Short and Long Conversation Questions in the JLPT Reading Section

The Reading and Grammar section of the JLPT usually has  short and long dialogue questions.  The questions will test your knowledge and understanding of colloquial and polite Japanese.  Take a look at the sample video below.

Short Conversations

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The short conversation questions are indeed very short -   two line dialogues. It helps to imagine that two people are talking when doing these questions. They are usually question and answer or request and reply dialogues. It would be very beneficial to get some speaking practice with a native Japanese speaker and record your conversations. Also these questions are worth 3 marks. You want to take your time with these and get them right.

When approaching these questions remember two people are talking. Think about;
● What is the first speaker saying – is it a question？, a request？ an order?
● Try to translate the dialogue to English
● How you would answer or replay to the first speaker?.
● Eliminate wrong answers

Long Conversations

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The long conversation questions are very difficult. They require a lot of concentration.  There are missing parts/gaps in the conversation. You need to choose the best answer to fill in the gaps. There are also content questions that test comprehension. Trying to answer the questions with only one reading is risky and time wasting. You’ll end up wasting minutes of valuable time jumping back and forth from the questions to the conversation.

Your best approach is to read the dialogue several times before taking on the questions. Give yourself a chance to process the dialogue then go for the answers. In fact, you must understand the conversation before even trying to answer any of the questions. Each question is worth 4 marks. We explain how to answer these questions in the video tutorial package Japanese Proficiency Power.