It seems I’ve become the de facto organizer of these threads.
Let’s set some goals
Here we can share and keep track of our goals. If you’ve already mentioned them in your study log, you can link that too!
If you don’t have any goals yet, here are some questions to think about:
Did you take the JLPT this month? If you feel like you got a bad score, what do you need to do to improve?
Between the four language skills, which one is your weakest?
What is your long term goal for learning Japanese? Yes I know we all want to become fluent, but why do you want to be fluent? Do you want to talk with your great grandma in her mother tongue? Do you want to live in Japan someday? Do you want to watch anime without subtitles? Keep this final goal in mind when your setting your smaller goals.
When setting goals, it’s recommended to make them SMART:
Specific: pass N3 mock exam listening section
Measurable: finish 10 manga volumes
Achievable: finish Tobira
Relevant: “I’m traveling to Japan this year, so I’m going to work on pronunciation”
Time bound: obviously the deadline is sometime in 2026, but you may want to set smaller deadlines throughout the year
SMART goals help in several ways, including: giving you a roadmap, making sure you feel a sense of accomplishment, and making sure that you’re organized and using your time efficiently.
It’s also okay if your goals aren’t refined yet, you can always fine-tune them at any time throughout 2026.
Do you think you’ll be able to achieve your 2026 goals:
It’s also worth creating systems that will continuously move you in the direction of your goal.
Looking to read 10 manga volumes? Set up a schedule to read at least one page first thing when you get home from school/work every day. You can read more than one page, but make that first page an unavoidable habit.
Aiming to finish Tobira? Get to bed an hour earlier so you can wake up an hour earlier, and focus only on the next pages of the material first thing in the morning.
This one is important. You can’t manage what you aren’t measuring. Are you keeping up the pace necessary to reach your goals, or are you falling behind?
This year I’m going to keep is simple, with only one goal:
Finish Pimsleur Japanese levels 1-5
This is contingent on library availability, though. Level one has a 12 week wait time But they also have smaller groups of lessons available, e.g. right now I’m on hold for level one lessons 1-5, and it’s only a two week wait.
My overall goal for the year is to get better at speaking. So in between Pimsleur lessons, I’ll do shadowing practice too. I have two ideas: first is Comprehensible Japanese on YouTube. I listened to this channel two years ago when my listening skill was terrible, and it was an easy first step. The second one is Udemy, which I have access to through my college.
This is gonna be hard, I’m really shy when it comes to speaking, and I’ve stopped drinking and smoking so I have nothing to lower my inhibitions
This is so true, and it’s the method I use as a chronic procrastinator. Clean for ten minutes when you get home from work → end up cleaning for 30 minutes. Watch one video lesson after dinner → end up watching five.
Hmm ok let’s see this time. I’m gonna aim for the side of being ambitious with a bunch of goals so I have more to look at so I don’t necessarily know if I’ll do everything but it’s kinda built into my expectations
Get better at output - I fell off practicing this pretty quickly last time cause I’m still in that phase where getting out the words is annoying and painful. Will have to pick up doing any practice for this at all if I can make myself sometime. Writing stuff, shadowing, actually talking to people, whatever.
Finally bother to look at the pitch accent course - I found out sometime over the past 4 and a half years I’ve started actually being able to properly hear pitch with some effort so I should probably study the basics a little more with the Dogen course.
Read a ton - Reading is pretty chill. Over the course of the last year I only read about 10 books but I basically doubled the amount of Japanese games/VNs I had completed (most pretty long form) from 25 to ~50. Currently 54 as of the time of writing this. This is all gonna be very reliant on the length of the things I choose but let’s say reaching 100 games to roughly double again, that’d be fun. Might be doable cause I read The Hundred Line as one from last year and that’s more or less the longest VN to exist now.
Reach the point where I’m GOOD at listening - I can do listening more or less, easier things aren’t a problem but I do get lost a lot in anything more challenging still. Enough that I get frustrated out of watching things I want to. Would really like to be able to just say I’m comfortable listening to whatever the same way I’d say I more or less am about reading (ignoring the super high end stuff).
Take (and, uhh, pass) the N1 maybe? - I don’t really “need” the tests for anything but early 2024 I already theoretically passed a full scale N1 practice test so I should be able to do it and it’d be kind of fun to say I did. I’m less worried about the test than I am the annoying logistics of getting to one from where I live.
Read faster - Based on the last two readathons I’m somewhere 10-13k characters depending on the material? Not counting hard stuff that really slows me obviously. It’s ok but I’d really like to not be bottlenecking what I can do so hard with my speed. If I do another readathon I really want more than the 100k characters I reach and then pass out and die for a while in those 24 hours but we’ll see, the last one genuinely wore me out for a day or two after so I’m not sure if I’ll take a break, heh.
Not lose my goddamn mind trying to remember these name readings in the Anki proper nouns deck -
There are some other fun out there things but I think I probably won’t be doing them yet this year? We’ll see where things take me but this is a good starting point.
-Read so many novels that reading feels like a normal part of my daily life
-Read a nonfiction book
-Write at regular intervals and get my writing corrected
-Keep on keeping on with my conversation practice
These don’t really follow the SMART system, they’re more process based. I don’t function well under pressure, even from myself, so what I really want is to integrate this stuff into my regular habits. The good thing is that I’m already most of the way there, because I’ve been doing all of this with some amount of regularity for at least a year (with the exception of the nonfiction book, I basically never read nonfiction).
After just having said that I don’t function well under pressure, I really want to pressure myself this year to finally make progress in Spanish. It’s been a goal for at least 2-3 years now and I can’t seem to get off the ground. I’d like to reach an A2/B1 level, where I feel I can listen to podcasts for language learners without too much trouble. I’ve told myself that since getting to my ideal level in Japanese will take so many more years, it’s ok to lighten up on it to spend some time doing something that will take less time. My goal for Spanish isn’t to achieve a high level, it’s just to get basic competency, and I think I can do that in a year. So, I intend to put Japanese a bit on the back burner, really study Spanish for a year, and see if I can get somewhere with it.
(That being said, I may simply stop learning Spanish again, just like I did last year and the year before. If that happens, I’ll do some real thinking about why it keeps happening, and potentially adjust either my mindset or my goals.)
Good luck to everyone working towards improvement this year!
kind of a low-key goal but I want to try to read a manga volume without the framework of the book clubs! I’ve participated in several ABBCs and BBCs, but I’m really enjoying Akane-banashi in English, and bought the first volume on Bookwalker. Planning to work through it on my own
It’d be great to get better at listening and speaking as well.
I would like to pass the N5 this year. I would like to keep going with my Japanese lessons on italki to practice speaking and listening and increase my vocab and kanji knowledge. I like the idea of spending 10-20 mins every morning studying/ reading! In my recent trip to Tokyo, I bought some books I would like to start as well!
Personally I find it hard to set goals in an unknown territory for longer than a few months, not to say smart. Japanese is already largely a know-what for me in any case.
Setting up to be consistent might not be too implausible, however. But I also think it’s better to move forward when you can (even before 1 year mark).
Hello!! I hope I remember I wrote this so I can look back at the end of 2026.
My main goal for 2026 is:
Take the JLPT N2 in December. I’ll need to apply to postdocs around that time, and my partner told me they’d be okay with living in Japan for 2 years. I need to do more research on whether or not my field actually would care much that I had that skill (speaking Japanese) or not, but it can’t hurt!
but this needs to be broken up into lots of goals I think. So my various goals are:
Bunpro reviews + 1 new grammar a day. This feels fast for me, but I think a lot of those JLPT grammar points are just vocab at the end of the day, so it shouldn’t be too bad. Also, I learned taking the N3 that I had zero issues with the grammar, and I only got something like a little over half way through the “N3 grammar list”.
Wanikani reviews. I have no set amount of WK items to do a day, whatever feels good. I started WK in March of this year and am about to hit level 20. Extrapolating…that means by December 2026 I should be be ~level 46 but that’s probably way too fast. I knew most of the kanji from previous studying up til level 7-8 and at least recognized quite a few in the 10’s levels. I’m going to play it safe and assume I’ll get to something like level 36, which at 80% of N2 kanji seems plenty safe to me for the test.
Reading: I’m trying to read 15 minutes every day in Japanese, a lot of times it becomes more but it would be okay if it stays 15 minutes. I just want to start making my way through some novels, that’s my main motivator lately. I’m currently working on a book by 乙一 who seems to be a big name in the horror genre, I’m reading the book they wrote at 17 apparently! I’m also working through くまクマ熊ベアー because it’s an easier book to get started with. After those two, I’ll probably just read what other people are reading online for discussion purposes, plus it lets me get a taste of what people are into! Always cool to have a different perspective.
Lastly, this is a bit of a strange goal, but I want to stop being so negative. I’ve been spending a lot of time surfing through discords, forums, comments trying to find a sense of community in learning Japanese. It was easier when I went to school and classes. As I join these discords, one thing thing that strikes me is just how negative everyone is. If someone links a cool YT video explaining a grammar point, 3 people point out how awful that content creator is. If someone says they are excited to take JLPT N5, a few people will point out its useless. It’s really made me look at myself and how I respond to things in life and I don’t like what I see. I think I make learning Japanese miserable for myself, and maybe for others when I interact with them because I’m so negative. I wanna be more supportive and kind to myself and to others. I think this may be a benefit to my mood in general too!
I’m keeping my Japanese goals for 2026 simple because French is still my main focus. So that means:
150 hours of either listening to audiobooks, watching dramas/movies, or watching youtube.
I blew past my initial 125 hour goal this year (100% audiobooks) and decided to stretch it to 150 which I likely will miss by a few hours, but also I’ve been in a j-drama mood and so I’m still listening to Japanese! Hence the category expansion
Minimum 5000 pages read
My usual reading goal. Enough to maintain but not necessarily improve.
Manga doesn’t count towards this number
24 hours talking (2 hours/month)
I put Japanese in maintenance mode this year and haven’t been talking much at all. I still can, but I can tell I’m getting rusty. In an effort to stop it from deteriorating, I’d like to talk at least two hours per month. It’s not much but it’s attainable
Oh, yes, it’s that time of the year again. Time for my overly ambitious and overconfident self to set lofty goals for the next year while saying “THIS time will be different!”
Anyway, here’s my list for this year:
Left over 2025 goals (actually finish Genki 2 and Bunpro N4 vocab)
Reach Wanikani level 21
Finish Bunpro N3 grammar and vocab
Go through Quartet 1
Finish the renshuu N4 content and make good progress on N3
Read 12 manga volumes (one for each month)
Read one single book (a kids book will do)
Listen or watch Japanese for 100 hours (no English subs)
I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself, but I’ll keep trying!
I wanna keep my 0/0 WK streak, which puts me on track to reach level 60 before the end of the year.
I also want to keep up with reading 日本語 nearly every day, with the goal of being able to read よう実 by the end of the year. (at the moment i’m feeling a bit of “what now”—my sense is i’m sort of in the sour spot between eg Tadoku and most native content. suggestions v welcome…)
I want to take breaks from studying without guilt and feeling like I’m failing at learning.
Recent advice I heard was to treat breaks and resets as part of the routine.
I tend to make these wonderful rigorous study plans. They work well for a few days and then I get bored of them. Then I make another and get bored of it. And another and get bored.
Beginner clubs here are definitely good to help make the painful first steps into native content easier, but I also quite liked Satori Reader as an on ramp when first working my way into reading.
Edit: Ok actually you’re already doing absolute beginner club aren’t you, good choice there. Still stand by the latter if it appeals to you. Otherwise the first few things you read are painful and will feel like they aren’t helping at all but if you’re already making that step just continuing with it is gonna pay off before too long.
My Goal is to be able to Work through Genki 2 in 2027and then continue with Quartet. The Problem are the open questions / the pair Work.
How to achieve This Goal:
Learning more vocabulary with Bunpro Decks
learning at least 5 new words per day =1825 words in 2026 (that would be 2657 at the end of 2026; maybe I will be able to reach 3000)
Genki 1
Genki 2
N5
N4
Adding the vocabulary of a book of my choice to my Reviews, because I want to be able to read it (probably にゃんにゃんたんていだん)
Really knowing the grammarpoints of the Grammar Decks Bunpro
Genki 1
Genki 2
N5
N4
N3 (optional)
Using the cram function and normal reviews
There are only 295 Grammarpoints left (N5-N3). So I should be able to learn everything from N5 to N3.
Reading
1 Chapter per day on Satori Reader
1 Reading practise per day on Bunpro
Reading a book / Manga (optional)
Repeating a Story (Satori) / a JLPT niveau (Bunpro) is allowed
Listening (only doable when I’m at Home)
Combined with Reading Satori
Combined with Reading Practise and doing Reviews/cram on Bunpro
Study preperation
Creating a vocabulary Deck for Quartet 1
Creating a vocabulary Deck for Quartet 2
Kanji
Maybe when I’m able to read books with Furigana without having Problems with Grammar/Vocabulary. It doesn’t seem important at the Moment to learn Kanji.
Playing Videogames in Japanese
Not yet. Maybe when I’ve reached N3.
Watching
At least one Episode / 30 min of Anime/Drama per week
31.12.2025
SRS Stage
Vocabulary
Grammar
Chapters Episodes
Ghost
44
12
Beginner
61
52
Adept
570
65
Seasoned
157
112
Expert
0
0
Master
0
0
Sum
832
241
N5
638/1100
127/127
N4
70/1099
93/178
N3
15/1998
9/219
N2
3/1998
0/217
N1
5/2974
0/184
Genki 1
571/698
99/99
Genki 2
129/531
86/86
Quartet 1
no deck?
10/60
Quartet 2
no deck?
1/50
Kaishi 1.5k
365/1469
Onomatope
2/811
Core 2k
535/1951
Core 4k
568/3893
Satori Reader
Sakura and Suzuki 5/43
Bunpro Reading Practise
N5 Lesson 4 - 1/5
Watching
0
I printed Out some Sheets of a yearly habit tracker. I Hope This will Help me to achieve my Goals.
Let’s set some goals 
But they also have smaller groups of lessons available, e.g. right now I’m on hold for level one lessons 1-5, and it’s only a two week wait.
