It’s Teppei’s beginner podcast on youtube.
I recommend it!
According to the heatmap script, I’m spending around 1.5 hours daily doing reviews (200-300), and about 1.5 hours per week doing lessons.
Lately I’ve been playing a lot of visual novels (mainly Umineko), and for some time I’ve been watching a lot of anime. I wouldn’t count these towards my language learning progress as I’ve always had English subtitles. Sometimes I’d recognize from the audio a certain word or even a whole (simple) sentence, and get pretty stoked about it, but ultimately it’s all low-effort and amounts to barely anything.
At a higher level I’d like to replay Danganronpa in Japanese. At the moment I feel it’s a bit overwhelming at level 15…
What I’d want to do right now is to incorporate the following into my schedule:
- some grammar (only read the basic grammar from Tae Kim’s guide, and I’m starting to feel I need more atm)
- maybe some kanji writing (as an aid in distinguishing&recognizing kanji)
- a respectable kaniwani practice (I feel I’m lacking A LOT right now in recognizing JP words from audio)
I feel that if I don’t start to diversify a bit I’ll soon to hit a brick wall.
1 Like
I spend about an hour or so on WK per day. That’s spread out over the course of a day as I do my lessons and reviews.
That’s pretty much the only time that I actually count.
I play video games in Japanese (スターオーシェン and ファイナルファンタジー6); I watch a lot of Japanese YouTubers (オノマップ and 三本塾); I watch a ton of anime (進撃の巨人 and 呪術開戦); and I read manga (特攻の島 and ワンパンマン).
But that’s all for fun. 
1 Like
It’s sort of been because I want to see what works best for me. Every single website claims to have the best method of learning. What I found is the style of each website teaches you in different manners and may or may not be effective, but all of them have good content to some degree.
Duolingo - Learn by forming sentences
Memrise - Learn phrases by video memes
DeerLingo - Learn vocabulary by multiple choice,
HiNative - This is just a Language Question community
JapanesePod101 - Learn by podcast
Udemy - Learn big chunks of content by video
Skillshare - Learn targeted bits of useful information by video
Youtube - Learn targeted bits of useful information by video
Wanikani - Learn everything about Kanji, 1 kanji at a time.
RosettaStone - Learn by pictures.
All the websites have extra reasons to be there as well, Duolingo forum is great too, and zoom meetings. DeerLingo has a game app that does a pretty good job at making Language learning fun. JapanesePod101 has a word-of-the-day email that shares new words every day.
Mainly I been sticking with Memrise and Duolingo because. I started with Duolingo and I want to finish the course, and Memrise teaches me the most phrases. I always look out for my JapanesePod101 word of the day email. DeerLingo I want to go back to because I want to finish eventually, but I’m hoping they step up the quality of the app.
- Podcasts during commute, cleaning, walks etc. ~1h
- Anki decks for vocab and kanji writing ~45 min
- Reading LN/novel ~1h
Those are part of my daily routine, but depending on the day, I may listen or read some more, watch Japanese youtube/shows etc.
どうも ありがとう ございます！ 
1 Like
I wish I could say half an hour + SRS (WK, Kitsun). But I often don’t manage that. Mostly it is about 10-15 minutes + SRS per day and one day where I learn for like 4 hours straight.
WK currently takes me just a few-teen minutes each day, since there are only burns and leeches left
I was attending a Japanese class once a week up until October, but unfortunately due to various reasons I had to quit 
So currently I’m not doing much actual studying outside of those few WK reviews left. However, I’m spending 4 to 5 hours a day with Japanese by playing untranslated Visual Novels. It perhaps isn’t much in terms of learning, but I still notice that some words finally start to stick after looking them up for nth time
And whenever there’s new video on Misa’s channel, I watch it.
I’ve been pondering trying italki every now and then, but haven’t got to it yet. (I’m missing the speaking practice I got during lessons)
1 Like
This thread makes me realize how lucky I am. I was laid off due to COVID so I’m making the best of it by spending most of my free time studying.
A rough guess:
- 1-2 hours Wanikani (closer to the 2 if I’m doing lessons that day)
- 2 hours reading
- 1-2 hours Anki
- 2 hours adding new things to Anki.
I wish I could put even more into it but my brain needs frequent breaks and gets easily distracted. It’s really rewarding though and I’m actually planning on trying to get into translation once I pass JLPT N1, which I’m aiming to do in 2022 (or this year if a miracle happens).
I consider myself to basically be a full-time student right now.
3 Likes
Congratulations in advance! I hope I can do the same thing. I’ve been really burned out with my work since last year and would like to quit. But unfortunately, I can’t because of responsibilities. I hope I can reduce the time of my work in the future and focus on things that matters to me.
Are you in Japan btw?
1 Like
1-3 hours maybe ? but something everyday - even if is just my review 
Yay responsibility ☆
Yep I’m in Japan.
About an hour or so. If i’m not busy at work then i’d learn some new words on WK. Currently i’m still able to do reviews at work, for the time being. Once i’m done with work at 5pm, I’ll usually go for a run like for an hour. Around 8pm is my free time, so i get to choose either watch Animes, or play some video games, or if I’m up for a new lesson, then I’d do some practice and learning thru Genki materials. So far I only have Genki Elementary 1 book and its workbook and also recent bought A Dictionary of Basic Grammar.
For me is depends the state of mind on that moment. There are days where I don’t learn anything at thru Genki. But I’d still make time for WK, reviews and learning new words.
I have these numbers from the Heatmap Script:
Lessons:
Reviews:
But I’ve reset a few times, so done many levels 4 times and across almost 4 years (first 6 months not recorded, so done even more too)
It actually comes down to less than an hour a day O_o
On my active days I certainly use more, but had periods of a few months where I did nothing.
I’d say about 2 hours a day is what I actually use on WK.
At least twice that in the forum (on some days all day )
Outside of WK I do some reading. No daily, but a few hours a week.
Would like to be able to go back there. I really hate this pandemic. Anyway, good luck to both of us
over 300 days but those numbers are wrong i guess
when i review and do lessons, i wander off between batches
i do 4 lessons, wander off to forget a bit, do the review for those 4 then 4 more…
i do 10 reviews, forum, then 10 reviews… then forum, then forum… then i have to refresh cause i spent too long on the forum…
i don’t do much outside WK for now
Maybe an hour-ish. I do reviews 3 times a day and only do 2 lessons a day to keep it light. I started Mango last week to focus on speaking aloud and grammar and I only do a lesson a day and those are usually under 20 minutes.
Just asking, but are they online courses? I’ve been trying to find a program that I can join as there are none locally.
1 Like
Oh my - it’s kind of embarrassing to answer this question, but I probably spend upwards of 5 hours a day on Japanese study (some days it’s MUCH higher).
I hit WK at least twice a day everyday (Mondays and Thursdays are my days to learn new kanji to keep my pace up) to keep my reviews manageable - somedays I might pop in for 3-4 shorter review sessions if I happen to have the time.
I drill on Anki for roughly 10-20 min. per day; it really depends on the day, how many reviews I have at a given time, and my mood/fatigue which dictates whether my brain is super sharp or not so much!
On weekdays, I also go on Bunpro at least once a day while at work (shh ;D), but when I have more time on weekends, I prefer to spend it engaging with native material rather than drilling tons of SRS.
Aside from that, I spend many hours a day working with native material in some fashion or another. I read manga, play a text-heavy Japanese video game, watch Japanese videos, or occasionally some anime (I’m not so into anime anymore, so I mostly watch stuff I loved as a younger kid). At a bare minimum, I would say I engage with such media for at least 3 hours a day, and on some days, it could be upwards of 8 hours.
I used to also do handwritten exercises out of textbooks (first Genki; then Tobira) on weekends as well, but I have stopped doing this as I honestly feel my time is better spent on native material. Since I have started reading a LOT everyday, my overall language ability has really taken off in a way that textbook grinding alone just can’t compete with. I still reference my textbooks or handy internet sources to check on things or read about new grammatical constructions I haven’t seen before.
But in general, my brain is pretty much in “Japanese mode” in some way all day everyday - whether it be through passive listening, drilling flashcards, or playing though a Japanese RPG. I’ve been intensely studying this way for about 8 months and I’ve been really happy with the results so far. I’m not sure for how much longer I’ll be able to keep up that kind of pace - but I haven’t burned out yet, so we’ll see!
6 Likes
When I first started WK, I was following Tofugu’s guide completely, and didn’t pick up my textbook at all until level 10. I was probably spending an hour or so on WK daily, doing 10-25 lessons (ten if it was kanji, 25 if it was vocab).
At level 10, I started picking up my textbook, but when I went back to work (I was put on furlough for a month and a half) I struggled to keep up with it. I found it easy to do 30 minutes of WK in the morning, then my reviews during the day, but I dreaded picking up my textbook. I think it was a combination of being tired after work, and also finding WK “easy”, and seeing the progress in a tangible way, whereas working through my textbook is so so so much harder, and progress is less obvious.
Since hitting level 20, I’ve reversed my studying - I do my textbook work in the morning, to make sure I’m always learning and practicing grammar, and then if I miss doing WK lessons in the evening. I probably do 20-30 minutes before work, then I will try to do 10 WK lessons in the evening, as well as my reviews. I find doing reviews at 5pm/6pm, then 9pm/10pm, then just after I’ve woken up at 7am, works well for me. At the weekends, I try to do an hour of textbook work daily, and keep WK work the same.
For 2021, I’ve banned myself from English-language Netflix. I found that I wasn’t really watching it anyway, I was just playing on my phone with something on in the background, but watching Japanese TV forces me to engage. It’s also a way to immerse myself and pick things up passively.
So, to actually answer the question:
20-30 minutes textbook work
~30 minutes WK lessons and reviews
I watch a 40 minute TV show episode maybe every other day
Now that I’ve written it down, that seems like a lot! I always try to do something, even if it’s reading my textbook for 15 minutes, or doing a few reviews (even when I’m hungover!). There’s only so much my brain can take on a daily basis, and I’d rather learn one thing a day and actually keep it, than spend 4 hours and lose half the lesson by the time I wake up the next day.
1 Like