Talk to me about your grammar routine :)

Right now I’m doing one or two grammar points from ADoBJG every day. People keep saying it’s a dictionary and it’s boring and not as fruitful as a textbook but I’m enjoying it. The sentences are basic enough for me to understand, and I stick them in Anki to remember the grammar point.

I can’t really deal with textbooks but I’m doing one drill from Japanese: The Spoken Language every day as well.

日本語の森 is definitely one of my favorite resources! Otherwise, I don’t really ‘study’ as much as I should. If you’re lazy like me, keep reading!

Basically, I’m too lazy to study but I also think that improving one’s language ability is more about exposure and practice than about how many textbooks you work through.

So, I find many passive ways to practice Japanese and learn more Japanese like

  • Language Exchange events
    (If you don’t live in a big city, there’s always online language exchange websites and apps)
  • Hanging out with Japanese friends
  • Hanging out with Japanese wife
  • Watching Japanese comedians (two of my favorites are サンドウィッチマン and アンジャッシュ - search youtube for either of them and you’ll find lots of skits!)
  • Watching Japanese youtubers (not western youtubers talking about Japan but rather, Japanese youtubers like HikakinTV, はじめしゃちょー etc.)
  • Watching Japanese Ted Talks
  • Watching the news in Japanese (Youtube)
  • Learning about stuff related to my job or other hobbies in Japanese Basically anything that I might think to research in English, I’ll try to research in Japanese instead. For example, we have been playing with the idea of buying a condo, so watched some videos (like this one) about how Mortgages work or this video(Youtube) about how some old Condos in Japan have become dilapidate (スラム化する= The 'slum-inization of an otherwise non-slum neighborhood/building) due to residents skimping on the maintenance fees. But really, anything that I’m interested in, I’ll try to find Japanese content related to it.
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Little late to answer, but the ITalki class was more of what I was saying before. If my impression is correct, that will essentially be having a conversation with someone and them correcting you every time you make a mistake. In my opinion that is much more effective, efficient, and fun that simply asking a million questions on each grammar point before moving on. You eventually have to go back and polish it anyways no matter how many questions you ask (as people always make mistakes in grammar) so you might as well just get a solid start, use the grammar in something like reading, fail a lot, and speak with a teacher after a while. I’m worried that you might be trying to be perfect with these grammar points right at the get go, knowing all the ways they are used in a sentence, subtleties, meanings, etc.

A good example where just hitting your head against the wall helps significantly more is in comparing ように and ために. Both have the definition “for the sake of” but ように is often used for more positive sakes, essentially like “for the hope of” almost. Now, you can, for example watch the 日本語の森 video below and just memorize that difference. However, seeing it constantly in NHK easy and other resources will better ingrain it into your head than simply looking as this video. Sure when you encounter it you won’t know what it means initially. But something will seem off, and you’ll unconsciously be making a distinction that “ok, I often times see this more for these connotations” etc. The fact that you made a mistake, learned why you made a mistake, and fixing it will be much quicker than just trying to drill into your head the information beforehand. Later you can go back and really explore the grammar, making sure you know how to use it in a sentence, all the subtle differences, etc.
Link:

Hopefully, that somewhat explains my reasoning. It’s ultimately up you, so choose what you think is best.

Ah, that’s ヤキモチストリーム isn’t it? Man, that has some funny moments. If so, however, I would maybe get an easier visual novel. It’s fun, but the abundance of random terms including the Third World War, birth pains, and being run over used in the comedy sections will make you’re brain fry. Not to mention the plethora of more sophisticated daily words. It’s surprisingly pretty difficult.

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I love that you were able to figure out what I was reading from that :rofl:

If I wasn’t diving into the deep end I wouldn’t be me. It’s still easier than that time I tried to read a GBA Super Robot War strategy RPG, though. Would not recommend, GBA graphics are awful.

Thanks for the heads up, though. I do have a couple other VNs ready if this one becomes too much of a pain. Like Little Busters, which I probably should have started with, but again, diving into the deep end, etc.

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@Vanilla got nothing on me.
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I would recommend this list by this guy named Clephas, it ranks visual novels in two stages, one being the easiest you can likely find without being dull and two being more challenging novels.

And advice:

As well as this guide for visual novels and list I like giving
https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/41mjo7/relatively_easy_vn_to_read_in_japanese_2016/

My personal recommendation would be Aokana (if you can get it working) or something from Pulltop like 見上げてごらん、夜空の星を. Those seem to me to be visual novels both easy to read and interesting enough to hold the attention.

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teleports behind you

personally I would recommend stuff from the x Cation series if you looking for dem waifus. Dialogue is pretty easy.

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Thanks for the advice, and the recommendations!

From one of the linked topics:

" 2) There are two methods you can choose to start your untranslated career… you can start off easy and work your way up, or you can smash your head into the walls of text of the harder VNs out there. I chose the latter, and most people choose the former. The walls of text method has the advantage of jump-starting your learning… but in exchange, you’ll probably end up sleeping more to let you process all the new information you’ve gathered and you’ll get frustrated more often. If you want to use the former method, I made a list here sometime ago. "

Good to know I’m not the only insane person out there.

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