Oh, I like this thread, thanks for mentioning the SMART method, I feel like that’s going to help in general and not only with Japanese.
As for me, I don’t want to overcommit to things by putting overly ambitious goals so I want to start small:
Kanji
Reach level 60 in WK, should be pretty doable if I keep the usual rhythm of 2-3 levels a month.
Reading
Be more constant in the Read every day challenges or Natively tracking. I usually fall off the habit of tracking things in month 2/3, which leads to skipping days actually reading and breaking the habit
At the absolute minimum, that means reading at least one manga page a day (ideally much more, but let’s keep it low)
One novel a month, using Natively’s wishlist.
For manga, work on my wishlist on Manga Kotoba AND/OR the “まんがひみつ” free series
Read one non fiction book
Vocabulary
I like to use JPDB to have a (very generalized) idea of how many words I know. I’m really happy to have reached the fabled “10k words” marked as “known” by the database, but only 5k or something of those are marked as “never forget”. I want to reach 10k marked as “never forget” mined from media I immerse in. I’m confident the videogame book clubs I’ll work on this year will help a lot in making words memorable enough they stick!
(ゼノギアス already did last week by having one character use 懸命 which was giving me trouble on WK…)
Listening
Work on my Japanese media “Watch later” list on Netflix with Japanese subs or no subs at all.
Watch more movies on the JFF Theater website. They are free and usually have Japanese subs! Let’s say two a month minimum.
Speaking
Start shadowing
Grammar
Finish reading the transcript of Cure Dolly’s videos. I’ve found some info really illuminating but had difficulty following the video lessons, so finding written transcripts has helped a lot. I’m already on part 40 out of 100 so should be pretty doable. Trying to do one part a day at minimum.
Do Bunpro’s JLPT mock up tests, ideally one every week, as far as I can. Re do grammar points I fail.
Videogames
Outside of book clubs I’m following:
Finish my playthrough on Brilliant Diamond in japanese lmao
“Finish” New Pokémon Snap also in Japanese. That’s at least the main plot and levelling up all courses/unlocking all Pokémon, even if I don’t manage to 100% everything
Finish all N3 grammar, hopefully by September 2026
Keep my daily Anki streak for vocab + grammar points
10 lessons of WaniKani a day + reviews, this should hopefully get me to around level 45-50 by the end of 2026 and I’ll have most of the needed kanji down
And most of all… I’ve applied to spend 2 months at a language school in Japan in October/November, and I have NO idea what to expect, and I’m really nervous but also excited. I hope living in Japan for 2 months will improve my speaking and listening skills, and language school will force me to work on Japanese for hours every day, hopefully letting me a learn a LOT.
Ideally I will also start reading more (I don’t read enough, but it’s hard to find the time with a full time job + WaniKani + N4/N3 vocab + grammar) so I should probably look into some goals for that…
Finish Tobira (finished Quartet 1 last year, and I’d like to finish Tobira this year)
Read at least a few books of the New Testament in Japanese using the * Diglot Bible I recently got - my stretch goal is to read the whole thing, but I’d be happy with a handful of books
Watch anime/dramas on netflix every week, maybe two or three times a week
Feel confident about N2 level material the same way I do now w/N3 - where much less of it intimidates me.
Sign-up for and take the JLPT in July or December
Journal in Japanese on a few topics.
Study the Kodansha furigana Japanese Dictionary
Whittle down my remaining WaniKani items
Have a few more conversations with my wife in 日本語 instead of English and build up my fluency that way
i actually do have goals! i rarely make goals and i hate this SMART approach with a passion (work forced those repeatedly for a look of superficial efficiency instead of real efficiency) but i looked over what i achieved last year and thought, i use that as a guidance. so here are my only two goals:
read 52 volumes (manga, light novels, novels, whatever). i read over 60 this years, so this sounds manageable.
watch 120 hours of anime, either subbed or unsubbed. i think i managed 150 this year.
i dont plan on n levels, wanikani or bunpro levels, finishing textbooks or whatever. i do those when they are fun and i feel like my immersion will improve. even if i might not reach those goals, as long as i had fun during immersion, ill still feel accomplished
Mainly I don’t want to fall behind on WK again and restart but ideally this year:
Hit level 47 on WK (level up once a month)
Finish a book or manga series
Complete kanji drills for 1年生~4年生
I might be able to take classes to get a nursery school teacher certificate (so I can legally count as a body in the classroom because right now I’m just an English language teacher so if we’re short on staff, technically I don’t qualify as a childcare worker so some teachers have to work overtime until enough children get picked up). If I can take these classes, then I won’t feel bad for not being able to take the JLPT.
This month marks one year of studying Japanese for me, and I’m happy to say that I achieved my goals. Well, I guess technically I didn’t finish reading something with the book club, but I am having a great time there!
Cementing my N5 and N4 knowledge by starting and maintaining a sentence book
Finish pimsleur (currently LVL3 L8)
At least 20 italki lessons
JLPT N3 in December
Read a Japanese book
100 hours of immersion
Play through a game in Japanese
Daily output
I’ve seen people say that going from N4 to N3 in a year is not doable, but I want to give it a try!
I also think I want to slow down with WaniKani a little, because I’m pretty far ahead in my kanji knowledge compared to other aspects, with listening needing the most work.
Hey everyone! Happy new year’s, I hope your holidays have been going incredibly and that everyone’s studying hard! I’ll be providing a list (Not chronological or anything):
To reach level 50+ for WaniKani, this is definitely achievable for me and dare I say I might even shoot for 60!
Pass N3 Exam (Minimum requirement, might push for N2 as well)
Finish my first no-furigana book (キッチン- Currently 3% done)
Become more fluent in speaking Japanese
Start watching anime with Japanese subtitles
Overall quite ambitious but I believe I can achieve these!
皆様一生懸命勉強しましょう！
I started learning Japanese at the end of this year, in a very spontaneous and somewhat disorganized manner.
At the end of 2026 I’d like to be in a mindset where I have the workload laid out in front of me and I can be aware of what areas are going great, what areas need practice etc. and I’m not “stumbling around confused".
In other words, having a somewhat decent basis of the language, its culture and the tools at my disposal. So when I’m reading a sentence I can tell myself “ok I get the gist of it but I don’t know that word” or “I’m not sure about this grammar point”, instead of like “what the helly is all this”.
I’m setting up good habits that fit my daily life: at least once a day, keep pending reviews low and don’t overdo lessons to avoid burn out which is the worst thing that can happen.
Besides WK and BP which are going well, I’ve purchased regular online lessons to give me structure and motivation, and I try to do reviews etc with some friends who are also learning. I’m using the forums and chatting to japanese friends every couple of days.
I also have set up the tools to start mining (Anki & Yomitan) but besides occasional livestreams I don’t immerse much yet. By the end of the year I’d like to have taken a habit of immersion and mining, and maybe use Anki a bit more but that’s optional as I don’t want to overdo it.
In 2024, I read 30 novels and in 2025 so far 44 novels (I have one more book I’m going to finish by the end of the year). In 2025, I had the goal to read 30 books again with the ambitious goal of 50. Very close! It’s very within reach, just have to set off time to do what needs to be done.
In 2025 I also had the goal of 15k novel pages. Currently at 13934 pages. Again, very close! Just have to spend more time reading. Maybe I should track reading time? Actually, that would be too めんどくさい since I tend to fall asleep/doze off while reading.
Listening - I’m doing a lot of listening by watching live streams of especially a certain streamer, he plays a ton of games. I haven’t added all the hours to my spreadsheet yet, but in 2025 Jan-Oct I’ve tracked 590 UPDATE: 711 hours of listening. I don’t need a goal. If anything I should switch up the content. Make it more audiobook. I don’t really listen much to audiobooks in the first place, so there’s some resistance to committing to such a goal. At least I can finish the one I started in 2025.
In December, I got a gaming pc for myself (my first! yay!). I’m playing Ori and the Will of the Wisps in Japanese. It’s going well and I’m having so much fun. I don’t know what other games I’ll play, but if possible I’d like to play in Japanese. If I pick up Witcher III again, it’s going to bomb my reading goal (Does it even have JP ver…? ) Haven’t played it since I had gaming laptop in… 2020? I’ll pick something up if it’s a smaller game!
Project attack 積読! Start reading some of the light novel series I have.
Continue tracking Bunpro grammar progress. Jan 1st:
Read 50 novels
Read 15k novel pages
Continue tracking listening hours
Finish the one audiobook I started in 2025 (硝子の塔の殺人, currently at 44%)
Play Ori and the Will of the Wisps in JP
Master more N1 grammar on BP
I am so impressed by everyones’s goals. I studied a lot for a few months starting in about June. But, I realized that this girl just wants to have fun. So my goals are:
Take a weekly Italki class. Keep doing wanikani at a snails pace without having to reset. When in Japan, to try to remember the words and some of the Kanji that come up in daily life. To remember to listen to 4989 American Life. To understand and speak more in next year’s trips to Japan than this year’s. To meet up with some of the super interesting people I have met in Japan this year. To have fun.
The goals I have in my study log are very generic (thinks like enjoy content in japanese and such), so I never really stopped to think about an actual plan. This seems like a good place to start, isn’t it? T
his will be my first full year of learning Japanese, so I don’t know how high should I aim for, so If anyone has feedback, let me know . With that said, my goals for 2026 are:
SRS
WK: Get to lvl 30. At my current speed I could reach lvl 40 easily, but I want to start prioritizing other parts through the year, so I’ll probably slow down at some point.
Anki: Finish the Kaishi 1.5K deck. This should be done around March, and then it would only be reviews. After that I should start another deck, but I’l add that eventually.
Bunpro: Get to at least seasoned in the the N4 and N3 grammar decks. This one is more challenging, but I do want to try it. If I feel it’s too much, I might fallback to only N4.
Reading: Because of life, I couldn’t finish the December Readathon (I did only about 2 hours, and forgot to post my resutts ) So I want to join the March one.
Finish at least 5 lvl 2 graded readers and at least 1 lvl 3 graded reader in the March Readathon.
Finish 3 beginner series in Satori Reader.
Complete the Gal and Dino ABBC, and then finish the manga on my own.
Start (and hopefully finish) Ruri Dragon in preparation for the anime.
I feel 2 mangas is a good goal considering that I don’t really now how much I can actually do in my first year. If I complete them before the end of the year, I might add a third one.
Listening: I really want to ramp up Listening this year. Not being able to understand spoken Japanese is probably one of the most frustating aspect that I currently face, so it’s something that I want to prioritize.
Understand at least 90% of the first 20 chapter of Nihongo con Teppei.
Complete 1 chapter the yuyu podcast series in Satori Reader, with the youtube podast included.
Understand at least 1 chapter of an anime without subtitles (still undecided on which one)
Writing: I do want to start writing, but I’m still on the fence I’m gonna put a small goal to see if I can achieve it.
Start, at some point during the year, a “1 sentence a day” challenge.
Speaking; Nothing for now. Speaking is not really a priority for now. That being said, I have a friend who wants to practice his Japanese, so maybe I’ll add having a conversation with him. Still undecided.
I’m fairly new to learning Japanese. I just joined Wanikani this week and just finished the tofugu hiragana guide. Katakana will follow in a week or so.
I’ve been studying Pimsleur Japanese on and off for the last 3 months, and I finally finished level 1.
My goals for 2026 are as follows:
First half: Finish levels 2 to 5 of Pimsleur Japanese.
Second half: Start working on textbooks. I have Genki 1, but I won’t work on it till I finish Pimsleur. I also want to start joining Japanese language meetups (online or in-person, whatever is available)
For Wanikani, I want to be consistent and see how far I can go in a year- maybe level 35 or so, but we’ll see.
Immersion will be light- primarily through video games (currently playing Ghost of Yotei) and some TV shows or movies.
I also hate the SMART system, because we use it at work and it’s basically lipstick on a pig (at work, but as soon as I hear SMART, I shudder.)
My goals for 2026 are:
Need to read way more. I was doing pretty well, but then work stress, laziness, and other stuff intervened and I haven’t really read anything apart from the readings in Genki, NHK Easy News, and the odd thing. I really need to start cutting down on my TBR list. I’m thinking one book a month (LN, manga, all fine). Also read the corresponding day, ever day in 日本の歴史366 頭のいい子を育てるジュニア | L26
Need to do more listening. I did the N4 in December, and listening was my weakest part and I’m pretty sure I failed the exam because of that. Podcasts, YouTube, audiobooks etc. Make this a daily habit.
Carry on having lessons with my tutors, and come up with a better way to organise new vocab/grammar after lessons. If anyone has any tips, I’m all ears. I know the easiest would be to just put it into Anki, but I’m not a huge Anki fan.
Wanikani. Currently level 18 (I reset from level 25 to 10 in June). I think I found a sustainable pace, so just carry on with that. The goal for end of 2026 is level 30.
Finish all N3 points on Bunpro.
Try for the N3 in December. Around the beginning of summer order the Shin Kanzen Masters book for N3 and go through them (not like before the N4, when I did it in like 4 weeks).
I think I am reading enough as it stands, and so I want to focus on other things:
Writing! I want to learn this again. Getting to 5th grade until the summer would be great. I want to be able to write the kanji as well as many words that use them. Specifically the words from my Anki deck, and also maybe words from the Step books.
Vocab! I need to study vocabulary more systematically but for now I’m having a super hard time getting into Anki again. Maybe together with writing I can also get some vocab study under my belt.
Grammar! In an attempt to use more varied grammar when speaking, I reset my Bunpro deck and started from zero again. Worked well as long as I had the time (i.e. over summer) but I have worked a lot in the remaining time so I dropped the grammar studies again. Maybe I can get it going again.
This is a semi secret award system ( you may now start noticing some people on the forum with award flair). I made it up because I use the kklc system instead of wk and I wanted to scratch that ‘level up’ itch
If people tag me when they level there are also ceremonies with sea shanties
Actually, that would be too めんどくさい since I tend to fall asleep/doze off while reading.
(Does it even have JP ver…? 
Start reading some of the light novel series I have.
. With that said, my goals for 2026 are:
) So I want to join the March one.
Discerning Dolphin Maritime Kanji Award (1200 kanji) - specifically: study 4 new kanji on weekend days and read most days from KKLC-GRS
Tell me more please 
you may now start noticing some people on the forum with award flair). I made it up because I use the kklc system instead of wk and I wanted to scratch that ‘level up’ itch