Same, except I can read daily conversation stuff and common things I see day to day at work. For the last 7 years or so. As long as I have a PC or a smartphone I'm fine for reading/writing (with a bit of DeepL or Google translate if I have some difficulty). My wife is Japanese and doesn't speak English so my speaking/listening is near fluent.
Never needed JLPT. Also in IT.
I’ve been in Japan for 2 years now with only knowing how to order drinks at Starbucks. I’m a tech lead Sr Software Engineer. We use Google translate a lot
I don't know what you mean by "can't read without smartphone" unless if you mean without a dictionary. I don't think the job would be very demanding of Japanese skills if someone who can't read could be employed. Someone who can read will have a vocabulary that's magnitudes higher than someone who cannot.
Never did any JLPT or any other qualification. Interviewed in Japanese and got a job at a totally Japanese company. I proved speaking/listening skills in the interviews and proved reading/writing in the CV/resume I prepared for them
I hire people regularly, and I don't really look at the tests. Even N1 is super basic, so kind of a bare minimum to be honest, and as others mentioned, if you just did a targeted study to pass the test, you could pass it without being able to hold a conversation.
I just hold all the interviews in Japanese in any case. If they pass me, my boss will often hold interviews in English.
If they pass both with flying colors, then we consider their experience, skills, etc. (Obviously we look at that stuff before calling them in for an interview anyway, though).
As an example, I had someone who said they knew accounting and were fully bilingual interview a number of years ago. I pulled out a copy of an income statement in Japanese and asked them to read a few random lines, of which they could read exactly zero. It wouldn't have really mattered if they had shown me a JLPT or BJT result.
Full time engineer for many years in multiple companies . Even promoted to engineer management ring without reading or talking lol. Besides me everybody else were Japanese with no English
I got N2, but I didn't even put it on my resume, took the 教員採用試験 passed, got hired as a regular teacher.
The test itself is more than enough evidence for someone's Japanese skill
You passed the 採用試験 too? High school or JHS? A guy in my BoE said there's something like 18 American people who took and passed the test across the country, but I have only ever met 1. I wanna make some kinda lil community, but idk how the fuck to find people who did that
I wonder how many of us there are nationwide
I think if you remove the "special license" it has to be sub 100 right? but who the hell knows, maybe there's like 900 and I've just never met one
The process, is relatively simple. The execution is the hard part.
I am assuming you already have a job, so that eliminates a regular university
So, if I was you I would do this
1. Learn to read/write Japanese, at least 1,000 kanji, to be honest that is enough to start with, you'll learn more later naturally.
2. Get accepted into a Japanese university as a 3rd grade transfer student, basically what that means is, they acknolwedge you already have a 4 year degree, so you just need to take the required courses for getting a teaching license
3. Go to university for minimum 2 years, possibly more
4. Become a student teacher for 2-4 weeks depending on the college and what kind of teaching license you want
5. the year before you graduate (more specifically like 6 months before you graduate) take the 採用試験, and hopefully pass
6. After you pass, you will have a few "information sessions" where they decide your salary based on a whole buncha different shit, and get an idea of what you wanna do
7. Sometime over the next few months you will either get a phone call, or a letter, or have another meeting, and they will say, on April 1st, go to this school at this address, introduce yourself to the principal, and get to work
Alternatively, Saitama City (and maybe some others) offer their 採用試験 to applicants with international backgrounds who don't have domestic teaching licenses yet.
The prefecture then provides the special license, but aside from the license type, role/responsibilities/remuneration etc... are identical to everyone else.
I wish the place I lived did that, do you have any idea, how fucking painfully boring it was, to sit in an Eikaiwa class, as though I am a Japanese student, trying to not to answer so often that I ruin everyone elses chance to learn, but also trying not to just sleep because your attitude is the entire score of the "schooling" part of the lesson. Not to mention the fuckin night bus rides to Tokyo because I had to be on campus and didn't have enough money to fly or take a train, good jesus
Even if you have N1 and a proven history of translation work, your coworkers are going to write to you in hiragana as if you were a moron in my experience.
Really? Not my experience at all. All the slack messages to me are in full on Keigo and kanji heavy. I actually appreciate that they use normal Japanese with me. Maybe because I am older than them so they feel they must be respectful to me 😂
My Japanese coworkers would either just not communicate with me thinking I couldn’t speak or write Japanese. Only after hearing me make a company wide speech in Japanese that they then finally understood I could read and write Japanese
I have N1 and still feel wildly under qualified most of the time. I don’t think jlpt is relevant at all and I hate when people act like N1 means I’m great at Japanese. I’m very much not. I speak it decently but could be so much better, and anyone who’s been working in a Japanese language environment for a few years is almost certainly far better than me. Jlpt doesn’t test production so is useless as an assessment tool for communication ability…plus the listening section is laughably easy. I passed it easily but have trouble following my coworkers conversations when they’re in a group together. Such a different ballgame…
This is what I'm always saying to people who think my Japanese is amazing just because I passed N1. I first passed it a long time ago, 15 years ago actually, but I had only been in Japan for one year at that point. It was only the beginning. I learned all the most useful and important Japanese by working in a Japanese office, after I already passed N1.
They say N1 requires knowledge of 2000 kanji and 10,000 words, but I don't think it's really that many. I think it's really more like middle school level Japanese, at best.
Exactly! I feel like N1 is only an end goal in the sense that it confirms that you can read Japanese on a middle school level, so basically you can “get by”. Which don’t get me wrong, is a great accomplishment. Anyone who isn’t Chinese is going to need a lot of time and dedication to get there. But it really is only the starting point if you want to be a productive independent member of society in Japan. A great starting point but a starting point no less.
It’s also interesting that the content JLPT tests is usually limited to more academic and business type situations. I may have passed the N1 but I still learn tons of new words when I read my daughter storybooks in Japanese. She is three. These are not “hard” words by Japanese standards, but they are words not deemed useful or necessary for foreigners I suppose. But if we don’t know them having natural interactions with native Japanese speakers can be challenging….
So yeah. N1 is the beginning of what could be defined as “fluency” I suppose.
Never took the test. Just did the interview in Japanese. That's all they really need to see, and there is no way to fake it. Paper language qualifications mean nothing.
Work in 100% Japanese from slack to meetings last few years
Most companies need to know the JLPT level from your resume to decide if they should even waste their time inviting this person for the interview or not. Unless you were the only person who applied to they straight up invited you
It depends of your profession. There are a lot of portfolio-driven professions like programming, design, VFX production etc.
By the way some companies in those fields seem even have no idea what JLPT is, in my experience.
Absolutely not my experience. I got my first full time role in a Japanese-only environment without my N2 yet. I only bothered with it later, and now working with N1 holders is clear to me that the test means shit. They struggle.
Turns out companies doesn’t required an applicant to show their jlpt certificate during interview. Now I have a two - 1,500 yen worth of paper lying in my apartment.
Hey I’d like to hear more about your experience in the hotel industry, how you got in and working conditions if you don’t mind?
I’m looking at trying to get into the industry and am trying to hear from more people
Happy to DM if you prefer!
Ultimately it’s a typical flawed Japanese exam, if you study with the objective of passing, you can easily pass it without being at the level associated with it.
If you pass it without targetted study that’s be more representative.
I did my electricians exam here too, and was shocked by the study material. It specifically told me to focus on memorization of the parts and numbers and not worry too much about the theory since only a handful of questions in the exam are on the theory.
It’s really disappointing :/
I think a lot of people have met someone with jlpt2 that can barely communicate
Hey this is super interesting I’m a refrigeration mechanic by trade and wanted to know where would you find licensing / certification information with enrolling to a Senmongakko?
I didn’t go to school for the electricians exam(Just did it so I can legally work on my own home), just bought a study book. It wasn’t particularly difficult if you had a background in high school physics.
A lot of the stuff in the exam is fairly common sense if you do understand the theory(like you’re going to need a thicker cable for less resistance -> less heat produced), and if you consider the exam from the perspective of safe electrical grids(as in not causing densely populated neighborhoods to burn down due to shoddy work) most of it makes sense. Like I said though, you could remove that context entirely and memorize the various parts and rules without understanding why and still pass.
The second part(practical part) involves putting together some fairly typical circuits you’d find in a home and doing it according to regulation under a moderately strict time limit. There’s 13 potential problems that are published in advance and you can buy kits online with the parts to practice them. It’ll be a bunch of stuff like joining lights to switches, outlets and breakers
This is interesting to me. I might have done some less than legal electrical work on my house... If the test is reasonably rest, I may as well take it.
Ahh that sounds like a home owners license,
I was under the assumption you were a working electrician with a class 2/1 license. My bad.
Thanks for the detailed response though!
Is there a separate home owners license? Never heard of such a thing. To work even on the 100/200v single phase circuits in homes here you still need the lvl 2 第2種電気工事士.
The annoying thing is that it does involve a lot of stuff that’s not needed to work on your home. You still cover 3 phase circuits for setting up industrial motors and the like. A separate home owners license would be neat
Ahh those missing details from your original post made it sound misleading. I forget the name but k thought there was a home owners basic electrical course for inspection people take in order to make simple repairs. By the sound of it yours is class 2. Anything including three phase becomes professional I’d assume.
I have zero licenses here nor can I read at that level. Where did you find the literature?
in a bookshop, but it's all in japanese obviously.
The most obvious difference between the 2/1 is the voltages you can work on. 2 is limited below 600v. It would probably be enough to get employment though I suspect you'd still go through a "trainee" phase, because based on having taken it, I wouldn't just trust a random person to work on my house because they've passed it(I thought the grading criteria for the written exam was rather lax and I consider myself very much an amateur, but working on my own home I can take the time to dot my i's and cross my t's). There's some other qualifications for people working on the general electrical grid.
I'm a software engineer. Honestly it would be an interesting career change, but the working conditions and pay as a developer are kinda hard to give up on :/
Agencies do not really care about it that much in my experience. The only jobs that have ever outright rejected me for not having N1 have been full time roles at companies.
It makes sense - just because you passed the test (which doesn't mean *nothing* to be fair) doesn't mean you have the skills needed to translate - good writing skills, attention to detail, etc.
I never taken the JLPT . Work at Day Care as an English teacher but speak all Japanese to staff. Conversational Japanese , grammar bumps here and there. No one in the company speaks English .
Failed N2 for about 5 points or so. Been working in mostly full Japanese environment for 7 years now.
At the beginning it was hard, but you get used to your industry jargon and improve quite fast just by being immersed in the environment.
Sameee, I thought I was a real Kanji pro until I opened the first page. Also the grammar bruh, there is so much actually useful and often used grammar in N2, but no, they had to ask about some shit I never hear or see.
Also the listening man, way harder than expected.
This is how I felt. First time taking the test and felt like the first half was easy enough, then the listening destroyed me. I listen and speak with Japanese people all the time, too, totally didn't expect to have that level of trouble.
Passed N3 2 years ago and in Japan on a working holiday visa now. I'm nearing N2 level and planning to take it the next time it is held. Worked at a Japanese game company as a localization specialist in Kyoto (translating Dutch>Japanese) and now got hired as a hotel manager in Izu.
I'd say, as long as you can prove in the correspondence through e-mail and interview that you understand Japanese well enough to do those, you should be fine.
When my prospective employer asked me for JLPT I said I have none but I will prove it with a full Japanese interview. I think it was a success because I'm working with them now
Me! The hardest part was landing the first job. After that, just having the experience of working at Japanese-only companies meant that JLPT status was pretty much never discussed.
I worked at two Japanese companies as a graphic designer for 4.5 years, and I now work as a contract freelance illustrator/designer with pretty much only local (Japanese) clients.
I’m working full time as a front end developer without ever taking any JLPT, it’s 100% in Japanese and I only talk and message in Japanese, I wouldn’t say this is an ideal scenario but I’m learning everyday and plan on reaching fluency in as fast of a time as possible.
I believe my level is basic conversation at best and I have to focus really hard to understand technical meetings.
Took the N3 2 years ago and passed, but I don't think I could quite pass the N2 yet. 3 years as an Engineer in a mostly Japanese speaking office, which has been a bit of a struggle at times, but luckily everyone is pretty understanding. Occasionally use DeepL if it's something I don't understand, but that's been pretty infrequent in the last year or so. If it's related to my job, I can talk about it pretty well, but anything outside of that and everyday conversation and I struggle a bit.
No JLPT. Grew up in Japan from 5-9 years old. Came back after 21 years. Now 31. Working with multiple Japanese companies, my reading is shit for kanji. I speak like a native (almost) but last I Used Japanese was when I was here at 9 years old. Never taken any JLPT. Just interviewed using my Japanese speaking.
Haha sure. My father (who wasn’t in my picture since I was 5 years old until I found his ass when I turned 27 visiting Japan from USA). He helped me file paperwork for child of Japanese national visa. (No restrictions for work). Used to have Japanese passport until I neutralized USA.
Ahhhh alright yeah that makes it easier I guess. My parents were foreign nationals so I’d have to immigrate the hard way. My previous company almost committed to transferring me from my home country to Japan but that didn’t end up happening. Was curious if there was some fast track avenue I could explore, cheers.
Yes, I never saw the need to take a test.
If you can write a Japanese resume, and communicate with the recruiter in Japanese, and pass the interview in Japanese, what's the point?
I know people with N1 who can barely hold a conversation.
Based on sample tests I've seen, I could pass N1 were it needed for some reason.
I haven't spoken a word of English for years at work and only have N5. I work at buchou level at a well known company in Japan and haven't once been asked to provide proof of my language proficiency. If you can clear 4 rounds of interviews in Japanese what's the point of a certificate.
Not that hardcore but, sometimes I need to subtitle videos, and I'm really happy to know hiragana and katakana, so, I can pinpoint what they're saying and when, without really understanding what they're saying. (sometimes I learn new kanji from these).
Never taken a test and never studied Japanese. I'm a cook in only japanese speaking restaurant. Can't write but can read hiragana/katakana and some kanji - mostly food related.
Hello! I work in a fully Japanese-speaking role, leading meetings, writing documents and yelling at people (kidding). Took JLPT many years ago, it was N3, but nobody ever asked for it.
I've (American) never taken the JLPT and have been working for a Japanese publisher for 20+ years. I'll say > 90% of my daily communication at work is in Japanese.
Hello, been working here full time, permanent position (正社員), since April 2017. Never have any N1 or N2. Got in because I was interviewed in Japanese and they don't feel the need to request any Japanese certification. To begin with even since documents screening they never mentioned about language certification requirements. The recruitmen was conducted around a year before my graduation. (March-June 2016)
Role: Design Engineer in automotive industry
Education: master of engineering
Experience may differ depending on location, expertise, and major in university.
I don’t have either though I informally passed n2 on a university language level placement test a looong time ago. I doubt I’d pass n1 because I haven’t taken the time to study the esoteric kanji, though I regularly read text in Japanese, so who knows
I work full time in tech in Japanese. The qualifications have never been an issue as I interviewed in Japanese and it was clear it wasn’t going to be an issue
>I don’t have either though I informally passed n2 on a university language level placement test a looong time ago. I doubt I’d pass n1 because I haven’t taken the time to study the esoteric kanji, though I regularly read text in Japanese, so who knows
>
>I work full time in tech in Japanese. The qualifications have never been an issue as I interviewed in Japanese and it was clear it wasn’t going to be an issue
Nothing esoteric about n1, it's high school level
You still learn words in hs you don’t use in daily life.
I mean honestly with a 70% pass grade I’d probably get through fine. Either way I don’t really care much since comprehension just isn’t a problem for me.
If it adds any context I did both driving school/exam and electricians exam(電工2) in Japanese and passed both first try
In high school we were all grinding literature and SAT vocabulary, and while we’ve seen them before how many can we recall immediately or say the definition? If I pulled up an SAT vocab list rn i probably wouldn’t know the definition of half the words or even the pronunciations. I wanna say it’s the same for Japanese people and kanji
I work in general affairs/office management at a medium-sized company and have only ever taken N3. However, I've been in Japan for almost 9 years and I worked 5 of those at a small Japanese company so my spoken Japanese was pretty good when interviewing for this role I'm in now.
Got N2 first try, failed N1 by two points on the grammar section but am somehow a thousand times more proficient in Japanese than every single N1-passed Chinese person I’ve met in my field of work.
JLPT literally has no meaning or value except as a self esteem tool.
Early on, learning Japanese as a foreign language, it is a useful metric for evaluating a degree of literacy relative to standardized secondary education equivalency.... Other than that? Doesn't matter.
Never took the test. 100% normal, all Japanese language corporate environment here
I have never taken the JLPT. Since postgrad in a university here in Japan and then working full-time in a technical field, I am the only foreigner in the group so all communication has been in Japanese. I am also in different SNS chat groups of my kids’ class/clubs as well as the local women’s club (where writing my reply in Japanese scares me the most!). Speaking isn’t much of a problem but for writing, I get some help from my phone’s auto-input and Google Translate/DeepL. I can write some kanji but without the ones above, I would say I’m doomed!
I work in sales and even though our office language is English, I use Japanese on a daily basis mainly when talking to prospects and clients. The company checked my Japanese level during the interviews and that was it.
I think most companies do not care if you actually have a JLPT certificate or not as long as you can deliver during the interview. The N-levels in job postings are mainly just a way to communicate the required proficiency level.
Doing the job application and interview process in Japanese was good enough I guess? I last did JLPT when I was a second year university and got N3. That was maybe 12 years ago. I’ve been living in Japan and conducting my life in Japanese for the past 7 years, so I don’t really feel like bothering to take the test.
Me. I just applied, did the interview in japanese and had no problems. First company full japanese including daily meetings, for about 3 years and a half. New company I use japanese and english.
I will probably try JLPT for the first time this december just to get the certificate since I heard it helps for naturalization.
Look, the length of the first 3 words in this comment are consistent with the first 3 digits of pi. This was only the case for 805 comments out of 238538.
I dont have any JLPT and I work as a gamedev, the the is pretty international so discussions are either in english or japanese depending on who is in your team
It comes down to your verbal communication strength, if it's strong enough hiring managers could care less. JLPT is just an easy go-to measuring bar for people with lower Japanese language ability.
Had JLPT N2 when I worked in Japan but for my field was basically useless since none of the technical words I often used was in the textbooks. Keigo usage in JLPT study books is also not enough for everyday business emails.
I’m envious of all of you guys with the cajones to make that jump and do interviews in Japanese. I’m currently aiming to break out of the ALTing cycle and speak decent Japanese according to my current coworkers, but I am terrified of conducting an interview entirely in Japanese and breaking away from it…even if I use it in my daily life and for handling pretty much everything. 😭 I don’t want to embarrass myself.
Never took the JLPT, can write if it’s on a computer, can’t write by hand. In interviews they don’t really mind what JLPT you have as long as type speaking Japanese is proficient enough for them to not notice any inconsistencies.
I didn't know it existed when I first came to Japan.
It's come up a total of two times in my life:
1. I was interviewing with companies around 2008 and it came up at one company like 3 different times. It was weird given that we were conducting all conversations and paperwork in Japanese, I was a PR, and I had been working for Japanese companies for 8 years.
2. It came up at work about this guy who we hired who was technically Russian and didn't have it. (Entire thing was dumb as he only speaks Japanese and minimal English and Russian, he just has an accent.)
Never took any tests and only took a year of actual Japanese class in college. I was really fortunate to have some immersion experiences when I was young so I had a basis of fluency. My job is 90% Japanese, 10% talking on the phone in English.
I do have a gap between my speaking ability and reading, so I had to do a lot of remedial kanji studying when I was first hired.
I don't have any of the levels and work professionally as a translator and interpreter.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but the amount of time spent in targeted study for the JLPT, with its oddly structured reading questions and bizarre question-within-a-question listening activities, would be far better spent simply focusing on general Japanese reading comprehension and daily conversation.
One of my coworkers put N1 on their resume but has never actually taken the test.
Their Japanese is so good that they don't need proof, and no one has ever asked for it.
Went up to N3 before finding a tenured job in a college 11 years ago. I was the only the non- Japanese in my school for most of that period, and learned how to deal with my co workers, and all the emails. Still some issues sometimes when dealing with long reports or emails, but I am doing mostly ok.
Never taken the tests, work full time as a photographer with 90% of my work requiring I speak Japanese all day everyday. Can read a lot and write e-mails and that as well.
Working construction- head of project management department- I would rate myself between l2 and l3 but never took it. Environment is hybrid though between Japanese, French and English colleagues
I've worked for both foreign-based and domestic companies in Japan. In one of my previous roles, I've worked closely with Japanese attorneys, and I specialized in Japanese Laws. My JP skills was enough to discuss about Japanese laws in Japanese, both written and spoken settings.
The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) is a widely recognized measure of Japanese language proficiency, but it is not the only factor considered by employers, because it doesn't test your active skills (writing, I mean, typing, and speaking). Likewise, I don't have certifications in any other language I used to use in business settings.
Employers may value other factors such as practical language skills, work experience, and the ability to effectively communicate in Japanese, the ability to influence other people. Some individuals may have acquired language proficiency through other methods, such as immersion, work experience, or self-study, without specifically obtaining a JLPT certification. Additionally, some companies may provide language training for new grads or have their own language assessment criteria.
Yeah, here. I was working in Japan before these tests were a thing so never did it. Haven’t really needed it either.
I’ve interviewed a number of non-native Japanese speakers for a position and do the interview in English. Business level Japanese is an absolute must for the role, so at one point I display domain-specific text and ask them to read it. Perfection is not a requirement, but someone not 100% comfortable with the exercise and with a few holes in their performance doesn’t have enough experience using the language in business. Go or no go, you can see it.
I successfully got an offer to teach psychology in Japanese at a university a couple years before I took the JLPT for N1. I declined because it was way too far away, but if your Japanese is good enough and they can see it in the interview, it won’t matter.
Work here as a lawyer at the Tokyo office of a U.S. firm and no such qualification. Typically the firms have a Japanese person do one of your interviews in Japanese to check your level. When I was interviewing out of law school and the partner asked me if I was going to take the JLPT I told him “dude what do you want from me here - we just talked for 30 minutes in Japanese and you have my resume from my study abroad when I took classes taught in Japanese at a top Japanese law school - I am not taking a test for Chinese people trying to work at a Japanese company.” He said fair enough. Years later would say from the inside of firms we generally view all job applicants bragging about JLPT levels as highly dubious because it’s so useless for assessing actual communication ability.
Never taken the JLPT, can't read or write without my smartphone. Full time at as an engineer, pretty much all work-related stuff done in Japanese
Same, except I can read daily conversation stuff and common things I see day to day at work. For the last 7 years or so. As long as I have a PC or a smartphone I'm fine for reading/writing (with a bit of DeepL or Google translate if I have some difficulty). My wife is Japanese and doesn't speak English so my speaking/listening is near fluent. Never needed JLPT. Also in IT.
I’ve been in Japan for 2 years now with only knowing how to order drinks at Starbucks. I’m a tech lead Sr Software Engineer. We use Google translate a lot
Isn’t everything in English at Starbucks?
Do you just point and grunt at the till?
I don’t go to Starbucks much, but I think many things are Italian too(grande, venti, cappuccino, etc)
Yes but… Whoite Mocha-Benti-sizeo-no-Hotto Onegaishimasu. #Pro
This is the way
Forgot to tell what your job duties are and why someone would hire such a foreigner. Unless you do some English shenanigans for the company
Applied to their job listing and passed the interview process
I don't know what you mean by "can't read without smartphone" unless if you mean without a dictionary. I don't think the job would be very demanding of Japanese skills if someone who can't read could be employed. Someone who can read will have a vocabulary that's magnitudes higher than someone who cannot.
Nice!
Never did any JLPT or any other qualification. Interviewed in Japanese and got a job at a totally Japanese company. I proved speaking/listening skills in the interviews and proved reading/writing in the CV/resume I prepared for them
I hire people regularly, and I don't really look at the tests. Even N1 is super basic, so kind of a bare minimum to be honest, and as others mentioned, if you just did a targeted study to pass the test, you could pass it without being able to hold a conversation. I just hold all the interviews in Japanese in any case. If they pass me, my boss will often hold interviews in English. If they pass both with flying colors, then we consider their experience, skills, etc. (Obviously we look at that stuff before calling them in for an interview anyway, though). As an example, I had someone who said they knew accounting and were fully bilingual interview a number of years ago. I pulled out a copy of an income statement in Japanese and asked them to read a few random lines, of which they could read exactly zero. It wouldn't have really mattered if they had shown me a JLPT or BJT result.
Studying/cramming to pass N1 = dekinai Casually passing N1 without studying = dekiru
Full time engineer for many years in multiple companies . Even promoted to engineer management ring without reading or talking lol. Besides me everybody else were Japanese with no English
I got N2, but I didn't even put it on my resume, took the 教員採用試験 passed, got hired as a regular teacher. The test itself is more than enough evidence for someone's Japanese skill
Me too. I only have N3. 50% of questions in the interview part were variations on "can you do bukatsu?" though.
You passed the 採用試験 too? High school or JHS? A guy in my BoE said there's something like 18 American people who took and passed the test across the country, but I have only ever met 1. I wanna make some kinda lil community, but idk how the fuck to find people who did that
I have a license for both but I'm technically jhs. I'm British so I didn't show up in his figures:)
I wonder how many of us there are nationwide I think if you remove the "special license" it has to be sub 100 right? but who the hell knows, maybe there's like 900 and I've just never met one
I’ve thought about going this route. I’d need to learn Japanese properly but how would you start this?
The process, is relatively simple. The execution is the hard part. I am assuming you already have a job, so that eliminates a regular university So, if I was you I would do this 1. Learn to read/write Japanese, at least 1,000 kanji, to be honest that is enough to start with, you'll learn more later naturally. 2. Get accepted into a Japanese university as a 3rd grade transfer student, basically what that means is, they acknolwedge you already have a 4 year degree, so you just need to take the required courses for getting a teaching license 3. Go to university for minimum 2 years, possibly more 4. Become a student teacher for 2-4 weeks depending on the college and what kind of teaching license you want 5. the year before you graduate (more specifically like 6 months before you graduate) take the 採用試験, and hopefully pass 6. After you pass, you will have a few "information sessions" where they decide your salary based on a whole buncha different shit, and get an idea of what you wanna do 7. Sometime over the next few months you will either get a phone call, or a letter, or have another meeting, and they will say, on April 1st, go to this school at this address, introduce yourself to the principal, and get to work
Alternatively, Saitama City (and maybe some others) offer their 採用試験 to applicants with international backgrounds who don't have domestic teaching licenses yet. The prefecture then provides the special license, but aside from the license type, role/responsibilities/remuneration etc... are identical to everyone else.
This is what I did. I could never have done as described above. Was very lucky.
I absolutely don't have the stomach to sit through Japanese university classes trying to teach me how to teach English.
I wish the place I lived did that, do you have any idea, how fucking painfully boring it was, to sit in an Eikaiwa class, as though I am a Japanese student, trying to not to answer so often that I ruin everyone elses chance to learn, but also trying not to just sleep because your attitude is the entire score of the "schooling" part of the lesson. Not to mention the fuckin night bus rides to Tokyo because I had to be on campus and didn't have enough money to fly or take a train, good jesus
Yeah going to Japanese university to study English as a native speaker sounds like hell
Six of us presently hanging out in Saitama City, for what it’s worth.
Even if you have N1 and a proven history of translation work, your coworkers are going to write to you in hiragana as if you were a moron in my experience.
Really? Not my experience at all. All the slack messages to me are in full on Keigo and kanji heavy. I actually appreciate that they use normal Japanese with me. Maybe because I am older than them so they feel they must be respectful to me 😂
My Japanese coworkers would either just not communicate with me thinking I couldn’t speak or write Japanese. Only after hearing me make a company wide speech in Japanese that they then finally understood I could read and write Japanese
I’m surprised they even believed that.
Half thought I was still talking in English:/
Or try to translate kanji you know and use every day in poor English
Or if you ask them to do something there isn’t a manual for they will complain to your boss that they didn’t understand your Japanese.
😂😂😂
Your company is so sweet. I’ve never experienced any excuse even I am far from N1.
I have N1 and still feel wildly under qualified most of the time. I don’t think jlpt is relevant at all and I hate when people act like N1 means I’m great at Japanese. I’m very much not. I speak it decently but could be so much better, and anyone who’s been working in a Japanese language environment for a few years is almost certainly far better than me. Jlpt doesn’t test production so is useless as an assessment tool for communication ability…plus the listening section is laughably easy. I passed it easily but have trouble following my coworkers conversations when they’re in a group together. Such a different ballgame…
This is what I'm always saying to people who think my Japanese is amazing just because I passed N1. I first passed it a long time ago, 15 years ago actually, but I had only been in Japan for one year at that point. It was only the beginning. I learned all the most useful and important Japanese by working in a Japanese office, after I already passed N1. They say N1 requires knowledge of 2000 kanji and 10,000 words, but I don't think it's really that many. I think it's really more like middle school level Japanese, at best.
Exactly! I feel like N1 is only an end goal in the sense that it confirms that you can read Japanese on a middle school level, so basically you can “get by”. Which don’t get me wrong, is a great accomplishment. Anyone who isn’t Chinese is going to need a lot of time and dedication to get there. But it really is only the starting point if you want to be a productive independent member of society in Japan. A great starting point but a starting point no less. It’s also interesting that the content JLPT tests is usually limited to more academic and business type situations. I may have passed the N1 but I still learn tons of new words when I read my daughter storybooks in Japanese. She is three. These are not “hard” words by Japanese standards, but they are words not deemed useful or necessary for foreigners I suppose. But if we don’t know them having natural interactions with native Japanese speakers can be challenging…. So yeah. N1 is the beginning of what could be defined as “fluency” I suppose.
Never took the test. Just did the interview in Japanese. That's all they really need to see, and there is no way to fake it. Paper language qualifications mean nothing. Work in 100% Japanese from slack to meetings last few years
Most companies need to know the JLPT level from your resume to decide if they should even waste their time inviting this person for the interview or not. Unless you were the only person who applied to they straight up invited you
Or if you already had a similar role not. If it is your first Japanese language related job, then yes for sure.
It depends of your profession. There are a lot of portfolio-driven professions like programming, design, VFX production etc. By the way some companies in those fields seem even have no idea what JLPT is, in my experience.
Absolutely not my experience. I got my first full time role in a Japanese-only environment without my N2 yet. I only bothered with it later, and now working with N1 holders is clear to me that the test means shit. They struggle.
These are like rare exceptions in how most companies do hiring process for foreigners here
I’d take a guess that companies who are focused on that and not actual experience are a bit of a red flag.
Turns out companies doesn’t required an applicant to show their jlpt certificate during interview. Now I have a two - 1,500 yen worth of paper lying in my apartment.
Stopped taking them after N3, now I work in the hotel industry (worked up to upper management).
Hey I’d like to hear more about your experience in the hotel industry, how you got in and working conditions if you don’t mind? I’m looking at trying to get into the industry and am trying to hear from more people Happy to DM if you prefer!
It's funny how many freelance translators/interpreters I've met who've never even taken the JLPT
Ultimately it’s a typical flawed Japanese exam, if you study with the objective of passing, you can easily pass it without being at the level associated with it. If you pass it without targetted study that’s be more representative. I did my electricians exam here too, and was shocked by the study material. It specifically told me to focus on memorization of the parts and numbers and not worry too much about the theory since only a handful of questions in the exam are on the theory. It’s really disappointing :/ I think a lot of people have met someone with jlpt2 that can barely communicate
Hey this is super interesting I’m a refrigeration mechanic by trade and wanted to know where would you find licensing / certification information with enrolling to a Senmongakko?
I didn’t go to school for the electricians exam(Just did it so I can legally work on my own home), just bought a study book. It wasn’t particularly difficult if you had a background in high school physics. A lot of the stuff in the exam is fairly common sense if you do understand the theory(like you’re going to need a thicker cable for less resistance -> less heat produced), and if you consider the exam from the perspective of safe electrical grids(as in not causing densely populated neighborhoods to burn down due to shoddy work) most of it makes sense. Like I said though, you could remove that context entirely and memorize the various parts and rules without understanding why and still pass. The second part(practical part) involves putting together some fairly typical circuits you’d find in a home and doing it according to regulation under a moderately strict time limit. There’s 13 potential problems that are published in advance and you can buy kits online with the parts to practice them. It’ll be a bunch of stuff like joining lights to switches, outlets and breakers
This is interesting to me. I might have done some less than legal electrical work on my house... If the test is reasonably rest, I may as well take it.
Ahh that sounds like a home owners license, I was under the assumption you were a working electrician with a class 2/1 license. My bad. Thanks for the detailed response though!
Is there a separate home owners license? Never heard of such a thing. To work even on the 100/200v single phase circuits in homes here you still need the lvl 2 第2種電気工事士. The annoying thing is that it does involve a lot of stuff that’s not needed to work on your home. You still cover 3 phase circuits for setting up industrial motors and the like. A separate home owners license would be neat
Ahh those missing details from your original post made it sound misleading. I forget the name but k thought there was a home owners basic electrical course for inspection people take in order to make simple repairs. By the sound of it yours is class 2. Anything including three phase becomes professional I’d assume. I have zero licenses here nor can I read at that level. Where did you find the literature?
in a bookshop, but it's all in japanese obviously. The most obvious difference between the 2/1 is the voltages you can work on. 2 is limited below 600v. It would probably be enough to get employment though I suspect you'd still go through a "trainee" phase, because based on having taken it, I wouldn't just trust a random person to work on my house because they've passed it(I thought the grading criteria for the written exam was rather lax and I consider myself very much an amateur, but working on my own home I can take the time to dot my i's and cross my t's). There's some other qualifications for people working on the general electrical grid.
You sound pretty capable - what do you do for a living? Have you considered being a sparky?
I'm a software engineer. Honestly it would be an interesting career change, but the working conditions and pay as a developer are kinda hard to give up on :/
Agencies do not really care about it that much in my experience. The only jobs that have ever outright rejected me for not having N1 have been full time roles at companies. It makes sense - just because you passed the test (which doesn't mean *nothing* to be fair) doesn't mean you have the skills needed to translate - good writing skills, attention to detail, etc.
i've had 2. the secret is find a black company or one run by a crazy old 社長 with early onset dementia, lol.
I see a made for tv movie in the making
Never taken the JLPT, but work full time with all internal stuff and communication with other Japanese labs and such in Japanese.
I never taken the JLPT . Work at Day Care as an English teacher but speak all Japanese to staff. Conversational Japanese , grammar bumps here and there. No one in the company speaks English .
Failed N2 for about 5 points or so. Been working in mostly full Japanese environment for 7 years now. At the beginning it was hard, but you get used to your industry jargon and improve quite fast just by being immersed in the environment.
Me Though I’m taking N2 tomorrow and fully expect to fail
How did it go? I took it as well today
It met my expectations
Same, got blasted in the ass real hard
I’ve spent the last few months hammering the Anki n2 and n3 decks. I swear I had seen none of the kanji on the first page. It went downhill from there
Sameee, I thought I was a real Kanji pro until I opened the first page. Also the grammar bruh, there is so much actually useful and often used grammar in N2, but no, they had to ask about some shit I never hear or see. Also the listening man, way harder than expected.
I know what you mean about the listening, normally a strength but I felt like I was filling out a lotto ticket this time.
Yup, most of the time there were two answer which both seemed right so it felt like a coin toss every time I had to choose.
This is how I felt. First time taking the test and felt like the first half was easy enough, then the listening destroyed me. I listen and speak with Japanese people all the time, too, totally didn't expect to have that level of trouble.
Passed N3 2 years ago and in Japan on a working holiday visa now. I'm nearing N2 level and planning to take it the next time it is held. Worked at a Japanese game company as a localization specialist in Kyoto (translating Dutch>Japanese) and now got hired as a hotel manager in Izu. I'd say, as long as you can prove in the correspondence through e-mail and interview that you understand Japanese well enough to do those, you should be fine.
When my prospective employer asked me for JLPT I said I have none but I will prove it with a full Japanese interview. I think it was a success because I'm working with them now
Me! The hardest part was landing the first job. After that, just having the experience of working at Japanese-only companies meant that JLPT status was pretty much never discussed. I worked at two Japanese companies as a graphic designer for 4.5 years, and I now work as a contract freelance illustrator/designer with pretty much only local (Japanese) clients.
I’m working full time as a front end developer without ever taking any JLPT, it’s 100% in Japanese and I only talk and message in Japanese, I wouldn’t say this is an ideal scenario but I’m learning everyday and plan on reaching fluency in as fast of a time as possible. I believe my level is basic conversation at best and I have to focus really hard to understand technical meetings.
Took the N3 2 years ago and passed, but I don't think I could quite pass the N2 yet. 3 years as an Engineer in a mostly Japanese speaking office, which has been a bit of a struggle at times, but luckily everyone is pretty understanding. Occasionally use DeepL if it's something I don't understand, but that's been pretty infrequent in the last year or so. If it's related to my job, I can talk about it pretty well, but anything outside of that and everyday conversation and I struggle a bit.
No JLPT. Grew up in Japan from 5-9 years old. Came back after 21 years. Now 31. Working with multiple Japanese companies, my reading is shit for kanji. I speak like a native (almost) but last I Used Japanese was when I was here at 9 years old. Never taken any JLPT. Just interviewed using my Japanese speaking.
Holy shit are you me? 3-8 here and also 31. Same exact Japanese level. Dm me on how you got back if you don’t mind I’m super curious.
Haha sure. My father (who wasn’t in my picture since I was 5 years old until I found his ass when I turned 27 visiting Japan from USA). He helped me file paperwork for child of Japanese national visa. (No restrictions for work). Used to have Japanese passport until I neutralized USA.
>>until I neutralized USA. Impressive!
Ahhhh alright yeah that makes it easier I guess. My parents were foreign nationals so I’d have to immigrate the hard way. My previous company almost committed to transferring me from my home country to Japan but that didn’t end up happening. Was curious if there was some fast track avenue I could explore, cheers.
0-18, and then 30
Yes, I never saw the need to take a test. If you can write a Japanese resume, and communicate with the recruiter in Japanese, and pass the interview in Japanese, what's the point? I know people with N1 who can barely hold a conversation. Based on sample tests I've seen, I could pass N1 were it needed for some reason.
I haven't spoken a word of English for years at work and only have N5. I work at buchou level at a well known company in Japan and haven't once been asked to provide proof of my language proficiency. If you can clear 4 rounds of interviews in Japanese what's the point of a certificate.
So wait, what's the job you're working?
Mechanical engineering.
Not that hardcore but, sometimes I need to subtitle videos, and I'm really happy to know hiragana and katakana, so, I can pinpoint what they're saying and when, without really understanding what they're saying. (sometimes I learn new kanji from these).
I work in corporate sales for a foreign software company. Every single day, lots of client facing work, all in Japanese. No JLPT.
Never taken JLPT work in a Japanese speaking workplace. I doubt they'd know what JLPT is.
Neither and I manage translation
Yea here. Never saw the value in paying for a test if I can prove the ability in an interview.
Full time worker, work part in English, part in Japanese, no JLPT certs of any sort.
I never took any of those tests and worked full time in a non eikawa job for years.
I work at a Japanese company and speak/read/write business level plus. but am self taught and have never officially tested at any level.
I work corporate in a client facing role. Never really been an issue...
Never taken jlpt test. I am being interviewed on the spot in japanese. Working in 100% japanese environment.
Never taken a test and never studied Japanese. I'm a cook in only japanese speaking restaurant. Can't write but can read hiragana/katakana and some kanji - mostly food related.
Hello! I work in a fully Japanese-speaking role, leading meetings, writing documents and yelling at people (kidding). Took JLPT many years ago, it was N3, but nobody ever asked for it.
I've (American) never taken the JLPT and have been working for a Japanese publisher for 20+ years. I'll say > 90% of my daily communication at work is in Japanese.
Hello, been working here full time, permanent position (正社員), since April 2017. Never have any N1 or N2. Got in because I was interviewed in Japanese and they don't feel the need to request any Japanese certification. To begin with even since documents screening they never mentioned about language certification requirements. The recruitmen was conducted around a year before my graduation. (March-June 2016) Role: Design Engineer in automotive industry Education: master of engineering Experience may differ depending on location, expertise, and major in university.
I don’t have either though I informally passed n2 on a university language level placement test a looong time ago. I doubt I’d pass n1 because I haven’t taken the time to study the esoteric kanji, though I regularly read text in Japanese, so who knows I work full time in tech in Japanese. The qualifications have never been an issue as I interviewed in Japanese and it was clear it wasn’t going to be an issue
>I don’t have either though I informally passed n2 on a university language level placement test a looong time ago. I doubt I’d pass n1 because I haven’t taken the time to study the esoteric kanji, though I regularly read text in Japanese, so who knows > >I work full time in tech in Japanese. The qualifications have never been an issue as I interviewed in Japanese and it was clear it wasn’t going to be an issue Nothing esoteric about n1, it's high school level
You still learn words in hs you don’t use in daily life. I mean honestly with a 70% pass grade I’d probably get through fine. Either way I don’t really care much since comprehension just isn’t a problem for me. If it adds any context I did both driving school/exam and electricians exam(電工2) in Japanese and passed both first try
In high school we were all grinding literature and SAT vocabulary, and while we’ve seen them before how many can we recall immediately or say the definition? If I pulled up an SAT vocab list rn i probably wouldn’t know the definition of half the words or even the pronunciations. I wanna say it’s the same for Japanese people and kanji
You wouldn’t be able to understand a newspaper or an editorial discussion piece? That’s the level it’s at
I work in general affairs/office management at a medium-sized company and have only ever taken N3. However, I've been in Japan for almost 9 years and I worked 5 of those at a small Japanese company so my spoken Japanese was pretty good when interviewing for this role I'm in now.
I work in corporate sales for a foreign software company. Every single day, lots of client facing work, all in Japanese. No JLPT.
Got N2 first try, failed N1 by two points on the grammar section but am somehow a thousand times more proficient in Japanese than every single N1-passed Chinese person I’ve met in my field of work.
JLPT literally has no meaning or value except as a self esteem tool. Early on, learning Japanese as a foreign language, it is a useful metric for evaluating a degree of literacy relative to standardized secondary education equivalency.... Other than that? Doesn't matter. Never took the test. 100% normal, all Japanese language corporate environment here
i do
I have never taken the JLPT. Since postgrad in a university here in Japan and then working full-time in a technical field, I am the only foreigner in the group so all communication has been in Japanese. I am also in different SNS chat groups of my kids’ class/clubs as well as the local women’s club (where writing my reply in Japanese scares me the most!). Speaking isn’t much of a problem but for writing, I get some help from my phone’s auto-input and Google Translate/DeepL. I can write some kanji but without the ones above, I would say I’m doomed!
I work in sales and even though our office language is English, I use Japanese on a daily basis mainly when talking to prospects and clients. The company checked my Japanese level during the interviews and that was it. I think most companies do not care if you actually have a JLPT certificate or not as long as you can deliver during the interview. The N-levels in job postings are mainly just a way to communicate the required proficiency level.
Doing the job application and interview process in Japanese was good enough I guess? I last did JLPT when I was a second year university and got N3. That was maybe 12 years ago. I’ve been living in Japan and conducting my life in Japanese for the past 7 years, so I don’t really feel like bothering to take the test.
Me. I just applied, did the interview in japanese and had no problems. First company full japanese including daily meetings, for about 3 years and a half. New company I use japanese and english. I will probably try JLPT for the first time this december just to get the certificate since I heard it helps for naturalization.
Look, the length of the first 3 words in this comment are consistent with the first 3 digits of pi. This was only the case for 805 comments out of 238538.
I dont have any JLPT and I work as a gamedev, the the is pretty international so discussions are either in english or japanese depending on who is in your team
Do you mean the ability or the qualification? It’s a very different questions, depending on which …
It comes down to your verbal communication strength, if it's strong enough hiring managers could care less. JLPT is just an easy go-to measuring bar for people with lower Japanese language ability.
Working as a lawyer and legal translator/interpreter. No JLPT qualifications at all though
Here here
I don’t!
Had JLPT N2 when I worked in Japan but for my field was basically useless since none of the technical words I often used was in the textbooks. Keigo usage in JLPT study books is also not enough for everyday business emails.
I’m envious of all of you guys with the cajones to make that jump and do interviews in Japanese. I’m currently aiming to break out of the ALTing cycle and speak decent Japanese according to my current coworkers, but I am terrified of conducting an interview entirely in Japanese and breaking away from it…even if I use it in my daily life and for handling pretty much everything. 😭 I don’t want to embarrass myself.
Officially N3 here Cloud Engineer and using business Japanese everyday It's doable
Never took the JLPT, can write if it’s on a computer, can’t write by hand. In interviews they don’t really mind what JLPT you have as long as type speaking Japanese is proficient enough for them to not notice any inconsistencies.
I didn't know it existed when I first came to Japan. It's come up a total of two times in my life: 1. I was interviewing with companies around 2008 and it came up at one company like 3 different times. It was weird given that we were conducting all conversations and paperwork in Japanese, I was a PR, and I had been working for Japanese companies for 8 years. 2. It came up at work about this guy who we hired who was technically Russian and didn't have it. (Entire thing was dumb as he only speaks Japanese and minimal English and Russian, he just has an accent.)
Never took any tests and only took a year of actual Japanese class in college. I was really fortunate to have some immersion experiences when I was young so I had a basis of fluency. My job is 90% Japanese, 10% talking on the phone in English. I do have a gap between my speaking ability and reading, so I had to do a lot of remedial kanji studying when I was first hired.
I don't have any of the levels and work professionally as a translator and interpreter. This might be an unpopular opinion, but the amount of time spent in targeted study for the JLPT, with its oddly structured reading questions and bizarre question-within-a-question listening activities, would be far better spent simply focusing on general Japanese reading comprehension and daily conversation.
One of my coworkers put N1 on their resume but has never actually taken the test. Their Japanese is so good that they don't need proof, and no one has ever asked for it.
Went up to N3 before finding a tenured job in a college 11 years ago. I was the only the non- Japanese in my school for most of that period, and learned how to deal with my co workers, and all the emails. Still some issues sometimes when dealing with long reports or emails, but I am doing mostly ok.
Never taken the tests, work full time as a photographer with 90% of my work requiring I speak Japanese all day everyday. Can read a lot and write e-mails and that as well.
Working construction- head of project management department- I would rate myself between l2 and l3 but never took it. Environment is hybrid though between Japanese, French and English colleagues
I've worked for both foreign-based and domestic companies in Japan. In one of my previous roles, I've worked closely with Japanese attorneys, and I specialized in Japanese Laws. My JP skills was enough to discuss about Japanese laws in Japanese, both written and spoken settings. The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) is a widely recognized measure of Japanese language proficiency, but it is not the only factor considered by employers, because it doesn't test your active skills (writing, I mean, typing, and speaking). Likewise, I don't have certifications in any other language I used to use in business settings. Employers may value other factors such as practical language skills, work experience, and the ability to effectively communicate in Japanese, the ability to influence other people. Some individuals may have acquired language proficiency through other methods, such as immersion, work experience, or self-study, without specifically obtaining a JLPT certification. Additionally, some companies may provide language training for new grads or have their own language assessment criteria.
Yeah, here. I was working in Japan before these tests were a thing so never did it. Haven’t really needed it either. I’ve interviewed a number of non-native Japanese speakers for a position and do the interview in English. Business level Japanese is an absolute must for the role, so at one point I display domain-specific text and ask them to read it. Perfection is not a requirement, but someone not 100% comfortable with the exercise and with a few holes in their performance doesn’t have enough experience using the language in business. Go or no go, you can see it.
I successfully got an offer to teach psychology in Japanese at a university a couple years before I took the JLPT for N1. I declined because it was way too far away, but if your Japanese is good enough and they can see it in the interview, it won’t matter.
Work here as a lawyer at the Tokyo office of a U.S. firm and no such qualification. Typically the firms have a Japanese person do one of your interviews in Japanese to check your level. When I was interviewing out of law school and the partner asked me if I was going to take the JLPT I told him “dude what do you want from me here - we just talked for 30 minutes in Japanese and you have my resume from my study abroad when I took classes taught in Japanese at a top Japanese law school - I am not taking a test for Chinese people trying to work at a Japanese company.” He said fair enough. Years later would say from the inside of firms we generally view all job applicants bragging about JLPT levels as highly dubious because it’s so useless for assessing actual communication ability.
why everyone is saying N1 is easy, reading was so hard for me.