As the title says, one year before I leave (for Japan). Sorry for the clickbait
This is my first-ever post on any forum, and I thought I’d share my journey of learning Japanese and my current regimen to improve as much as possible before I leave for Japan next year for six months.
I started seriously learning Japanese last summer and finished the Core 2.3k deck (1,927 words)(+RTK, time I unfortunately never get back ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ). Right now, I’m 1,314 words into my sentence mining deck, learning 17 new words per day. Besides that, I’m covering three new grammar points a day on Bunpro and using WaniKani—though I see it more as a complementary tool rather than serious study.
Once I’m done with all these, I mostly sentence mine from YouTube and anime. Apart from that, I also listen to podcasts while commuting to university. The one thing I’m still not doing enough of tho is reading, which I know is pretty bad since it’s the best way to solidify what I’ve learned.
Anyway, I’m trying to get as good as possible before I leave next year so I can actually have some decent conversations while I’m there. Curious to hear what you guys think of my current regimen and whether this is the right path to achieve my goal : )
What are you using for grammar study? Ah, I see that you updated it to ‘Bunpro’. I haven’t tried SRS-ing for grammar.
How long are you planning to stay in Japan? For further schooling or for ???
(Yes, I was also initially intrigued by RTK, but figured out that it was not going to get me where I wanted to go, which led me to WK).
FWIW, I’m currently taking a bit of a hiatus from studying, due to being overwhelmed with the day-to-day requirements of my job, but hope to get back to it ‘soon’.
Reading is one of the things this community is very good at helping with in my opinion, so I encourage you to join a Book Club, it will help you get started!
Will check it out!
Right now thinking about reading Yotsuba and after that planning on reading ‘星空の下、君の声だけを抱きしめる’. Since it got recommended by a lot of people ₍^. .^₎⟆
If one of your goals is conversation, then recommend speaking practice starting now. Italki is a great resource for teachers and community tutors - there are others as well…the sooner you start speaking (and listening) the easier the conversations will be.
No amount of reading/sentence mining can really prepare you for or replace actual human to human interaction.
join some book clubs that interest you 