trout wrote:

thanks, Joel. i can always count on your expertise ability to muddle through and make it sound convincing.

Fixed. =P

You need to practice your listening. So practice.

You’ll also find some practice test questions here.

There’s a few threads about the JLPT around the place, actually. You won’t have found them using the forum’s search function, because it’s broken, but if you use Google, voila. =)

Kanji usually (but don’t always) have two types of readings: one that comes from the native Japanese language, called kun’yomi, and one that was borrowed from Chinese, called on’yomi. Many kanji have multiple kun’yomi and/or on’yomi, and a handful of kanji have only a single reading – either on’yomi or kun’yomi, but not both.

Once you start to get a feel for things, you can generally start to infer which reading goes where. Basically, kanji sitting on their own usually – but don’t always – use kun’yomi, while kanji existing in compound words (called “jukugo”) usually – but don’t always – use on’yomi. Kanji with attached okurigana (hiragana glued on the back to indicate verb/adjective conjugations and whatnot) always use kun’yomi, no exceptions.

Now, for some inexplicable reason, Kouichi teaches the on’yomi as the “reading”, in isolation, and the kun’yomi as part of the vocab. Please don’t ask me why. Your best bet is usually to learn vocab, and the on’yomi will come as a result of that.

So, 刀 is one of many kanji where the kanji on its own forms a meaningful word. Others include 体 (からだ = body), 頭 (あたま = head), 山 (やま = mountain), 川 (かわ = river), et cetera.　So, on its own, 刀 takes its kun’yomi – かたな – and means “sword”. If you stick it in a word with another kanji, say 刀剣, it takes its on’yomi – とう (the whole word is とうけん = swords). Confusingly, it’s also got a handful of nonstandard readings – 竹刀 is read as しない, and 剃刀 is read as かみそり – but I wouldn’t worry too much about those at the moment.

Basically, という is a combination of the quotation marker と plus the verb 言う. It tends to mean “that’s called” or “that says” – i.e. 「ハリーポッター」という本 = a book called “Harry Potter” – but as kyle explained, in your first sentence, it takes a meaning of “the fact that”.

Your second sentence is ガタンゴトンという電車 = a train that goes “gatan goton”. You know the sound-effect, yeah? I’m not really sure if we have a similar onomatopoeia in English. “Choo choo” is all that springs to mind for me.

Your third sentence is 終身雇用や年功序列という雇用慣行 = hiring practices called “life-time employment” and “age-based seniority”. Kinda – “called” is a little tenuous here. Maybe “like” or “such as” would be a better English translation. I actually gave a presentation about these in Japanese last year, and I’m ashamed to say I’ve clean forgotten how all of those words are read…

へ puts more emphasis on the travel itself, whereas に puts more emphasis on the destination. Kinda like the difference between “going towards Tokyo” and “going to Tokyo” in English.

Also, just to make things confusing, へ is pronounced the same as え when it’s functioning as a particle.

Well, ぞ is a very casual/slangy sentence ender, so you’d never stick it on the end of です. You’d use だぞ or drop the だ altogether – so よくなかったんだぞ or just よくなかったぞ. (My first example uses んだ which is another grammar point completely. Not sure if Koichi ever covers it, though. In casual speech, though, you wouldn’t use だ after a past-tense verb, only んだ.)

Also, you appear to have made a slight typo in the first sentence – ですよね =)

Another option is Japanese for Busy People. That comes with a fairly good workbook.