But with that sentence grammar, I think I may be getting in the zone.

Here are a few tips I’ve come across with that might ease those butterflies in your tummy and make the most out of the time you have left to cram. (^_^)’

1. Make the most out of your cram time by

finishing up that Kanzen Master Bunpou Mondai Taisaku book

(green grammar book of the Kanzen Master series).

Grammar Reviewer for JLPT L2Grammar Reviewer for JLPT L2Grammar Reviewer for JLPT L2

For you guys that have this book, been browsing lazily through this book over the year, and forgot where you placed this book, it’s time to get to finding it – and finishing it.

Don’t just rush through it. If you haven’t studied words or kanji, looking up unknown words and kanji in the sample sentences is a great tip to cover a lot of ground you’ve been putting off until 2 months before the exam date. Trying to cram kanji and words out of context right now is NOT going to help. Unless you SRS everyday like a whole lot of words. Maybe.

A friend of mine passed JLPT Level 2 back then using this method. I’m not saying it will work for you. But believe me, I just finished it the other day and yesterday we had a mock exam on bunpou (grammar), I can say a lot that came out of that N2 reviewer, were the end parts. A lot of the grammar from the end of the book.

Focus now. If there’s one book to finish, this is it. Or that other book where you can incorporate kanji, words, and grammar (even reading) in one sitting.

2. Time yourself

when taking that reading mock exam.

I’ve found by timing myself that it is simply impossible to read through all the articles in the reading section of the test in the mock exam.

On the other hand, I’ve found that :

a. I applied the following tip found in this interesting JLPT Boot Camp read, I can finish short and medium reading comprehension and get the answer right most of the time.

(1) get topic

(2) read question

(3) read through (skim actually) with comprehension

(4) answer the question

(5) (I just added this) never mind if you don’t know the yomikata of a compound kanji word; you can figure out what it means by piecing 2 and 2 together from the two kanji and the context

b. For longer reading comprehension, understand a few things:

(1) The answer is before or after the underlined word (or word in question)

(2) If the sentences before that are fuzzy, back track or read ahead a bit.

(3) Time yourself. If it takes too long, leave it.

(4) Look for hints in the connecting words like sorekara (それから), sorede （それで）, and all those like it.

3. Answer mock exams

- especially the reviewers for the new N series. (^_^) Sounds a bit like a cellphone model.

Don't get caught unawares!

Anyways, the last thing you want is to be caught off gaurd with new types of questions in the actual test date. If you don’t need to read the instructions because you already know what test it is, that is some (and in here I mean ずいぶん) addition in your precious test taking time.

There’s a lot more I can think of. But really, you shouldn’t be spending too much time reading blogs like this. ^_^) And for me, writing blogs like this. We all want to pass the test but we’ve really got to focus from now on as much as we can. Break a leg!

God speed in the test!

がんばりましょう！

Ganbarimashou!

p.s. I'm taking the N2 this year (sorry if the examples are for N2, I hope you find them helpful even for lower levels)

These are just some words I learned when talking with Sensei and emailing some friends in Japan in these past few days since on that fateful day, March 11, 2011.

地震

• jishin
• じしん
• earthquake

津波

• tsunami
• つなみ
• A very large ocean wave caused by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption (definition c/o Free Online Dictionary)

原子力発電所

• genshiryokuhatsudenjo
• げんしりょくはつでんじょ
• nuclear power plant
• shortened: げんぱつ

停電

• teiden
• ていでん
• power outage

計画停電

• keikakuteiden
• けいかくていでん
• planned power outages

節約

• setsuyaku
• せつやく
• conservation

節電

• setsuden
• せつでん
• conservation of electricity

These are all probably all over the news in Japanese. The next time you hear the word, hope you’re able pick it out from now on. ^_^

今日みなさんに質問があります！

I have a small question today.

What is the difference between these two sentences?

PSPでポケモンをあそぶのですか。

and PSPでポケモンをあそびますか。

The former one is more natural, I was told.

おねがいします！

とにかく、今日のレッソン行きましょう！

[grammar]

～ことはない

[meaning]

It is not necessary to ~ / It is meaningless to ~

[Sample sentence]

そんなものわざわざお金を出して買うことはありませんよ。

[English]

It is meaningless to spend money on such a thing.

[Phrase by phrase]

そんなもの – on such a thing

わざわざ – especially

お金を出して – bring out money

買うこと – buy (in noun)

はありません – none よ。 – doesn’t mean anything.

This is called a “gobi”. It’s used to add emphasis.

Enjoy!

では、今日の文法は発表します！

This one, you hear a lot! And it becomes a little confusing as its made up of lots of common words.

The trick to remembering this pattern is to memorize it as a phrase, a set, that means one thing and not per word combined together to form meaning. It helps to know what each word means though, if that is of any help to you.

こと (koto) – means thing

になっている – means ‘become’ or more precisely, because it’s originally になる + ている, it means has become (resultant state)

SO, thing + has become = It has been decided, supposed to, set to

^_^ hope you got that!

[grammar pattern]

～ことになっている

[meaning] It has been decided, supposed to, set to

[sample sentence]

鈴木さんと、５時にここで合うことになっている。

[English] We are supposed to meet Suzuki-san at 5pm here.

[romaji] suzuki-san to, go ji ni koko de au koto ni natteiru.

[It sure has been a while! I finally have a bit of free time so I thought I'd go and post this]

さて、今日の文法は…

[Well then, today's grammar pattern is...]

[grammar pattern]

～ことに（は）

[meaning] The thing its, the ___ things is that, ….

[sample sentence]

悲しいことに、誰も理解して来る人がいません。

へえ、そうなんですか。<- more on 日本語 conversation catch phrases in upcoming posts… ^_^

[English] The sad thing is that no one understands me…

[romaji] kanashiikotoni, daremo rikai shite kuru hito ga imasen.

[grammar pattern]

～ことなく

[meaning] without

[sample sentence]

贅沢などすることなく、貯金しています。

[English] I am saving money and doing without luxury.

[romaji] zeitaku nado suru koto naku, chokinshiteimasu.

[grammar pattern]

～ことだから

[meaning] Because, due to, due to the fact (followed by a guess)

[sample sentence]

山田さんのことだから、きっとその試験に受かるでしょう。

[English] Because it is Yamada-san, I believe she’ll pass the test.

[romaji] yamadasan no koto dakara, kitto sono shiken ni ukarudeshou.

^__^ いい週末を…

[grammar pattern]

～ことだ

[meaning] It is important to…, … is necessary

[sample sentence]

成功したければ、がんばることだ。

[English] If you want to succeed, it is important to try hard.

[romaji] seikou shitakereba, ganbaru koto da.

Well that hit straight home! ^_^’

[grammar pattern]

～ことか

[meaning] What a… ! How… !

[sample sentence]

子供が生まれてなんとうれしかったことか。

[English] When a child is born, what a happy event it is!

[romaji] kodomo ga umarete nanto ureshikatta koto ka.

^_^’ A bit of info from a native speaker says that this pattern is not so commonly used nowadays.

He says that for 女性 (female) the following is much more appropiate during these times:

「なんと～ことでしょう」

Going along with our example from above, it would be something like  なんとうれしいことでしょう。

So the ～ことか is for those really exclamatory statements. It’s not applied in every English sentence we put a “!” to. ^_^ For guys, this is okay , I guess. I’ve heard this expression from Bleach. I don’t really recall but I think it was Toushiro taichou. ^_^