Wanted

After my appalling performance in the J.TEST, I need a breakthrough in Japanese. Although, while I was taking the test, I could feel I was doing much better than I had before, the score shows that I have not improved significantly. To say the least, it was not what I had expected. I have been working for 20 months in a Japanese language-only environment, however it is not the type of work that is going to take one to fluency. More must be done! I will not remain content with my current level. In fact, I am almost at the point where reading in Japanese is less burdensome. Now is the time to turn on the intensity. I will search for audio material to listen to intensively and I will acquire the words, phrasings, and way of thinking in the language. I will not study for tests.

J.TEST results

Today, exactly four weeks after taking the J.TEST, the results were delivered by Yamato black cat delivery. Notice, this is much better than for the JLPT which takes 9 or 10 weeks to get the results. My test score is a mere 83 points better than I scored 2.5 years ago. That is an astonishing 33 point improvement per annum.

AD Level Scores

• 11/2006 459 points
• 04/2004 376 points

This is not enough to receive a D level certificate. One thing to note, the score report mentions a "New format from June 2005." I have no idea what that means. Anyway, I got my test booklet back along with a report of my answers and the correct answers. Also, the transcript of the listening dialogues was included. So I can use all of this to study and learn something.

I would really like to listen to and read interesting content intensively and then extensively. I have not yet found such content. Just about anything that is out there is going to be well above my ability to enjoyably understand. Plus, this method has not been developed for learners so what's out there will be in Japanese and not easily found.

Professor Catherine Snow

I found an interesting interview on the internet from The news source of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The interview is with Professor Catherine Snow who has a Ph.D. from McGill University and is "an expert on language and literacy development in children."

In the interview, she states exactly what I have always felt, but she does so with authority. She says, "there is no critical period for second-language learning."

It is a very interesting interview, and I encourage you to read it for yourself.
The interview can be found here.

The Way of The Linguist

Late Thursday night, I ordered The Way of The Linguist: A Language Learning Odyssey from Amazon Japan. It was the last copy in stock. If you live outside of Japan, you can try to get a copy from Amazon.com. I had read an excerpt of the book before and have been looking forward to reading the book ever since.

After I read the book, I will post some thoughts on it. There is an E-book version in several languages as well as English. I wish I could get a printed copy of the Japanese version. Oh well, I guess someday when I learn to read Chinese, I can read the printed version of it in Chinese.

Oh, I just realized that I didn't write everything I had intended to write. So, I ordered the book Thursday night, online, of course. Instead of paying with a credit card, I went to the convenience store, used a machine there to print out my purchase order. I took that print-out to the register and paid for the book. The clerk printed out a regular cash register receipt and also a special receipt which was stamped with a date-stamp which also has the store name and store number on it. Then Amazon Japan shipped my book Friday and it arrived today (Saturday). Shipping was free. If I had wanted to pay for shipping, I could have received the book on Friday. But why would I want to do that?

The Way of the Linguist: A Language Learning Odyssey