Upon receiving the letter from the Japanese language school, I knew that I must and would surely pass the JLPT level 4.(an internationally recognised Japanese proficiency qualification classified into 4 levels, with level 1 being most proficient.) After having sat for the test on the 2nd of december last year, I have been waiting impatiently for the result, and I only allow one thing to linger within my soul: Success. The slightest possibility of failure never ever crossed my mind from the day I decided to take up this new language. I wouldn't want to invest my money on something that I was not confident of achieving success and gave up halfway.



It all started out in the summer of 2006, when I just passed out from my signal operator course in Stagmont camp and was posted to my active armour unit. The later months of 2006 were some of the most carefree and mundane periods of my NS life. So, why not take up something useful and meaningful to occupy my time in bunk instead of just napping, psp-ing and doing sai-kang.

The art and process of mastering a foreign language is never smooth sailing, especially when one has yet to even sharpen his own native tongue. Being a typical Singaporean who is well-versed in both languages is something laudable and admirable. Kudos to our far-sighted, bilingual education system that oversees the need to assimilate our workforce into both the worlds of East and West. But picking up a third language is simply out of my pure interest and time-killing strategy. I chose Japanese over other languages like German, Spanish, French, etc..because it is the easiest and economically practical language to master for a Singaporean. A Caucasian would encounter difficulty in writing out the kanji(Chinese characters) while a Singaporean who is bilingual in English and Chinese can simply breeze through the course through a range of methods.

And here is my result: Writing-Vocabulary: 96/100, Listening: 41/100, Reading-Grammar: 171/200, Total: 308/400(passing mark is 280)Not exactly impressive due to the listening component, and I can’t blame myself because there is really very little exposure to real-life Japanese conversation.

Looking forward to my JPT 3!