I’ve decided to start a study log in the hopes it will keep me accountable!
Background:
I’ve watched anime in Japanese with English subtitles for many years. At the end of last year I wanted to start learning a second language, so Japanese was the obvious choice. I started out with Duolingo, and while it was fun I did get frustrated with the slow progress after a few months. So in March this year I started taking a class that uses Genki 1. Since then I’ve added more resources to my learning, but I am still not studying consistently, thus this study log and my study plans!
Resources and how often I plan to use them:
みんなの日本語 1 / Online class (1 lesson per week)
Genki 1 / Tokini Andy (1 lesson per fortnight)
Tobira 1 (1 lesson per fortnight)
BunPro (Daily)
WaniKani (Daily)
Anki (Daily)
N5 Tango 1000 vocab (Daily)
Duolingo (Daily, but only 5 minutes, low priority)
JapanesePod101 (Weekly? Low priority)
Beri Beri Shoushinsha ebooks (Weekly? Low priority)
My goals:
To study consistently!!!
To finish all 3 beginner textbooks by the end of March 2025
Take the N5 in July 2025
Not sure if then aiming for the N4 in December 2025 would be too ambitious? But I can always evaluate that later I guess.
Any input and encouragement would be much appreciated! I will try and update at least weekly.
This Week’s Goals
べんきょうします → Minimum of 15 hours
みんなの日本語 → Complete Ch5
Tobira → Complete Ch1 (can’t remember where I got up to last time )
BunPro & WaniKani → Complete daily
Completed all of my goals! Even though I woke up sick yesterday and have lost most of my energy Hopefully it’s just a quick cold and it won’t affect my Japanese next week.
There’s still a few hours of the day left and I have a few WK and BP reviews coming up, but here are my weekly stats atm.
I thought about it, and they’re two different communities with different people. As of now, only two people gave insights on my Study Log, and it was here (because WK’s community is more popular, I guess). But I like Bunpro’s community anyway, I think they both have a different feel when I use them.
and I still don’t understand why BP’s community doesn’t have checkboxes, like, why??
the main thing, is to keep going! some days you’ll do more or less, but as long as you keep going, you will continuously improve your skills Japanese is really rewarding to learn because there’s just so much you will literally never run out of discoveries
a couple other tips
Your list is quite long, and I explored a lot of resources at the beginning, too. There’s nothing wrong per se, and as long as your energy for Japanese is high, go for it. But I just want to mention, eventually most people find it most effective to just settle on one source and be consistent and get all the way through it. If it took you a third of the time to get through just one, that is miles better than getting through all of them more thoroughly at a slower pace. The grammar at this level is truly everywhere later on. It’s a common theme on here where me and other say, “I just wish I’d moved through beginner grammar faster”.
Likewise, choose 1 SRS as your master, and then if the situation arises that you have less time, make sure you’re most consistent on at least that one. If the others slip, don’t give yourself a hard time, it won’t matter. What doesn’t work out as well, at least for me, is when I try to keep up with all of it, and then during a busy period it’s more likely I end up dropping them all or doing much less and split my time across more resources irregularly. Now I know what my #1 priority is so when I’m busy I don’t feel like I’m getting behind, I just know I’m just going to carry on with my minimum routine. That way instead of constantly feeling behind or something, I’m either in ambitious mode or life=busy mode
So while things are going well, make an internal decision about which single SRS is your number 1 priority and you’ll probably thank yourself later for that.
Anyway, the main thing is, have fun! And when you’re feeling ready to read, do look into the book clubs. It’s a great community and I’ve gained a lot of friends and language learning help from hanging out here.
One advice from me would be to start early on with immersion and speaking practice. After you build a basic understanding of simple sentences of course.
There are many tools out there to help you with understanding the meaning of a sentence. You dont have to understand all nuances and every bit. This way you build a way better feeling of the language than just by textbooks.
I myself just recently started taking conversation practice on iTalki. It really helps with not just recognizing stuff but with production of sentences and phrases. This way you really see were you lack understanding of things. I would say its around 10 Euro / hour and if you can afford it is very well spent.
This way it feels way more rewarding. At least is this my experience. As you study and stick to it you will definitly find and get better anyway. So just enjoy the process and be patient i guess
Yes, I feel 3 would be a bit much long term. I didn’t actually mean for this to happen I started out with Genki, as the class I was taking used it (and I found Tokini Andy along the way, which I quite like). Then thought I would try Tobira on the side because I don’t particularly like the Genki book itself. But then my Genki using class finished for the year, so I found another class, but this one uses みんなの日本語. So … I just need to figure out which one (or two) to drop
I don’t love Anki and literally only spend 5 min per day on it. Then the Tango N5 is the book (which I haven’t picked up in a while) so I guess a low priority as well. However up until now, I’ve been treating WK and BP equally, so not sure how to prioritise one over the other.
ありがとうございます for the words of wisdom! Definitely made me think and will continue to do so.
I don’t currently log most of my immersion study because I feel I’m not doing a lot at the moment.
私はくるまのなかで日本語のおんがくをききます。 (Not sure how I did with that!)
I’m also reading some graded readers through Tokini Andy and Tadoku.
Then last week I listened to two Japanese with Shun podcasts and watched the first episode of Beastars in Japanese with Japanese subtitles.
I just don’t think I’m at a level yet to make effective use of it, as I’m only understanding about 5% of the listening.
I also have 1 online lesson a week with a Japanese tutor and only 1 other student, so I get a bit of listening and speaking practice there.
When you get 上 wrong because you put in the on’yomi but it wants the kun’yomi reading that you can’t remember … then literally 5 seconds later you get 上手 wrong because you can’t remember it at all … even though you remembered the on’yomi for the last one It’s Friday morning
This Week’s Goals
べんきょうします → Minimum of 15 hours
みんなの日本語 → Complete Ch6
Genki/Tokini Andy → Complete Ch4
BunPro & WaniKani → Complete daily
I feel like I’m starting strong this week! Even with a cold. I just finished みんなの日本語Ch6. Onto Genki! Fingers crossed that I can keep it up.
金曜日 Update:
So this week is not going to plan. My cold has started to drag me down, so the week isn’t going to be perfect. But I’m still trying!
With my low energy I let BunPro go most of yesterday and today. So tonight it looked like this:
Although I still didn’t do any new lessons, so I won’t be marking it off on my checklist, I still feel it’s a reasonable accomplishment!
End of Week Stats
Reflection:
So I didn’t end up completing everything like I wanted, but still happy that I made progress despite being sick. I finished Ch4 in the Genki textbook, but haven’t finished the workbook or Tokini Andy. But I aim to finish them tomorrow! Also got my first lot of radicals up to Master today
しつもん: How do you try to remember the words that just don’t stick?
I have words I can remember after the first time and words I can remember after a few goes. But then there are the words that no matter how many times they come up I just can’t seem to get them!!! Do you approach these words differently? Do different activities with them? Or do I just need to be repeating them over and over and hope they stay in my head?
)
Hopefully it’s just a quick cold and it won’t affect my Japanese next week.
) - WaniKani / Level 60 Celebration - WaniKani Community
Japanese is really rewarding to learn because there’s just so much 
you will literally never run out of discoveries
I started out with Genki, as the class I was taking used it (and I found Tokini Andy along the way, which I quite like). Then thought I would try Tobira on the side because I don’t particularly like the Genki book itself. But then my Genki using class finished for the year, so I found another class, but this one uses みんなの日本語. So … I just need to figure out which one (or two) to drop 
