I plan on taking the JLPT N3 on December 5th, 2021.
I had taken a 2-3 week break due to burnout. This time I will start small!
My main resources are:
Soumatome Series
Anki
Quizlet (test feature)
Bunpo (app)
Youtube teachers I use and recommend: Soumatome N3 新井先生
I particulary struggle with setting short term goals and tend to be over ambitious resulting in burnout.
SO, I made this log to keep myself accountable and to remind myself that baby steps are still steps.
Daily Goals:
kanji srs
bunpo srs
1 lesson from Soumatome
Read SOMETHING (チラシだけでもおｋ）
maintain 1x/week speaking lesson
Short term:
Review what I’ve learned before starting studying again on June 29th.
Get 100% on Kanji Test (Quizlet) 7x in a row
write a ten minute play/short story in Japanese
Medium term: (Yes I am doing one section at a time. I know it may not be the best way)
Finish Grammar (5 weeks) by August 1st
Finish Vocabulary (6 weeks) by September 19th
Finish Reading (6 weeks) by October 31
Finish Listening (2 weeks, it’s my strong suit!) by November 15th
(ALL BOOKS COMPLETE YAY)
Long term goal:
PASS THE N3 (12/5/21) YAAAAAY
I hope we can motivate each other! Thank you for reading.
I’ll try to update daily!
I completed daily tasks without a problem.
I discovered that I had a lot more to review than I had anticipated so I will finish my quick review today before starting a new lesson from the book.
Moving slower than anticipated, I had a lot to review for grammar.
But still moving! So I’m happy with the progress and I’m taking notes on difficult parts and finding kanji that I tend to confuse with each other.
I finished the last of the reviews tonight so I’m all caught up but I will need to keep reviewing them and practice writing to solidify what I’ve learned.
Another great and quick day for studying!
I was worried that having a busy work day would interfere with my studies today - nope!
All tasks completed!
Today was also “quiz” day for the grammar book. This is the second one I’ve taken. I was able to answer questions a lot faster than before! I think doing my big review beforehand and getting familiar with the JLPT test format is the reason for this.
This pace I’m currently at feels very nice and doable. I’m quite happy. Thank you all for your support!
Uuuhhhh Oooooh! I felt lazy today so I put this off until just before bedtime.
I think it’ll take about 2 hours to finish anki review and a grammar lesson. LET’S DO THIS!
lol - truth! Sometimes I think ‘oh, I’ll just do my reviews and then read for a bit’, but actually end up with ‘I’ll just do my reviews and… nap for a bit…’
Weeeell I missed studying yesterday so I plan to catch up today!
I had my Japanese lesson that was actually journal corrections today, and my ego took a bit of a blow from all the corrections.
I LEARNED A LOT which is the most important thing.
Even though I think in Japanese while speaking and writing, my Japanese internal speech is still English-ish.
This time I did grammar first to avoid getting too sleepy.
Kanji is still unappealing this late at night.
Tomorrow I will have to catch up on Anki which will be dreadful but a lesson learned.
Goooodnight!
I did it!
Finally caught up on my kanji reviews and am still chugging along in my grammar lessons.
Pretty much in each lesson I understand 2 grammar points really well, and the other 2 ponts are not as clear.
I’ve also decided I should do more passive listening throughout the day.
I think dramas would be way too distracting for me because I enjoy them too much.
BUT, if anyone has a recommended podcast, please feel free to share them
Thank you all again for your support! Seeing your likes really makes me feel listened to and encouraged!
Hi! I had been struggling to find a podcast around my Japanese level that is also interesting enough for me to be consistent and listen at least to one episode per day. I recently found Yuyu Nihongo on Spotify and I’m really enjoying it! He is a native Japanese teacher currently living in Mexico. The episodes are mostly N3 level, but I’m below that yet and still manage to understand quite a lot of it. The topics are usually about everyday life, cultural exchange, Japanese study, anime, manga, etc…
I will stick around to read more podcast recommendations too
I finished my 3rd week of the grammar book. The quiz at the end was a bit tricky for me, so I need to review these points carefully moving forward.
The teacher who I watch alongside working in the work book,
has not finished creating and uploading videos for the second half of the grammar book.
For that reason, and to give myself a brief break from grammar, I’m going to start the vocabulary book.
Memorizing words/ word uses are much easier for me so I think it’s a good way to stay on track and resume later!
So my original goal dates will change a bit, but I will still be studying daily.
Remember when I said I would be studying daily…I did kind of.
I was not in my normal study space and had many distractions this past week, so I did not study any new N3 material.
BUT I am back to my normal space now and I have a new book to read! 天使のいる教室
I started reading this yesterday and it seems like a cute story!
WOW I got burnt out again, BUT LOOK WHO’S BACK.
Unfortunately, the N3 exam is cancelled in my area. HOWEVER, I will give myself a practice exam instead on December 5th.
So let’s keeep going!!
I learned “all” the kanji from the Soumatome book this spring. But do I remember most of them? No.
I will review 20 kanji for about an hour each day. I really want to feel like I’ve mastered them and can use and read them comfortably.
Thank you all for your support!
