Study Routine Evaluation

Japanese Language
1

Recently, I’ve been trying to come up with a new study routine. I feel like the way I’ve currently been studying has been really inefficient, and I wanted to come up with a new plan before the end of the year (to start fresh, you know). Anyway long story short, I came up with a routine, and I was wondering what people thought about it.

Here it is!

Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes

  • Section 1: Grammar Studies - 35 minutes
    • Grammar: 30 minutes
    • Break: 5 minutes
  • Section 2: Skill Application - 40 minutes
    • Reading: 15 minutes
    • Break: 5 minutes
    • Listening: 15 minutes
    • Break 5 minutes
  • Section 3: Vocabulary - 30 minutes
    • Kitsun: 15 minutes
    • Wanikani: 15 minutes (once restarted)

Study Materials:

  • Grammar:
    • GENKI
    • Tobira
    • Quartet
    • A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammr
    • Bunpro
  • Reading Reaources:
    • NHK Easy
    • Books/Manga
  • Listening Resources
    • Podcasts
    • YouTube
    • Apple Music
  • Vocabulary
    • Kitsun
    • Wanikani
Grammar

For grammar, I’m planning on taking my time. I don’t need to rush through the books I’m going to be working on. I’ve actually almost completed Genki, but I feel like I went through Genki 2 too quickly, so I’m going to go back through it again. After that, I’m interested in this new textbook by The Japan Times called Quartet, but if not that, then I’ll move on to Tobira and then Bunpro or A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.

Reading

My reading material is a little sparse, but I’ve got a backlog of Kindle books I’ve bought on top of the VPN I’ve been using to get them, so I think I’ll be good. I’m interested in using NHK easy so that I can print out the articles, and honestly, you can’t go wrong with NHK as a study source. However if you have a recommendation for me to check out I will not turn you away.

Listening

Listening is the roughest for me. I feel like there are resources out there to use but I don’t know where to start. I put podcasts down but I’m not sure which podcasts to use right now. Again recommendations would be nice. Using YouTube might be a little too hard to do right now, but I’ve been getting into Japanese Letsplayers recently, so I don’t need as many recommendations in that department. As for the Apple Music, I recently made a post about thisAs for the Apple Music, I recently made a post about this, and I am hoping to use this effectively.

Vocab/Misc.

As for vocabulary, I think I’m pretty well covered. The thing that does worry me a bit is the lack of writing or speaking. I kind of want to get a tutor/ find a language partner in the near future to help me practice my speaking abilities. I don’t really know where to start with that but I’ll figure that out when it comes (but any recommendations are welcome).

Anyway, I’ve rambled on for long enough. Any suggestions or recommendations will be welcome!

Thanks!

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Ok, I just know this. Will need a direct link to it. Or I could search for it.

Edit: Found it.

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Of course everyone knows what routine fits better with their lives, but I was very surprised to see so little of your time dedicated to what I think should be the focus of language learning.

Might I suggest maybe to start by reading a constant amount or watching at least an episode of your favorite material a day, and FROM THAT bring new vocab and grammar to review. This way the amount of connections that you will have with new vocab and grammar will be much more. Reviewing vocab will feel relevant to what you are consuming too.

You will forget a lot of kanji, which is OK, you can re-check those on the spot, when bumping into them. But reading constantly you will engrave the frequent ones into your brain, like no SRS will do.

In any case, of course if you have this particular routine because JLPT goals or something like that, following a particular order might be a better way to pass an exam.

either way I wish you luck!

EDIT:
I just read that you asked for recommendations on listening. What are you into?

Listening to something that you actually care I think it’s crucial. There’s material that’s made to be an easy listening practice (NHK easy news perhaps) but If you don’t really care for that and it’s nothing you would normally listen to It won’t amount to a routine you are gonna stick to.
On the other hand if you already watch material within an specific topic, there’s a lot you can find and from all that you can grade the material to suit your level (learn the basic words used in that area and do a couple of youtube searches + some google searches to point into blogs, articles and also shows).

I for example like documentaries mostly. I was watching a couple on Prime, but they where long episodes and would be somewhat fast paced, eventually I would loose focus or bump into a series of unknown words and would totally be out of there, making it a bit frustrating.
I then finally found an couple youtube channels with 15-20 mins documentaries about crafts and how things are done, which I really like, since they are showing the same thing they explain, so it gives leeway to whatever word I miss here and there.

I have other interests besides documentaries but the method is the same:

  • learn basic japanese words to perform a search.
  • acumulate lots of material
  • grade that material and start with the most basic one
  • working in an specific field will help at building the vocab used in that area and quickly will enable you to access material that you might find so out of reach now.

Long rant… hope It helps a bit though.

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Hey thanks! I never considered documentaries. That sounds like it would be interesting to check out. What’s the YouTube channel you mentioned?

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Nice channel abouts crafts. High quality videos.
Low point… you would wanna buy so many expensive souveniers your next time in Japan :sweat_smile:

I’m watching here the playlists for the show “The Making”… basically how things are made in 15’ mins. Low quality for the earlier episodes. Newer episodes are high quality video and have sometimes an english version. (I’ve just realized this show doesn’t have a narrating voice, so It’s reading practice only).

There’s also a playlist for the show 偉人たちの夢, which is a favorite topic in Japan apparently… biographies :hugs: . Japanese and worldwide figures. Go check your favorite character in history, it might be fun to watch her/his episode.

I can’t remeber the name of the show on Prime, it was about japanese poeple been pioneers in their professional fields. They would spend a day with them following their routine. It was cool, but not only narration for the voices, actual conversations and interviews would throw me a curve ball every now and then. :sweat_smile:

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Those look awesome!

Thanks for the recommendations. I’m pretty interested in history so the biographies will be nice even if it’s reading, but every bit of practice helps.

The craft channel looks pretty interesting too. I love seeing how things are made. I watched a documentary on Japanese carpenters a year or so ago, and really it’s stuck with me. So watching people make things is really cool to me. Speaking of which, one my favorite channels on YouTube is this guy:

The guy literally makes a kitchen knife out of anything. It is amazing. Since you’re into crafts, I thought you might enjoy it. :relaxed:

Anyway, thanks again for the recommendations. I’ll be sure to check them all out!

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