myself. But I am amazed what these three years olds understand and are able to produce. Because I can’t at times.
It’s really weird because a kid was learning the names of vegetables and another one is learning to count or name the colors… but they understand what is being said to them and they are able to express themselves way better than I am able to.
Anyway what I am trying to say is that compared to the kids I can count better and maybe even know more vocabulary. But they are way better at listening and speaking than I am.
And they are pretty amazing at conjugating verbs or adjectives as well.
Anyway without looking at vocabulary. I would consider myself lower intermediate if I was at their level.
And higher intermediate if I could keep up with six year old…
Let alone a sixth grader…. (that is my goal eventually)
Look at kids in your country and how a six year old is able to express themselves.
They can do most things independent.
They can walk in a grocery store and to some extent describe everything that is in there.
And they can easily pick up new words AND use them
Way better than I can.
Your language scale will vary, but I go by [ACTFL](https://www.actfl.org/educator-resources/actfl-proficiency-guidelines/english/english-speaking).
The intermediate speaker is able to use the language creatively, recombining elements and relying less on memorized bits. There is an increase in on accuracy because they’re making it up as they go, as opposed to recycling stock phrases (novice) or finally mastering the language (Superior-Distinguished).
The speaker is at the sentence stage, creating discreet sentences or strings of sentences, but not yet able to create well ordered paragraphs. They can handle simple, straight forward situations usually in the present tense. They can use follow up questions to extend a conversation.
When you have reached whats called the intermediate plateau…you have surely reached intermediate level 🙂
when I studied language at uni my profs roughly laid out beginner as being able to hold a conversation with a five to seven year old, intermediate at about ten to twelve, and advanced as being roughly equivalent of a native freshman in high school
In my experience, intermediate starts when you can read a book written for native speakers (middle school age or higher), with significant assistance like Kindle dictionary lookups or pre-studying vocabulary.
The nature of your studies and your relationship with the language change drastically when you start getting a TON of input, and reading for a couple hours rams more words through your brain than binging a season of anime or living a full day immersed in Japan. By ramming thousands of sentences through your brain one after another you turn the things you’ve “learned” from a pile of memorized facts about Japanese into an internal model of the Japanese language that you can actually play around with in your head to do other things.
Obviously, reading isn’t the only thing and you need to practice other skills, but for me the intermediate phase was (is?) primarily defined by reading dozens of books.