Level 60 in 414 days

[madamadam19]

It’s been a good run! I started learning Japanese from scratch back in December 2022. I was back in my home country fresh from a holiday in Hokkaido and Tokyo where I fell in love with the country and felt determined to overcome the language barrier.

It took me a month to get the kana down and I started on WK shortly after. Funnily enough I came across the 3rd party Tsurukame app first, with no idea that it was meant to supplement WK.

I have since fallen in love with the SRS learning style too (autopilot!), and registered for the JLPT to motivate myself to study lol. I passed N4 in July 2023 and N2 in December 2023. The level 46 hiatus came from a 2 week holiday right before my N2 test, and a 1 month hiatus right after.

I had accumulated ~800 reviews when I came back - cleared all of them in 2-3hours whilst stuck in the Yoasobi merch queue, crazy times :))

I returned because I decided to gun for N1 in July, I have one last chance to take JLPT before going to university so I might as well try lol.

I’m also going Osaka in May so I’m pretty excited to return to Japan with my limited speaking proficiency ^^

All the best to those still climbing their way up, enjoy the journey!

[Thubanshee]

Congrats!! Going from zero to N1 in one and a half years is really impressive. You must’ve studied a lot!

[Akashelia]

Congrats on level 60!!
Passing N4 and so shortly after N2 are great achievements too, wow! I’m guessing that your learning Japanese wasn’t only WK? What other resources did you use? Grammar study and or immersion?

[madamadam19]

Thank you! I’m not at N1 yet, don’t want to get ahead of myself haha. I studied quite a bit yes, couple of hours a day but I didn’t keep track exactly

[d-hermit]

Wow, this is really impressive. Zero to N2 in little more than a year is no joke! I imagine you invested a lot of time into japanese every single day.

Congrats!

[madamadam19]

Thank you! Yes of course WK was not the only resource. For N5 and N4 I used Minna no Nihongo, did all the workbooks as well (sentence structure, grammar, reading, listening).

For N3-N1 I used Try!Grammar, and the whole Shin Kanzen Master Series (Grammar, Kanji, Vocab, Reading, and Listening). But using all 6 at once is impossible for me at least, so I only use 3 concurrently at max. I use Try!Grammar, SKM Kanji & Vocab first. I then use SKM Grammar, Reading & Listening respectively once I finish the first set of books.

I also did mock papers for N2, about 20-25 of them, one each day/every other day. I did the past year JLPT papers (not sure if I’m allowed to say that but nvm full transparency), and a variety of other mock paper assessment books (“Best” series, 3A Corp’s series, etc.)

I only used Anki for N2 and N1 SKM vocab. I think it’s a really poor long term learning method but I’m studying for JLPT so trade-offs I guess. It’s ~4k vocab and I’m racing against time so can’t really do it thru immersion.

I did immersion too if you want to call it that, but to me it’s just entertainment when I finish doing WK during my commutes hahaha. I watched anime (HxH, JJK, Demon Slayer, Made in Abyss, SpyxFam) and I’m watching Solo Levelling + AoT now! I have other goated animes on my list which I really wish I have the time to watch. Maybe when I’m in uni. I listen to lots of music too as you may have guessed, Yoasobi, Yuuri, Ado, Takayan, and many many more.

Hours wise I don’t keep track but I studied at least 3 hours a day. Immersion on average 30-60minutes a day.

Hope this helps! Atb on your final 10 levels and thank you for letting me share more about my journey!

[madamadam19]

Thank you! Yes, I heavily invested in learning the language, but it was worth it. I can learn at a slower pace in future with the foundation I have built I guess haha. I still have a long way to go, N1 is far from native and I barely practiced speaking and listening :')

Have fun learning Japanese!!!

[Akashelia]

Thanks for the reply, super interesting
Sounds like indeed very JLPT oriented, I’m guessing you’re aiming for a job in Japan? Crossing fingers for you!
And thanks for the encouragement, crazy to think that maybe I’ll be making a post in that category too but no hurry on my side so right now I’m trying to use more time on immersion and less time on WK / other resources

[d-hermit]

@madamadam19

barely practiced speaking and listening :')

But N2 listening is pretty hard. Don’t be so humble

[madamadam19]

Np, happy to share

I’m still thinking about whether to work in Japan or not tbh. Not sure if the culture is for me. Travelling and living there are 2 entirely different things haha.

Looking forward to your level 60 post! Learning Japanese is definitely not a race and I am happy for you, learning at your own pace through much more enjoyable means!

[Dan-NS27]

Congratulations. Enjoyed reading about your journey working towards proficiency. A lot of hard work and more to come. Good luck with N1.

[MikaYazawa]

That’s so super awesome! Congratulations

[madamadam19]

Thank you sir, yep a lot of work still to go but learning is a continuous process so I am really excited

Atb on your journey too!

[aboveup]

Congratulations! That is seriously impressive work!

[brenty]

So awesome! Ookini is on me when you’re in Osaka.

[NoviceElder]

From the other side of this learning process, congratulations.
It was cool reading your post. You are very dedicated. Impressive.

[ChurchieMrOboe]

Congrats on getting to level 60! Please excuse my ignorance but how do you get there so quickly? Are you solely focusing on the Radicals and Kanji, not the vocabulary? I’ve been doing this for ages and I’m incredibly slow and struggling to speed up the process. When you level up, do you smash out learning the Radicals and Kanji in the first day and see what happens from there? Lastly, how many reviews daily were you having to do roughly?

[KrisV70]

Hi,
I am interested in the mockpapers you did.
I am finally speedrunning myself.
I did the genki books by myself. And the marugoto’s. And i probably follow the course you did. Form n3 to n2 through try and skm.
Unlike you I sort of made up my mind to try and live in Japan. But i turn 54 this year, i had a 6 months language school booked in Japan starting April ( but corona happened that year). So i studied the genkis by myself and am now following evening school that covers the last 6 chapters of genki 2.

Anyway much respect for getting there so quickly. And remaining level headed about it.
If you tackle everything like that in your life, you deserve everything that comes your way.

[madamadam19]

Hello, thank you for your question!

I focused on kanji and vocabulary the most. Radicals are transitory for me and I don’t really remember them after a while. I strive to have 0 lessons and 0 reviews at all times.

I am not really sure how to accelerate the learning process because personally I didn’t push past my limits. But I can attribute my own speed to the discipline and cadence I have established in doing WK. It was a lifestyle for me. For example:
Level 23 Radicals, Most Kanji, a bit of Vocab: Apprentice 1 (1-1) at 7am, 1-2 at 11am, 1-3 at 7pm, 1-4 at 6pm the next day, and 2-1 at 5pm two days later.
Level 23 Remaining Kanji and bulk of Vocab: 1-1 at 6pm, 1-2 at 10pm, 1-3 the next morning at 7am, 1-4 at 7am the next day, and 2-1 at 7am two days later. Rinse and repeat this cycle.

I hope this answers your question. All the best!

[madamadam19]

Hi, thank you for the kind words. There were definitely moments (esp at the start) when I felt like giving up, and I am extremely grateful that my hard work paid off. I know sometimes I might not get the things I feel like I deserve but that’s life and another topic altogether lol.

Re the mock papers I don’t think I’m allowed to share links here but googling “JLPT Nx MM/YY Paper PDF” will yield results. Studying everything by yourself after getting screwed over by Covid is really inspiring and I admire your mental fortitude to challenge yourself, have a growth mindset and try new things at your age. I wish you every success in your speedrun and hope that you integrate well into the Japanese community when you eventually move (& retire?) there.

All the best on your speedrunning journey! Do let me know how it goes