What kinds of things do you guys do to support your Japanese study?
Obviously we can’t just learn Kanji, and learning Kanji without solidifying it in your memory by either using it in context or practicing it a lot is also kinda useless. So what else would you recommend doing (for someone hopefully just about to upgrade to Lifetime and start Level 4)?
One thing I did for Level 1 was to copy each radical, kanji, and vocab (with stroke orders and meanings) into a notebook I have to try and learn it more, and to have a physical copy of my progress. Is this something you would recommend moving forward, is it sustainable for going up to Level 60?
If you want to practice handwriting kanji, there’s https://kanji.sh/write/collection/wanikani It shows each kanji’s stroke order and has boxes to practice. I use it for each new kanji, and I repeat the mnemonic in my head and focus on the radicals while writing the kanji out. It helps with differentiating between similar kanji like 動 and 働. I do think this is sustainable to level 60, as long as you don’t dedicate too much time to it. But if you do want to go deeper into handwriting, Ringotan is a kanji writing app that incorporates srs.
As for what else you can do at this point: (I’m assuming you’re a beginner)
Grammar: there are plenty of grammar sources: physical textbooks like Genki and MNN, an online textbook like Tae Kim, youtube series like Cure Dolly, or and online source like MaruMori or Lingodeer. Whatever source you choose (and you only need one) stick with until the end.
Reading: at this point you can read graded readers, or something from the ABBC.
Listening: a good grammar source will incorporate listening, but you can also add a beginners podcast like Nihongo Con Teppei’s beginner podcast
Writing: the japanese sentence a day challenge was where I first started writing. Again, a good grammar source will include writing practice.
My answer to this is that I haven’t done it but if it’s working for you, keep doing it!
I’ve started preparing sentences in an app called Lingocard as a way to provide more context and to review as I self-study. I’m going to be doing more ‘sentence mining’ eventually.
The main way I ‘study’ this day is to try to understand my family, lol, and the culture in which I live.
I just started using KaniWani. Which I found out about recently from @MikeyDC65 on a different topic thread. It links to your WaniKani account using your API key and gives you your review items, but instead of having to work from the Kanji view, you work back from the English definition.
Other than that - I just go on websites like “Tofugu” to learn more in-depth grammar concepts and I try to maximize my input by reading or watching things completely in Japanese. While no, I don’t understand 100% what they’re saying, with constant input you start seeing the pattern recognition at work, and slowly start picking up on words that they say. It’s a nice feeling to be like “OH, THEY JUST SAID THIS. I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE CONTEXT IS, BUT IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS”.
I also have been reading as much as I’m able to since I really enjoy reading in general. It’s difficult to find suitable reading materials at the beginning of the journey, but dokushoclub free reading resources has a decent amount of links categorized by level including a link to the tadoku free graded readers.
If you’re interested in reading manga, I’ve also been enjoying the Absolute Beginners Book Club (ABBC) here on the forums which just started last week, so it wouldn’t be too hard to catch up if you are so inclined and want to follow along.
