kanken [not the DS game]

[jandek]

It has been 2 years since the last kanken thread. Has anyone here taken it? Is anyone planning on taking it?

Maybe it's the constant stream of Kanken Journal magazines that keep flowing through my BoE like beer at a bounenkai, but I have decided to sit the test for the first time in February, and would be much appreciative if any of you bitches had some experience or advice to share. If you hate the Kanken and think it is a waste of time, then I would like to hear from you too.

[UPGRAYEDD]

難しすぎ

[jandek]

sure, for 1級、準1級、and 2級、but looking at the sample questions in the aforementioned magazine, it looks like everything up to 3級 should be doable with some focused studying. I spend all my days at elementary schools, and they are always pushing them to take levels 10 (first graders) - 5 (sixth graders).

I know bd is probably the proper place to ask this, but has anyone in the translation industry ever been asked for their kanken level?

[UPGRAYEDD]

The ds game is identical to the actual test and that shit is hard. No joke. I hit a brick wall at .... Level 5

[jandek]

can girls take the kanken too?

[Alphabet]

What is kanken?

[jandek]

Mythical sea monsters of gargantuan size, said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland. The sheer size and fearsome appearance attributed to the beasts have made them common ocean-dwelling monsters in various fictional works (see Kanken in popular culture). The legend may actually have originated from sightings of real giant squid that are variously estimated to grow to 13–15 m (40–50 ft) in length, including the tentacles. These creatures normally live at great depths, but have been sighted at the surface and have reportedly attacked ships.[4]

In modern German, Kanke (plural and declined singular: Kanken) means octopus, but can also refer to the legendary Kanken.[5]

[tsugaruzuki]

I passed Kanken 3級 this last April, but it was a bitch.

I recommend doing the DS game for an hour a day--EVERY day for about two months before the test. Like UPGRAYEDD said, it's just like the test. I also bought and went through the 3級 book that's published by the Kanken foundation (or whatever it is).

No matter how hard I practiced, the 四字熟語 and 対義語・類義語 were still really difficult and I only got two of the 四字熟語 right on the test.

A fellow ALT in my area just got 2級 last year, but I think even today he just sits at a desk writing kanji all day. If that's your thing, then you may also consider doing that.

[jandek]

thank you tsugaruzuki, that is very helpful information. There are three Kanken games for the DS that I've seen, and I have the 漢検DS II put out by RocketCompany. One thing that I've noticed after playing it a lot over the past few weeks is that when taking the same level test, the same questions seem to come time and time again. Is the real test as simple as that?

I don't want to believe there is that much uniformity through the years on the actual kanken, but i have never bought any of those 過去問題集 they are always pushing so hard, either. because i don't believe in it.

for 3級, what would you say is most important to concentrate on in these precious few months before the test in february, and what is okay to ignore like you would the listening section of the JLPT?

対義語・類義語？
四字熟語？
those problems where you find the mistake?

[tsugaruzuki]

That's the same 漢検DS by RocketCompany that I have, I believe. I think that's probably one of the better games because it is supposedly certified as the kanken game by the Kanken foundation (or whatever it's called in English).

From my experience with 3級, the repetitiveness of the questions is because of one of two things: 1) the test really is the closed-circuited, and 2) if I didn't finish all 30 or so questions and turned my DS off--even if I was on Question 29--then I had to repeat that same section over again.

Honestly, I don't find as much recurrence with questions where you can choose what to practice--読み、対義語・類義語、誤字訂正、四時熟語、送りがな、書き. Same kanjis are used, but the words are different usually. I think that's because though kanken is testing you cumulatively in a way, the real focus is actually on a new set of roughly 100-200 characters or so that weren't on the last test. You can find what exactly the kanji you absolutely need to know by buying (or borrowing, like I did) the official kanji kentei book for the level you're taking.

Hope this is slightly informative. =)

[tsugaruzuki]

Oh, and what to ignore:

1)読み. If you read a lot, then you can usually ignore the 読み.
読み has 30 questions, but they aren't that hard.

2)部首. I think being a foreigner, at least in my case, helped me with this one. The radicals really aren't that hard. Generally left-side, top, or bottom. Always the part associated with the meaning, not the pronunciation. 9/10 times this holds true. 10 questions on kanken.

3) 送りがな. Just not that difficult really. 5 or 10 questions on kanken.


Focus on 対義語・類義語 and 書き the most, I would say!

I found that the more I did　対義語・類義語, the more I could guess the correct kanji for a word I had never heard, just by the context of the sentence or its synonym/homonym.

書き is just because I can never write kanji without having written it a ton of times. And how many times do you actually write kanji anyways? =p

[jandek]

2)部首. I think being a foreigner, at least in my case, helped me with this one. The radicals really aren't that hard. Generally left-side, top, or bottom. Always the part associated with the meaning, not the pronunciation. 9/10 times this holds true.

what do you mean by being a foreigner helped you on 部首? Do you mean because you approached it from a a more pseudo-scientific slash linguistic standpoint rather than the touchy-feely way that you would default to had you grown up with the system?

also. do you remember how many questions there were for 四字熟語? I have been throwing all my non-DS study time into those beasts, and i think it is helping with my writing. because if you write 20 different 四字熟語, then you are really writing 80 different kanji yah? somewhere this amazing math is going to pay off.

[tsugaruzuki]

That's probably it. I never found radicals to be much of a problem.

There's a total of ten 四字熟語 on 3級. I say work on them, but don't gruel over them. I think I only got 5 right and still passed just fine.

[jandek]

tsugaruzuki, wherever you are, thank you for your advice. It took me two years, but i finally passed 漢字検定３級。 Hardest test ever.