Hi there! I decided to start this study log. I know myself relatively well by now, so I wonāt be making any promises about keeping it up to date. But since I seem to be serious about learning Japanese, at least for the moment , I would like to keep track of my learning and struggles, and hopefully it may be of some help to newcomers.
My background
Iām a 36yo Spanish software engineer (yeah, probably the only one around here) from the South of Spain. Apart from Spanish, I speak English at a bilingual level and German at a lower level. In 2016 I went to Japan on my own and had the time of my life. It was probably the best trip Iāve ever done. Being the geek I am, I bought some Game Boy RPG games over there. I had always wanted to be able to play them, but obviously I couldnātā¦
Starting from scratch?
Iām not completely starting from scratch with the language. After that trip, I did the Michel Thomas Japanese Courses which I strongly recommend for beginners. They allow you to effortlessly learn the basics of the language and to make relatively complex sentences on your own. I also learned hiragana with Dr Moku some time after that.
My main goals Reach wanikani level 30 in about a year By that time, be able to have relatively simple conversations. Be able to play those Game Boy games and understand most of it.
My current routine Do at least 15 lessons a day in wanikani Try to read everything I get my hands on Do a half-hour lesson a week with my teacher Do 3 lessons a day in bunpro (lately not doing it, but still have the account) Currently watching Pluto on Netflix. Also watching Naruto on Animeleon with Japanese subtitles.
Some additional thoughts
I canāt stress enough how helpful the Michel Thomas courses can be for complete beginners. I totally recommend them. Also, I started on vanilla wanikani, without any additional scripts, but I recently installed the Double-check script and I thoroughly recommend it, since many times mistakes are due to typos.
I dunno, Iād be willing to gamble that thereās only one thirty-six-year-old Spanish software engineer. Thatās a lot of stars that need to align there.
So recently I started using some scripts, after doing the first levels with āvanillaā wanikani. These are my thoughts:
Double-check: really useful. Many of the mistakes I used to make were due to typos, and many times I just ended up checking in another tab the pronunciations I didnāt know. Itās true that it betrays somehow the principle of SRS, but I donāt think having the ability to undo a bad answer influences that much in the learning process. As long as youāre honest with yourself and fail the ones you think you should really fail, itās almost mandatory to use it.
Reorder omega: I started using it to prioritise the radicals and kanji over the vocabulary in my lessons. The result was that I passed level 6 very quickly, but ended up with a huge queue of vocabularyā¦ so I have been doing that vocab exclusively for the past 5 or 6 days. I think Iām going to stop using it for the moment.
Anime sentences: itās nice to have something like this, although the sources are limited. Itās also a bit disheartening to listen to a sentence and realise that sometimes you can barely even hear the word itās showcasing. But apart from that itās always nice to have additional context.
Self-study quiz: useful, although the interface is not great. Iām using kamesame now instead, which I recommend. Itās not the same to be able to read, than to recall a word when wanting to say something, and this allows you to have quizzes from EN to JP.
A few days ago I discovered Nihongo con Teppei for beginners and I love the guy! He makes me feel good. Like all cozy and warm inside.
Jokes aside, from my point of view it is a really good listening source for beginners, especially to pick up after doing the Michel Thomas course and a few wanikani levels. Fully recommend it.
Made it to level 8. Level 7 took me significantly longer, as I rushed through level 6 and left a lot of vocabulary behind that I had to learn. I also went one or two days without doing lessons. I usually stick to the 15 lessons a day.
I still donāt understand how people can do 7 days per level and learn vocabulary. The only way I can imagine is by maxing out the lessons every time, but can you really retain everything that way? Also, even though I made it to level 8, I still have a bunch of vocab left from 7
I did 7 days per level until level 20 while hitting 0/0 at least once every level, and it actually wasnāt that hard, once I got a consistent routine, that being that I do 25 lessons every single day without exceptions, with the ordering Radicals > Kanji > Vocab. I believe you have to do one or two more lessons per day until about level 14, but from there, 25 is more than enough. The hardest part about it was not getting too many kanji reviews wrong as well as staying consistent with my lessons. However, that is given that you have enough time. You also have to have enough time to do your reviews (I had about 180 reviews every day despite having a high accuracy) and study other aspects of the language (e.g. listening).
So, 7 days per level is not something I would recommend all the way to level 60 if you donāt have enough time. That is just my personal experience, and other people will have other experiences, but perhaps it answers your question
Hey @NeoArcturus, thanks for the info! Yeah I guess that if I ramp up my number of lessons I will get there quickerā¦ I do have time, although I worry a bit about burnout. I might try and test your method
Reached level 9 today. Been doing 25 lessons per day for the last few days. I might keep doing it, even though it feels like itās a bit too much for me to digest. Iām afraid it might lead to burnout. My main goal is to reach level 30, at which time I hope to have learned the first and most frequent 1000 kanji. That should be enough to be able to read many things. I think thatās the key to be able to learn the language properly.
Definitely scaling back down to 15 lessons a day. 25 is too much, and I realise how Iām not properly remembering a lot of stuff. If I feel confident, some days I might go up to 20, but I donāt want to get burned out.
Iām at around 7-8 days per level and the only reason I can do it is because I already knew a good number of kanji and vocab from previous studies. I donāt think itās feasible for any beginner who isnāt willing to pour their entire soul and then some into Japanese.
Indeed. I have also read many posts of people reaching high levels and realising that they didnāt remember the stuff. Iām being practical though. I want to reach a level (30ish) that will allow me to know the most common/important kanji, just to be able to read more. Reading is key. Wanikani is not an end by itself, itās just a means to the end of reading.
Today I started using Satori reader and itās blowing my mind. This is an amazing tool! I created an account some time ago but felt lazy about starting to read. This might be the best resource for reading I have come across so far.
Satori is great! Thereās also an appreciation thread if you want to check out what other people thought of the different stories, strategies for using it, etc.
Thank you for the thread! It is indeed great. I have in fact decided to try to do the 2024 summer reading challenge with Satoriā¦ Hopefully I can keep with it!
Been a while since the last time I had a 0/0ā¦ I thought it was worth posting! Lately, wanikani has been giving me a tough time. I constantly had a lot of reviews, probably coming from my ā25 lessons a dayā days.
Been using satori almost everyday, although usually I donāt finish a whole chapter. Probably I should.
Reached level 11 today! Iām kind of proud of this achievement. I have lately been thinking about making a pause now to focus on reading, but on the other hand I feel like if I stop I might lose the impulse I have now and forget about the whole thing.
By the way, now my profile avatar shows an ā11ā, while Iād swear that before it showed a ā9ā. Is this a bug or I am just imagining it?
Also been trying to keep up with the reading challenge, but Iāve had some health issues the last couple of weeks and havenāt been able.
I joined wanikani 125 days ago. My typical level-up is 12 days. Iām comfortable at this pace. According to my estimations, in 8 months I will be level 30, at which point I hope to be able to read more insteresting stuff!
, I would like to keep track of my learning and struggles, and hopefully it may be of some help to newcomers.
software engineer (yeah, probably the only one around here) from the South of Spain. Apart from Spanish, I speak English 
at a bilingual level and German 
at a lower level. In 2016 I went to Japan on my own and had the time of my life. It was probably the best trip Iāve ever done. Being the geek I am, I bought some Game Boy RPG games over there. I had always wanted to be able to play them, but obviously I couldnātā¦
Reach wanikani level 30 in about a year
Do at least 15 lessons a day in wanikani
