Well, people sometimes post here for little signposts in their lives so why not?

I passed the first (highest) level of the Japanese proficiency test. Just found out this morning. I took and passed the second level over 10 years ago, and had heard from my friends that the first level was more of a foil for nationalities that use the same Chinese characters (as does Japanese) in their languages, with problems designed to trip them up specifically - that a Westerner need not bother with it. But after more than 10 years of only piece meal studying I decided about a year ago to take the plunge. Didn't study my heart out, but studied a lot (and tried to stay away from places like here. Japanese, at least the written language, is one of the hardest to learn, and sometimes I wondered if it was all worth it. But I have that badge now, and the winter morning seemed a good deal brighter today.

Okay, got that off my slightly puffed up chest.

WOW! That's just awesome!!!
Congratulations!

That is blazingly fantastic. I am excited for you!

Dave

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Well done, Lano. That is fantastic!


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でかし

That was supposed to be in Japanese, it said, "well done". I tried.

Congrats on passing

Congratulations!

Great news! Congratulations.

Very Impressive !!

I'm sure the task was excruciatingly difficult . . . I don't think I'd have the stamina, Lanovami-son !

Fantastic , now go and Kanji something

You meant;

でかし

Omedetōgozaimasu

I Googled it but it's the thought that counts. Wonder if its right.

Yes!
That it what it was supposed to look like, thanks.

Thanks guys. I really didn't expect so many responses. Warm fuzzies. The Japanese congrats were also nice too.

I also discovered that on my walk to the train station after I wrote this email, I lost my pocket wi-fi (that's what they call them here anyway). The pocket on my bag was left open so I believe that's how I lost it. But it's replaceable and I won't let such a blip let me not bask in getting that test behind me.

Kewl! So, how do you say Mazel Tov in Japanese?

It has to be html, but for security the boards here won't let you, UBB only. Only mods can do html.

I think it's Bonsai, or maybe feng suei


Dave

nah, feng suei is Chinese (but you maybe knew that

And the word Bonsai, for the little tree is pronounced like it is spelled "bone-sigh". The word Japanese yell to show conviction, and that became famous worldwide in WWII is Banzai (bahn-zigh). Two completely different words pronounced the same in English. Banzai means "10 thousands years!" Of course, Japanese is full of English words that are pronounced completely differently that are the same in Japanese - leather and laser is one that comes to mind, but there are many many more.

Oh gosh, somebody stop me. It's the teacher in me.

Sigh…
I just sent out an email flyer and spelled Bonsai wrong in the headline…
If only I'd read this thread first.

I'm just being silly. Actually I was trying to think of the phrase. "ToraTora"

Dave

Again, thanks for all the thoughts guys. It is still sinking in. I have decided to delve into Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 series again, after I stopped a while back because I got too busy (or at least told myself so.)