JLPT Passed ― やった～～～！！

Yesterday, there was an exceptionally gloomy and pesky weather. And it wouldn't be me not to have to creep out from the warmth of my den, even though I have a week off, to this unbearably annoying scenery in drowsy streets of Prague filled with chilled tourists and occassional lumps of snowbroth.
Just as I was waiting for the slow home elevator to finally reach the ground floor, I recalled that my JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test - 日本語能力試験) results should arrive soon but not now - sometime in the beginning of March, as I had read on the official website the day before. And then, some 5 seconds later, I open my mailbox to see a strange large brown envelope with "Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin" stamp on it. Which means the letter concerning JLPT has arrived!
My mother was all excited about it and hurried me to open the envelope though I just said I failed and didn't actually want to open it so quickly to see the disappointing fail notice. However, as I peered into the slit, an ornamented number 2 on decorative light-pink paper struck my eyes - something was definitely wrong. I put out the paper, with two official Japanese square stamps in red ink standing out on the bottom, and, in temporary confusion, glanced over the English text to make out what the hell was this all about.

The first line goes like this:
"This is to certify that the person named above has passed (...)"
.
.
.
"Has passed"?
"Passed"?

Then I finally realised that it really is the certificate and I have really passed the goddamned (or should I rather say godblessed?) JLPT exam! I was 99% sure I had failed. Hard. No positive expectations, no nothing, just the embarrassing thought that I will have to take the same exam again this year in December. So this really came to me as a surprise and I just felt I want to write about it. ^^

I know I still have very, VERY, VERY long and curvy, and perhaps even thorny, kanji-filled road ahead of me. (Man, I often don't even really get what are they talking about in the news in terebi or, worse, in cursed rajio). And anyway, JLPT doesn't have much to do with being actually fluent in Japanese; it has its notable flaws. But at least I now have yet another goal to reach and overcome - the mighty gaijin-killer JLPT 1-kyū - the ultimate regular shiken. May the kanji-, keigo-, tamego-, dokuzetsu- and all the other weirdo gods bless me.





EDIT: I just read that the results of the examinees in Japan were mailed to them on February, Friday 13th. Not that I believe in any of this stuff but nice... Very nice... ^^

Just some random posts from the Internet:

"Thanks for the cultural sensitivity Japan!!!"

"they shipped 'em friday the 13th lmao.
i pray for everyone's pass!! :D"

"Hey, inspite of Fri 13th, i got the results today and i passed...
passed with a score of 350.
cheers and wishes to all."

To you, too.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009