Hello everyone! I am quite new to this community, or any Japanese learning community for that matter! I don’t usually use online forums either, so I apollogise if I cause any inconvinient with this post.
The thing is, as you read in the title, that I need to get to N2 for 2027’s summer exam, because I plan to go to a Japanese university and study there (starting in 2028). I have been studying Japanese for one year now, but very lightly, because I didn’t have the correct goal to do so, but now I do.
Starting on the 15th of March I will have 100% of my time to dedicate to studying Japanese, before that a little less, and I’m devoted to doing whatever I have to do to obtain my goal, but I need some guidance from people that know more than me, I don’t know very well how to plan things out. I started with Bunpro last month and is doing wonders with grammar learning, and I’m 1/3rd of the way through Kaishi 1.5k (started a couple of months ago). The next step would be to use WaniKani, because from what I’ve seen is pretty effective and has a pretty amazing community! That’s where I am right now, but it’s not enough. I need a foolproof plan for obtaining my objectives, so I hope I can get a little guidance from you.
Is it possible? Yes. I’ve heard of people getting to N2 or N1 in a year.
Is it easy? No, not at all. You’ll need to put in hours - like 4 hours a day if not more.
You will absolutely need to focus - and it’s great that you seem prepared to do that.
You’re going to need:
A source to learn grammar (Bunpro)
A source to learn kanji (WK). Note: some people do not use this, where they go Kanji → Vocab and instead do Vocab to just memorize kanji through osmosis. However, given your timeline and the need to learn quickly, I think direct instruction with strong feedback such as typing like WK does would be better
A source to practice listening. If you’re at the N5 level, Comprehensible Input type videos are great starting points. There are loads of vlogs and podcasts on youtube made by Japanese people. For example, Speak Japanese Naturally has a travel vlog-type thing that’s great for N4, and a second channel called Speak Japanese Naturally Podcast with harder content more suited to N3-N2. And there are so, so many more.
Get graded readers and novels - skip manga (unless for fun. You’re still allowed to have fun ). You’re going to need literary grammar and you’ll be exposed to more of them in prose than manga. It would be something like:
N5 → Graded readers
N4 → Graded readers or children’s furigana novels
N3 → Easier novels for adults
N2 → Slightly harder novels
You’ll want to reach around 10k vocab - more than what’s covered in WK, so you may want to use Anki or Bunpro’s vocab features. Personally I prefer MaruMori over Bunpro, but obviously you do you.
A tutor or language exchange buddy for speaking. You don’t need speaking for the JLPT but since you’re planning on going to university, you should obviously practice actual speaking. Plus, output will help you practice the various vocab and grammar points you’ll need for the JLPT.
You may want to take 30 minutes to kind of plan out a rough timeline.
Keep in mind you want to reach N2 level at least 3 months before the exam, so you have time to hone in on your weaknesses, and wiggle room in case you fall behind your schedule.
Welcome! If I was in your shoes, then I would do what you are already describing, plus read a lot, plus be very mindful of test prep. Basically what Squintina wrote and that reading progression is great.
As far as I know, Malinkal has achieved what you want, although is also living in Japan, so ymmv: their log and 50 novels in a year post. Everything is documented very well so you can see just how much consistency, dedication and time went into achieving that.
Wow, thank you for the detailed answer. Yes, I know it’s not going to be easy, but I’m ready to give it my all. Thank you for all the recommendations, I’ll make sure to write them down, and the general direction you have given me is really motivating.
I have a question regarding bunpro and MaruMori. Why do you prefer the latter? I’m interested in what things it could do to speed up my process.
Yes, I think reading is the key to improve in the language a lot, but of course there’s the barrier of Kanji with Japanese! When I taught myself english I didn’t have that problem!
Sorry for the rambling, thank you for your answer, and I will make sure to chek that log!
I also like MM because for the grammar SRS it has the option for an Unscramble mode. You have to put the parts of the sentence in order, and pick the correct tokens (there are some fake tokens with similar grammar points and/or incorrect conjugations to test out the grammar point tested). This has been really helpful with practicing for the JLPT unscramble questions.
They do have the fill-out-the-blank type questions like BP does, which is actually what I did on MM first, and I found the hints on MM better than the hints on BP - hints are very important once you know a lot of similar grammar points to be able to figure out exactly which one is being tested. It was quite annoying on BP to get so many shake answers saying that it was a valid use, but not the expected grammar point, and having rather useless hints.
BP is good, it just wasn’t for me. (I do like their Mock Exams, and they do have grammar all the way up to N1. MM is still implementing its N2, though it should be all done around August-September of this year so it’ll be done before you get to it).
Thank you for the explanation! I’ll stick to Bunpro because it’s clicking with me so far, and in my region is way cheaper too, but I’ll keep this option in mind, because it looks like it supports switching from other methods to it pretty easily with the island method.
Squintina post is pretty good, I don’t have that much to add. Although I’ll advocate a little bit for the “kanji by osmosis“ thingy a bit, and invite you to TheMoeWay which is unrelated to that, but a good guide overall and has a good immersion oriented community.
Also, instead of trying to get to 10k with a premade deck, i recommend to make a mining anki deck once you start serious immersion, around N4. That will make cards with words you found in context more relevant to your memory.
In my opinion, I reinterpret the 2 labels of the cotoacademy hour comparison, from people “With kanji knowledge” and people “Without kanji knowledge” to people “Without dedicated kanji study“ and people “With dedicated kanji study“. The reason is anecdotal because by my calculations, i did take ~900h to reach a N3 level myself, without studying kanji.
A bit more detail
This helped me a lot in doing my kanji osmosis thing (the numbers indicate the path my eyes made)
I would go like “oh, this word shares the same ‘ability’ kanji as the other word 可能! That’s also in the same place and the same reading. Good to know” and that would make a kind of graph linking words and strengthening my memory of the kanji and both words.
When I left jpdb, I wrote a version of that “Kanji used” section to use in my anki as well, if you want i can share it (after fleshing it out a bit).
Well, that saved me a few tens of dollars in WK subs and a few hundred hours apparently, but well, this is the WK forums, take with a big grain of salt.
This is a weird reinterpretation, because the two categories are essentially “people who already know Chinese characters because they are Chinese or similar background” versus “people who had to study them from scratch”. If you got to N3 faster than the non-kanji average, that just means you were more efficient, not that you’re somehow in the already-knew-kanji group. (Bearing in mind that these figures derive from surveys by the JLPT organisers, they will include a lot of people counting their approximate hours of classroom study, for instance, which isn’t necessarily very comparable with a motivated self learner.)
It’s certainly possible to learn kanji via vocabulary without explicit separate study, especially if you don’t care about writing (and note that a lot of those traditional classroom students will be learning to write as well as to read). But it is still extra time spread over all your vocab learning that you would not be putting in if you already knew the characters.
I know it’s a far fetched reinterpretation, but i don’t think it’s weird at all. I wish we had more data on the people who participated on this survey, so we could properly falsify this instead of speculate, but oh well.
What I draw from the guideline comparison of study hours for different JLPT levels is:
for each level, probably 1.5 times more study time is needed per level for a European language / English speaker compared to a Chinese speaker because of the Kanji*
serious hours are required to get there, whether by formal study or emphasizing reading (I think doing both is best as soon as you get to a low minimum level to start some reading)
each JLPT level is probably 1.5 to 2 times more difficult than the previous one in terms of study required
*Kanji are daunting for most learners who don’t have similar in their mother language so they can be a real roadblock, making us effectively illiterate. Reading is great to soak up vocabulary and grammar so unlocking Kanji really helps. That being said, the specific Kanji part of the JLPT is not a huge proportion.
And as others have noted, the JLPT does not cover output: neither writing nor (especially) speaking.
I think the JLPT is very useful in providing a structure to introduce the simpler and more common vocab and grammar first.
It’s people with prior Kanji knowledge. Knowledge before they started studying Japanese. As PM said this would be different than explicitly studying Kanji.
Similar to how if I were to go and learn Chinese I would have a massive advantage over a monolingual American in terms of how fast I would pick up the written language.
Not to be discouraging, but I think you need to have a realistic outlook especially if you are 1) not in Japan doing full time language school; 2) don’t have prior knowledge of kanji; 3) haven’t tried JLPT itself and only have a rough estimation of where you are right now.
As other commenters have pointed out, usually people who can do N2 or N1 really, really fast, like in a year or two usually have one thing: they have Chinese language background and therefore have the advantage of hundreds or even thousands of kanji memorized. They only need to fine tune their knowledge, assign new meanings to characters they already know, or different ways to read/write an existing word/concept. This is vastly different from someone with an alphabet based language learning Japanese from 0.
In my opinion, you need to take on very serious language study now and try N3 in the upcoming July to know where your skills stand at that point. If you can’t pass that, it’ll be even harder to catch up to N2 in just one year. If you pass, then try N2 in December even if you’re not ready to measure your progress and exam readiness. That way, you can prepare yourself for the last chance of July 2027 exam.
As a contingency plan, I think it’s worth seeking out English degree programs in JP universities just in case your language skills aren’t up to par in 2028. Japanese universities have been trying to court international students so there are some available. When you’re there, then you can also take Japanese language classes or even enroll in language school to improve your skills.
While JLPT is a measurable goal to have, it is not the only requirement for many universities in Japan. It depends on whether you are choosing Undergraduate or graduate course, but you may need tests like EJU also. I suppose you have already decided on the university, faculty or field of study, academic requirements etc. And if JLPT is the only thing remaining in the checklist, it could be hard but doable. As you may know, mastering a language and passing a test for a checklist are two different things. While immersion seems like the only way, please find tools that include what sounds “fun” for you to balance your studies and life to avoid burnout.
Yes, I think I’ve said before somewhere on these forums that really the main thing you can get from those hours figures is the rough ratio between levels – so if you know how long it took you personally to get from zero to N3, for instance, you can estimate how long it might be for you to then get to N1. The absolute numbers are the averaging together of lots of people with different levels of aptitude for language learning, different degrees of enthusiasm for it, people who just added up classroom hours and people who included also time spent reading, and so on – the final figure is pretty useless by itself.
(Bunpro)
). You’re going to need literary grammar and you’ll be exposed to more of them in prose than manga. It would be something like:
