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Scrambled Japanese Quiz — 23 Comments

  1. Level: 46.5
    Percentage understood: 100%
    Length: ~30s – 60s

    Spoiler Warning:
    This was an interesting test! I did feel myself trip up on words such as ケブンッリジ and さしいょ. I believe my stumbling on the former is a result of never having seen Cambridge in Kana form, and the latter was because of the small よ. In my studies I keep sounds together, not characters :|

    Anyways, It was fun, and I think I’ll have to show this to some friends who are studying Japanese the old fashioned way and see what the result is.

    • I also slightly tripped up on the University name, and do think that’s one of the harder parts. Definitely share with your fellow Japanese learners! I want to get a wide range of levels to take this.

  2. Here’s what I struggled with:
    いりぎす, didn’t get right away, probably because it’s in hiragana rather than katakana
    にしんき, knew how to pronounce it based on how Japanese works but didn’t know what it meant until my husband told me
    あいてっれば, husband had to unscramble for me, but I understand what it means
    もづいとて, didn’t know how to unscramble and didn’t know what it meant until my husband told me

    Level 50, 98%, less than a minute. Pretty simple.

    I think it’s an interesting way to test your Japanese. If you really know the word, you’re sight reading while sub-vocalizing, rather than phonetically reading.

    • Yea I’m hoping it provides a way to test a different part of your Japanese ability.

      Did your husband also read it? Anything that got him stuck? I think the one word that even Native Japanese might be less accustomed to is Cambridge.

      • Neither the Japanese nor English version tripped him up. He’s read both in the past. But he’s very westernized and familiar with foreign terms such as Cambridge. His English I believe is level 80.

  3. It didn’t take more than a minute to read as I just zipped right through it. Plus I picked up on the pattern of disorder by the end of the みなさん which made the rest easier. It’s definitely one of those things that you sort of have to unfocus your eyes and glaze right through the words to read. There were two or three words I didn’t know and I couldn’t put together Cambridge.

    I haven’t tested my level in a while but I have read Haruki Murakami’s latest book if that’s any indication.

  4. My Japanese level is around JLPT 4 or slightly above, I think.
    I was able to understand the first two sentences easily.
    Then I struggled to read the first words of the third sentence (until だいがく), and finally could understand anything further. So I’d say my understanding of the paragraph was about 20%.

  5. I´m somewhere around lvl 70 and had to stop for a second on ケブンッリジ but other than that I read it without much problem in around 40sec understanding all of it.

  6. Level 40-ish, a minute and a half.

    I did struggle with that long word (which also Rachel pointed out – I still don’t know what it’s suppsoed to be) and Cambridge before reading だいがく which gave it away.

  7. Around level 20, 25%, 5 minutes. Interesting exercise!

    By far most of the 5 minutes was spent trying to unscramble words that it felt like I “should” know. Which didn’t really pay off, I don’t think anything became clearer after extended staring. If I had just zipped through I suspect I would have gotten the same 25% in a minute or less.

  8. Level ~40
    80%, 2min

    Though I did struggle with some bits until I actually _got_ them, I could read most of it fairly well. Somewhat surprised, since my reading spead in Japanese is pretty abysmal, relatively.

  9. Level 5, 5% (understood the first 2 words! haha) – infinite amount of time

    But then again, even in order it wouldn’t have made any sense :P (of course you shouldn’t count this in the statistics im just having a bit of fun here as someone who’s only in the kanji phase)

  10. Level 15 (according to XPNavi), 100% of first sentence, about the same time I’d take to read it normally, 10 seconds.

    I gave up on the others, since I’m not into sentence level yet, I still have to finish the Kanji (the final is fast becoming a pain in my ear, but as I have only 700 to go, I’ll do it).

  11. Level 30-something, 98%, 1 minute and 15 seconds.

    The first paragraph was a piece of cake. The second was quite confusing at first, but as soon as I understood the pattern, I went almost straight to the end, as if glazing through it. I only really stumbled with ケブンッリジ (but got it as soon as I read the following word), あいてっれば and もづいとて (know the meaning of both, just couldn’t piece them together at the time). 

    Pretty cool test!

  12. Considering the overwhelming number of 2-4 kana words in Japanese (not even mentioning particles), most Japanese words aren’t long enough to pose a significant challenge when scrambled. English on the other hand is cram packed with words that are 5+ letters. Though I have to admit the mixture of small kana (ya, yu, yo) add a unique twist.

  13. Somewhere between Level 30 and 40, 99% comprehension, less than a minute

    たごん, もさじえ, and じばんゅん tripped me up while I was reading out loud, but it wasn’t a comprehension problem. The only word I didn’t understand was もづいとて – I could unscramble and read it fine, but still didn’t know what it meant.

  14. Level 5, it took me about 30 seconds to understand the first line. After that I couldn’t understand anything.

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