What are the big skills that you need to perform well on the JLPT? The required degree of ability varies drastically from level to level, but the core skills remain the same. To perform well, you have to develop solid listening, grammar, and kanji recognition and reading.

CORE SKILL 1 — LISTENING
Having been in Japan for nearly eight years now, the listening section of the test is the area of the JLPT that I look forward to most—not to mention it’s the last section and afterwards you get to go home! Listening is a big part of good communication and it’s a skill worth building—well.

CORE SKILL 2 — GRAMMAR
I think this is a critical skill because it shows exactly how the language is pieced together, which is (surprise, surprise) very different from English. At higher levels, the grammar can get a bit crazy, but N4 and N3 have some Japanese grammatical gems that you will hear and possibly use on a regular basis.

CORE SKILL 3 — KANJI
Kanji can be a hard skill to grasp. I know I struggle with it. There are days when I’m out and about and think to myself “I’m the man!” because there are kanji that I can read and understand. There are other days when I think to myself, “Man! I don’t understand a lick of this.” Kanji is one of those skills that you have to practice and see over and over before it sticks. I guess that explains all of the spaced repetition Japanese software out there.

CORE SKILL 4 — READING
This basically ties to kanji and grammar, but you can't take it lightly. Just knowing grammar or just knowing kanji doesn't mean you can put them together to make sense of a sentence or paragraph. The lower levels of the JLPT start out with short little sentences, but it jumps up pretty quickly, and the higher levels will give you whole pages you've got to sort through to get to an answer. This is where practice texts can really help make sure you're ready.

CORE SKILL 5 — SPEAKING!
With test-takers going to JLPT exams in droves, I think it's darn near impossible to test speaking on a large, standardized scale. However, I truly feel speaking is the most important indicator of how well you know a language.

Yes, the core skills matter. Yes, the core skills can help you to be a better speaker. At the end of the day, though, you can’t hold up your JLPT certificate when someone speaks to you in Japanese. You have to talk!

It’s important to keep the JLPT in perspective. Be able to read, listen and write. But be able to express your thoughts verbally, too!

QUESTION: Which of the core skills do you want to build most?