BluezamX's road to N4

Japanese Language Study Logs (Public)
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Short introduction

As the title says, I’m aiming to get to N4 level before 2030. I started learning Japanese through self-studying Genki waaay back in 2022, but because of my lack of discipline and ADHD it didn’t go very smoothly. Finally managed to finish Genki 1 and pass N5 December 2024, and then I did 2 chapters of Genki 2 in all of 2025…

After a while of reflection, I realized three things:

  1. I want to learn Japanese to consume native Japanese media
  2. My vocab sucks from only self-studying with Genki
  3. My speaking/ listening sucks form only self-studying with Genki

So I put Genki away altogether for now. I’ve started Wanikani in November and I’ll be joining a local Japanese class in January to practice the parts where I’m struggling the most, and when my skills have evened out a bit I’ll resume Genki 2. Best-case scenario I expect to reach N4 level summer 2027, but I don’t think it’s likely.

Also, about me, I’m an indie game dev from the Netherlands. My older brother got me into reading manga as a kid, and that’s how I became interested in Japanese! Some of my favourite manga are FMA and most of the Akira Toriyama oneshots, like Cowa and Sand Land. Just finished Shaman King, currently reading Naruto.

Study Log

I’m mainly starting this study log for me, although talking with friendly people is always a plus :smiley:

I plan to update here once every few weeks on what I’m doing and how it’s going, and to hold myself accountable for reaching those goals. For now I’m mainly focussed on keeping up the Wanikani streak and start to read NHK Easy again around level 10. I tried doing so in the past, but always quit due to my vocab being lacking.

That’s all for now, I’m excited to start a new page in my Japanese-learning journey!

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Welcome and best wishes with your studies! Your goal is very reasonable :slight_smile: focusing on vocabulary through WK sounds like a good idea. I understand the feeling of vocab holding one back.

What sort of games do you make?

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Welcome!

I think it’s important to have a combination of grammar study and other engagement with the language. You could start jumping into reading now, with graded readers, Satori Reader, and joining the Absolute Beginners Book Club here on the forums!

Happy studying!

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Currently working on an RPG which is almost at the point of looking for funding. Can’t say a lot about it while that whole process is ongoing!

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100% agree that multiple different ways of engagement are the way to go. I’ll look into the book club, thanks for the tip!

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Alright, update time! I’ve made it to level 6 this week, which I’m very happy about. I’m starting to get a bit of a vocab backlog as I’ve been mainly focussing on Radicals and Kanji, but I don’t think that’s too bad. I also had some stuff happen IRL, but despite that stuck to my daily reviews, which I’m very happy with!

Tonight is my first night of IRL Japanese lessons, and I’m super excited to finally get some more speaking/ listening experience!!!

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So the first Japanese lesson was interesting. It was a lot easier than I expected, so I talked with the teacher about possibly going to the more advanced class, which I will attend end of the month to see how it goes. I also witnessed the miracle of Wanikani for the first time; when encountering a kanji I didn’t know while doing homework (遅), I could immediately dissect it into Scooter/ Flag/ Sheep and copy it, without having to tediously look back and forth to see whether I’d copied it correctly. A very pleasant surprise indeed!