Hello Wanikani community, sorry for an incredibly n00by question, but I was hoping to get some feedback about my plan for the beginning of my Japanese journey.
I am currently at level 3 of Wanikani and looking to get a subscription to continue using the tool for kanji/vocabulary for as long as it makes sense.
To supplement this, I am also using Bunpro to help me learn basic sentence structure and grammatical rules. Generally only 5 lessons a day so I don’t get swamped by using two SRS tools at once.
I am also trying to spend at least an hour or two a day listening to Japanese language podcasts to help with immersion. Obviously I only understand the odd word and have no idea what is going on at this point!
Later on, maybe in six months when I have a foundation, I’ll switch from Bunpro to Anki and start mining manga/news/anime/video games to try and build my reading comprehension. I’ll also consider a virtual Japanese language course at my local college in September if I can make it work (I have a baby at home which is limiting)
Does this seem like a reasonable plan for my first year? Is there anything obvious I am missing? Looking forward to getting to know you all!
It sounds like you’ve already considered this, but I would have one piece of advice as a fellow beginner: if you’re going to be doing multiple SRS apps combined with native materials, I would say take WK slow. WK can get overwhelming if you go at breakneck pace. You don’t always have to do new lessons, just make sure you’re doing your reviews.
Personally, I started learning Japanese with bunpro but then switched to nativshark because I appreciated how it taught grammar in a more holistic manner.
I was studying the material on nativshark but I put everything on hold to do WK because none of the kanji/vocab on nativshark was sticking for me and I was desperate to learn how to read these ancient runes. I’m currently speedrunning WK, but it became all-consuming very quickly. I thought I could balance multiple SRS apps, but it turns out I just neglected one for the other. I’m only now starting to add grammar back into my study routine (I probably did so later than I should have).
It’s a balancing act. Don’t lose balance like I did.
Sounds much smarter than what I did in my first year. What kind of podcasts are you listening to? You might get more out of CIJapanese’s videos at beginner level since you’ll probably understand a lot more.
I’d advise to remove some pressure in your agenda and add something you enjoy which has some Japanese in it. It’s not a race but a journey and the aim is to eventually get there. Being quick enough to see progress but not too fast so as not burn out the motivation is a delicate balance.
I will check out the videos thanks I’ve favoured podcasts so far so I could listen while working, or rocking a baby to sleep - I’ve struggled to find time for immersion with all the chaos going on!
I can’t vouch for the quality of the podcasts I like, but I have found them to be the most listenable without understanding:
Yuyu podcast, hosted by a Japanese teacher, very clearly spoken and listenable. I think it’ll be a good one once I’ve built my foundation up a bit more
Game Nantoka - a video game podcast hosted by two people discussing video game news, lots of back and forth naturalistic talking, but they don’t speak very clearly for me
味な副音声 ～voice of food - another conversation heavy podcast, but more clear than the video game one. This one had the first full sentence spoken that I have ever understood based on what I’ve learned so far
Grammar is trickier than vocab, especially at first. Aim for 2/3 items a day is my recommendation. At 2 lessons a day your can cover bunpro N5, N4 and N3 (the really important stuff) in about 9 months which is more than reasonable IMO.
Unless you’re willing and able to spend 6h daily studying Japanese, that’s an aggressive timeline. I did start playing games about 6 months in, but extremely laboriously and with constant lookups for kanji, vocab and grammar. I do recommend reading real Japanese as early as possible, but keep you expectations low.
I don’t want to be a downer but when I see a self-avowed “newbie” committing to such a hardcore timeline, I know that there’s a 1% chance that they’ve got the schedule and brain juice to pull it off and a 99% change that they don’t realize what they’re getting into. Maybe you’re the 1%.
Also if your primary short term objective is reading, consider putting the emphasis on WaniKani and then Bunpro and then everything else. In the short term as a beginner, kanji knowledge is going to provide the biggest returns in terms of dealing with written Japanese.
This is a great point, I can already feel myself doing the thing where I get really excited at some progress, put everything into it, and be thinking months ahead of where I’m at rather than focusing on the little wins. I should enjoy the journey a little more. Especially since no one has told me I’m doing the wrong thing so far!
Overall I like your plan but I would remove the sentence mining at 6 months - or at the very least put some restrictions on it like no more than 2 a day. Because otherwise that might be overwhelming.
For WK, instead of “5 lessons a day”, I would say you should aim for “5 kanji or radicals” a day. Use the lesson picker, and pick up to 5 vocab too. This makes for up to 10 lessons a day but 5 of them are kanji/radicals and 5 are vocab (obviously depending on what type of cards are available on that day).
Since WK progress is tied to kanji (which itself is locked to radicals), if you did a pure “5 lessons a day”, the system could give you 2 kanji and 3 vocab once those vocab cards are out and that’ll slow you down to an absolute crawl.
As far as consuming content, things will depend on the difficulty of the content itself, but overall you can understand quite a lot with just N5 and N4 grammar, especially if you read things that tend to skew on the easier side (easy news, older children’s novels and short stories, satori reader and similar apps). And as an ambitious goal for the end of the year, just to see how far you’ve come, maybe something more difficult that you’ve already consumed in some form in English - like the source novel of a movie adaptation you already saw. Not to try to understand fully, just to get a feel for where you stand.
Thanks for the warning. I suppose I may have overemphasized my “one year plan” in my original post. I don’t have any actual goal to be able to do something by a certain point. I’m mainly here to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious to focus on in my early days.
I’m currently spending about 1hr a day learning, and maybe another hour or so listening. So I’m not expecting miracles!
Harsh, but true. I definitely overestimated my brain juice.
I had the schedule, but not enough mental stamina. Studying Japanese is mentally exhausting. I thought I could do the 6 hour thing, but I really had no idea what I was in for. It ended up being a humbling experience for me.
Me before learning Japanese: “It’s fine. I’m a fast learner!”
Me, months into studying, still struggling to put a sentence together:
But to end on a positive note: I do notice very incremental gains here and there. Every time I learn something new and then hear/read it in actual media or have a chance to use it IRL, it gives me the little dopamine hit I need to continue.
From the replies to my first thing, I’m starting to regret putting such a strong target on the sentence mining! I think I was overly influenced by people on Reddit & Youtube being obsessed with Anki. I will re-evaluate this goal when I have a stronger foundation
This is great. I hadn’t really engaged with the lesson picker. I’ll keep that in mind!
The only “wrong” I would ever see is to tire yourself and stop.
Learning is very dependent on how you learn as a person, there are things that will work for you at specific time and not others.
Especially in the early stages whatever you do is something. If you don’t like a service anymore just stop. If something is easy and rewarding go for it ! There will always be time to look at the other areas after.
I personally place a LOT of emphasis on enjoyment in the act of learning because it’s a sure way to continue over time.
As long as you practice regularly you’ll progress and as long as it’s enjoyable you won’t stop practicing
The more you learn the more stamina you get, but early on it’s pretty brutal for sure. One or two hours of proper study/day can be exhausting at first. There are so many elements you have to keep in mind at all times. These days if I have the time I can spend 4 hours just reading Japanese in a day without too much trouble, although generally by the end I’m spent.
Anki is good and mining your own stuff is definitely a good idea eventually. In general I would recommend not going through brutal changes in your routine (say, drop bunpro and start anki at the same time) because if you don’t enjoy your new system you may lose your routine. Do gradual changes where you reduce the time spent on one system while you ramp up the new one.
Similarly you don’t have to suddenly decide to start reading manga and play games, you can start doing that in the background even very early on and see what you manage to understand, and then as you progress you’ll get further and further into the content.
. Welcome !
