Gotta lurk
only 2.5 weeks? you’re doing well! keep it up, my friend!
Are you using the method from Tofugu? Before I was introduced to Wanikani and Tofugu, I was using an app to try and learn Hiragana. I spent about a week learning Hiragana and also using Duolingo until I started researching methods of learning. When I read this article(link below) I learned Hiragana in maybe 3 hours. The next day I learned Katakana(link below) and, knowing Hiragana, it took even less time. For the following two weeks, I took this quiz(link below) improved my completion time from over 12 minutes to five minutes, 32 seconds(I have it written down). I would most definitely recommend the Tofugu method.
Not variety/news/talk/quiz show, but a Drama/Thriller
There is lots of written Nihongo in the show “Alice In Borderland” on Netflix. It takes place in Tokyo, where there are a lot of symbols all over the city. There are also lots of short phrases within the texts that characters send to each other. I found that it was very difficult to get much out of it at my level, but for a more advanced learner, it seems like it would be both helpful and enjoyable. It actually distracted from my studies a little bit because I liked it so much.
Around 3h of study, and 1-2h of passive content (anime/manga/music)
WaniKani+KaniWani: 30-60min (maybe more on LVL up days)
Torii: 15min
Drops: 10min
KameSame: 10min (only enlightened itens)
Grammar (Bunpro + Misa + Books): at least 30min-1h (more on weekends).
I watch the local news here in Kansai. Not always the same channel. My favorite quiz shows are ネプリーグ, 99人の壁, くりぃむクイズ ミラクル9, and 東大王. My girlfriend likes the talk show しゃべくり007, so we end up watching that a bunch. And I like the manzai duo かまいたち, so I watch their YouTube channel a lot.
And why not? Language is not maths and the order in which you learn stuff is not that important. One resource can have good explanations for some things and bad for others. Using sereval sources kind of evens it out. Besides people who are experienced in learning languages or maybe have pedogogical education will know what they lack and don’t necessarily need a full language course to level up their language knowledge. I took a beginners course in japanese and was planning to start playing videogames to keep progressing (I chose skyrim as the first one), but not being able to read kanji and having to look them up in the dictionary all the time was super slow and annoying. So I decided I need to get better at kanji before moving on and now I’m here. And I wouldn’t worry about thinning out when it comes to language. The more you know the better. If you know something just a little bit and you can’t reproduce it yourself, you’ll still probably recognise it in context when it pops up and thus improve your skills.
Btw I’m jealous of you finding WK addictive. I have to force myself every time and I often fail to do it. 
Thank you! I already know I like ネプリーグ, so I will definitely try the others. ETA: Ah, I also like かまいたち, apparently–I’ve only seen them on variety shows and didn’t remember their name, but now I will try their youtube. 
To be honest, as little as possible.
I’m in a strange situation. Although I live in Japan for really don’t use the language much, except in shops and low level transactions. I have a survival level and can get things done, but my grammar is pretty weak (think Tarzan style English) and even my hearing isn’t good. After being surrounded by it all day I really want a break from it, so tend to focus on other stuff than studying the language.
Yes, I just completed Tofugu’s Katakana section tonight, so I’m now done with both I just decided to take my time and not cram it all I didn’t wanna burn myself out, I don’t like studying for long periods of time.
Been kind of hectic on my end, but I’ve been slowly building up a consistent schedule and working on sticking to it.
- Wanikani - keep reviews empty, takes maybe an hour. I only just started working on this. Came back after a year and spent the last week going through my entire backlog of reviews.
- Duolingo - 15 minutes usually, mostly just keeping my streak going. Not sure how I feel about it yet.
- Japanese tutor - Once a week for about an hour using Genki.
- Looking to add Cure Dolly and Animelon eventually for grammar and sentence practice.
College has me busy, and when I’m not in classes or doing homework I want to relax lol. But I’m slowly trying to incorporate Japanese learning or at least some immersion into it. Even if it’s just listening to the language and not much else, it at least keeps me in a certain mindset to keep seeing/hearing small patterns, even if I can’t necessarily point them out.
I usually aim for 2h30 a day, 90min of active studying (srs and lessons) and 60min of immersion (anime/games mostly).
I’m pretty consistent on week days but for some reason it’s way harder on week end even though I have more time…
I wish I have a lot of time to do those things. I can only do WK daily and sometimes read Minna No Nihonggo because of work. 
Time varies and is difficult to say, since I spread it out all during the day. But everyday or every other day I try to do some immersion (anime, manga, Youtube etc), listen to a Japanese podcast episode (usually Nihongo con Teppei), do my WK & Nativshark reviews, SRS (Anki & Memrize), practice shadowing audios (Miku Sensei) which combines grammar study with pronunciation practice, learning new vocab & verb conjugation practice. I don’t “sit down and study” very often though. Since I have a busy life (work full time, live on a farm and own three horses) I usually combine my Japanese studies with other chores (such as stable work & practicing shadowing audios at the same time). Besides this I have 2-3 language exchange meetings/week (Japanese-Swedish) over Discord (an exchange group that I myself started). So, I don’t do a lot of “textbook study” anymore, but I’ve started working through GENKI II together with a couple other members of my Discord group. We try to meet about once a week to do the Genki-exercises together. 
Dear Nemuitanuki,
Could you please share the beginners’ podcasts you listen to? 
お願いします
I’m a slacker. I spend about 15 minutes.
I would say about 1 hour of focused study every day, WK, Grammar, Anki and focused reading where I translate everything I don’t understand. Then there is some reading and various immersion but that amount of time changes, a minimum of 1 page per day though.
Hmmm… Do I even want to know?
I’ve made an effort to push towards fluency lately, so I’m committed. Most of my other hobbies are kind of closed down due to Covid too, so I’m taking the chance.
My daily schedule changes around a bit, but usually It looks something like this.
Usually get up at around 5-6 AM before work, make coffee and start studying.
Usually I start with doing Wanikani, so lets go from there. Worth mention that I do Wanikani several times during the day, spread out. I’m that annoying guy that spends my lunch break studying kanji at work.
- Wanikani - 30-45 mins. Usually 100 ish reviews and at the very least 10 lessons.
- Memrise - 15-20 mins. I repeat my SRS JLPT 4-5 and work on my JLPT N3 course.
- Bunpro - 10~ mins. I’m currently working through old grammar (N4/N5) So it’s fairly quick, I expect this to take longer as I get to current grammar.
- Duolingo - 5 mins (I don’t really know why I do it, but I have a streak above 1k and I don’t want to lose it, haha!)
- Kaniwani - 10~ Minutes. Really helps reinforcing them kanji for me.
- Pimsleur - 30 min - 90 min. I usually do one 30 min lesson in the morning and then two more while i’m playing some videogames later during the day. (I completed the courses long ago, so I’m just re-enforcing at this point).
- Japanese pod 101. - 15~ Min. Not sure about keeping this one. But it’s nice to listen to at least.
- Italki - 30-60 min. I’ve been slacking with this one during the holidays. But I’m getting back to it as work gets less intense. I try to get at least 3x60 min of conversation with natives per week.
Depending on if it’s a work day, I usually head out to the gym or work at this point.
I also started going through my old course books recently. Trying to get in like half an hour per day so far, but it’s hard to get sitting with those books for some reason. I also get subjected to some Japanese via Martial arts and by watching anime/reading manga every now and then, but it’s very scattered. I also started the Pimsleur Korean course because I felt like it for some reason.
Honestly, I wish I could just study all day.
2 hours these day. An hour to Wanikani, 30 minutes to reading NHK Articles and 30 minutes to listening to the Bilingual News Podcast.
It is much more difficult studying and working at the same time. I’m not working at the moment so I’m going all out.
Maybe hopefully
Studying as much as I can before the baby comes at least. From then on it will be sooooo different