Study log #30
Yay the big three-zero! 
Going through level 21 right now and should be in done in around 2 days. Some of the kanji for this level really gave me a hard time and the vocab this time around is pretty tough…
On a good note though I just went through and the read the first chapter of よつばと after a long time and I was amazed with how easy it went! Granted, I did go through and translate it a long time ago but this time around I barely had to translate anything! 
That is amazing! Nice one!
I don’t know how it works out for your time zone, but you know we have a weekly live Yotsuba reading, right? You’re very welcome to join us. Next week we are doing chapters 17 and 18 from volume 3.
Thank you for the invitation! I have seen the group before on the forum but I’m hesitant to join. To be honest I’m not good at doing thing like that on a schedule. I usually just read when I feel like it. Though, if on I continue reading よすばと！ and catch up, I might pop in
That would be great! We’d love to see you there! 
Got to level 22!
Honestly starting to have a tough time with Wanikani though. The Kanji and vocab are beginning to become really abstract and similar and I’m having a lot harder time memorizing them. Hopefully this is a temporary thing but last level was my longest in awhile because I kept getting Kanji wrong.
But I did hit that 2000+ Enlightened count!!
Hello I hope everyone has been doing good! 
Lately I feel pretty good about my studying. I’m starting to immerse on my own and it feels like my understanding is growing a lot faster than ever. Let’s look at what I’ve been doing:
I recently got a pair of wireless earbuds and have been using those to listen to podcasts and TV show audio when I’m out of the house. I haven’t been able to get a ton of use from this yet since I’ve recently started online class so have next to no reason to leave the house. My main sources are Nihongo con teppei and sambon radio, both available on youtube!
I also have been challenging myself and listening to/watching episodes of Toradora and Terrace House. I have to admit this is probably the part I least enjoy since I don’t understand much but I can still see that my understanding is improving.
I’ve also started reading Yotsubato! and have been able to breeze through most chapters! There is some casual stuff that’s hard to understand but I can always at least understand 90% of what I’m reading. It’s slowly getting easier to parse. I use BilingualManga for this and it’s made the process very enjoyable.
I recently just started reading Konosuba and sentence mining from there and have made lots of new mining cards from that. This one is definitely harder to understand and I need to make liberal use of Yomichan and ichi.moe for this. Despite that, I still feel like I’m learning a lot and enjoying myself.
I’m finally starting to see some progress and beginning to do the things that I wanted to learn Japanese for in the first place! It feels good but I still have a long way to go!
Hey guys!
Currently on level 23 and I’ve started changing my WaniKani routine. Instead of doing all reviews and lessons at once I’m starting to space lessons and reviews out. I think I’m starting to get burnt out so I’m doing this to keep steady.
Hello everyone! Just leveled up to 24 today. Was a really fast level but I’m still honestly not caught up on all my lessons. But that’s okay I’m just going to take it at more of a relaxed pace. I can already tell that my recognition is going way up. I’m keeping it short tonight though, so おやすみ！ <3
Yay, great job! 
Yo! I’ve realized I lost count of my study logs but that’s okay lol
Right now I’m on level 25 and just got there last night. My new approach to WK is working out very well so far and it seems like my retention rate is going up! I still haven’t completely caught up with all my lessons but I’ll probably catch up sometime during this level. With the way things are going now I’m not too worried about it.
Hello everyone!
Thought I would post an update since I finally got my Lessons queue down to 0 today. I think I had some lessons to do for like a week straight so it felt good to clear it out. I feel like I finally found a pace I can work with now so I’m pretty happy. Got my first burned items coming up in 2 days too 
Quick update for now:
Just burned my first items! Got all the level radicals burned and feeling pretty good
Yesterday has been exactly six months since I’ve started WaniKani so I think it’s a good time to go back to my original post and gauge what’s changed and how much progress I’ve made.
6 Months Later
I would say right now I’m N4 level and maybe half-way to N3. Kanji wise I know about 80% of the N3 kanji. My overall goals for learning Kanji are still the same and I’ve gradually been delving into native Japanese media. This includes reading manga or books, watching Japanese shows or anime, and listening to Japanese podcasts. Overall I’d say I need to immerse more and just study harder in general. I at least am staying consistent with Wanikani and classes but I want more time immersing.
Plan Updates
I’m still on track to hit WK level 40 by the end of this year so I’m looking forward to that!
At this point in time I feel I’m on track to pass the N3 this year if I take it! I definitely still need to work on my listening though as I feel that’s my weakest part. As always I feel confident with my Kanji and Vocab.
The whole time I’ve been here I haven’t really conversed with native Japanese speakers that much. A combination of the virus, introversion, and lack of confidence all combine together for this one…
For all my immersion goals I definitely need to start stepping it up if I wish to reach my goals…
The NHK and manga chapters can be done easily enough but the 3 light novels/easy books I need to really start digging into. For anime and TV shows I still need a lot of help and looking things up and reading subtitles to really understand everything so I’m not sure if I’ll really be able to achieve my original goal.
Anki sentences I’m just honestly too lazy to keep up with them. Adding and reviewing them is just a pain to me so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to reach that one lol!
Methods/Resources
1) Wanikani
Wanikani I’m still doing every single day. Nowadays I’m spacing out lessons though in order to improve my retention rate while still going at a fast speed. I think it’s still working well and I’m enjoying the progress.
2) Japanese Class
Schools okay. We finished up the Genki series and are now onto an intermediate textbook. Not really a fan of it at all as it seems really old and outdated. Classes themselves are not really my thing but I still go and try to participate.
3) Youtube
At this point I don’t use Youtube very much anymore for grammar explanations. I mainly use DoJG for grammar lookup. But I have started watching 日本語の森 and think that the videos they have are pretty helpful.
4) TangoRisto
The app is dead and the main reason why I stopped reading NHK Easy articles…
5) Anki
I recently went through the Tango N5 deck and thought it was helpful. I shored up on some words I didn’t know but mostly ended up suspending 75% of the deck since I knew most of it already.
6) Italki
Still haven’t used up my first 5 lesson pack that I got.
Anyway, I think I need to start working harder so I can achieve my original goals and continue improving. Thanks for reading
Just a quick update…
Here I am about 15 minutes before I level up
WK is going good and feels good to hit 0/0 right before starting a new level. (Which I haven’t done the last couple levels) I’ve become a big fan of spreading out my lessons instead of doing everything right at once. My retention rate is going up and WK is starting to feel good again!!
A few ideas which might help with listening practice During vocab lessons, play the audio several times while looking at the kanji, until you can read the syllables from the kanji. Repeat the audio a few more times while staring at the meaning.
After your lessons session, run Self-Study Quiz for “Recent Lessons” in “Voc Audio → Meaning” mode. This lets you listen to the audio and guess the meaning. Press cmd-> to advance, ? to check your answer, x to mark as wrong. Keep repeating the quiz (on missed items) until you get them all. It just takes a couple minutes, but really helps with listening.
For human listening, I found Terrace House on Netflix is decent. I watch a scene with the English subtitles on, then rewind and watch it again without subtitles. Since I understand the conversation already, my brain can listen to the Japanese. I don’t try to understand everything, but just watch and relax. Within a month, I noticed I could understand more conversations around me.
Also I’m finally working through キキ right now and am on chapter 2. One of my favorite parts about Wanikani are the forums and the extremely helpful book clubs. Reading it on kindle right now and the vocab sheet and grammar discussions makes everything a smooth experience.
Here’s the latest page I read
Hello everyone! I recently hit level 31 but have been slacking a little bit with my vocab lessons. Since I hit level 31 I’m now at 107 lessons so I’m going to start whittling those down
I think overall for the past week or so I haven’t really been studying too much besides doing the bare minimum for Wanikani. Right now I have a week off school so I’m gonna use that time to do some grammar review, catch up on Wanikani, and do some more reading. Hope everyone is having a good week!
Had a whole lot of reviews and ended up just slacking off for the most part today. I’ll probably try to get some more lessons while I finish the last of my reviews for the night. (Have 69 left from the maybe 300 I’ve had today?) Was also going to review some grammar or read or something but I just got lazy I guess. I still have motivation to learn but I just don’t have the drive to push myself to be consistent with stuff like reading or such.
