I don’t know that I’ve ever posted here before, so, hi everyone. I am whatever randomly generated username I came up with for Wanikani, I think its Balancing something.
I am currently on day 186 of learning Japanese and I wanna say around day 150 of using Wanikani. I’m about halfway through level 7.
I am currently using Bunpro along side Wanikani for most of what I’ve learned so far. That said as I get closer to level 10, I’m starting to feel I need to be doing more alongside my daily routine to try and learn more.
Presently, I do Wanikani (usually 100+ reviews daily), as well as any and all lessons I can gain access to. 3-5 Bunpro lessons for grammatical practice. I read an NHKwebeasy article without furigana, and cap the day off with something easy like Duolingo (mostly for the counter, but also because keeping up with it helps me and my wife stay engaged, as my work lets me be more active with study than she can be).
My question for all my seniors out here, is what would you recommend that I add to my list? I feel like I have more time that I would like to use on something productive in my schedule as of late, and I really enjoy learning Japanese.
Thanks for any suggestions
-Balancing(Arbitrary Numbers)
learn grammar via the textbook Genki. Buy it, or don’t.
This textbook is so popular that many people have made great tools to go along it. Those tools are so great, that I ended up using them and not really opening the actual book anymore. (So basically you can skip the step where you buy the book and use the resources for free). Also the kanjis always come with furigana (the hiragana on top to know how to read them), so no need to worry about your Wanikani level, you can start the grammar now and do Wanikani on the side at your pace.
The way to do Genki, without buying Genki, is as follow.
For each lesson, first watch the video of TokiniAndy on youtube go through it:
Then do the exercises for the lesson on this website:
Then next lesson
Join the Absolute Beginner Book Club here in the forum to get started on reading (cost: one book at a time) / try out the app Satori Reader! (Not free except the first 2 episodes of each series)
Like I said, pretty much only use it for the counter at this point. I agree in terms of actual use, its very limited. The sort of thing I would recommend to someone who’s curious about learning a language and just wants to see if they even enjoy it before they hop into something more serious.
The real value in duolingo for me is the constant reminders and the streak. It keeps me practicing even on days where I’m just not really feeling it.
But also thanks for the recommendation for the Youtube video. I actually have a Genki book I’ve been struggling to get through, having youtube will help a lot! I used a similar method to get FAA Certifications last year that worked really well!
That’s fair! Streaks can be very motivating for staying consistent, especially when you’re getting started. Plus, having a counter like that is honestly just pretty fun!
I am someone who is very comfortable with processes by which you have small, but measurable improvement over the course of long periods of time, so for me having a direct link of saying “186 days ago, I knew nothing and now I know several hundred Kanji and their associated vocabulary.” is like right up my alley
You get what you practice, so, read as much as you can, listen/watch as much as you can, fit in other stuff like WK around that.
What you read/listen to/watch depends on your level, but there’s so much out there it should be easy to find something that suits.
Shadowing & talking to yourself helps start speaking, but I think you really need an actual native talking partner to make decent progress.
personally I wouldn’t bother with bunpro or textbooks for grammar unless I had a specific reason to, but some people seem to like them. Any source of ‘learned’ language like that needs to be backed up with usage or it wont be worth the time you spend on it. E.g. there’s no point in doing WK unless you also read a lot.
That’s actually why I started on WK is so that I could read as much as I could. I remember when I was like 2nd or 3rd grade I had a teacher who told me my spelling would improve if I read more and that ended up working, so I’m trying to apply the same logic to Japanese.
Study from native materials. Remember and practice enough to be able to decently read materials you couldn’t read yet. (Like approaching higher Natively Levels.)
SRS might be good for preventing from forgetting; and with a good leech control, remembering a long list of items. But I am not sure about remembering meaningfully and usefully.
Streaks can also be good other purposes, like Read/Listen Every Day; though I don’t think missing a day or two is that bad.
In terms of missing a day or two here and there, I don’t think that’s bad. What I do think is important though is practicing when you’re too tired, or not feeling well, or too cold, or too hot, or generally uncomfortable.
There’s this idea that we used to have when playing Starcraft, that you should be able to play when you’re uncomfortable, because if you’re ever travelling to a tournament it won’t be like playing at home where you can control for everything.
I think the same applies to language. Chances are if you ever need to use a language (beyond just day to day living), it’ll probably be in a less-than-ideal circumstance, and you should be able to recall and function in those subpar conditions.
So a thing I’ve noticed with his videos is that he doesn’t cover the vocabulary of these lessons. Would you go back and find another resources for those or just focus on the grammar lessons themselves?
He actually has a website where he does cover the vocabulary, if you pay the fee for the membership. So you can choose that route. https://www.tokiniandy.com/
I didn’t because I get my vocab from immersion. That’s my step 3, join a Book Club the Book Clubs make a spreadsheet with all the vocabulary so it makes it easy to read and then you can use the list as an input in an SRS app such as Anki or JPDB.
You can also check out @ChristopherFritz 's Manga Kotoba which offers list of words for many manga, per order of frequency, and you can track down your progress and many cool things!
Sweet. I took your advice on that and decided to take the plunge into the Absolute Beginner’s Book Club. Spending the month leading up to the start of the next book to work through that guy’s videos you linked.
I feel you, and I feel like I’ve been in your exact situation many times. Getting stuck in the grind of Anki and WaniKani reviews have often made me feel like I’m not actually learning a language per se. In fact, just doing those things alone, in my own opinion, hinders your growth.
I’ve been studying for almost 2 years now (did a complete WK reset back to 0 exactly one year ago!), and I can tell you that the thing that has supercharged my learning is sentence mining my own cards. I don’t feel bad getting rid of, or suspending cards in the Core 2k deck that I just can’t ever remember. If they’re important, they’ll come up again through mining, and then I’ll have some actual context to remember.
Plus, every time you come across a word that you know, or are learning, you’re just reinforcing.
Grammar is also another important part, but I canceled my Bunpro subscription. Again, out of context, it’s really hard for me to remember a bunch of disperate rules. But, along with my sentence cards to learn new words, I’m also putting in sentence cards to learn grammar. Again, the more they come up, the more the pattern is reinforced, and I don’t have to beat myself up for not remembering those stupid leech cards that my brain just can’t latch on to.
Keep reading, watching, listening, etc. And, in my humble opinion, be ACTIVE in that activity. Don’t just listen to what sounds like gibberish and let it go in one ear and out the other. If you hear a word that you don’t know multiple times. Look it up, make a card, and get it into whatever system you’re using that works for you.
I support the suggestion of the Absolute Beginner Book Club - reading actual material really helps! And it is completely normal if you don’t understand the material very well in the beginning or if you have to force yourself to read and reread to understand - view it as a learning experience.
On a more practical note, I’d recommend youtube videos targeted to beginners and also podcasts. Are you familiar with Comprehensible Japanese? I find her videos amazingly useful. For podcasts, there are so many amazing resources for beginners (and also absolute beginners!) I recommend checking Nihongo con Teppei (can also find him in spotify/youtube/others), Noriko (especially her earlier videos) and Japanese with Shun. With one podcast a day (or even only 2 or 3 times a week) for a few months, you’ll be surprised with how not only your listening comprehension improves, but also your general knowledge of Japanese.
you can use your time better
the Book Clubs make a spreadsheet with all the vocabulary so it makes it easy to read and then you can use the list as an input in an SRS app such as Anki or JPDB.
and if you haven’t already, reading this post is also a great preparation on what to expect