Advice for next steps on my learning journey

皆さん、こんにちは。

Sorry that my first post is a question that’s probably been asked here a thousand times before. I’ve been lurking these boards for about half a year now and have already found some great resources that have really boosted my learning and encouraged me to keep pressing on, so thank you so much for that.

I started learning Japanese in October last year, I’ve been interested in japanese media and culture previous to this, but had never had any desire to learn the language. I’m not going to bore you with the details but after meeting my partner, I started studying out of a desire to be able to converse more easily with her family so that the next time I stay with them she will have to spend less time acting as a translator. Obviously being able to consume untranslated Japanese media will a nice bonus.

I try to stick to 1 hour of study a day every day (not including WK reviews). I know this isn’t the most efficient method, but I find it’s so far working well to keep me consistant and not burnt out. Suprisingly I have been seeing progress, maybe not as fast as I would wish, but I’m consistantly suprised when I’m able to understand things that would have been nonsensical to me a year ago.

I’ve so far worked through the first app of Human Japanese, about a third of Genki 1, 日本語総まとめN5 and I just finished all of the A2 courses on Marugoto. I have my sights set on the N5 in December, if it’s running that is, and I’m wondering what I should tackle next.

I’m slowly working my way through the first Volume of よつばと with the assistance of the book club thread here and I’m going to jump back into Genki 1 and try to finish that off.

By far the most value so far I feel has been Marugoto, the combination of reading, listening, writing and speaking practice laid out in a course structure were invaluable as a self learner and really kept me on track. Are there any similar resources to this you can reccomend.

I also reaslised a few months ago that I would get nowhere without starting a notebook, so I’ve been writing down every new vocab and grammar point I encounter in the hopes that they will stick. It’s a little bit disorganised though, if you have any advice on how to structure a learning notebook I would really appreciate it.

I’ve been looking at Bunpro for grammar, but I’m worried that if I introduce more SRS into my day I will start to let some slip and get overwhelmed.

Apologies, I have a tendancy to ramble so I’ll try to break down my questions below:

  • Do you have any advice on similar resources to the Marugoto courses?

  • If not, any advice on improving my learning schedule/technique without the aid of something so well structured?

  • Any advice on areas to focus to allow me to survive in simple conversations with my partners family members?

  • Any advice on structuring my learning notebook in a more organised manner?

Thank you in advance!

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i am suprised nobody responded yet :eyes:

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Multiple SRS is fine, just focus more on one and take Bunpro really slowly because it can get a bit overwhelming. You may have to reduce your speed in WK, which may or not be a problem for you though.

I’d use an SRS for recording vocab (yes another one :stuck_out_tongue: ). I’m not sure there’s any value in writing down vocab once and not reviewing it…in which case SRS is just gonna be better anyway. Just add a five to ten words a day max and it stays quite manageable. If you search for Anki or SRS on the forums there’s a load of tips and good advice…

Not necessarily recommending this, but you can get by without actively studying vocab if that’s going to be too much (I added my first few vocab lessons to Anki this month, after about a year and a half of not doing any outside of WK).

I can’t really offer any advice on courses since I’ve only used WK and Bunpro.

Thanks for the advice, I’ve actually dabbled with multiple SRS before, KaniWani, Torii, Anki, Bunpro (the trial levels), what I find is I get fatigue of the repetition, I’m more than willing to slowly introduce more as I go to reinforce concepts I’ve learnt but at the moment it’s not really what I’m looking for.

During dedicated study time I want to be encountering varied “natural” content, usable phases, sentance structure, listening and reading. Marugoto would throw a lot of new vocab and grammar at you but reinforce it through listening, reading, writing and speaking excercises. I want to at least keep my dedicated study time to studying more “naturally occuring” japanese with context rather than the more abstact SRS systems which I’ll dip into throughout the day.

For me, having a dedicated time during the day to study content is important to keep up the momentum, the way I approach SRS is a little more sporadic and I’m much more likely to let it slide over time.

I usually write the grammar down with example sentances in context and I review the Vocab using a “Red” sheet to test myself, so I do feel there is some value there, alongside the obvious reinforcement of practicing kana writing.

I realise now that not everyone here might be familiar with the Marugoto online course, so here’s a link for context (it’s 100% free) MARUGOTO JAPANESE ONLINE COURSE

Disclaimer I’m not associated to or paid for by Marugoto in any way shape or form, as I realise I may seem a little too evangelical about it :laughing:

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I’m not sure why you couldn’t do this with SRS, but each to their own…

Also, I dunno if you’re aware, but you can make Anki decks that use sentences, with cloze deletions as well, if that’s your thing. There’s even plugins that you can feed an entire subtitle file for a show, and auto-generate your anki notes. Or you can review the same way you are now, but time it with SRS.

In that case I’d just spend that time reading or watching more instead :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway, just floating some ideas. I won’t pretend to know what’s best for you.

I would recommend Japanese Uncovered as a self study course. It is story based so you learn in context which I think helps you retain information (there’s a reason why the ancients used this method to convey important messages an age ago). After using a variety of self study programs I found this one to be the most effective by far for me. It is significantly pricier than a text book but well worth it in my opinion. Good luck and happy studying.

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