today i'm all about japanese language! i've heard about games in japan for nintendo ds that help with learning kanji. i was looking at them on amazon japan and found a couple that seemed good so i added them to my wishlist. (i don't even have a nintendo ds yet!) these kind of games really don't teach you, actually it's more like a nice way to test yourself now and then. especially i think it's convenient for people who don't have others who could help them to test their progress, perhaps those like myself who might be self-studying to improve their kanji strength. (actually i haven't started studying yet!) while i was browsing around for things like that, i came across some books that might be good so i added them to my wishlist as well. perhaps i might be able to find a few in the local libraries.

i recently emailed my brother about the japanese language proficiency test because i saw there were study books for level 1 (the highest level) at my mother's house. my brother said that for level 1, "the kanji/vocab section is killer but the listening section is easy. i'm sure you could pass the listening section without studying." it's like, thanks, no shit! i knew the kanji/vocab would be incredibly difficult for me and would require a lot of studying. i don't need to take that proficiency test but it's the standard test for proving your japanese language abilities for universities. maybe some jobs might require it? anyway, it'll probably be good for me to take it so i'm considering taking it this year. but i don't think i'll attempt level 1!