I am seeking suggestions for immersion materials. I am level 26 currently in Wanikani and my normal routine for the last several months has been Wanikani and then my 15 new cards in Migaku. I feel like I have been procrastinating too long getting into immersion and really want to make it part of my routine.
Although I eventually would like to do most things in Japanese (speak, listen and read) my primary reason for learning is to play video games in Japanese. I try this from time to time but so far have convinced myself that its better that I delay this until I am around an N3 level to avoid turning one of my favorite hobbies into a chore by so frequent lookups (or having to create a very elaborate setup on my computer instead of kicking back on the couch gaming).
I have been trying to listen to Nihongo con Teppei a bit here and there as I believe my listening is way worse than my reading ability. In the past I have read a bit on Satori Reader and am considering doing that again but also would welcome any specific recommendations (visual/audio, audio only and reading).
At level 26 I was reading novels. However thereâs more to immersion than WK levels, as you know, since you also need to know grammar and non-WK vocab.
I would say do a bit of reading and listening immersion. Theyâre different skills, so you do want to practice both, and they can both help reinforce.
For listening, since youâre using Migaku, you could go to their premade playlist for Late Beginner. Itâs a lot of higher level comprehensible input, so itâs not quite native level, but not quite super beginner either (depending on the video).
For books, I recommend getting into L22-L25 novels (thatâs the Natively level) and just aiming to start with half a page a day and then increasing as you get better. Itâll be more fun to handle skipping words, if there are too many to look up, and try to focus on either what you know or whatâs easy to vibe (ex: new word but you know all the kanji for it).
Itâs a lot easier to start out with content you already know, whether itâs a book youâve read in English or the light novel of an anime. If you like Disney movies, I always recommend reading the novel adaptation of the movies (just be sure to get the novel, not the board books), because they still have a good amount of kanji for kidsâ books and easy mostly N4 (and some of the common N3) grammar.
How about checking out the recently finished Final Fantasy 1 Beginner Club - Home Thread? Thereâs an awesome spreadsheet with all the vocabulary for the script so you can easily look up words.
Open up Google Maps, find yourself a busy area in Tokyo or wherever, plonk down the little Street View man somewhere random, and just read the signage.
I see the playlist youâre talking about, Iâll definitely start using this, thanks!
Any suggestion on how to consume said novels? I just created a Amazon JP account to try and use my kindle for but I think itâs blocking me because Iâm not in Japan and Iâm not using a VPN (I want to avoid VPN usage if possible).
Yeah Iâll keep this in mind, that makes sense, thanks for the suggestions!
I just want to be clear not everyone reads novels at 26, nor is it required. A lot of people read manga, short stories, graded readers, easy news, or do intensive reading on subtitles/transcripts. But you should definitely be immersing regularly at this point so you can practice what youâve learned. Itâll help with retention too.
I use bookwalker because I donât use a VPN and a lot of the other things seem like a hassle to sign up for. Plus it gets frequent sales and has a wide library, with most books not requiring being in Japan (to date I have only been blocked once because of Japan-only restrictions).
However, bookwalker doesnât have epubs and does not work with Migaku. (It can partially work with 10ten so I assume it would also work with some of the other browser extension lookups , but sadly Migaku is not one of them). I used the dictionary lookups on my mobile devices so I donât care, but there are people who certainly mind. It also wonât work on kindle since you canât get the books out of their ecosystem (The app version can only work on phones, tablets, and e-ink devices that let you install apps, like Boox. Otherwise there is the web version, which is much clunkier, and can work on whatever e-readers have a somewhat decent web browser).
If you have a physical kindle, beware that you can only have one associated kindle account (e.g. JP or USA) connected to it at once.
According to this thread and what Iâve heard from other people buying on kindle from abroad, sometimes after 6 or so purchases you might have to use a VPN to make a purchase on amazon JP, but then after that it should allow you to make purchases without using a VPN from then onwards for a while.
Thereâs some info about using Amazon JP abroad and making purchases here, but maybe some of it might be out of date. You might have to do some messing around with switching your region to Japan, and Amazon can be finnicky, but plenty of people do it here and could probably give more help. It should let you make purchases from abroad fine most of the time though, so maybe some of the account settings arenât set up properly yet
What exactly is the problem or error it throws at you?
Youâll need to define a Japanese address (just look up a library or bookstore or something like that?) and set that as your 1-click digital purchases address.
You can still have a second local address defined, to use for orders of non-digital products, if youâll ever want to do that.
I made a bunch of Kindle purchases before they eventually blocked me - at that time I used a free VPN service to connect once, buy one book, then disconnect. Was never asked again sinceâŠ
Also, if you are using the same e-mail address for both the Amazon Global and JP accounts, ensure you set different passwords for them.
Otherwise you wonât be able to register the Kindle device with the JP account, itâll automatically go to the Global account when you provide the username and pw.
In general, immersion is going to mean doing less stuff in your native language and replacing it with stuff in Japanese. So, if youâre watching TV watch in Japanese, reading a book, read in⊠you get the idea. Anyway:
If you have a Netflix subscription then youâve got huge amounts of dubbed to Japanese and Japanese native content with original audio to watch, a lot of it has JP subs as well. Currently enjoying âHotspotâ. Anime is actually the easiest thing to start with, very clear voice audio, short episodes, generally simple language if you pick slice of life or romcom.
With Netflix & Chrome, you can use the Language Reactor plugin, which is brilliant:
For books / manga, an Amazon JP account is the easiest thing, you will need a dedicated kindle, and to pick a Japanese address, but you only need to use a VPN once and then youâre good to go.
YouTube also has countless hours of Japanese for learners content from absolute beginners onward - just search for Japanese listening practice, or Japanese comprehensible input. Plus you can just watch Japanese content.
There are loads of Japanese podcasts, NcT is probably the simplest Japanese only one, with currently something like 60 hours of content. You can listen to it any time you donât have to be listening to something else, and you donât have to pay attention all the time. And you can obviously replay it as much as you like.
As someone whoâs gotten to a decent level in reading myself, Iâm not sure if theres really any point where you wonât need frequent lookups if youâre serious about using native content to learn. At least in my experience, the âchill and just do itâ came *after* a lot of practice with frequent lookups and I hesitate to call it practice in the first place (with the exception of reading speed practice maybe).
If you want to get better at reading games in Japanese, the best option is really going to be reading games in Japanese no matter how you cut it. Iâd strongly recommend unconvincing yourself itâs a good idea to put off and do what you can to get used to the process and enjoy it a little. Maybe play a game youâve already played before and will have more ease following. Maybe use something like jpdb.io to prelearn words. Maybe just⊠do it anyways.
The people who tend to progress the most imo/e are the ones who do the difficult thing that they set as their goal rather than the ones who avoid it until theyâre âreadyâ. Reason being is that none of us are ever really ready. Just my two cents.
I ended up getting it to work I had everything set up I just needed to change the region again in that specific area despite choosing it initially upon account creation it for some reason defaulted to no region.
I really appreciate this perspective. I go through periods where I enjoy doing intensive playing/watching/reading where I look up every unknown word and either move on or add it to my SRS but realistically it can been mentally exhausting to only do intensive study and I want to do more extensive where I resist the urge to look up things. Itâs a hard thing to balance. Itâs not that Iâm not up for doing the difficult thing, I really am, but I think I need to balance it so I donât turn all my leisure time into intensive study.
Perhaps I try and change most of my leisure into Japanese and what I switch between is intensive vs extensive instead of only changing small parts of my leisure into intensive study time.
I agree with you though in general, I should be doing more of what my primary reason is which is playing games, even if the experience is very rough for a long while.
I had a similar experience myself. I mean, it truly is quite mentally taxing. Maybe one of the most mentally taxing things Iâve ever had to do. Thats good and it means youâre putting in effort and learning, but yeah it can be a lot.
What I personally did was read a book more intensively and then when I did my goal for the day I would go over to reading a separate VN if I had extra time or fuel in the tank. There I would be a bit more lenient and not add stuff to srs and just try to read and understand. Though I did utilize instant lookups. Maybe a similar system of having content for intensive reading and having separate content for extensive reading would be something you like.
As a side note, possibly one of the most important aspects of this sort of study routine is plenty of sleep. Itâs pretty crazy the difference it can make, especially when you are mentally fatiguing yourself. If you arenât waking up the next day well rested and mentally reset, the fatigue will accumulate and your study routine will go to shit some point down the line.
EDIT: Also I would highly suggest against adding every unknown word to your srs until you are maybe a little past N1 level or so. Use a frequency dictionary and only add the most common words. If you can do 10 new words a day or so, I would suggest setting the bar just high enough to where you are adding 10 or so new common words a day to your srs.
+1 on sleep being super important for learning (âmental growthâ), and physical skill and muscle development, and also for performance.
A slight tangent to the main topic -
Sports teams with elite athletes who play a heavy schedule across time zones are recently trying to optimize sleep to minimize injury and maximize performance. There are reports that the brain solidifies recent learnings during sleep. Unfortunately alcohol even at low doses, is bad for quality sleep (and caffeine late in the day - even from the afternoon). Not something to stress over but something to keep in mind. Along with doing some study over the Christmas and New Year holidays, I plan to get some early morning sunlight to help circadian rhythms and sleep patterns.
Yeah totally hear you about sleep. Iâm pushing pretty hard physically too so sleep is a must. Luckily I normally get a good 7 to 8 hours most days.
Currently close to finishing a premade SRS deck (migaku academy course) and approaching 1800 âknownâ words on that which they suggest from there going and watching easy native materials so thatâs part of my move towards this. Yeah I exaggerated a bit about adding every single unknown word, I do skip over some especially rare words. Also names. Names are justâŠvery hard lol
Yeah Iâm a huge NBA head (Lakers fan) and what they have to do is brutal. Itâs funny to read about the different things players do to get sleep (some lean more science, some more supernatural). I canât imagine getting on a plane at midnight then landing and getting to a hotel at 4am knowing I have a game at 6pm that same day. Brutal.
Final Fantasy 1 Beginner Club - Home Thread
