A1 and N5 Japanese

9 comments

1. unless you take an official test these levels dont mean anything

2. Can you read this, I find this decent (in terms of difficulty):

   当人は家にいた。ちょうどそのとき自分の小部屋で、何やら書き物をしていたので、自分でドアをあけてくれた。二人は四月も会わなかったのである。ラズーミヒンは、ぼろぼろになるまで着古した部屋着をまとって、素足に上靴を引っかけ、ひげもあたらなければ顔も洗わず、ぼうぼう頭のままでいた。彼の顔には驚きの表情が現われた。

3. Looking at the course-book from the JPF site, they seem to be roughly equivalent, both covering basic greetings, introductions, simple questions, and explanation of actions. I can’t see any information on the content of their A5 level but if they aim for people who complete the full series to be functionally fluent in reading and speaking then you can probably assume that (as they both have five levels) they will have similar progression.

   This might not be the case though. It is possible that their final target is equivalent to N2 which would obviously make the progression less even. If you can clarify what the final target is you should be able to judge yourself.

4. There is [this summary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-Language_Proficiency_Test#Estimated_study_time) on the JLPT Wikipedia page that has what you are looking for, although it’s just to give you a rough idea so shouldn’t be taken too seriously

5. A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2 are levels based on CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), so you’ll find language textbooks developed and published in Europe using these levels. What skills are expected for each level is spelled out in the RLDs (Reference Level Descriptions) for each language. A1 textbooks would be for true beginners.

   I just checked my local (Taiwanese) edition of MNN. 初級I is marked as 入門 (Introductory Level) and N5. It seems reasonable to me to think of A1 and N5 as comparable. They’re frameworks to gauge whether teaching materials are suitable for you at your current level, independent of whether you intend to take a language proficiency test.

6. it doesn’t mean much just that you still have a long way to go. The levels are mostly stupid anyway though, the things they test feel super arbitrary… even n2 has a lot of weird vocab

7. N1 is about b1/b2

8. A1 is just the very basics of a language, so I would say it’s equivalent to N5, maybe a bit of N4 at best.

   However it’s not a good comparison, a bit of an apple to oranges situations because the systems definitely do not match 1 to 1.

9. In terms of the general levels of ability the CEFR tests represent:

   A1: N5-N4
   A2: N3
   B1: N2 – Low N1
   B2: High Score on N1

   With C1 C2 being beyond the level of ability tested by the JLPT