You should note that we are talking about these levels/tests from the POV of hiring. Professionals really should be put to a different type of area specific test. You don’t have to think that we are nice, but the bits above about what looks good on a CV and what doesn’t is free advice from people who hire people and it couldn’t hurt to keep it in mind.

You pass the 1-kyuu, you can read a newspaper. You can communicate freely by e-mail. And, unless you completely flunked the listening portion yet still managed to top 70% total (read: unlikely), it means you can probably carry on a conversation as well.

Does it mean you can speak like a Japanese person? Or course not. Neither does knowing your obscure “mushishi” terms backwards and forwards. The fact is, there is no fool-proof method of testing fluency.

The 1-kyuu is not the end-all be-all. But it means something. Not everyone can reach the level of deciphering “random shinsho”. If you’re the Maikeru Joudan of Japanese study and can do so with ease, well, good for you, buddy.

As for the rest of us, we’re just going to have to strive for being merely good. And passing 1-kyuu means you’re good. Anyone trying to say otherwise has either never taken the test, has immersed themselves in Japanese study for the better part of two decades (and is therefore in the vast minority), or is simply trying to show off. Or, perhaps all of the above?

For those of us grinding away to accomplish something meaningful in our studies, some of the elitist attitudes present on this thread are not very helpful….

That’s the idea.

Mushishi isn’t so hard as “strange”. There are made up words that need to be figured out through context as well as very simple emotional content – one of the only things that popped into my head as a good way to test someone who would be doing ethnographic work (although obviously if they were working with day laborers or something it would be different).

I thought that Mushishi was great. No “fighting” and little action. Truly original spiritual detective work in beautiful settings. If you start, make sure that you at least watch up to the writing/black leg episode.

I don’t know. JLPT 1 did help me get employed, and it was a foreign firm. I’ve also been told, at the next company I worked for, that the university I went to got me in (i.e. I was worthless at the interview). Neither instance had much Japanese flavor to it.

I liken it to one saying that one has gone to [name-brand Japanese university]—sure, you may have spent four years drinking yourself stupid and doing as little work as possible, but to many employers the name is all that matters.

Fortunately, though, outside of Japan actual ability counts more than anything else. In Japan, though, having the qualification seems to count for at least as much—and sometimes more. A sad state of affairs, but that’s reality.

Hmm. I don’t think I could actually read all of a shinsho in 4 hours, but I suppose I could easily skim enough of it to produce a 1500 word summary. Not sure about Mushishi as I haven’t seen it. Is the language tough? And in fact, is it worth watching as entertainment?

The question is, should I even bother taking it next year, or should I just forget the test and wait until March 2011 when I can say “wrote a MA thesis in Japanese”?