外国人向けの日本語能力試験1級で出題された、伝説のリスニング問題
実際の音声（映像はイメージです） pic.twitter.com/pXyn1uVjsn

— ソンミ@中国垢 (@SonmiChina) October 7, 2017

Even if you didn’t understand a word of the Japanese, if you’ve watched the anime Evangelion, then you probably recognized it right away. While not taken directly from the anime, the dialogue is heavily inspired by the show. The characters are the same (“Commander” Ikari and “Asuka”), and the voice actors are pretty close too. The fact that it’s sandwiched between a robotic woman explaining that this is question fifteen and then giving answers to choose from at the end just makes it all the more surreal.

For those curious, the dialogue is basically someone telling the commander that a giant monster has infiltrated their systems, and the only weapon left to fight it is their own untested mech Unit 04. The commander says he’ll pilot the unit, but is then cut off by the girl Asuka who says she will pilot it instead and runs off.

The question at the end asks who is doing what: (1) The commander is going in Unit 00, (2) The commander is going in Unit 04, (3) The girl is going in Unit 00, (4) The girl is going in Unit 04. So yeah, just your everyday Japanese being tested here.

これは本当ですよ？有名なので確認して見てください。
2009年12月6日
日本語能力試験 1級聴解
問題II 15番
とあります。
色んな方が「これは覚えてる」と言っています。 pic.twitter.com/g0BwutYUl6

— ソンミ@中国垢 (@SonmiChina) October 7, 2017

Some netizens were reasonably skeptical that this was real, but Japanese twiter user @SomniaChina gave the date it was used (December 6, 2009), as did others who remembered it.

In the end, if you’re planning on taking the JLPT, don’t expect any anime-based listening questions. This was likely just a fun thing they did to send off the old level system and is certainly not representative of what the test is like.

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