If such a thread already exists, let me know and I’ll delete this one!
As we are moving towards the end of the year it’s a fitting time to reevaluate our goals and to reflect on them. So I ask you, have you reached your goals this year? Do you take them to the next year?
My recap for 2021
Reach Level 60 in WK
Did it somewhere around September I think. Mostly to get it over with tbh haha
Getting my feet wet in regards to reading and building a routine around it
You can always read more but I’ve actually been reading quite a lot and improvement seems to come quick at the moment. Most importantly, it’s hard but enjoyable. I’m struggling with a routine though as my days are vastly different from each other. I’m not quite sure whether I should go for time or pages. Atm I’m using chapters for reference but this hasn’t been consistent enough.
Finished Cure Dolly’s (RIP) grammar course
Built an Anki setup I’m almost happy with
My goals for 2022
Read at least a novel a month (besides other types of immersion)
I feel like this should be doable at my level. I hope that I will get better over the next year so maybe I will end with 15 or something like that. However, 12 isn’t a hard requirement as not all novels are created equal.
“Finish up” BunPro - as in having everything in the SRS
If I do 2-3 items a day this should be doable well before the year ends. I will take breaks from adding new items if reviews get overwhelming though.
Burn a lot in WK and thus reduce my reviews on here
I’m happy with what I’m working on now and how I’m working on it so just to keep at it. Every year I seem to end up taking a long (like 6 month) hiatus from WK. I aim not to do that this year and keep going no matter how slow I might be. That’s it. I didn’t really have any goals for 2021 other than to read more and I’ve accomplished that so… yay I guess.
2021 I only managed to accomplish half of my goals.
Goals for 2022
-finish both Quartet books
-learn all n5-n3 grammar points on bunpro
-read 25 manga volumes
-read 5 books
-read 5 visual novels or video games
-start to livestream on niconico
My goals are fairly vague. In 2021, I wanted to reach an intermediate level of Japanese. I feel like I’m there now. Now, I’d like to move past the intermediate stage. I’m not sure how to define that, but I’ll read as many books as I can and aim to surpass 15k SRSed words.
"Keep going with WaniKani - I want to get at least halfway if I don’t finish it.
Get through at least one ~300 page book of some sort - alternatively a shorter visual novel. I want this to be done with minimal effort in terms of kanji and vocab look-up.
To achieve this I will keep reading manga and immersing with movies and anime - while occasionally reading grammar books and doing wanikani (wanikani daily of course).
Apply to a language school in Japan is also a goal for this year."
How I did
I did somewhat keep going with WaniKani. Don’t remember where I was at this point in time. But I did level up some this year. Nowhere near my goal for WK though. Reading ~300 pages did not happen, although I did read Yotsubato! and most of A Silent Voice. I watched quite a few movies in Japanese, not all in full immersion though. Ended up starting Genki 1 for a Japanese class I started and I’m on chapter 10/11, hopefully gonna start Genki 2 for next semester. Applying to a Japanese language school didn’t work out because of changes in GoGoNihon’s policies. Instead I am considering maybe majoring in Japanese for uni next year and then get a masters in translation - between Japanese, English and Swedish.
Current goals
I got WaniKani lifetime. So maybe I can get somewhere this year. Hopefully actually level 30 or above. Preferably finishing it.
Finish Genki 1 & 2 - then buying some more text books. I’ve found them to be more useful now than as a complete beginner since I already have somewhat of an understanding of the structures. Having them enforced through these books is working out to my favor.
Hopefully actually read something more substantial or be able to enjoy manga more.
Overall just keep more consistensy in my studies. I just want to get to a point where reading and listening becomes more fun, currently it very often feels like a chore.
Somewhat connected to Japanese - depends on what I end picking - choose what I want to study for uni.
Read 5000 pages of books (ie, manga and web articles do not count towards this goal).
I accomplished this goal. I’m currently at 5332 and counting
Listen to 700 hours (audiobook/tv shows/movies)
Failed miserably, haha. I made this goal assuming my free time in 2021 would be the same as in 2020 when I had no social life or need to travel for various things. I’m going to end the year with about 400 hours.
Translate 50 idioms to practice writing.
I did about 30 and mostly just found this incredibly boring after awhile. It was too narrow of a goal with little room for flexibility.
2022 Goals
Summary
Read 5000 pages.
Yes, the same as this year. I purposely set this to a number I could likely blow out of the water if I tried because I want to read more blogs/web articles/etc and not feel like I’m ‘wasting time’. I’m not sure yet if I’ll track web articles, or how I will do so.
This is between 13 and 14 pages per day.
Listen to 400 hours.
This seems like a manageable commitment for me again.
A little over an hour a day
Write on 300 days.
Pretty open ended on purpose. I didn’t track days this year but I probably wrote for 100 or fewer. The aim with this is just establishing more of a habit.
Professional conversation practice (ie, with tutor) for 104 hours
Are these your goals for 2022? Or 2021? They sound really interesting anyway, especially the last one. I hope that in 2022, you manage to accomplish the other half of what you intended to do.
My goals for Japanese for this year? I’ve only got one: reach the N1 level by July 2022, ideally by March 2022. Part of it is going to be finishing all the test prep books I’ve got myself in time, but I also hope I’ll manage to read more news articles and finally start speaking more comfortably. (I manage pretty well when I text my friend, but speaking is another matter. The words don’t flow well enough.) Hopefully I’ll manage to juggle everything well enough to get it all done in good time.
Take the jlpt N2. Done. Will get the results in Jan/Feb, but I think I passed
Read 10 books. Done. 11/10
Read 60 manga. Almost done. 56/60. There’s still a week left so I’ll finish it.
Has been a good year :3
2022
Finish a book within a week. I think my record so far is 11 days. Of course, eventually I want to be able to finish a book within a day, but I don’t think that will happen next year.
SRS more words each week. Haven’t been too consistent other than with WK. Will do more Koohi.
I want to do N1 grammar. So I’ll try adding the rest of the ones on BunPro. Currently at 47/165. Measurable goal
Read a bunch of books Not sure what number. Last year, my goal was 5 books. This year, it was 10 books. So maybe I’ll go for 20 books?! murimuri kamo 12 books sounds good. No manga goal.
Read/listen about the nervous system in Japanese. Will be a good review for uni related stuff and a bunch of new words to learn, I’m sure. Possibly other topics related to anatomy, too :3
reach lvl 30-40 on wanikani until the end of summer and learn additional 4k words in torii.
with 8k words under the belt slowly transition to immersion where my Japanese gonna be maintained organically through animes with jp subtitles. Where it no longer feels like I’m studying and just finally enjoying the content with occasional looks at the dictionary.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really have many goals going into 2021 at all . I’d just started WK, with only hiragana and katakana under my belt and no grammar yet, and I didn’t have any concrete plans for studying Japanese beyond that.
So I absolutely surpassed my expectations by far!
What I've managed to accomplish in 2021:
Learned 800 kanji and over 3,000 words
Made it more than a third of the way through the Minna no Nihongo beginners textbook series
Learned how to write Japanese
Learned how to effectively utilize tools like Anki and Yomichan and build a self-study plan that I have been able to keep up for over nine months without missing a day
Read my first book in Japanese (大海原と大海原)
Started a massive translation project
My goals for 2022:
Reach level 50 in WK
Complete MNN 1 and get most of the way through 2
Keep up with Anki and Kaniwani reviews
Continue reading and engaging with the language while immersing
I’m at a point where I feel like as long as I keep going, I’ll get where I want to be eventually. I just have to put in the work each day with SRS and textbook study and immersion. So I honestly don’t really have yearly goals—the goals listed above are more or less what I will achieve if I just stay on course each day. I’m not setting any goals for an amount of pages or words read because I read so much Japanese just in bits and pieces during my day to day life, and increasingly a lot of the text that I read isn’t in the form of books. I will read as much as is fun to me
I didn’t have any set goals going into 2021, but here’s what I’ve achieved and am proud of this year:
Starting my first book, and now being able to read novels (albeit slowly).
Reaching Level 42 in WK (compared to Level 14 this time last year)
I am now totally confident with nearly all aspects of JLPT4.
I had my first tutor session for conversation practice in April this year, beginning with zero confidence in my speaking ability. Now I’m able to hold a simple conversation easily, and although I still struggle with more complicated subjects, I’ve definitely improved a lot.
So now, my Japanese goals for 2022:
Finish Kiki, and two or three other novels
Reach Level 60 in WK
Be able to pass N3 (preferably in July)
More focus on increasing vocabulary (learn 10 new words per day will be the goal for now)
Improve speaking ability — I’d like to be able to have comfortable, fluid conversation with almost anyone by the end of the year
Other goals for 2022
Be able to have a simple conversation in Chinese by the end of the year (I already have background knowledge but zero speaking ability)
Make exercise just simply part of my day
Improve time management skills and study practices (I would like to have consistent and effective study practices put in place before the end of 2022)
Well, I set some goals for 2021, but I couldn’t manage to accomplish most of them. I felt stressed and tired this whole year, and now I have more than 400 items to review and I’m stuck on level 27.
I will set new goals for 2022, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to reach them because lately I’ve been suffering from anxiety attacks.
I decided to start learning Japanese this year since I’ve settled in at my job and was now looking for something to do in my downtime that was unrelated. I found WK ~August or so.
2021 review:
Start grammar for Japanese and begin to develop some foundations for moving forward. Find learning resources, etc.
After starting WK, do it twice a day and complete all reviews. This started as completing everything each day, but as the levels have progressed I found it more manageable to keep the apprentice stage at approximately 100 items or so. But the review stack gets cleared each morning and evening. Toughest part was making it routine, but at this point it is just part of the day (0 days missed!)
Goals for 2022:
Continue the daily routine.
Tackle 1 manga by the end of the year.
Take serious steps to improve listening skills.
Thanks for being an awesome community all, and thanks WK for providing a great service. It has really made practice something to look forward to!
I just started the program so I don’t really know how to set any realistic concrete goals. Right now I’m joking with friends that I’m hoping to learn enough to be able to make sense of the menus at Chinese restaurants. But I do have one very simple goal:
12 books sounds good. No manga goal.
. I’d just started WK, with only hiragana and katakana under my belt and no grammar yet, and I didn’t have any concrete plans for studying Japanese beyond that.
Start grammar for Japanese and begin to develop some foundations for moving forward. Find learning resources, etc.