Japanese Learning Diary

Learning Japanese in 2 years is quite a task! Good luck!

Remember to have fun learning =]

Also welcome to Wanikani!

Exciting! Good luck on your journey! :slight_smile:

Is your goal to be fluent at a near native level or to be able to have everyday conversations with native speakers and understand most Japanese native content (in topics that aren’t too advanced)? Do you have a specific JLPT-level goal aswell?

Thanks!! I initially set my 2 year goal based only on WaniKani, though I’ve looked at a Genki chapter preview and that also seems to take a lot of work, so I’m not too sure now x_x (when I learned Mandarin, grammar was the easiest part of learning it and I thought it would be the same for Japanese, but thinking back on it grammar in Mandarin is extremely simple, almost caveman-like lol)
I’ll at least try to get to a conversational level in that time, though!!

My end goal is to speak at a near-native level, so I guess JLPT N1?

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An ambitious goal! I wish you all the best on your journey! Learning Japanese is challenging and so much fun, like deciphering a code! :smile:

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Oh, you’ll definitely get to conversational in 2 years! Near Native will be a real challenge, but I’d love to see it happen!

I’ve been working with Genki too, I love those books, but (at least for me) it takes a lot of time.

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February 9, 2021 (was planning to post this at the end of the day, but I was sleepy and decided to post it today - I’ll probably keep on doing that, posting a day’s entry the day after)

  • Got lazy with katakana ._. Probably will review hiragana first though, lacking a bit in the combination hiragana
  • WaniKani: Unlocked almost all the kanji, all radicals now in Guru! (except for one, which I happened to misspell and get wrong - I installed the Ignore Answer script for that, but I didn’t have it at that time, so x_x)
    I’ve been having a much harder time with kanji, though - the meanings are easy (in lvl 1 almost all of them are the same as one of the radicals lol), but the reading takes some time to stick through. I used mnemonics this time, but maybe I’ll try it using rote memorization next time? I used that in Mandarin class to remember the pinyin (pronounciation) of the vocab we learned, and I didn’t have much trouble with it - maybe I’m just that kind of learner lol
  • I also found a website with a lot of hiragana and katakana exercises, with both reading and listening exercises (katakana, hiragana), so I’ll definitely be using those to practice my listening and review my kana :eyes:
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February 10, 2021

  • WaniKani: Discovered the stroke order script, which hopefully will be much better than using blank kanji sheets to practice stroke order (it’s hard to use the review side of each sheet without accidentally looking at other kanji or the instances of the kanji I’m reviewing from previous review sessions)
    Kanji are a bit easier now that I’ve reviewed them a few times, but they’re still a bit difficult x_x
    Also, unlocked my first two vocab words (八、八つ), as well as the kanji that I hadn’t been able to unlock because I got the radical wrong ._.
  • The hiragana and katakana listening materials I found were broken :expressionless: Fortunately, though, I was able to find a replacement: hiragana and katakana exercises from MIT’s OpenCourseWare. Pretty good exercises!
  • Still haven’t practiced my combination kana .-. (I know how to read them, I just haven’t trained myself to read them fast like with the other kana). Hopefully today, though…
  • Also, this is unrelated, but I got into Konosuba thanks to a Gawr Gura stream :eyes: (Something else to rewatch in Japanese when I’m more fluent!)
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February 11, 2021

No work on Japanese today. A few things happened and I wasn’t feeling emotionally well, so I decided to take a break for today. (Don’t worry, though - it wasn’t too big of a deal, and everything’s sorted out now!)

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February 12, 2021

So uh, this was a bit interesting. I thought you had to level up both the kanji and the vocabulary of a level to Guru to unlock the next level, but apparently you only need to level up the kanji - I worked on 20 vocabulary words this day (and will level them up to Guru today) and was planning to work on 20 more today to level up tomorrow, but now I’m drowning in lessons. Also, holy hell does level 2 have a lot of kanji.



Either way, LEVEL 2 LET’S GO!!!
In other news:

  • Was gonna start working with KaniWani now that I had unlocked vocabulary, but while searching for a solution for the atrocious syncing speed, I found KameSame: it allows me to study kanji as well as vocab, and when entering the vocab/kanji in the answer box it actually displays the word suggestion list (which does not appear when I use KaniWani for some reason). Still a bit worried, as typing in the kanji/vocab isn’t pure production (you type in the romaji and then look for the matching vocab/kanji in the suggestions, which is recognition), so I’ll probably switch to a handwriting input method for KameSame.
  • Did my first listening practice! Hiragana listening exercise 1, from the website I linked before - got a few answers wrong, but surprisingly I got most of them right lol
  • Still too lazy to do hiragana/katakana speed practice ._. (Will probably just replace this with hiragana/katakana writing practice though, for KameSame)
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Ah, this looks exciting! And relatable! :smiley:

Good luck on your journey!
頑張ってくださいね!

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February 13, 2021
This day wasn’t as productive as I would’ve liked it to be - I stayed over at my sister’s house for most of the day, so I didn’t have much time to work on my Japanese.

  • Listening practice: Did another of the hiragana series, actually graded both of my tests and it seems like I’m scoring about 90%, so that’s good
  • WaniKani and KameSame: Started 10 more lessons, I believe I can level up the 20 lessons from Feb 12 to Guru today?
    Finally finished unlocking all the level 1 vocab, will get through them today :slight_smile:
    Also, I forgot that KameSame was a thing, so I have quite a few items in my review queue lmao (fortunately I’m more familiar with them now, so I can recall them quickly and it won’t take as much time)
    kamesame 13-feb-2021
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February 14 and 15, 2021
Was going to make the February 14 entry yesterday, but by the time I remembered I had already done some stuff on WaniKani, so I decided to combine the two days’ entries into one

  • WaniKani and KameSame: Started to lose organization - don’t know which items I have in Guru, which I have in Apprentice 1/2/3/4/5, and which items will appear in which reviews, which is problematic x_x Will probably install a script for that today though
    Yes, I have 41 items in apprentice, but most of those are level 2 radicals for which I decided not to learn the stroke order (almost all of the radicals are also kanji lol) to speed things up, so don’t worry about me lol
    Also, first review for items in Guru!! (a few level 1 radicals I did at the beginning)

    kamesame 15-feb-2021
  • Listening practice: Got lazy, did none ._.
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February 16, 2021

Installed a review timeline script to organize my WaniKani reviews, doing better with them now. Also forgot to do the listening practice again x_x
Otherwise not much else to say, will probably take a small break from WaniKani lessons after I finish the level 2 kanji to learn how to write hiragana and katakana (for KameSame)


kamesame 16-feb-2021

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February 17, 2021

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Yup, there are scripts that let you reorder lessons to learn radicals and kanji first to get the SRS rolling so you can space out the vocabulary lessons while you’re waiting. That way you can progress faster without clumping your studies into bursts of 60+ lessons every 3 1/2 days.

February 18 and 19, 2021
Finished level 2 kanji, started level 2 vocab. Send help.


Also, still haven’t done my listening practices. Will force myself to do those first + lessons (doing them at like 10PM lmao), THEN do reviews, since I try to be very consistent with reviews in comparison with listening and lessons lol

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Yeah, that’s what I’m doing lol (not using a script though, just keeping track of the lessons myself - mostly 20 everyday, sometimes 10 or 30)

What I’m getting at is that when you unlock new radicals or kanji without scripts, Wanikani gives you vocab lessons that contain kanji you already have at guru, then after you finish all of those it finally let’s you complete lessons for the newly unlocked radicals and kanji. So if you’re doing ~20 lessons each day, you’d spend ~3 days on vocab, then 3.5 days waiting for radicals to guru because of SRS, then ~3 days on vocab and another 3.5 waiting for the Kanji SRS to reach guru.

With a script you can complete the radical and kanji lessons first to double your speed without increasing your lesson workload on any given day, by cutting out the days where you wouldn’t have had any lessons available anyway. I just figured you may be interested since you mentioned a timed goal.

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