5578
In my experience, Chinese language learners are introduced to these
4-character phrases at an early stage (around Chinese 3 in my high school);
what I want to know is there a certain aptitude level when I will have to
recognize and translate yojijukugo? Will it be on the certain levels of the
JPLT?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-20T00:38:14.517
5572
2013-03-12T11:11:29.627
2013-03-12T11:11:29.627
1363
question
jlpt idioms yoji-jukugo comprehension
At what level should we be able to understand Yojijukugo?
> Well, the extended question I wanted to ask was more along the lines of "At
> what age does the Japanese population comprehend and utilize Yojijukugo?"

In a broad sense, keep in mind that "Yojijukugo" can refer to any 4 letter
compound word. For example, [天気予報]{てんきよほう} and [高速道路]{こうそくどうろ} are
"Yojijukugo". However, I'm assuming that you mean "Yojijukugo" in the narrower
sense. 4 letter compound words that are used idiomatically that can't be
understood from just looking at the 漢字. If this is the case, many children
start picking them up in elementary school, and if the parent is eager enough,
they might buy [a book or flash
cards](http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&url=search-
alias%3Dstripbooks&field-
keywords=%E5%9B%9B%E5%AD%97%E7%86%9F%E8%AA%9E&x=0&y=0) and start teaching
their children even earlier. However, the amount of "Yojijukugo" a person
knows can vary greatly and there overuse can be awkward especially in daily
conversation. Although for reading comprehension, a certain level of aptitude
is definitely necessary. As a way to judge your level, I would recommend
finding a book or flash cards intended for elementary school students, as
anything of any higher level would probably not be well known by the general
public (a simple search brought up this site:
[小学生のうちに覚えたい四字熟語の一覧表](http://dorilu.net/itiran4zyukugo.htm), I think this list
would be sufficient for the JLPT).

My particular favorite is
[[唯我独尊]{ゆいがどくそん}](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%94%AF%E6%88%91%E7%8B%AC%E5%B0%8A),
which comes from Buddhism.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-20T23:49:39.927
5578
2012-05-21T00:21:08.080
2012-05-21T00:21:08.080
1217
1217
5572
answer