Taking Japanese to next Level

[concerned]

Hi,
I have level 2 Japanese (passed 10 years ago) however, my work has recently changed to where I need to help out in translating what my colleagues are saying in the US and our customer in Japan during conference calls. Emails to customers are also in Japanese so am brushing up on my kanji at the moment.

I never did the Level 1 exam as I thought it focused too much on the Kanji, and did not believe the spoken/Topics were that relevant to my line of work. I am currently working in the area of project management for an IT company, and the content of the calls between the US/Japan is schedule and technical related.

I need to improve my spoken/listening Japanese, and was wondering if anyone has recommendations for books to improve technical/business Japanese.

Going to a language school would not be an option for me as I do quite a bit of overtime and also just had a child to need to stay at home after work.

Studying Japanese over Skype would be an option, if anyone has recommendations for good teachers that give lessons over skype, would be appreciated.

Thanks

[RetireJapan]

Personally I found reading in Japanese (which I find hard to get motivated to do/continue doing) is the best way to improve my level (I passed the JLPT1 about ten years ago after eight attempts).

[concerned]

Cheers, for the advice. I know what you mean about lacking motivation for reading Japanese.. I did subscribe to the Hirigana Times with the purpose of reading Japanese, but the articles were not that interesting.... I guess I need to find something more interesting..

[RetireJapan]

Yeah, it is essential to find something that is very interesting for you. More important than having the right level, the right content is key.

About the only thing I can force myself to read is personal finance books

[Ori]

I have the same problem.
Reading books and watching movies helped tremendously when I was learning English, but I cannot force myself to watch Japanese TV or movies, and books seem to be too difficult to read because of kanji (I'm 2kyu as well). Manga or anime are also not my cup of tea.
However, recently I discovered a few magazines on the topics I'm interested in, and they are not that difficult too read while being quite entertaining or even useful.
Non-fictional books on topics like self-help, child care etc. are also often quite an easy read. I find particularly useful books/magazines about speaking manners, communication etiquette etc. aimed at Japanese themselves.

[soundofsilver]

I'm in a similar situation in that I feel I've been plateauing for many years and would like to get better. About 10 years ago I took JLPT2, passed, then tried JLPT1, and failed twice. I think I got exactly the same score the second time, despite a further six months of study - this still winds me up.

But then I somehow landed a job at a Japanese company anyway and sort of gave up on active study. I'm at a foreign-owned company now but still use Japanese in my day-to-day work. I'd say I'm "quite good" at Japanese overall but I still find myself struggling, particularly in my listening/understanding, and I have a lot of bad habits in my spoken Japanese I can't seem to unlearn. So I'd also been keen to here people's recommendations.

Something I've found useful in recent year is the website HiNative. Put simply, it's a site that allows you to ask and answer language questions. I've found it very useful, particularly for questions relating to grammar and written Japanese. You can also write passages in a language and ask people to correct it. It's free to sign up for, so might be worth a look.

[robster]

I'm not sure if my advice helps you so much with increasing your proficiency of spoken & written "practical" Japanese, maybe more directed at actually passing the JLPT1 test, but....
About 23-24 years ago a visitor left behind the application form in my apartment. I hadn't really considered taking the test myself but since the application form actually cost money i decided it would be a waste to throw it out and decided to have a crack at it. I went to a bookstore and looked up some of the "how to pass.." books. Level 2 and Level 1 both seemed equally difficult to me, both a bit beyond my reach, so I decided it would be less disheartening to fail L1 than fail L2 so I applied for L1, bought a couple of "how to" books, and some past exam papers, and memorized all the stuff that came up which i didnt already know. And passed. Hooray! and all that, but most of what I had to learn for the test which wasn't already in my head was fairly obscure, uncommon phrases and structures even for native speakers, and since then I'm not sure I use any of it in my professional life, which is 90% in Japanese. All I got was stunned faces whenever i pulled out those phrases... I guess the point being that I don't think passing the test necessarily improves your practical Japanese skills, it's more of an academic exercise.
I did win a crate of beer from a friend who bet me I couldn't do it, so it wasn't completely futile.

[concerned]

Hi All, thanks! for the tips/advice

[RQJapan]

Hello ~ Might anyone have a good Japanese Language Conversation School in Tokyo to recommend for older adults?
My husband and I are in our 50's, recently retired in US (we're American) and we want to move back to Japan. We want learn the language and perhaps stay for several years, perhaps teach English again. (We formerly taught English in Japan and left Japan in 2003 to pursue other careers.) Learning the Japanese language is our top priority! Thanks so much for any recommendations. And, huge thanks to RetireJapan for providing this forum!