The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験, Nihongo Nōryoku Shiken?), or JLPT, is a standardized criterion-referenced test to evaluate and certify Japanese language proficiency for non-native speakers, covering language knowledge, reading ability, and listening ability. The test is held twice a year in Japan and selected countries (on the first Sunday of July and December), and once a year in other regions (on the first Sunday of December).
The JLPT was expanded to five levels in 2010, characterized as follows:
- N1: The ability to understand Japanese used in a variety of circumstances
- N2: The ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations, and in a variety of circumstances to a certain degree
- N3: The ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations to a certain degree
- N4: The ability to understand basic Japanese
- N5: The ability to understand some basic Japanese
Until 2009, the test had four levels, with the old Level 3 and Level 4 corresponding to the current Level N4 and Level N5 respectively. In the change to the new level system, a new Level N3 was inserted between the old Levels 2 and 3. The examination for Level N1 was expanded to cover higher-level content, but the passing standard for Level N1 remained approximately the same as the old Level 1.
Read more about Japanese Language Proficiency Test: History and Statistics, Administration, Revised Test, Results, Application Period, Previous Format (1984–2009)
Famous quotes containing the words japanese, language, proficiency and/or test:
“The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.”
—Paul Theroux (b. 1941)
“I suggested to them also the great desirability of a general knowledge on the Island of the English language. They are under an English speaking government and are a part of the territory of an English speaking nation.... While I appreciated the desirability of maintaining their grasp on the Spanish language, the beauty of that language and the richness of its literature, that as a practical matter for them it was quite necessary to have a good comprehension of English.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all these more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)