What level is my japanese speaking level

[RaimiiChan]

Ok i write in japanese better than i speak because 1.write in japanese all the time like everyday and 2. i have more time to think about grammar and stuff while im writing which is much harder when you are spontaneously talking and cant go back. And i understand japanese even more than both writing and speaking because understanding a language is always easier for most people. So i decided to make video blogs occasionally to improve my japanese speaking ability which isnt looking so good right now and look back on it to see how much i have improved. I asked this same question for another video a year ago and i still look back at that video and others now to boost my self esteem when seeing how much i have improved in a year and i want to be able to do that again a year from now. So where do you think im at so far. around lower intermediate or maybe upper bigginer?

video---> YouTube - ‪ブログ1 青い指だ!!‬‏

[KyleGoetz]

I watched the first minute and stopped. I tend not to like to watch vlogs, so don't take it personally.

From the minute I saw, I'd rate you a solid intermediate. You seem very comfortable speaking the language off the top of your head (assuming you didn't write the script beforehand).

Your accent is still very American, though. But that's something that will go with time, especially if you pay attention to it. I wrote a post a few days ago (see the thread about "which accent is best" or something like that) and Nyororin confirmed, that American-accented Japanese is very stress-heavy, while native Japanese uses pitch rather than stress for the accent.

Do a little reading on Wikipedia about stress accent vs pitch accent to work on that. Think of it is trying to be monotonous—think of how a robot speaks: all. one. level....without. any. emphasis. added. Then learn how Japanese use pitch instead of stress to pepper their language.

Regardless, my opinion is that you're solid intermediate. Now, I think there's a big jump to upper intermediate, but you seem like you'd be fine if you got dropped in Japan, and I consider that the marker of "intermediate."

There is absolutely no way "beginner" could be applied to you in any way. Lower intermediate at worst.

[RaimiiChan]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

I watched the first minute and stopped. I tend not to like to watch vlogs, so don't take it personally.

From the minute I saw, I'd rate you a solid intermediate. You seem very comfortable speaking the language off the top of your head (assuming you didn't write the script beforehand).

Your accent is still very American, though. But that's something that will go with time, especially if you pay attention to it. I wrote a post a few days ago (see the thread about "which accent is best" or something like that) and Nyororin confirmed, that American-accented Japanese is very stress-heavy, while native Japanese uses pitch rather than stress for the accent.

Do a little reading on Wikipedia about stress accent vs pitch accent to work on that. Think of it is trying to be monotonous—think of how a robot speaks: all. one. level....without. any. emphasis. added. Then learn how Japanese use pitch instead of stress to pepper their language.

Regardless, my opinion is that you're solid intermediate. Now, I think there's a big jump to upper intermediate, but you seem like you'd be fine if you got dropped in Japan, and I consider that the marker of "intermediate."

There is absolutely no way "beginner" could be applied to you in any way. Lower intermediate at worst.

Thank you for your evaluation! My accent isnt something i have been paying attention to lately but your comment on it certainly sparked my interest in improving it. Yes i know the jump from lower intermediate to upper intermediate is a big one indeed but i will try to study my ears off to reach atleast close to that goal in the next year. May i ask you how long it took for you to become fluent in japanese?

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by RaimiiChan

Thank you for your evaluation! My accent isnt something i have been paying attention to lately but your comment on it certainly sparked my interest in improving it. Yes i know the jump from lower intermediate to upper intermediate is a big one indeed but i will try to study my ears off to reach atleast close to that goal in the next year. May i ask you how long it took for you to become fluent in japanese?

What follows is a rambling post for a question I can't really answer.

It's tough to pinpoint a certain time, but I was at least upper intermediate by the end of year three due to the fact that I had just spent a year at university in Japan.

But I didn't push my kanji knowledge (and closely intertwined vocabulary size) until a few years later, so that delayed my own self-estimation as fluent.

There was probably an eight-year span between beginning formal studies and me being actually willing to call myself "fluent." But probably a third of that time could have been done away with had I sat down and studied kanji and vocab more instead of wasting away in law school.

One of my professors, right before I moved to Japan, told me "two years in Japan will make you fluent, Goetz-san." Your comfort with the language seems to be where mine was at that point; I haven't any idea about how much grammar you really know, though. Suffice it to say I had spent two years in formal education at that point (and have a natural skill for languages), so 2 years education in the States + working hard + being skilled at learning languages + 2 years living in Japan = "fluent" by a professional's estimation.

Of course, if your standard of fluency is something like "is confident and comfortable having social conversations with people," then I was fluent by year two. My university's Japanese department sponsored a program called 日本語会話サークル that I attended thrice a week for two years. There, I spent at least an hour each meeting speaking straight-up Japanese with natives.

All that being said, my definition of "fluent" is far higher than that. And as a tip for you: until you know 1200+ kanji, you've got no hope of hitting upper intermediate or lower advanced. It's just not going to happen. It's like an English learner aspiring to fluency without learning -ment, -phobia, anti-, -tion, -ization, micro-, etc.

[RaimiiChan]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

What follows is a rambling post for a question I can't really answer.

It's tough to pinpoint a certain time, but I was at least upper intermediate by the end of year three due to the fact that I had just spent a year at university in Japan.

But I didn't push my kanji knowledge (and closely intertwined vocabulary size) until a few years later, so that delayed my own self-estimation as fluent.

There was probably an eight-year span between beginning formal studies and me being actually willing to call myself "fluent." But probably a third of that time could have been done away with had I sat down and studied kanji and vocab more instead of wasting away in law school.

One of my professors, right before I moved to Japan, told me "two years in Japan will make you fluent, Goetz-san." Your comfort with the language seems to be where mine was at that point; I haven't any idea about how much grammar you really know, though. Suffice it to say I had spent two years in formal education at that point (and have a natural skill for languages), so 2 years education in the States + working hard + being skilled at learning languages + 2 years living in Japan = "fluent" by a professional's estimation.

Of course, if your standard of fluency is something like "is confident and comfortable having social conversations with people," then I was fluent by year two. My university's Japanese department sponsored a program called 日本語会話サークル that I attended thrice a week for two years. There, I spent at least an hour each meeting speaking straight-up Japanese with natives.

All that being said, my definition of "fluent" is far higher than that. And as a tip for you: until you know 1200+ kanji, you've got no hope of hitting upper intermediate or lower advanced. It's just not going to happen. It's like an English learner aspiring to fluency without learning -ment, -phobia, anti-, -tion, -ization, micro-, etc.

Thanks! if fluency is determined by knowing 1200+ i still have alot of work to do -_- but its okay cause im working on that now. i think i will go to japan as an exchange student in college now to further my studies. Thanks again for the insightful information this really helped alot

[RaimiiChan]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

What follows is a rambling post for a question I can't really answer.

It's tough to pinpoint a certain time, but I was at least upper intermediate by the end of year three due to the fact that I had just spent a year at university in Japan.

But I didn't push my kanji knowledge (and closely intertwined vocabulary size) until a few years later, so that delayed my own self-estimation as fluent.

There was probably an eight-year span between beginning formal studies and me being actually willing to call myself "fluent." But probably a third of that time could have been done away with had I sat down and studied kanji and vocab more instead of wasting away in law school.

One of my professors, right before I moved to Japan, told me "two years in Japan will make you fluent, Goetz-san." Your comfort with the language seems to be where mine was at that point; I haven't any idea about how much grammar you really know, though. Suffice it to say I had spent two years in formal education at that point (and have a natural skill for languages), so 2 years education in the States + working hard + being skilled at learning languages + 2 years living in Japan = "fluent" by a professional's estimation.

Of course, if your standard of fluency is something like "is confident and comfortable having social conversations with people," then I was fluent by year two. My university's Japanese department sponsored a program called 日本語会話サークル that I attended thrice a week for two years. There, I spent at least an hour each meeting speaking straight-up Japanese with natives.

All that being said, my definition of "fluent" is far higher than that. And as a tip for you: until you know 1200+ kanji, you've got no hope of hitting upper intermediate or lower advanced. It's just not going to happen. It's like an English learner aspiring to fluency without learning -ment, -phobia, anti-, -tion, -ization, micro-, etc.

I just realized something! your the same guy who answered my question last year! Wow! what a coincidence! i guess i have to double thank you now because you showed me tae kim`s grammar guide and believe it or not thats the reason why i even started studing grammar in the first place, before then i was only focused on vocabulary and the simple grammar points i learned in the "my japanese coach" game. wow i owe you alot thanks!

[yuriyuri]

I watched the video after reading all of Kyle's responses so I though I would watch the whole video.
I can't really say much that Kyle hasn't already said, but there are a few things I want to say (off the top of my head after watching th video).

1. I don't know if it was because you aren't used to speaking yet but working on word choice would also be a good idea, because when you wanted to show your tie dye you said, 見てあげるよ.

Although I know what you meant, 見てあげる doesn't mean "To show".
見る = To look
あげる = (In this case) To do something for the sake of someone else

So, 見てあげる would mean something like "I'll look at it for you".
The verb meaning "To show" is 見せる.

I think also when you said 見てあげる you kind of pronounced it like みってあげる.

2. It made me laugh when you realised you said 図書館 instead of 教科書

3. When you wanted to say you moved i believe you said 飛行機した（ひこうきした） instead of 引っ越した（ひっこした）

And the last thing I can remember is:
4. This is probably just because you might not be used to speaking so much still, but when you said you were looking forward to the new school I think you said 楽しみ知ってる instead of 楽しみにしてる

Sorry if I got any of the above wrong - I could only watch the video once because my computer for some reason won't let me play it again.
I'm guessing you already know most of your mistakes in that video anyway.

Well, anyway, as Kyle said, I wouldn't call you a beginner, but keep on working on the word choice, pronunciation, grammar etc. (I'm sure you are working on these things already) and eventually all of those annoying little mistakes won't be a problem anymore.

Edit:
5. I just remember when you showed your fingers and said they were blue, you said 青いなんだよ.
I'm guessing you already know you made this mistake but you can't put なのだ on the end of an i-adjective, but you can put のだ on the end.
So it would be 青いんだよ instead of 青いなんだよ.

And if you want to look at ways of quoting people, I would suggest looking at sentences on ALC.
For example “I said he said”の検索結果（50 件）：英辞郎 on the WEB：スペースアルク

[RaimiiChan]

Originally Posted by yuriyuri

I watched the video after reading all of Kyle's responses so I though I would watch the whole video.
I can't really say much that Kyle hasn't already said, but there are a few things I want to say (off the top of my head after watching th video).

1. I don't know if it was because you aren't used to speaking yet but working on word choice would also be a good idea, because when you wanted to show your tie dye you said, 見てあげるよ.

Although I know what you meant, 見てあげる doesn't mean "To show".
見る = To look
あげる = (In this case) To do something for the sake of someone else

So, 見てあげる would mean something like "I'll look at it for you".
The verb meaning "To show" is 見せる.

I think also when you said 見てあげる you kind of pronounced it like みってあげる.

2. It made me laugh when you realised you said 図書館 instead of 教科書

3. When you wanted to say you moved i believe you said 飛行機した（ひこうきした） instead of 引っ越した（ひっこした）

And the last thing I can remember is:
4. This is probably just because you might not be used to speaking so much still, but when you said you were looking forward to the new school I think you said 楽しみ知ってる instead of 楽しみにしてる

Sorry if I got any of the above wrong - I could only watch the video once because my computer for some reason won't let me play it again.
I'm guessing you already know most of your mistakes in that video anyway.

Well, anyway, as Kyle said, I wouldn't call you a beginner, but keep on working on the word choice, pronunciation, grammar etc. (I'm sure you are working on these things already) and eventually all of those annoying little mistakes won't be a problem anymore.

Edit:
5. I just remember when you showed your fingers and said they were blue, you said 青いなんだよ.
I'm guessing you already know you made this mistake but you can't put なのだ on the end of an i-adjective, but you can put のだ on the end.
So it would be 青いんだよ instead of 青いなんだよ.

And if you want to look at ways of quoting people, I would suggest looking at sentences on ALC.
For example “I said he said”の検索結果（50 件）：英辞郎 on the WEB：スペースアルク

hey its another person from last year. you guys are amazing! the first helped very much, its kind of frustrating to think about the difference between the two but i will try my best to understand it. as for point 3 i kind of figured i said it wrong because i havent used that word in long time so i had a feeling i said it was wrong. regarding point four 楽しみしてる i forgot to put a に in there so thats what confused you. point 5: i learned that! but it was such a long time ago i forgot (bad excuse) thank you ^^ im going to go brush up on my grammar now lol

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by RaimiiChan

Ok i write in japanese better than i speak because 1.write in japanese all the time like everyday and 2. i have more time to think about grammar and stuff while im writing which is much harder when you are spontaneously talking and cant go back. And i understand japanese even more than both writing and speaking because understanding a language is always easier for most people. So i decided to make video blogs occasionally to improve my japanese speaking ability which isnt looking so good right now and look back on it to see how much i have improved. I asked this same question for another video a year ago and i still look back at that video and others now to boost my self esteem when seeing how much i have improved in a year and i want to be able to do that again a year from now. So where do you think im at so far. around lower intermediate or maybe upper bigginer?

video---> YouTube - ‪ブログ1 青い指だ!!‬‏

A very nice try over-all. I will try not to correct your grammar but concentrate on the pronunciation this time. BTW, Japanese is my first language.

1. ん ≠ n　(This is super-important. I've met Japnese-learners who have been studying more than several years who still make this mistake.)
This is why your 「みんな」 and 「きんようび」 sound like 「みな」 and 「きにょうび」, respectively, to my native ear.

2. "Mistakes" in pitch accents. I shall mention just a few that sounded more off-key.

ゆび = Do Mi. The way you said it sounds like Mi Do, which is correct around Osaka but not elsewhere.　

なにと = highest pitch on the な. Yours is on the に.

せんせい Again, you pronounce it the Kansai way with too strong a pitch accent on the せ. In standard or Kanto speech, one needs to maintain the pitch accent into the ん as well instead of just the せ.

わすれちゃったー You pronounced this with a pitch accent only on the ちゃ syllable.
It should be on the whole ちゃったー part instead.

The word is ひっこし for "relocating". Yours sounds much more like ひこうき, which means "airplane".

なつ is Do Mi. Yours is Mi Do.

Lastly, there is a word or phrase that I cannot catch. You said it twice: around 1:28. It sounds like たいだい but I have no idea what you are trying to say.

[SHAD0W]

It's obvious by the amount of videos that you've made, you're really putting the effort in and it's really working out for you. Well done!

Have you tried doing some JLPT practise tests?