Hi! I started learning Japanese with Tofugu and WaniKani around 2-3 months ago. I’m going to Japan on March for my honeymoon. I know I’ve got a long road to go, but I want to notice any kind of progress possible. I’m actually level 5. I’d appreciate any kind of advice.
What should I do about grammar, listening, immersion, etc? When should I start with that? Which sources are the best? Japanese from Zero? Genki? Bunpro?
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Sounds fun!
Personally I don’t think the grammar source really matters as much as being consistent with it once you’ve chosen it. If you are the sort of person who likes using textbooks then I enjoyed Genki as a good way to get you in, which lots of people use in conjunction with Tokini Andy’s youtube videos. Otherwise there’s Tae Kim’s guide, plenty of video courses on Youtube, etc. Have a look around, see the different options and try a few if you can, then choose one and put the time into it.
For reading, people often go with graded readers from something like Tadoku to get started, or NHK easy news when you’re slightly more advanced. And for listening there’s plenty of material like the Nihongo con teppei podcast, anime without subs, etc.
I think starting with Grammar early is a good idea, as the sooner you get to a solid beginner level of understanding then you can start actually feeling like you understand at least a very small amount of whatever content you’re immersing yourself in.
I don’t think there’s some magic source which is much better than anything else, it’s really just whatever you’re interested in and whatever allows you to put the most time in. Kanji, vocab, grammar, immerse to reinforce what you’ve learnt, repeat consistently, and you’ll feel the gains you’re making whenever you read or listen to something, especially near the start when you get more reward for less comparative effort.
Sorry for the long answer! Hopefully at least some of it was helpful, even if there’s other people with probably better advice out there. This is just what worked for me to make reasonably good progress (albeit by putting in quite a lot of hours). Enjoy the journey!
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If you’re just learning for travel, just buy a travel book.
If you’re learning for the long term, Genki/Minna no Nihongo are great starter books. Personally I recommend Minna No Nihongo more for immersion purposes.
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That’s great advice!! I’ll try Tokini Andy as I’m really a visual learner, thank you!
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My trip was the motivation, but I’ll keep on it as a hobby, Japanese would be my fourth language. Thanks a lot!
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If you’re willing to invest in something else that covers all things grammar, I’m an avid Marumori lover. It covers a lot and explains things very well in my opinion. And it has SRS systems for kanji, grammar, and vocabulary all in one.
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I didn’t know about Marumori! It’s impressing how much effort is put into these websites and it shows
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Grammar – I’d recommend:
Listening:
Reading:
https://drdru.github.io/twc.html
There’s also
both for reading, listening and even some of grammar, though it’s not free. It’s well worth it though.
Anyway, best of luck with your studies! 
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Thanks for all these sources! “Japanese the Manga Way” seems amazing!! I’ll try with that first
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Hi there 
Lots of recommendations, some of them pretty good. Perhaps, with a sooo short timeframe and expecting to visit Japan while being at least able to sustain simple conversations, let me say: WK is not the tool for you.
For that matter, I would buy the Book 1 from “Minna no nihongo series” and start learning at 1 lesson every week. Other methods have its own advantages, but this is the most practical IMHO.
With that knowledge, you can talk in several situations even with natives who don’t speak a jot of english 
And with 5 months ahead, you can almost finish the book.
Learning kanji will serve you basically to read Japanese content… And believe me, that’s a long term challenge not suitable for a pleasure trip 
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I recommend that you quit WK and start MaruMori
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Is Marumori better than WK + Bunpro?
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I second the recommendation of checking MaruMori, but not the recommendation of quitting WaniKani. I recommend keeping using WaniKani as the main resource for kanji and vocab, especially, as you have already subscribed – it would make sense to use it at least till your subscription ends.
MaruMori is a great resource, but I’d say MaruMori and WaniKani are not so much competitors as they compliment each other… MaruMori is like a Swiss army knife while WaniKani is like a specialized kitchen knife.
Now, of course, different methods work differently for different people, and it’s quite possible that in the end you might find that MaruMori’s way of teaching kanji works better for you… But it’s also quite possible that you might find that WaniKani’s way works better for you…
WaniKani is a great resource. MaruMori is a great resource as well. But it’s important to have a single resource as your main resource – your daily routine, the core of your studies – and use other resources as an addition. I think WaniKani works really well as such core resource. All the other resources – can improve your WK experience, but I’m not sure if they can replace it. However, that’s just my purrsonal opinion, and I’m just a small clumsy cat 
All I know is that for me and for a lot of others WaniKani has worked really well. I think it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that buying WaniKani subscription was the best investment I’ve ever made in my life.
Anyway, even if you end up deciding not to use WaniKani, I highly recommend at least using this forum. This is the best community I’ve ever been on and the safest place on the Internet I’ve ever seen. Whether you want to participate in a book club or ask a grammar question or just click some POLLs in the POLLs thread – this is the best place to do it! I really hope you’d like it here and want to stay! 
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I’m not so sure about that. There’s still quite some time till March and WaniKani can help a lot during that time. Knowing kanji means and vocab means knowing the letters and words. It can be very helpful. Even when studying grammar – it helps to know the words so that you can concentrate on grammar and not look up words in the dictionary. So I would still recommend WaniKani 
But I agree with you that doing at least one lesson of みんなの日本語 per week, in addition to doing WaniKani daily – can help a lot
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For listening Comprehensible Japanese is great: https://m.youtube.com/@cijapanese
And so is Japanese With Shun: https://m.youtube.com/@JapanesewithShun
For reading Satori Reader is good, but it’s a paid service. Not too expensive though and really worth it imo.
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Maybe you should be clear of what you might want to do during Japan trip next year, and whatever may come afterwards.
That much time should be enough for basic speaking and reading with an aid of dictionary (app) IMO. Studied by any grammar book or textbooks, video courses, live teacher, etc.
Kanji might be a requirement for reading, and eventually listening, beyond basics. In other words, probably not a restrictive problem in the beginning. Still, think about what about a year or so afterwards. WaniKani is a well-structured tool for that. It’s not best for mnemonics, imo, but best for no-think structured curriculum.
Listening, just like speaking, can be started not that far from Day 1, though difficult to perfect that early on. Vocabularies and reading experience can help. Say, if you want to do somewhat without requiring a dictionary someday.
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I don’t know much about bunpro, so can’t help you there. I know MaruMori is better than wk though