I started my Japanese journey in college but I didn’t really take it as seriously as I wish I would have. It wasn’t my major (or my career path), and I didn’t really look much into resources (like WaniKani) or even things like the JLPT until way after I graduated.
I started getting back into studying a year ago or so, and I go through phases of high and low motivation. I’m starting this study log to keep myself focused. My goal: passing JLPT N3 in December 2025!
Daily Goals
- Complete WaniKani reviews
- Complete reviews for Bunpro
- At least 2 pages of reading (or re-reading) any material (or 15-20 minutes of reading time)
Long Term Goals
- Pass N3 of course!
- I’d like to improve my vocabulary more. I don’t have a hard time understanding usually, but trying to chat about more complex topics than my favorite food has me sweating on Italki.
- I’d really like to engage with music/movies/TV more, but I’m missing a lot of slang and shortened casual speech skills, I’d love to work on that!
Right now, I’m reading 時をかける少女 and having a really great time. I’m learning a lot of really useful words!
Thank you and good luck to everyone on their learning journey!
18 Likes
Hopefully the study log helps keep the motivation flowing, though it’s most important to have some personal reason that you want to learn the language that you can draw on when challenges pop up. Fortunately, this is a very supportive community and you’ll definitely be able to find encouragement or a helping hand (or paw) when necessary!
3 Likes
Okay so I wrote this post and then completely forgot about it, lol.
While watching some N3 review videos by the lovely 日本語の森, I realized I was getting the answers right but it took me a minute to remember the differences between certain grammar points. I want to speak the language, not just be able to pass the test!
I personally hate physically writing in Japanese so I think this will be a nice place to do a little review. I’m going to go over a few grammar points that I always am slow on the up-take with and write a few example sentences.
〜ようにする To try to (implies consistent effort)
- 毎週、今週は何を食べたいか決めて買い物のリストを作るようにしています。
- ちょっとやせたいから、健康にいい食べ物を食べるようにします。
- 電気代は最近だんだん高くなってくるから、出る時ちゃんと電球を消すようにします。
〜VOLITIONAL+とする Volitional + とする is to try to, but without the effort or consistency implications
- ドアを開けようとしたら、すぐにかぎをかけられたのが分かりました。
- 今、宿題をしようとしたんだけど。。。
- 猫ちゃんはえさをぜんぜん食べようとしないので、本当に心配しています。
〜ようになる coming to a point, usually with potential verbs
- 日本語を話せるようになりたい。
- 最近、毎日ジョギングをするようにしているので、５キロまで走れるようになりました。
- この会社では、もうすぐタバコを吸えないようになります。
〜ことにする I decided something
- 今日、ジョギングの代わりに泳ぐことにしました。
- 勝手に私に聞かずに行くという事にしないでください。
- 田中くんなら、きっと正しい決定することにします。
〜ことになる it will end up being, something was decided (no input usually)’
- 私が今日クラスに行くことになった。
- 大変なことになるよ。。。
- 来年、仕事のためにひっこすことになりました。
〜ことになっている to be scheduled, or to be expected to (habitual)
- この学校の生徒は良いせいせきを取ることになっています。
- このクラスは９時から始めることになっている。
- あ、そのレポート、毎週私がやることになっているから、安心して。
anyway this helped get them a bit more sorted in my head so hopefully they stand out to me easier when i’m reading books and stuff
6 Likes
Hello! I’m treating my study log a little like a blog as well. Lately, I’ve been doing my WK reviews and lessons as normal, but I’ve also been incorporating learning some kanji I won’t get to in time for the December JLPT that I don’t easily recognize. It’s coming together just fine, and mock tests have been good. I’ve never been a crammer so I will simply do my reviews everyday and see where we end up! I have a good feeling I’ll pass. 
I’ve also been reading また同じ夢を見ていた and the first chapter so far has been pretty funny in the way it’s written from the kid’s point of view.
As a small aside, I spent a little time these past 2 weeks on a discord called The Moe Way. I was hoping to find a JLPT friend to get some dinner with after the test in a few weeks, and hoped I might find someone on there. To be honest, I’ve never really explored a lot of these types of resources, I was a university class learner and I didn’t really have a use for self study guides like The Moe Way or WaniKani at the time…
I think I’m glad I didn’t find TMW discord before. I don’t mean to spread even more negativity by talking about this, but honestly I experienced so much toxicity in the small amount of time there that I kinda just wanted to get it off my chest. I’m sure there are lovely people and that other channels aren’t so bad, but the jlpt study channel might be the most toxic thing I’ve ever read. It’s just…constant mocking of how people study, advice for people who didn’t ask for it, constant fighting about the best way to “learn”. I honestly just tried to post normal things like “what are you guys doing to study today? I’m doing XYZ!” and it was like immediate influx of responses about how what I’m doing is wrong and idiotic and I’m better of doing ABC. 
They even have a tiered system based on a kanji quiz internal to their system, and if you are a lower tier people will make fun of you, or say you’re “clearly not ready” for the JLPT.
Thanks for listening, sorry to spread more negativity. I like the WK forums, they’re definitely a lot more positive and supportive.
7 Likes
Ha, I joined, read the channels a bit, and then noped right out. It’s basically /r/LearnJapanese in Discord form, and I have no soft feelings for that subreddit. There’s a weird toxic streak to the Japanese learning community that I haven’t seen in other language learning spaces (thus far). I have a lot of thoughts on why this may be, that I won’t get into, but yeah. It’s best to lurk a bit and observe before talking because the vibes from server to server / forum to forum can be wildly different.
Good luck on the JLPT! 
5 Likes
another one to the list!
〜ようになっている is actually different than ようになる
This basically means something is designed for some purpose. Like… このドアは自動的に開けるようになっています。or この携帯は水中でもこわれないようになっている。
In other news…I think I definitely passed N3 this December! I’m very proud of myself. We will see when the results come out but I’m going to be making a new 2026 goal: pass N2 of course, but more importantly along the way read lots of novels and light novels in Japanese!
I wanted to write down some notes on this novel I’m reading 夏と花火と私の死体. They use this verb “to float” a LOT but it seemingly means like 70 different things.
浮かべる (transitive)： mostly used when they’re talking about someone wearing a certain expression. example from book:
- 健くんは人の震えを止めるような笑みを浮かべてうんうんと頷く。
- Also, 優しい表情を浮かべる女性 so it doesn’t always have to be a smile (笑)
**浮かぶ (intransitive)：**to appear/to come to the surface, also gets used with expressions but its more of a passive thing. Like an expression shows up on someone’s face, a smile rises on his face etc. BUT ALSO it’s used when things COME TO MIND. here are two examples of this…
- 目を閉じると夕方の出来事が頭に浮かんで眠れないらしい。
- 健くんの顔に笑みが浮かんだ。
Interestingly, in no contexts have these words meant “to float” yet. If they did it’d be like this:
浮く/浮かぶ：i/someone floats, intransitive 彼女はいま雲みたいに浮いている/浮かんでいる。in set phrases, 浮くhas more of a going up into the sky kind of meaning and 浮かぶ to more like being suspended/floating on a surface of something kind of meaning.
浮かべる：to float something/launch something/ set something afloat (transitive) 舟を浮かべているfor instance.
Super recommend this book BTW, I am looking up words here and there but they repeat the same words and phrases over and over and over again because it’s told from a 9-year-old’s perspective, it ends up being more simple and interesting than the other “easy” books I’ve been trying!
5 Likes