I’m looking for some advice, or possibly just reassurance!
I started my Japanese journey a few months back with Renshuu, which I enjoy. Reading posts here and there, I decided to add WaniKani quite soon after that, and have been working my way steadily along here too. Then (after reading a few more posts!) I added KameSame, which I feel is also valuable for reverse recall of kanji. Then (you guessed it) after some more reading, I added Bunpro (sync’ed with WK).
I am able to keep pace with these 4 at present. I realise there is some overlap or redundancy between them, but I quite like that (at least for now). I make the most mistakes in Bunpro, but maybe that’s normal. (And in some ways I feel I get the most value out of BP because it forces me to think about the many different meanings for a kanji or the many ways a vocab word can be used in a sentence.) I read about grammar, watch TokinAndy, CureDolly + CureDolly transcripts and am slowly getting my head around simple grammar. I get immense pleasure from ‘reading’ isolated kanji in anime, or understanding words of dialog and even occasionally whole sentences.
I guess i’m worried that things will start to ‘fall out of’ my memory if I don’t get to consolidate them in some way (like reading and writing maybe). Or that the on’yomi and kun’yomi readings will get mixed up (not that I necessarily know which is which anyway!). But I can also see that certain things or patterns seem to reinforce one another, that in some cases one gets a feel for what something should be without really knowing why.
And I also see that many, many people have been making this journey and succeeding at, so it must work somehow. Which gives me renewed confidence.
That’s it really, that’s the background of where I’m at and I’d be grateful if anyone could chime in to say ‘yes, just keep going’ or ‘no, you need to add this, or take away that’. Or: ‘that’s fine for now, but you will need to add this or that in a few months.’ To be clear, I’m not interested in ‘getting there’ as fast as possibly; I’m much more interested in ‘getting there’ as reliably as possible!
Thanking you in advance for your help. And thanks for all the pinned posts and guides that were so helpful starting out on this journey.
I also started my japanese journey about 50 days ago and have a similar structure to you but i just use kaniwani for recall and Teppie podcase for listening + manga readathons for ‘consolidating’
I can just say that there is no fixed way to how one can ‘appropriately’ learn japanese , most just try resources and then use the one’s that fit them the best . I use WK + Bunpro for kanji + grammar , kaniwani for recall , memerise for kana vocablary and expressive native context videos , teppie for listening and lastly I read manga’s (mostly above my level) to remain intersted in reading even if it get’s tough cause if i want to know about the next plot point then i must continue so try out what best fits you
Lastly i wish a best of luck for your ameowzing journey into 日本語 !
P.S - i would recommend reading the level 60 posts as those are some of the most detailed resource lists you will find as they tell you how and why a certain resource was used by that person ( now a Divine ) . i call level 60’s as WK gods
Thank you, oh God of Cats . Your words fall like kibble into my empty bowl of ignorance. Yes, I’m excited to get to start reading something, I think that will definitely help. And I will go and read some more level 60 god-tier reports, which are by turns inspiring and terrifying!
I’m personally not a big fan of kamesame. Recalling kanji or vocab from some english without context of a whole sentence doesn’t feel super helpful for me.
Getting nuance of when to use certain vocab in sentences feels more important.
A part that is important, but you are probably already doing, is listening to the japanese sounds. Since you mentioned tokiAndi, cure dolly and anime I expect you already hear a good amount of japanese. Most of these I expect to have english subtitles or text though. So adding a pure listening resource like comprehensible japanese, or nihongo con teppe beginner might not be bad.
Most people struggle the most with listening comprehension when studying alone. Additionally you might “say” words wrong in your had which makes speaking harder as well if you get stuck with these wrong pronounciations.
That said, be careful to not overload yourself. Weak points are annoying but can probably be also fixed later in your study journey. What can’t be fixed is you burning out. Also take care to the tailor the learning journey to YOUR needs.
Tldr.
My rec is to remove KameSame and add a pure listening resource (comprehensible japanese, nihongo con teppe beginner) instead. Don’t overdo it and do what makes sense to you instead of only listening to others.
You recognised me ?! You must be rewarded with a chest of gold !
Do not fear the divine one’s for they are the stars in the sky , the beacon of knowledge , achievment and a source of motivation for us to strive to one day sit on the divine throne ourself !
Thank you, that makes a lot of sense. KameSame is just starting to feel like a bit of a grind; a little too much time for too little benefit and I think you put your finger on why. I will take a look at (listen to) the resources you recommend. My primary goal is to be able to converse in Japanese (with a decent foundation of vocab/grammar), to listening comprehension is high on the list. I think I will start with a tutor on iTalki soonish. I don’t feel quite ready but I know from other learning experiences that a good teacher can really help ‘course correct’ self-study, as well as highlighting problem areas before they get ‘baked in’.
And yes to pacing. I’ve begun dialling back some daily lessons when I feel my recall is slipping, or just being tired from work or whatever.
Firstly, things will fall out of your head no matter what you do, so don’t worry about it too much.
The things you need to do most are reading, writing, listening, speaking, doing the last 3 with the help of native speaker / teacher when possible. What I would do in your shoes is start watching comprehensible input videos on youtube and start on graded readers. There are videos suitable for an only just learned kana beginner and every stage of ability up from there. You can listen, read the subs, and try and repeat what is being said. Graded readers are pretty much the same idea, and reading is a hard skill to attain, so it’s best to start early.
Generally, being involved in the language should make up the bulk of your time learning, with SRS and ‘about’ videos being an add on.
Why can’t it ever be “bacon of knowledge” so eating could be legitimate study!?
As far as the actual topic, there’s definitely the possibility of falling into “too much SRS” territory and having that choke out the time you could also be reading or listening to Japanese (as I discovered during my first year). I do agree with the suggestion of dropping Kamesame - not that I have ever used it but I did use KaniWani and I found it was a lot of time spent doing another SRS to help reinforce the ultimately bad habit of trying to think of Japanese as translated English words.
My advice is probably try to find time for reading, listening, grammar, and vocab/kanji and don’t be afraid to adjust the mix and resources until you find what works best for you. The fact you’re thinking about it now is really good, as the learning process is also something that you’ll have to take time to learn - but it’s better than picking something and sticking blindly with it.
thanks! may bacon of knowledge be in your future! that’s a very interesting comment about ‘the bad habit of thinking of Japanese in terms of translated English’. That makes a lot of sense and a strong argument for more immersion and context sooner rather than later. I am thankful for SRSes and other online tools though because I don’t think I’d ever have got up that very steep initial slope without them. Staring at all the one has to learn from zero is very daunting, whereas now, a few months in, I have confidence that that mountain can be scaled. (albeit slowly!). I’ve started listening to Japanese-only podcasts and that’s been eye- or maybe ear-opening!
As long as the podcasts aren’t nose-opening, at least.
SRS definitely has a place and you kind of nailed my thoughts on it now after having over-relied on it at first and perhaps still to an extent. I am pretty happy with the WK + MaruMori combo to cover kanji / vocab / grammar and then reading and watching / listening as a bigger and bigger part of the process as the foundation is stronger. I suppose sometime I’ll need to start working on production but I think that’s going to be something I need to evaluate the next time I really think about my plan and progress.
Fortunately for you, you got to the listening as an important component sooner than I did.
Not worried about losing the data. Reading will make sure it sticks forever. Also not worried about grammar, satori readers’ in context explanations have all the support. Same for vocab. Not grinding anymore.
Thanks! That’s great to know. Already - as someone who thinks they have a terrible memory! - I am sort of amazed that I’ve been able to apparently learn and retain several hundred pieces of information in a new languages and 3 new writing systems in the space of a few months. I just wish I’d known about this in school!!
Just don’t forget to be patient with yourself and to go slow at these early levels when going through satori reader. Its going to feel quite challenging unless you’ve had reading experience elsewhere.
If you just subscribed to satori reader, I’ve actually found the human japanese grammar lessons super helpful as they are written in quite a conversational tone. You get these for free with the satori reader subscription. There is basically the beginner and intermediate courses on the human japanese website, and then a third Nutshell Grammar inside the satori reader. These should be a good bridge for starting to read the stories in Satori reader.
Also you can go to settings and choose to link your wk with satori and it will show you furigana based on your wk progress (does not work in human japanese 1 and 2)
Maybe the first basic course you can kind of run through, but it’s actually nice to have a review on some of the grammar points and to have explanation from a different perspective. I’m still about half way on the Nutshell grammar course myself.
Thank you, I’ll take a look. I’m finding that, even though there’s obviously a lot of overlap, reading grammar from several different sources can be quite helpful. Sometimes someone just saying it in different way helps, or maybe it’s just the repetition beating the concepts into me!
so try out what best fits you 
. Your words fall like kibble into my empty bowl of ignorance. Yes, I’m excited to get to start reading something, I think that will definitely help. And I will go and read some more level 60 god-tier reports, which are by turns inspiring and terrifying!
You must be rewarded with a chest of gold 
!
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