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 say, If the flower is to be beautiful, it must be cultivated.”
—Lester Cole, U.S. screenwriter, Nathaniel Curtis, and Frank Lloyd. Nick Condon (James Cagney)
“The necessity of poetry has to be stated over and over, but only to those who have reason to fear its power, or those who still believe that language is only words and that an old language is good enough for our descriptions of the world we are trying to transform.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“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 (18091845)
“If a test of civilization be sought, none can be so sure as the condition of that half of society over which the other half has power.”
—Harriet Martineau (18021876)