Hello i’m only level 3 for now but was wondering …i’m currently using WaniKani with KaniWani.
And i know both of them aren’t gonna be ennough to understand Manga ,LN’s … in the future, so , i’m here to ask what else can i do, to get better… a friend told be about listening audio from anime i’ve already watched so i can remember the word pronunciation and where to use some words in which context ,I also found a youtube channel with a lot of good video about japanese grammar.
So i was just wondering if all of them are gonna be ennough if not, what else should i do?
Japanese has a lot of words, you’ll need to know much more than WK teaches you. I use a custom Anki deck, when I look up a word I usually leave the tab open until I add it to the deck. @Raionus has a site called FloFlo.moe that lets you study the vocab used in specific books. We also have reading clubs on WK where you can read along with other people and ask questions.
For grammar, I used Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide along with a mix of a ton of other freely available online resources such as Japanese Stack Exchange, and the beginning of the Nakama 1 textbook. I’ve heard A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar recommended many times, and I should be getting it this month, if you know what I mean
Well two things. First, WaniKani is a kanji learning resource. So while you will learn a lot of vocabulary here, you won’t learn it in context, or which word is appropriate if there are multiple words with the same or very close to the same meaning. Second, you need to learn grammar. Grammar isn’t taught through WaniKani, and is very difficult if not impossible to learn through immersion alone.
So to answer your question, I would highly recommend getting either Genki I/II(textbooks), or studying grammar through Tae Kim’s guide (it’s free and online). It’s important that whatever approach you choose to take to learning grammar, that it’s both structured and somewhat comprehensive. I won’t say that watching youtube videos is categorically a bad way to learn grammar, but it is likely to be far worse than either of the two methods I mentioned above. Bunpro is another thing you could look into. It’s very similar to Wanikani (I think it’s based on it), but it’s for Japanese grammar instead of kanji.
日本語の森 (Nihongo no Mori) is an excellent (and immersive) series of YouTube videos at (I think?) every level, but I’d generally say that YouTube videos are better for reinforcing grammar than they are at teaching it. Especially at lower levels when you have less foundation. This is due mostly to the fact that you can’t really drill yourself through them. They’re passive.
I’d highly recommend getting a textbook/workbook, so that you can learn and practice foundational Japanese simultaneously. (And I prefer the textbook/workbook method for learning new grammar points even now, beyond foundational Japanese.) So I second either getting Genki or something similar.
I like iKnow for vocab (another paid app, but cheap; it’s structured a lot like Wanikani), but I’m not sure how I’d feel about it if I’d come in at a lower level. I started it when I was decently into intermediate Japanese and a little ways into Wanikani, and it made a great addition with the foundation of grammar and vocab I already had. I have no idea if it would feel as useful to complete beginners. Maybe check it out though, since you can start with very foundational vocab sets and keep working your way up.
Whatever you choose, the important thing is just to have consistent, structured ways of learning grammar, vocab and kanji, and to stick to them. Luckily you already have one of those three covered.
In my opinion, Japanese is an extremely difficult language.
For many languages, it’s enough to just watch some videos, learn some vocabs and some gramar and so on for long enough. Japanese is different. Everything you want to be able to do, you need to practice.
-You want to be able to read kanji? Than do WK
-You want to read Japanese? Than you need grammar and the vocab, that WK did not teach you.
-You want to write Japanese? Than you need to practice it! WK is a great ressource for this (if you use it with a handwriting input on your smartphone)
-You want to be able to listen to Japanese? Well this is a completely different task. Of course, it helps if you can read Japanese, but actually you have to study it. (“Shaddowing” is the most efficient technique to do this. You have a text and a transcript and try to synchronize your listening and reading comprehension)
-You want to be able to speak Japanese? Than practice it! Find a language exchange partner and talk, talk talk! Of course it helps to use WK, too (but it’s not enough).
Basicly I want to say: just focus on some of this goals in the beginning. Find maybe 2 or 3 things you want to at a time (e.g. WK, KW and Tae Kims Guide). You won’t have time for more and if you do too much at a time, you won’t make progress! But if you find something that works for you, that stick with it, so that you will feel the progress.
Edit: I am right now practicing the skills “Reading kanji” (aka WaniKani), “Writing in Kanji” (aka KaniWani) and “Listening” (I do this by shadowing with the Satori Reader). So in total I do about 4 hours of studying per day. Just as an idea…
