[Study Log] zyoeru's Study Log

Japanese Language Study Logs (Public)
1

I just hit level 6 and so I thought now would be a good time to start a study log here to keep me focused as after doing the first batch of level 6 lessons I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

Background

I’ve been studying Japanese on and off (with limited progress) for a few years but this year I decided to ramp up and do more.

I’m a big music fan in general and during my youth I listened to a lot of Japanese music such as Ringo Shiina, Gackt, Glay, Ayumi Hamasaki, etc and so I can sometimes listen to their music and pick out parts of songs I know the meaning of, but that could be just because of familiarity.

I’m also an avid reader and have enjoyed many Japanese books in translation. Primarily, I’ve read most of Haruki Murakami’s translated output and would like to be able to read them as they come out and in their original Japanese eventually.

Short term goals

  • To increase my ability to read in Japanese

Resources
WaniKani
BunPro
Satomi Reader
Tae Kim

I do reviews on WK and BP several times a day and though my Kanji isn’t atrocious my grammar certainly could be better. I am currently working through Tae Kim’s book and I am now halfway through Essential Grammar and aim to do a couple of chapters a week.

I know there’s been criticism of Tae Kim on Reddit but I’m going to persevere for the meantime before progressing to a more advanced/serious textbook once I have a foundation to work on.

In the future I’ll be hoping to do a bit on iTalki to practise speaking.

Any advice on what else I can do would be greatly appreciated!

Also, I’ve never done a study log before, so tips on how to proceed with this would also be welcomed.

2020/06/14 - Update

This week I started to get my first Enlightened turtles which is reason enough to update this even though I haven’t tracked my progress in 17 days.
So, I’m pretty happy with that. There’s a certain sense of satisfaction from seeing some form of progress.

To create a sort of “immersion”, I’ve started watching more Japanese programming. Mostly anime right now as a sort of nostalgia trip but I did start watching the latest series of Terrace House as a guilty pleasure.
I can understand… maybe an optimistic 10-15% of it, but that’s to be expected.

My grammar studies have fallen a little short recently and my review queue on BunPro is building up gradually. I really need to get back on top of that.

I have obtained a copy of DBJG as advised and at first glance seems surprisingly helpful.

2020/06/26 - Update

I unlocked the second round of kanji for level 9 earlier today and they’ve been giving me some trouble. I was hoping that this level would be more plain sailing but apparently not. Still… I’ll keep plodding along, there’s no rush.

I think to help cement these troublesome kanji I’m going to do my old trick of going through my leeches and handwriting the kanji and the readings. They seem to stick better that way.

For grammar I am halfway through Tae Kim’s “essential grammar” and some of that new grammar is taking a while for it to sink in. I’m going to do a similar thing there, I think.

I will see what grammar is giving me the most trouble and go back over that and look at the nuances.

To provide some relief from the constant failure (dramatic licence) I’ve gone through BunPro’s grammar lesson order and added a few points of simpler grammar that Tae Kim doesn’t really cover to help me achieve some small victories.

2020/06/30 - Update

I hit the last level of “Pleasant” and I’m going to try and take this one slower and be more methodical. I have 90 lessons in my queue but I’m going to just take them as they come.

Today, on level up, I immediately did the radical lessons to start the ball rolling and 5 of the new kanji to bring me up to 20 lessons.

Tomorrow I’ll do 10 new kanji and 10 level 9 vocabulary.

For grammar, I’ve been continuing with consolidation and going back over points on BunPro that I’ve missed consolidating and reviewing one of the BunPro lessons a day, and maybe two if I get the time or get bored.

Onwards and upwards.

2020/07/08 - Update

Today I hit level 11 and started the “Pain” section of WK. I’ve notice things recently have been getting intense with the kanji so I’m trying to just stay calm and keep on going.

I sat the DungMori mock at JLPT level 5 and passed with 136 overall. Individual scores were 48 in vocabulary and grammar, 42 in reading, and 46 in listening. So I need to keep working on everything.

I removed all the high JLPT category grammar points and have started doing half a lesson a day on BunPro.

I also purchased some Japanese books to help with grammar and vocab which I’ll be putting through Anki when I get the time.

2020/09/09 - Update

It’s been over a month since my last update because although I’ve been plodding along with WK everything else has fallen to the wayside.

Because I missed a few days of BunPro reviews which turned into a few weeks they built up and I felt no so inclined to do them because they reached over 300. I whittled them down to around ten because I forgot most of it so reset.

This time around I’ll do a lesson block a week and slow the pace a little so that things can become more concrete. I’ve also started learning non-WK JLPT-ish level appropriate vocabulary because I find I’m waaaaay behind where I should be.

2021/04/14 - Update

It’s been seven months since I last logged anything. I didn’t realise it had been so long, but I think it’s a good time to update it now.

I recently finished working through Genki I + II and just started on Tobira. I just finished the first chapter of the main textbook and seemed to understand it.

However, the grammar exercises are stumping me even though they’re basic and I should know how to answer them. Maybe it’s just me though!

12 Likes
2

I’m definitely a big critic of Tae Kim’s personally. If you are going to use it, my recommendation is to just use it enough to get the basics, then go through the bunpro grammar points (from the very start) while looking up every single grammar point in the Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar. The books are great and make much of the grammar I didn’t fully get super clear. It definitely has the best expansions of the particles when compared to anything I’ve seen online. Pairing it with bunpro has been a super good experience for me.

Even if you never go through that exactly, the dictionaries are often considered a must buy just because how good the explanations are.

1 Like
3
2020/06/14 - Update

This week I started to get my first Enlightened turtles which is reason enough to update this even though I haven’t tracked my progress in 17 days.
So, I’m pretty happy with that. There’s a certain sense of satisfaction from seeing some form of progress.

To create a sort of “immersion”, I’ve started watching more Japanese programming. Mostly anime right now as a sort of nostalgia trip but I did start watching the latest series of Terrace House as a guilty pleasure.
I can understand… maybe an optimistic 10-15% of it, but that’s to be expected.

My grammar studies have fallen a little short recently and my review queue on BunPro is building up gradually. I really need to get back on top of that.

I have obtained a copy of DBJG as advised and at first glance seems surprisingly helpful.

My current question: what sort of pacing is best for grammar to avoid (1) going too slowly so as to make no progress, and (2) burning out.

3 Likes
4

Always good to see a new study log! Thanks for adding it to the master list, all the best with it, and with your studies! :+1: :smiley:

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5

Thank you!!

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6

This is a good question, I wish I had enough experience to answer with confidence :sweat_smile: It has been nine days since you asked it though, so have you had any personal reflections on how you are studying grammar?

Personally, I have been trying to encourage my curiosity and avoid making it a dull chore, as enthusiasm is my greatest protection against burn out. I have been reading about grammar from a handful of different sources, and if I face a section that is just too hard I skim through and keep reading the parts I do understand. Then I will pull up another resource and see if they explain the topic in a way that is easier to understand. If I cant find an easier explanation then I just leave it to come back to in a week or three and see if my comprehension of grammar jargon has advanced enough to make heads or tails of it.

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7

I think I’m taking a similar approach.

I found that my previous foray into grammar hadn’t helped me much so I reset BunPro and started afresh and more motivated.

This time I followed the advice below

I’ve found that’s been really useful as a tool to help my understanding of the various grammar points. I just now have to trust in the power of SRS.

I’ve been supplementing this approach with what Cure Dolly mentions with watching Japanese programs bit by bit. First I’ll try and look for words and grammar in the sentence I’m familiar with only looking up words I don’t know when I’m at a loss and then adding them to Anki.

I figure that even if I come across those terms later on WK I’ll feel good about already knowing them.

2 Likes
8

MegaZeroX gives great advice :+1:

The more we come across words in different places, the better they are remembered. Coming across something you already know in WK is really handy, and it does feel great! It makes all your language exposure feel coherent and relevant I find :slight_smile:

2 Likes
9

I agree there.

Having said that…

I’m watching InuYasha so it’s likely a lot of vocabulary won’t be useful but why watch something that I don’t enjoy. Maybe I’ll just have to speak like a samurai. :man_shrugging:t2:

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10

I’m glad my advice has been helpful! Sometimes I worry that what I’ve found helpful is super different from everyone else. I do love the DoJG books. So far in all my time of using them there are only a few entries I wish had more in them. And only a couple that I don’t think were explained super well.

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11

I mean sometimes I have to read over the entry a second time to get the gist but it seems clear enough so far.

I’m still using Tae Kim as a path on BunPro because I do like how he sets it out. Not to read his explanations necessarily but to just give me a sense of where to go next.

Every now and then I’ll look at BunPro’s order to see what is missing to supplement things a little bit more.

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2020/06/26 - Update

I unlocked the second round of kanji for level 9 earlier today and they’ve been giving me some trouble. I was hoping that this level would be more plain sailing but apparently not. Still… I’ll keep plodding along, there’s no rush.

I think to help cement these troublesome kanji I’m going to do my old trick of going through my leeches and handwriting the kanji and the readings. They seem to stick better that way.

For grammar I am halfway through Tae Kim’s “essential grammar” and some of that new grammar is taking a while for it to sink in. I’m going to do a similar thing there, I think.

I will see what grammar is giving me the most trouble and go back over that and look at the nuances.

To provide some relief from the constant failure (dramatic licence) I’ve gone through BunPro’s grammar lesson order and added a few points of simpler grammar that Tae Kim doesn’t really cover to help me achieve some small victories.

2 Likes
13
2020/06/30 - Update

I hit the last level of “Pleasant” and I’m going to try and take this one slower and be more methodical. I have 90 lessons in my queue but I’m going to just take them as they come.

Today, on level up, I immediately did the radical lessons to start the ball rolling and 5 of the new kanji to bring me up to 20 lessons.

Tomorrow I’ll do 10 new kanji and 10 level 9 vocabulary.

For grammar, I’ve been continuing with consolidation and going back over points on BunPro that I’ve missed consolidating and reviewing one of the BunPro lessons a day, and maybe two if I get the time or get bored.

Onwards and upwards.

4 Likes
14
2020/07/08 - Update

Today I hit level 11 and started the “Pain” section of WK. I’ve notice things recently have been getting intense with the kanji so I’m trying to just stay calm and keep on going.

I sat the DungMori mock at JLPT level 5 and passed with 136 overall. Individual scores were 48 in vocabulary and grammar, 42 in reading, and 46 in listening. So I need to keep working on everything.

I removed all the high JLPT category grammar points and have started doing half a lesson a day on BunPro.

I also purchased some Japanese books to help with grammar and vocab which I’ll be putting through Anki when I get the time.

3 Likes
15
2020/09/09

It’s been over a month since my last update because although I’ve been plodding along with WK everything else has fallen to the wayside.

Because I missed a few days of BunPro reviews which turned into a few weeks they built up and I felt no so inclined to do them because they reached over 300. I whittled them down to around ten because I forgot most of it so reset.

This time around I’ll do a lesson block a week and slow the pace a little so that things can become more concrete. I’ve also started learning non-WK JLPT-ish level appropriate vocabulary because I find I’m waaaaay behind where I should be.

2 Likes
16
2021/04/14

It’s been seven months since I last logged anything. I didn’t realise it had been so long, but I think it’s a good time to update it now.

I recently finished working through Genki I + II and just started on Tobira. I just finished the first chapter of the main textbook and seemed to understand it.

However, the grammar exercises are stumping me even though they’re basic and I should know how to answer them. Maybe it’s just me though!

3 Likes
17

Noice!
We’re at the same level now.
I still haven’t restarted grammar. Shame…

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Where did you leave off with your grammar studies, if you don’t mind me asking?

The last few chapters of Genki II were a real drag for me. It took me a couple of months to find the motivation to finish them.

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19

I only did bunpro… was halfway through n5… stopped. Reset. Never went back again!

I think I have a Japanese from zero 1 book somewhere as well lol… the kind you can write in. Maybe I should bust that out.

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20

That’s a champion idea if you get a little time!

1 Like