Sorry, I wasn’t at my computer but I see that you’ve received a great introduction to Jalup by someone using it longer than I have.
As for Kaizen and its AI: when I first started using it (a bit over a year or so ago, early pandemic times), I went through the conversations every day. There were some horrible (I mean horrible) typos, which since have been eliminated. Also, the AI sometimes had a different conversation than the one I was having, thus questions sort of clashed. Also, there was some abrupt endings of a conversations I never got to work, or was stuck in a loop for several times. That said, it still felt rather fluent and there have significant improvements in the AI since. They’ve also added new levels with a sixth (or seventh, I forget how many there are, sorry) character.
The main reason I use Kaizen now is the writing part (with test) of the kanji. Also, they have a good kanji by level test, which you can either write or just use as a recall test. The flash cards are based on the audio/conversations you’ve gone through and can be done offline/no internet required.
What I’ve gotten out of Kaizen mostly are the writing tests/kanji recall tests. The conversations were interesting but in the end, not that important as the rest I thought.
Only Kanji level. Kaizen doesn’t do sentence level for writing. By tests I mean you have as many as 60 sets (N1) of up to 20 or so kanji. They’re being randomly called up by meaning and you have to write the corresponding kanji in proper stroke order on the screen (me: iPhone).
It’s similar to the kanji apps for 1-6th graders that exist in the iPhone app store. Those are Japanese apps for kids and you’re being asked a question (text) and have to answer with the appropriate kanji in context.
I was going to recommend Jalup but then saw you typing and was like “ah, I’ll leave it to Grumpy, no need for me here!” (I say before typing a long response below)
From my experience (and others may differ), I started trying to read manga when I was maybe about half way through N5 content having tried to use a variety of different things (Lingodeer, Tae Kim, DOBJG, Minna no Nihongo, pimsleur, Bunpro you name it). I struggled my way through the first vol of ハイキュー with a lot of help from the WK bookclub and ichi.moe but struggle was the operative word. I then paused trying to read manga and worked through the first Jalup deck over a couple of months before rejoining the ハイキュー bookclub and reading more and for me the difference in my comfort and understanding with reading was pretty dramatic. Part of that I guess might have been my brain sorting through things I learned from my earlier studies and the first ハイキュー volume but at the least I think Jalup helped put all of the pieces together.
Jalup is almost cursed by its own success for me as now I enjoy reading in Japanese enough that I regularly take breaks from active learning to just chill out and enjoy content I want to read so I’m moving much more slowly through the second deck (Jalup intermediate). I’d say that it you struggle with textbook learning, are impatient to get reading native material quickly and have the money for it, Jalup is a great option. In terms of the ordering of cards, this article might be useful: How a Jalup Deck is Made - Behind the Scenes - Japanese Level Up
When I tried the sample for the first deck, I wanted to import it into Kitsun but was having trouble with that. It seems his files has missing square brackets surrounding the links for the audio files, that made importing it difficult and since I was anyway not impressed by the first few cards, I didn’t bother attempting to fix the file.
Pfew, can’t say I remember it exactly anymore Iirc it was something regarding the audio urls being put inside other regular field content, but really can’t say anymore without seeing the deck again haha
Yeah, I like the second deck but it probably depends how much you care about moving to J-J definitions for vocab and grammar learning as it’s very focused on that. In terms of something that teaches you how to understand monolingual dictionary entries I think it’s very good - but will depend on your general approach to learning vocab.
Also, I think I froze/skipped past maybe the first 300 cards of the beginner deck as they are very introductory so you may well be able to do similar.
Although I’m in a love-hate relationship with it rn because it just can’t sync my media completely in mobile… It worked fine at first but one day it just refused to work
Goated comes from GOAT, greatest of all time, so it’s another way to stay “the best”. Iirc it’s AAVE so it’s not even that new, people just started using a bunch of aave phrases on the internet in recent years
Not an SRS, but the Marogoto Katsudoo & Rikai courses will get you to about level A2 and includes vocab and grammar practice. JF Japanese e-Learning Minato |The Japan Foundation The self-study courses are free. Marugoto is a texbook, also used by various schools, this online version is basically the book (I think). So loads of exercises, listening etc. It’s a bit sparse on writing production since anything more complex is a bit difficult for automated checking lol (unless you pay for the tutor support course). Also the grammar explanations are very short, I recommend reading up on each grammar point on another site, Wasabi, Tae Kim, what have you. But other than that it’s absolutely great, esp considering it’s free.
You’ll still want to find a way to revise the vocab from each lesson (I personally use Anki, for its customisability, old fashioned paper flash cards would also work).
African american vernacular english! It’s an english variety that is found within black american communities. Has its own words, variations and grammar rules.
In recent years, picking up words and phrases from aave became really widespread, though most use them incorrectly lol
Iirc it was something regarding the audio urls being put inside other regular field content, but really can’t say anymore without seeing the deck again haha
. Like “the best”?