What I read online is “600 for N5, 1250 for N4, 3000 for N3, 6000 for N2 and 10000 for N1” the things is… it seems incredibly low for the highest level. English isn’t my first language, and I would say I have approximately 13 000 to 16-000 vocabulary words in it. I would say I’m fluent (C1), but sometimes I struggle to find a word or 2. So far in my learning process, it has seems like japanese needs way more vocabulary to obtain fluency. I don’t understand how could N1 be only 10k, when it is the highest level ? Is the number shown only for survival purposes of the exam ? Should I aim, as I want to pass N3 for the end of the year, 5000 words instead of 3000 to be sure to score high?
Thanks you in advance for y’all help
8 comments
N1 isn’t fluent and you should learn as many words as you can, yes.
If all you care about is the JLPT, then only focus on the JLPT content….it all depends on your goals and what you use to learn…but if you learn through immersion you will know way more than just 10k words….10k is the bare minimum…..
Also keep in mind N1 is not fluent, many people consider it the true “beginning” of Japanese….but just reaching N1 just means you will understand the language at a decent level (JLPT only focuses on real life stuff)…does not mean you will be able to speak….unless you also practice your speaking
So to answer your question, if I were you, I would aim for more than necessary as if you care about consuming anything that’s not newspaper or Japanese news you will definitely struggle to get around…that being said, if all you care about is talking to people and don’t really care about consuming media, then stick to the 10k….but still, imo just learning JLPT things and nothing else is a bit boring….but of course that’s just my own opinion
I’ll mention three things.
1. The number of words per JLPT level is somewhat arbitrary, because there are no official lists for the current categories. There are plenty of unofficial lists. Some of those unofficial lists have 800 or even 1000 words for N5, 1750 up to 2500 for N4, etc.
2. There’s a difference between how much vocabulary you need to pass a JLPT level, versus how much you need to understand every single word on the test and/or get s perfect score. Think of those numbers as bare minimums, not proficiency standards.
3. The JLPT N1 is not full fluency. Some people think it’s roughly equivalent to a C1 rating, while some might argue it’s closer to a B2. Also, the JLPT doesn’t test output, so a person who passes N1 entirely through self study might only have A2 or B1 speaking skills, even if they have C1 reading and listening skills.
what’s your goals with the language
Jlpt doesn’t test the number of words you know, it tests you on what you should be able to do in Japanese. If you’re learning words about swordfighting or idioms about birds and detailed food names, that’s great and will help you when watching and reading and maybe occasionally discussing those things, but it probably won’t be on the jlpt.
You could pass the n1 with many fewer vocabulary than 10000, if you prepared extremely specifically for the test, but that really doesn’t do you any good.
In general, knowing more words is better than knowing fewer words, and we should be aspiring to understand everything we hear.
The 10,000 is just a rough estimate, so yes you definitely should try and aim more than that. I don’t know how many I know (post N1) to tell you a specific number to aim for, but enough is really never enough, right?
depends on your definition of “vocabulary”
you may know how to read 携帯 and such words, but can you write them?
Those are rough guides but there are no official word lists since the tests give you reading passages based on essays and opinion pieces at university level. In general your Japanese should be good enough to work out where an author is going even if the topic is a bit unfamiliar to you. I got neurology as a topic during my N1 reading exam for example. There’s a book called Read Real Japanese Essays that will help you more than random word lists for JLPT as well and explain cultural nuances around expressions and phrasings.
Flash cards help you with recall but there are a lot more skills involved to get to what’s considered fluency. You need to be able to turn your vocabulary into coherent thoughts and sentences and understand the social codes and rules for how you express yourself. If you get this you can get very far with a pretty small vocab. Like a strong N3 level can give you pretty good communication skills (within a limited scope).