Hello, as you can probably tell from my level, I’m new here, so sorry if this is in an unacceptable format or something. I just have a few questions.
What other resources do you use to learn Japanese?
Would I need to use an outside resource to be able to read Japanese by the end of using this website? (And understand what it actually saying)
About what level should I be before I consider getting something from the beginner level book club selection?
I am pretty decent at reading Hiragana and uhh… ok with Katakana (much harder for me for some reason.) I have been using Rosetta Stone for about a couple months but for some reason I have stopped recently, and I am trying to get back into it. Sometimes motivation is an issue I guess. But I am really trying! Any tips from some more experienced people would be really nice!
There’s an entire forum section dedicated to sharing resources at #japanese-language:resources. You will definitely need other resources outside of WaniKani. WaniKani only really teaches kanji and some vocabulary.
You will need a textbook in addition to this website. It is crucial. Genki is often suggested.
I personally use Japanese: The Spoken Language, but I am very unsure if I would suggest this book to someone who is self-studying, especially for someone new to the language.
Hardest part for me is de-conjugation and decoding sentences (i.e. Grammar). Grammar didn’t seep into me enough, maybe because I didn’t actively use it. WaniKani and Anki is more about vocab.
Katakana is hard to learn by just learning sentences and grammar. I really recommend drilling Katakana vocab separately, e.g. on Memrise, and your Katakana recognizing skills will improve dramatically. Similar to how WaniKani teaches you Kanji, I think.
I think learning a language is about
Memorizing
Decoding the real thing
A similar thing, but looking from an opposite side, is adapting your memory to the real thing
You definitely do need an additional source to learn grammar. WankiKani is only for kanji and vocabulary. As said above, I do recommend the Genki books for beginners as well. And ffor immersion, watch any Japanese media you can get hold of. Or listen to Japanese music.
When I started learning, I reached to about season 4 of TextFugu, which I think just covers the basics of all the parts of speech, then I learned exclusively through questions posted in WaniKani forums or the LearnJapanese subreddit, or by searching the Imabi website for specific grammar points when I wanted clarification. Then I took a tutor and went through specific grammar points for the JLPT, but most of what I learned is through the Internet. Thank you random strangers who were kind enough to post detailed comments on noob questions.
Get the Genki textbooks, skip the vocab learning parts, and complete all the tasks on your own, looking up the vocab when needed. (they’re meant for a classroom setting, thus contain group exercises, but you can play all roles of a conversation yourself.)
Read Tae Kim’s guide, then use the corresponding Bunpro exercise to practice each grammatical property one by one,
Or learn just the basics and look up specific properties in Tae Kims guide once you encounter them in text somewhere.
I started with Human Japanese. Really liked its explanation for the sentence structure of の, but am now focused on learning every property with Tae Kim and Bunpro, hoping that Bunpro will have N4 exercises by the time I get there.
Purchased Genki and the associated workbook. Once it gets here, I am going right into it! Seen a suggestion of 30 minutes a day, so I will probably just do that with it
I am almost constantly watching anime (subbed mostly) xD I am pretty big into video games to, and I am looking forward to the day that I can purchase non translated manga and play my games in Japanese as well.
I have Tae Kim’s guide on my iPhone, but it seems like he kinda stopped part way through. I was looking at his youtube videos that are associated with the guide and they just seem to stop. Does the written portion seem to have a definite completion?
And even the vocabulary that WaniKani teaches is not core vocabulary. It’s just whatever vocab is related to the kanji being taught. I use iKnow.jp for core vocab.
(that’s a smiley but I’m actually sad lol)