新 Monthly Progress Challenge

WaniKani Tips & Tricks
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This thread gotta be one of the most inspiring threads i’ve seen
:slight_smile:

4 Likes
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#PROGRESS POST #2:

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 9
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 16 (next progress post on november)

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: I didn’t even try to practice writing, wow i suck, oh well at least I made it to level 9
THIS MONTH’S GOAL: for now, just don’t give up

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani… yeah that’s (still) it

  • FAVE: WaniKani :innocent:
  • LEAST FAVE: WaniKani because I have no other options

TRY NEW RESOURCE: I plan on going through a couple of free grammar guides online in a few months, not doing that any time soon though

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Everything :B
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Hopefully, with time and practice.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Remember it’s not a race. Unless it is a race.

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Quick update - just cleared 16 and started 17 today.

Reason - work got busy! Averaging 12-15 days per level when busy…10 when quiet.

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WELCOME TO AN EPISODE OF PLOOPY SKIMPS OUT ON GOALS, WITH YOUR HOST, PLOOPY1000!!!

As you can all obviously tell, I have successfully reached all of my goals, short and long term, and I have become a JLPT0 ultra-fluent Javanese writer.

#Progress post #: 11

#WaniKani
Current WaniKani Level: 26 (so much for the “fast” level :sweat_smile:)
In one month I hope to be level: 28… again!

#Goals (oh boy oh boy)
Last month’s goal report: To finish chapter 10 and 11 in Genki. The most I did was read chapter 10 a few dozen times. Unfortunately there is no excuse for this other than laziness, procrastination and procrastination. At least I’m caught up in Memrise! And I’m reading Yotsuba again! Hurray!

This month’s goal: Gonna tone it back a bit and just say finish chapter 10. I also have quite a bit of reviews in KaniWani so I’d like to get those down.

#Resources
Current Japanese resources: WK, KW, Memrise, Genki, Yotsuba, Houhou… kind of.
Fave: Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. I don’t know. How do my favourites and least favourites always change every month :thinking:
Least fave: Genki. GENKIGENKIGENKIGEANNNNHHHHHHHH
Try new resource: Gotta try to use Houhou more often. One of the few words in there that I’m reviewing is ツクツクボウシ which some people may or may not recognize due to a certain book :wink:

That’s it for this month’s episode of PLOOPY SKIMPS OUT ON GOALS! See you in exactly one month! Or not! Hopefully so though! Yeah!

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#PROGRESS POST #2:

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 10

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 13 (close to 14)

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

I’m two days late. Oops. Well, last month was one of the worst in my life, and I’m very busy at school. So it’s a lot to keep up with everything right now. Some of my goals I failed, mostly related to listening/speaking. But I kept my levelling pace, met my Bunpro goal, started using my Core 10k (although I’m slacking again) and textbook, and kept reading. I also started going to a reading group. I’m happy with my technique of setting a lot of diverse goals, because as long as I meet some I’m doing fine and I’m not in a place in my life right now where I can form a great routine. I did okay.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
Schoolwork!!

Catching up: Do my reviews in Anki, KaniWani, BunPro
Reading: Keep reading easy books, try to tackle some more manga if and only if I get free time
Shadowing: Start shadowing

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

FAVE: WaniKani, TangoRisto
LEAST FAVE: KaniWani (I am lazy)

Textbook: Genki II
Kanji: WaniKani (KaniWani)
Vocab: Core 10k Anki deck
Listening: heterogeneous mix of anime and audio exercises/deck
Reading: TangoRisto, graded readers, manga. I go to a reading group
Grammar: Bunpro, A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
Other reference material I use a lot: Tsukuba Corpus, ejje.weblio.jp, goo, Jisho radical search, Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese, Maggie Sensei

TRY NEW RESOURCE:
Shadowing: Let’s Speak Japanese! (Beginner - Intermediate Level) - I still haven’t used this
Supernative - I tried this and liked it, but I probably won’t incorporate it into my routine right now because I’m on my phone a lot

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Listening, speaking

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: I’d like to start incorporating shadowing into my routine for reals. But other than that I am not gonna focus on new stuff this month, because I am really busy and I had an awful month. School takes priority.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: If you’re having trouble making a kanji stick, look up some more vocabulary for it that uses the reading you’re trying to learn - there might even be some you already know

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#PROGRESS POST #:4

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 11

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 14!

#GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • Reach level 11 :white_check_mark:
  • Stay caught up with reviews/lessons < School may be starting soon, but that’s not an excuse to get lazy. :white_check_mark:
  • Do Memrise and Genki lessons everyday :ballot_box_with_check:
  • Find some kind of outside reading material :x:

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Same as the couple last monthes, except I want to be level 14.

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Wanikani /Duh/
  • Duolingo
  • LingoDeer
  • Memrise
  • Anki
  • A couple of textbooks < Finally got Genki as well
  • パルク先生

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

  • Vocab/Grammar/Kanji < Basically everything

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • Stay caught up with Wanikani lessons/reviews
  • Do Genki lessons
  • Do Memrise lessons

#HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

  • Slow and steady wins the race. がんばって！
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#PROGRESS POST #:1

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 3

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 6

#GOALS

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

Wanikani 
Kaniwani
Tae Kim grammar guide

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

everything

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

Do WK everyday (several times a day)
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#PROGRESS POST #: 9
#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 33
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 36
#GOALS
LAST MONTH GOAL REPORT :

:white_check_mark: Reached my set goal in WK. Well, a couple days late, but still. Probably things will be smoother from now on with WK. Big change: I’ll be doing radical and Kanji lessons and reviews only. I will export the new vocab that every new level brings to Anki, so I’ll do that with the rest of my vocab routine. It seems like a good compromise to gradually depart from too much SRSing and more practical stuff in my routine.

Reading: :x: I did the only 166 pages during September. Well I was travelling through Japan, so I could say I read a lot there too… but stricly books, I don’t know; last week after coming back home I haven’t been able to pick up my book, too much planning for the next step to take still in my head. Some of that planning has to do with Japan actually.

Immersion: :white_check_mark: I read, talked, watched shows, went up and down on lots of trains. So I’m counting that as immersion :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Japanese the Manga Way: :x: I might just not put it here anymore. It’s been sitted on the bookshelf lately, no special reason :man_shrugging: … but the things to follow seem pretty clear, and most of those activities are pointing at reading in japanese…

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

Picking up my daily reading routine. Or at least those 300 pages per month.

Immersion: Hopefully finnishing 坂道のアポロン (anime), I’m watching it in japanese. I don’t care about subs. I’ll get what I can. I think thats the only way to force myself to really improve watching shows in japanese… actually watching shows in japanese :crazy_face:

Monolingual routine: I’m SO proud that I kept the daily routine even when travelling. So no terrible backlog when I was back.
I’ll be looking a way to add vocab hopefully without too much delay between the time I get to see the new word for the first time and then the time when I finally get to see the new vocab card. There’re words that I’m seeing in cards that I can’t clearly tell sometime where they came from due to the current lapse between these two activities.
I’ll think in a sollution.

I bought a Rice Cooker (Zojirushi :star_struck: ), that and the discovering of Koji Rice it’s forcing me to put in my goals to try a couple of dishes using these two new additions to my culinary repertoire

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
WK for kanji (vocab from WK going to Anki an the whole SRS thingie it’s happening there now).

Anki with this Subs2SRS / Morphman routine for vocab and context sentence mining now almost exclusively in japanese
Reading These Month: Taishukan Graded Readers Level 3 and １０分で読める伝記３年生。
Netflix for active immersion and MP3 player for passive immersion.

Grammar references: The Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate Japanese Grammar, and my favorite one: A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns for Teachers and Learners.
Extra: Cure Dolly’s videos and messaging (on Patreon) for doubts
FAVE: monolingual Anki routine.

TRY NEW RESOURCE:
I’m somewhat of a foodie and amateur chef… So I bought this ミセンプラス講座 book. The idea will be to pick two preparations here and work my way with those over this month. They should be fairly easy (they are mise en place preparations not recipes), and will be a nice first aproach to start using japanese for cooking too :sweat_smile:

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#PROGRESS POST #:

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: level 6

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… level 8

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: get to level 5

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: get to level 8 and start talking

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Jpod101, pimsleur japanese

  • FAVE:
  • LEAST FAVE:

TRY NEW RESOURCE:

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Grammar

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Practive everyday
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

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#Progress post #: 12

#WaniKani
Current WaniKani Level: 24. Hmm. How strange. I’m further away from my goal than I was last month :thinking:
In one month I hope to be level: 26. Hmmm… How strange.

#Goals
Last month’s goal report: Okay, I’m somewhat through the workbook studies in Chapter 10 but I still skimped out which is not good. My KaniWani reviews are indeed lower than they were before which is good.
This month’s goal: I put sticky notes on my desktop to remind myself of my goals but they weren’t big enough so I’m going to find a way to make them more prominent. Goals include finishing Chapter 10 Genki and getting 0/0 in both WaniKani and KaniWani. Also I’m going to actually try completing level 26 quickly instead of spending more than 42 days on it!

#Resources
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1 Like
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#PROGRESS POST #: 10
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 36
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 39
#GOALS
LAST MONTH GOAL REPORT :

Reading routine: :x:Well…. It didn’t happen. I mean, I did 100 pages last month still, but reading during weekdays it’s becoming harder, and I see I’m doing more immersion by watching shows, as it’s less demanding specially by the end of the day.

Immersion: Hopefully finishing 坂道のアポロン . :white_check_mark:Ok I didn’t finish the series, but not for lack of immersion time, but because I founded another show I got quite fond of: 美味しんぼ. Somewhat old show, but really aimed at foodies, since it gets into a level of details about japanese cousine that I haven’t seen anywhere else. So it’s my new favourite show for the month…. Besides, no option of English subs, so is a terrific way to do truly monolingual immersion.

Monolingual routine (Vocab/Sentence mining): :white_check_mark: As for the trouble I was having with getting lot of new vocab while reading, and only been able to review that vocab week later. Well, actually since I read less this month I’ve been able to read a story and make the new vocab cards the same day, so the next few days I’ll be reviewing that vocab and getting sentences to practice as well.
I’m considering that keeping the moment I see a new vocab more or less near the reviewing routine a very crucial thing, as it has really made a difference on how much memorable is the new vocab.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

Keep reading. Actually doing more than 150 pages sounds like a solid goal for the moment. I’m reading still the book１０分で読める伝記３年生 , but recently I’ve started reading a grammar book aimed at kids too. I’m really loving it, since I can really tell that grammar taught to japanese kids has nothing to do with grammar aimed at foreigners. So I’m thinking keeping immersing and go with the 国語 book as a grammar resource it’s a good plan now that native content it’s more and more an option to learn.
Immersion: whether finish 坂道のアポロン or keeping watching almost an episode a day of 美味しんぼ…. Or basically just keep watching japanese content as a regular activity.

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
WK for kanji (vocab from WK going to Anki an the whole SRS thingie it’s happening there now).
Anki with this Subs2SRS / Morphman routine for vocab and context sentence mining now almost exclusively in japanese
Reading These Month: １０分で読める伝記３年生 / ４年生。
Video immersion: Via VPN (Japanese version of) Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Grammar references: The Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate Japanese Grammar, and my favorite one: A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns for Teachers and Learners.
Extra: Cure Dolly’s videos and messaging (on Patreon) for doubts
FAVE: monolingual Anki routine.

TRY NEW RESOURCE:
The 国語 book I’m reading for grammar is:
まとめ上手: 小学&中学入試 まとめ上手 敬語と言葉のきまり.
I didn’t saw the value to dig into japanese grammar taught at japanese people, but it’s becoming very clarifying in some regards. The book itself it’s aimed at kids in 小学校 so it’s as challenging as some other books aimed at the same audience.

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#PROGRESS POST #:5

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 14

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 17!

#GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • Reach level 11 :white_check_mark:
  • Stay caught up with reviews/lessons :white_check_mark:
  • Do Memrise and Duolingo lessons everyday :white_check_mark:

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Same as the couple last month.

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Wanikani /Duh/
  • Duolingo
  • LingoDeer
  • Memrise
  • Anki
  • A couple of textbooks < Finally got Genki as well
  • パルク先生

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

  • Grammar
  • Writing Kanji

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • Stay caught up with Wanikani lessons/reviews
  • Do Genki lessons
  • Do Memrise lessons

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

  • It’s not a race, it’s a marathon. Take your time to learn the kanji, don’t just rush through it.
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#PROGRESS POST #: 1 Excited! I used to do this on japaneselevelup.com but I would get discouraged because I was slow at learning kanji.

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: level 6

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… level 9 (I’m about to level up tomorrow so there’s time)

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: N/A

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

Listening:

  • listen to at least one japanesepod101 podcast per day. I’m doing the “pathway to advanced Japanese” set right now so that’ll have me at #47 but the time next month rolls around. They’re maybe a little easy right now since i know the grammar that they’re using already, but there’s new vocab and with the lessons I’m on the hosts speak a fair bit of Japanese to each other too so it’s encouraging to be able to understand lots of Japanese.

Reading:

  • not worrying too much about this for now; my kanji just isn’t there yet. I’ve tried multiple times to learn the kanji systematically and they all sucked except wanikani :stuck_out_tongue:
  • I did get 時をかける少女 so I’ll be joining in the beginner reading group with that on Nov 24th. It’s going to be good to see some kanji I’ve learned “in the wild”.

Misc:

  • I’m bad at watching TV even in English so frankly anything I manage here is a positive. More episodes of Terrace House maybe?

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Jpod101, wanikani, whatever I can put on TV without subs (crunchyroll or netflix), ebookjapan, I’ve got some physical books but they’re still in boxes from my move.

  • FAVE: Jpod101
  • LEAST FAVE: anything on the TV…

TRY NEW RESOURCE: ebookjapan is new for me! I’m so happy I can get some books at a reasonably price rather than having to pay a lot of shipping.

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Everything is about even? Holding me back most tho is vocab + kanji I guess.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Jpod101 for vocab, wanikani for kanji and some vocab. I’m just going to have to be patient for the next…well, I should be level 16 by February, and I think reading might be more possible by then. I think I’ll really need to be patient with my reading ability until this time next year, basically, when I should be around level 48 and have finished most of the N2 kanji.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: I had to take a month break because of moving house, but honestly it’s not been too bad, I didn’t forget very much and I honestly feel like my listening is better for it? Like…I don’t know, I’ve come back with fresh ears. So obviously it’s not good to be super inconsistent but if you have to take a longer break you might come back and be better than you thought.

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#PROGRESS POST #:2

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 6

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 9

#GOALS

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

Wanikani 
Kaniwani
Bunpro
Tae Kim grammar guide

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

reading and grammar

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

Iversen method
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#PROGRESS POST #: 2 Doing this one a bit early so I’m actually at the start of the month.

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: level 8 - level up to 9 in just over a day though, so I’d say I made my goal.

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… level 11, nearly about to graduate to 12, I hope.

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Did pretty well on wanikani, though level 8 took longer than I’d like because of an unexpectedly busy week. Like…terrifyingly busy. I absolutely did not get through as much jpod101 as I wanted, but I did watch several episodes of Bleach with Japanese subs, and listen to some podcasts in Japanese, so I’m calling the listening good.

I also read some of 時をかける少女, and though I didn’t get as far as I’d like I’ve more time this month to get to it.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

Listening:

  • Listen to something in Japanese every day. Honestly, I decide to listen to one thing and my brain immediately wants to do another. Well, that’s fine, I guess I’ll just listen to whatever in Japanese. Currently enjoying Nihongo con Teppei, which is at a good level for me right now.

Reading:

  • Still not worrying about getting in lots of volume here, but I was surprised to find that actually a chapter a week feels pretty slow; I can knock out half a chapter in a day, easy, when I’m not drowning in unexpected work.
  • Instead I’m probably going to keep frequenting the beginner reading group threads, but also go back and get some of the old books and read them at my own pace. I’ll add a few sentences to anki, since I want to try to get into the habit of doing that too.

Misc:

  • I’m still a bad tv watcher but animelon is a GODSEND. Subs in japanese linking my (reasonable) reading ability to my (crap) listening? Yes Please. Also, I found a few let’s plays on youtube that are easier to follow because often the youtuber will read off game text.
  • This isn’t high priority, but I want to print off those wanikani kanji writing sheets and go through them. I find it pretty relaxing and I also ordered a super nice brush-type pen off amazon that I’ve seen used to write beautiful kanji. I’ll do some as and when I have the inclination.

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Jpod101, Wanikani, Animelon, Youtube Let’s Plays, Nihongo Con Teppei, own anki deck with mined sentences from media

  • FAVE: Wanikani. It’s so easy to stay consistent
  • LEAST FAVE: in a weird turn of events, Jpod101, which I just don’t feel like lately

TRY NEW RESOURCE: Nope, got enough now, need to stop looking for stuff and start using it

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: With my reading improving at a slow and steady pace as I learn more kanji, it’s increasingly obvious how much my listening sucks. The reading will take care of itself as I continue with wanikani so it’s probably time to at least try to focus a bit more on listening.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: . The reading will just slowly get better, although I’m not expecting anything great until February at the earliest (still on track to hit level 16, which on wkstats is 95% of N4 kanji). The listening I’m going to improve with as much Nihongo con Teppei as I can (comprehensible input ftw) and japanese shows with japanese subs.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: If you do stuff a little but consistently you’ll get better. I’m seeing noticeable improvements in my reading as I slowly climb the wk levels even though it feels like I’m right at the bottom of a really big hill still.

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#PROGRESS POST #: 11
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: :white_check_mark:39
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 41
#GOALS
LAST MONTH GOAL REPORT :

Reading :white_check_mark:: well, after finishing the １０分で読める伝記３年生 book I decided to slowly aim at tackling those last Graded Readers for Japanese Learners that I’ve left in the collection, so I did the Taishukan vol. 3 and now I’m finishing the last story in the Ask Graded Readers Level 4, Vol 1. All in all almost 300 pages total… so I will say I’m back on track reading.

:arrow_forward:Something I should have realized before related to reading:

Reading stories aimed at natives can be demanding, specially regarding the time that it takes me to finish one story (I look up 1-2 words per page). It takes me something along 90 - 120 minutes to finish a 17 pages long story (so I see the title 10分で読める in the series like a far reality still :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:)… so overall those 12 stories in a book can take me… well… 24 hours !!.
So, no wonder I was loosing momentum, specially during weekdays.

Now for graded readers it’s much easier… a story can take me 30-60 mins, thats 35 pages, but looking for words maybe 2-3 times total… and it’s all vocab, no new grammar…

So given that, I’ve managed to advance with the １０分で読める series on weekends and keep the Graded Readers for weekdays, so that way I can keep the habit of reading a regular thing, or at least avoid the fatige off continuously trying to reach a story per day.

Immersion: I finished 坂道のアポロン… I loved it :sob::sob: … It’s the first time I’ve watched a series from start t the end in japanese, no subs. I understood much more than I thought (well in a few months I’ll start with the manga, so I might realize then that I have misunderstood a ton perhaps :rofl::rofl: )
Anyway, I’m done with subs (I mean JP subs), If I can watch stuff and be entertained, considering the holes of understanding that are there… it’s a no brainer…
I’ve been doing the same with movies recently, though those are western movies with JP dubs (I love Netflix Japan :star_struck::star_struck: ) … And the same is true, The experience of watching a repeated movie, like the ones I’ve watched so many times before, now in JP are perfectly fine. Yesterday was the Matrix, before that the LOTR Trilogy… etc. No holes in the plot as you would imagine, so I can be really engage.

Anyway, immersion now with japanese audio, is going pretty ok. It’s a transition. Besides I might watch ocationally something in english as well, though strangely I’m somewhat avoiding it…

About the 国語 book: まとめ上手: 小学&中学入試 まとめ上手 敬語と言葉のきまり I was writing last month, I’ve read a bit more, but not consistently. I don’t have a setted plan for it, I’ll read a bit more each month probably, and comment on that after I’ve made significant progress on it.

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
WK for kanji (vocab from WK going to Anki an the whole SRS thingie it’s happening there now).
Anki with this Subs2SRS / Morphman monolingual routine. That for vocab and for listening practice.

Reading This Month : １０分で読める伝記４年生 and the last volumes in the Ask Graded Readers Level. 4.

Video immersion : Via VPN (Japanese version of) Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Grammar references : timidly reviewing this 国語 book: まとめ上手: 小学&中学入試 まとめ上手 敬語と言葉のきまり
For grammar I’m using more and more the monolingual dictionaries in EPWING format (using qolibry reader): 新明解, 明鏡, 研究社, 大辞林, 大辞泉, 広辞苑第 are the big boys here。The dictionaries have some really good explanations for grammar points and provide a really practical way to make sense on how idioms are constructed some basic vocab related to grammar it’s usefull, but it’s easy enough to learn.

Extra : Cure Dolly’s videos and messaging (on Patreon) for doubts
FAVE: monolingual Anki routine.

TRY NEW RESOURCE:
Not really new, more like a resource that found its moment.
I’ll be going to Japan again in 4 months, ans speaking is something I want to really improve, so I wanted to work both on listening and shadowing. So I’ll try to go over the Shadowing Lets Speak Japanese book.

And the biggest surprise was my listening training method: やさしい日本語の聴解トレーニング. I timidly tried the first chapter of this book some time ago, but decided that it wasnt the moment (it’s somewhat of an advance book) since it’s more suited for when reading both instructions and dialogues is possible in japanese (there’s a booklet with some translations though). Well guess what… now I pick it up again… and the explanations are great!!! It’s exactly what I was looking for to actually aid me in the whole immersion activities I’m getting into. More on this next month :wink:

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

Reading: keep this constant habit. Alternate between both the １０分で読める伝記 series and my last Graded Readers series. Some 300 pages would be nice.

Immersion: Some other show perhaps… I’m considering go through うさぎドロップ again, no subs this time. That and all the movies and other shows I can find… then I should find another slice of life anime again… the standards are so high right now :disappointed_relieved: … I’m running out of recommendations for those … anyone ?:sweat_smile:

Listening training: Go over a chapter a week in the やさしい日本語の聴解トレーニング method

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:
Aim constantly at immersion. No amount of WK, Bunpro, Kaniwani, Anki or any other app will become as pleasurable as doing the things you really like. Don’t plan in the long run to keep using almost any of those methods… dodge “study mode” the minute that you can start using japanese.

Read, watch, speak to people, learn about the culture by using your newly aquired skills… it’s a language after all this thing you’re learning!!

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#PROGRESS POST #:6

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 16

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 19!

#GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • Reach level 17 :x:
  • Stay caught up with reviews/lessons :heavy_multiplication_x:
  • Do Memrise and Duolingo lessons every day :x:

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • I didn’t reach my goals last month. Due in part to the holiday’s and school, but let’s be honest, I was also a bit lazy. This month I want to catch up on my lessons and get back to doing Memrise and Duolingo every day. I hope to get my speed back and reach level 19 by next month!

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Wanikani /Duh/
  • Duolingo
  • LingoDeer
  • Memrise
  • Anki
  • A couple of textbooks < Finally got Genki as well
  • パルク先生

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

  • Grammar
  • Writing Kanji

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • Stay caught up with Wanikani lessons/reviews
  • Do Genki lessons
  • Do Memrise/Duolingo lessons
  • Practice writing kanji

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

  • It’s not a race, it’s a marathon. Take your time to learn the kanji, including how to write it, don’t just rush through it.
220

I think you mean, “It’s a marathon, not a race.”?

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Progress Post 4

WaniKani

Current Level: 13 (reset from 30)
In one month, I hope to be level: 13 or higher, doesn’t really matter.

Goals

Last month’s goal report

Took (and hopefully passed) the JLPT N4.

This month’s goal

Goals, in decreasing order of priority:

  1. KanjiStudy App {cafe/commute}
    • For review: Write out all kanji from WaniKani levels 1-15 using stylus
    • Set more goals after completing the above (probably including creating custom groups based on unknown Tobira words)
  2. 80/20 Japanese (for review) {cafe}
    • Finish reading entirely
    • Write out all example sentences from Chapter 12
  3. Tobira (to get into a habit of using the book) {cafe}
    • Write out vocab from 単語表
    • Write out all sentences from 文法ノート
    • Write out vocab from 漢字表
  4. 新完全マスター文法 日本語能力試験N３ (Shin Kanzen Master N3 Grammar) {commute}
    • Do exercises
    • Read more about each grammar point in A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns
  5. WaniKani {home}
    • Reduce review queue to 0
    • Reduce lesson queue to 0
  6. 新完全マスター文法 日本語能力試験N４ (Shin Kanzen Master N4 Grammar) {cafe}
    • Finish rest of uncompleted sections, as a review

Resources

Current Japanese Resources

All current resources and their long-term goals.

General Textbooks

  • 80/20 Japanese (aim to finish this book entirely and mark it as complete)
  • Tobira
    • Complete one chapter every 2 weeks
      • Write out vocab from 単語表
      • Write out all sentences from 文法ノート
      • Write out vocab from 漢字表

Listening

  • 新完全マスター聴解 日本語能力試験N３ (goals TBD)

Speaking

  • No specific goals for this in the short-term
  • Aim to restart speaking focus in April 2019, to prepare for next June/July 2019 Japan trip
  • Aim to record spoken sentences, re-listen to them, have the recordings nitpicked by native speakers

Intensive Reading

  • 新完全マスター読解 日本語能力試験N３ (Shin Kanzen Master N3 Reading)
    • Pause for now. Wait until finishing all of Tobira to start this.
    • Aim to start focusing on this in July 2019.

Extensive Reading

  • Satori Reader (low priority)
    • Focus only on the Kobito article series for now

Writing

  • Rewriting sentences from various resources

Kanji

  • Kanji Study Android App
  • WaniKani

Vocabulary

  • WaniKani
  • 新完全マスター漢字 日本語能力試験N３ (goals TBD)
  • 新完全マスター語彙 日本語能力試験Ｎ３ (goals TBD)

Grammar

  • 新完全マスター文法 日本語能力試験N３ (high priority)
  • A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns (high priority)
  • A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (low priority)
  • A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar (low priority)

Japanese Ability

Current Japanese Weakness

tl;dr: vocabulary, reading, writing

Details:

  • Vocabulary is not large enough (leading to limited listening skills, limited reading skills).
  • Not enough kanji writing practice (leading to limited vocabulary reading skills).
  • Not enough sentence writing practice (leading to limited sentence reading skills).
  • Not enough practice reading and writing vertical text (leading to significantly slower reading rates compared to horizontal text).

How I will improve the above

Do the mini-goals above.

Helping Others

Tip/Advice for Learning Japanese

  • Find high quality books.
  • Use the JLPT as motivation.
  • Read my other posts in this thread or on this forum.
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Ahhhh, thank you so much. I’ve spent so much time learning Japanese I’m forgetting English. :joy:

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