しあわせ

A good friend of mine, MiCAさん, has opened her brand new online fashion and accessory store, Regentag.
In Japan it’s customary at a shops opening for people to send large flower arrangements, and for the complex relationships and levels of patronage to kick in in supporting the new enterprise. To be honest I’m not exactly sure how it works.
But I thought I’d write this post and encourage readers at least to go and have a look, maybe give her a moral boosting blip on her site statistics. The merchandise isn’t the usual tech stuff I’d be interested in but is much more girly jewellery and accessories. I do like the colourful slippers/shoes (which I doubt would fit me!), and the bottle holders look very useful too.

So drop in and have a look.
I wish MiCAさん all the best in her new business.
よろしくお願いします。

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who managed to have the bad luck to endure, or good luck to survive, both atomic bombings in Japan, passed away on Monday. He was only recognised officially as a dual survivor in March 2009. He was one of only 9 dual survivors and the only one to be officially recognised.
As these bombings start to pass from living memory it’s important to not forget the terrible effects of nuclear war and press on with global disarmament.

I found some more information about the new JLPT exams starting in 2010.

Firstly it seems not every exam centre will have twice yearly exams. It looks as if only centres in Japan,China and Korea will definitely offer it twice a year. SOAS in London seems to be keeping to December only. It’ll be worth checking with your nearest centre. It may also help them gauge interest and encourage them to offer it biannually. Hopefully the Japan Foundation will update its listings soon.

More interestingly, although official workbooks won’t appear until 2012 according to the official JLPT site, Bonjinsha already has a few textbooks available for the new JLPT specifications. They aren’t part of the full listing on Bonjinsha’s site. However I did find them under their (unweildy) Japanese title 新しい「日本語能力試験」ガイドブック概要版と問題例集 (New Japanese-Language Proficiency Test Guidebook: An Executive Summary, and Sample Questions).

Finally, although this isn’t exactly new, Ireland now has it’s own JLPT exam centre at DCU. Although they have the typically rubbish websites common to a lot of universities.

As can be seen from the above certificate I passed 9th grade in the Kanken test. やった！
I was reasonably confident however. Although I can be a little proud of my achievement it only puts me on a par with a below average seven year old, with knowledge of 240 common kanji. However I can say that the knowledge is native level. I can read the onyomi, kunyomi and tokubetsu readings and write them by hand, not just put an English keyword to them.
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I read an interesting document about the new JLPT specifications for the test starting in 2010 from the Japan Foundation.

Considering the search terms people use in Google these points are a big departure from the old test:

There are no plans to publish collections of complete copies of tests administered in past years.

and

The goal of learning Japanese is not to memorize vocabulary, kanji, and grammar, but to become capable of using them as a means of communication. The new test is to measure both “Japanese language knowledge, including vocabulary and grammar,” and “the competence required to perform communicative tasks using language knowledge.” Therefore, we determined that it is not appropriate to publish “Test Content Specifications” which includes the lists of vocabulary, kanji, and grammar.

and

Failure to exceed the minimum acceptable score in any scoring sections will result in a fail for the entire test, even if your total score is above the minimum acceptable score.

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Long ago before I started learning Japanese, FileMaker Pro was one of my favourite programs. Then I started spending most of my time on Japanese and FileMaker was sidelined, especially as it didn’t support Japanese characters at that time. It’s interesting though, I get the same fun from learning Japanese as I did when I solved a problem using FileMaker.

Lately I’ve taken a look at the Kanjidic2 XML file. I’d like to do a little more than a standard dictionary search. The various sites and standalones don’t quite do what I’d like. I’d like to be able to pull out the data for which JLPT2 kanji are also Grade 4 for instance. I’d like to add my own notes, set up my own cross references, link it to Kradfile, link it to websites, get rid of the most annoying Heisig definitions (old-boy for 君 springs to mind). I have ideas for kanji learning I’d like to integrate. Although I wonder if I won’t have Yet Another Japanese Dictionary Reader in what is already a crowded market.

Anyhow to start to do this I need to put it into a database. FileMaker is the only real candidate to do what I want easily. Read the rest of this entry »