Below is my self-made curriculum. The purpose of this curriculum is to be able to read fluently in some time (much time).
Most days look like this currently.
Do all my WaniKani reviews and 10 lessons if there are any (this is to prevent my reviews from often being above 150).
Do grammar drills where Iām shown example sentences and must fill in the blank with the correct particle, noun, verb, etc.(N5lv) (30~40min). E.g. ććļ¼æćŗćć§ćć(bit more advanced than this)
Read organically in childrenās manga for 30min. Currently Iām reading Yotsubato Volume 1. I translate what I do not know on google translator.
I plan on sticking with this regime until I can read most childrenās manga without the translator. After, I will reevaluate my learning needs.
Does this regime seem solid? Am I missing something? Any tips? I would certainly be willing to add 20~30min more of study time per day. Constructive criticism would be appreciated.
Donāt. Youāre probably better off checking the Yotsuba book club threads and see if your question has been done there, or just asking a lot of stuff.
I do use Google Translator from time to time, but it depends how much you depend on it, and how much you trust it. The correct answer is not much.
Other than that, I would recommend instead of reading manga, since youāre studying N5 stuff, and Yotsuba has a lot of N4 or even further stuff, to read stories that you know have the grammar you need.
The same as grammar drills but for reading, but thatās up to you.
It does feel less like reading and more like doing homework.
And reading manga usually leads to you learning casual grammar, which is fine, I guess thatās your endgame.
Google translate is certainly an untrustworthy study buddy. Iāll check out the Yotsuba book club.
Iāll probably keep reading Yotsuba for 30min a day. Itās really motivates me to study when I can read a panel without any help. But, Iāll try and find some N5 graded readers to do after my grammar drills.
Do you enjoy reading childrenās manga? Iām not saying itās inappropriate or anything, but be sure that youāre enjoying the material you are consuming. Yotsubato is right where Iām at grammatically, but Iāve tried reading a few pages of it and it doesnāt keep my interest. Even if itās a little too high level for you, be sure that you are engaged and interested in what youāre reading. This is also why I canāt get through a series on SatoriReader, yet Iāll happily sit and work through one sentence of a video game for a minute and a half. Iām aiming to get to full novels one day
I also think that you should see into adding some listening exercise, be it watching series/anime or just Japanese videos on YouTube.
Itās a lot more input, and itās definitely useful for when youāre reading, since you might remember some phrases or vocab from it, even if you havenāt studied them that much.
Some kind of vocab flashcards (youāll learn new words from reading, but having a way to get and keep them in your memory is important)
Speaking and listening practice! Based on what Iāve seen here in the forums, speaking is the hardest for most people. If you can find a person or group to practice speaking with, youāll be covering all your bases. Since itās dependent on having people to talk to this works better as a once-per-week or every-other-week activity.
Yotsuba is not a childrenās manga though, itās aimed at a large audience and is considered great by many (https://myanimelist.net/topmanga.php rank 18th). That being said it does not mean that you are obligated to enjoy it, I just wanted to point that out.
I agree with you on everything you said about being interested in and enjoying the materials that you are reading/listening to/watching.
Also if you have money try Satori reader. Idk what your situation is but a lot of people make the mistake of trying to be stingy with what theyāre spending on Japanese. Your time is worth a lot more than the 8$ a month youād save not doing subscription services imo
Iāll check out some graded readers and compare them to what Satori has to offer (Iām willing to drop money if it has a decent return on the investment). What do you think would be more worthwhile? I only have an additional 20~30min I can reasonably do.
I watch anime and listen to Jpod101 if I have extra time and energy. My main goals right now are studying for my OCA/OCP certificates and working. Japanese is a secondary objective. I figured if itās not my main objective I would achieve more by having incremental/specific goals (a.k.a reading childrenās manga).
Your definitely right about the listening helping reading, though. Might have something to do with giving better grasp of phonetics (or something or other).
Some people swear by them, but I consider graded readers to mostly be for fun and benchmarking. You can use them as practice but thereās usually not enough content per volume (and theyāre expensive).
Satori reader basically has easy to read articles, but the important thing is that you can mouse over parts of them and get explanations for words/grammar/phrases. That alone makes it worthwhile for beginners, I think. I think itās better reading practice than graded readers for the reasons I just said, but some people find it boring because, yāknow, itās not āreal JapaneseTMā or whatever.
Neither would take a significant chunk of time, but I think that reading is a lower priority as a beginner so make sure to focus on grammar and kanji.
Hereās the main thread. 
