My newest studylog

Japanese Language Study Logs (Public)
1

Well, well, well… what do we have here? My newest study log! やったー！

Anywho, if you look at my post history that will likely confuse you, as I have essentially no post history. Well that is simply because I have no earthly idea what my original WK account was called that I made all those years ago, so here we are with this other one that I made slightly fewer but still years ago.

So who am I? My name is Dylan, I am (unfortunately) an American, and I’m in my early 20’s. My first exposure to Japanese was, like many of you, anime in middle school. But then I got to high school and took 2 years of Japanese there (super lucky they offered it) and absolutely fell in love with lots of other aspects of Japanese culture as well.

Since graduating high school a handful of years ago I have attempted to study Japanese on and off, always failing to maintain my motivation. “So whats different this time?” you may be asking. Well dear reader, a couple things. One, I’m older and theoretically wiser (practically not so much). Two, I recently went to Japan nearly 2 months and fell in love with it all over again. This should be reason enough, but I know me and I know its not. So what is really this difference maker this time around? It’s number three, I am now in a LDR with a Japanese person. Talk about motivation to study something, I feel like the idea of impressing and making my partner happy by learning their language gives me infinite motivation.

So what’s the game plan? To be honest I have no idea, previously I have attempted a few different series with Japanese learning. I’ve done Tae Kim, みんなの日本語, Genki, and other approaches. To be honest, I don’t love textbooks but its a fine jumping off point for the time being while I flounder around figuring out step 2. So, with Genki being the one that was easiest to find in my pile of unsorted stuff from my move, that is my choice. I’ve done all of Genki 1 before, so I don’t expect a refresher to take very long so in the meantime I have ordered Genki 2 and A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. I also plan on jumping into reading native books (not graded readers) on Day 1 so I ordered a second Kindle that will arrive on Day 2 that I will login to with my Amazon Japan account. Additionally I will be using WaniKani of course, I reset my level from level 2 to level 2 because last time I clearly did not make it very far. Oh, and also I’m going to be talking to my partner in as much Japanese as I possible can which should probably help. Though that will likely also end up with me speaking only very casual Japanese lol.

TL;DR: Me too fr, I’m not proofreading that. I’m dating a Japanese person, so I’m more motivated than ever. I’m using Genki initially, obviously also WaniKani, and going to immediately jump into reading native books and not graded readers. I have some history learning Japanese, so the beginning stages will likely move rather quickly.

じゃあ、またね！

2

Wow, an update so soon? Turns out I remembered that the site WKStats exists. So I figured I would just drop a screenshot showcasing my starting point so that in the future when I speak fluent Japanese I can look back at my progress, or just the next time I restart I can make fun of past me for quitting again. Which ever happens really, just prepping for all possible outcomes.

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firefox_TzhcndnIQr2497×1246 212 KB

If there are other websites like this that I forgot that I should screenshot do let me know.

kthxbye

P.S. not sure why the restart date is in 2024, either because I have only done reviews in level 2 so far and not any of the lessons or it just doesn’t count restarts that aren’t from level 1.

3

You and me both, mate.

Best of luck! Hope you can make the transition to reading soon, it helps so much. I was in an LDR too, for years, with the woman I’m now married to, so I find myself always rooting for those to work out for others. We were both native English speakers, but across country borders nonetheless, heh.

4

Good luck with your studies!

I like to see someone getting started with reading, I’m assuming you already know learnnatively.com for finding books at different difficulty levels? :grinning_face:

5

Thank you! I love hearing LDR success stories, gives me lots of hope

6

Thank you!

I actually had not, so thank you for the link! I was going based on Reddit recommendations, but this is a lot easier and more streamlined than that haha

7

I’m back!

I have no idea how often I am going to update this, and I refuse to make any commitments to updating this post for the time being. But I figured while I’m waiting around for my partner to wake up so we can call, I might as well do it now!

What did I do today?

  • Used Kana Pro to brush up on my katakana. My hiragana reading abilities are good, but katakana is still tricky for me.
  • Started the process of getting through all the level 2 radicals, because I already know all of them lol.
  • Started reading Genki 1.
  • Read my first book! It’s called しろくまくろくま. Its a level 5 with no kanji, pretty cute though. Once I’ve had some sleep I’ll probably add some of the new vocabulary into an Anki deck. It also took like all of 5 minutes to read lol, but y’know its still progress in the right direction so I’m happy.

If anyone has any vocabulary Anki deck recommendations, I’d love some links! Probably not going to go super hard on Anki this time around because it is super boring and really contributes hard to burnout in my experience, but a handful of cards a day probably won’t hurt!

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

ETA: Probably going to jump up a few levels so I can read something a bit more interesting and substantial. It’s gonna suck and be slow, but it will also be more helpful than grinding through low level readers and picture books. Any recommendations are welcome, I just purchased スーと鯛ちゃん on a whim so I’ll start with that probably and see how the level feels.

8

Welcome to the study log mafia! (it’s the good kind)

I’ve never liked anki but begrudgingly like lots of others admit that it’s useful, probably especially early on

When I started, I used I think this deck Genki 1 3rd edition with sound files - AnkiWeb because it worked well in combination with going through Genki. Then after that, alongside other stuff I mostly used Kaishi 1.5k - Basic Japanese Vocabulary - AnkiWeb as a way to kind of fill in the gaps of high frequency stuff (suspended all the stuff I already knew from WK and Genki) before then moving on to mining/making my own cards in various different ways.
Both of those decks are ok. Genki 1 one isn’t very well formatted but I didn’t want to have to make cards for all the genki vocab manually. Kaishi deck was pretty decent, helped fill in the gaps before going more into heavier reading, it’s good for giving you that high-frequency but more complicated stuff earlier than something like WK does

9

I’m a certified Anki hater, but it does serve a purpose sadly. And I hate the alternatives even more, so I’ll take it.

Thank you for the deck recommendations! I like that Kaishi has pictures, will probably start that one. I have previously worked through Genki, so I expect most of it will just be refresher but I may use that deck as well if not.

Thanks!