So having used the site much more consistently up to this point, I figured I’d come back with my thoughts so far. Granted, I’ve been unable to use it as consistently as I would’ve liked since March (thanks real life!), but as it stands I’m roughly 40% of my way through the Grammar and Vocab sections.
I’ve been skipping the Kanji videos since I’d expect any kanji I don’t already know will pop up in the Vocab section anyway. I’ve elected to not comment on the Kanji videos since I haven’t really used them, but I’ll happily answer any questions people have about them to the best of my ability.
On to my thoughts.
General Thoughts
As I said before I’ve always liked Nihongo No Mori videos from the standpoint of studying Japanese in Japanese. I think this makes it much easier to comprehend more advanced grammar that doesn’t tie cleanly into one’s native language.
These videos are no exception, and are very well-made, and broken up into clear and concise sections based on their content. Yuka Sensei continues to impress with her ability to explain things in a clear and understandable way, all the while keeping it fully Japanese.
The videos clock in anywhere from 3-12 minutes each, with the vast majority of them falling in the 5-7 minute range. It should go without saying that at the N1 level, Nihongo No Mori will not work as a standalone resource, but I think it works phenomenally as a main study tool for new material given the detailed explanations by a native speaker.
Grammar Section
The grammar videos in particular stand out to me as particularly high quality content.
The entire section is broken into 16 chapters based on the general meaning of the grammar points, eg ～だが、～だから、～だけ, etc. Each chapter also has a short 10 question review test of the grammar presented, using practice questions based on the example sentences for each grammar point.
Each video begins with an example conversation that showcases the grammar for that video. Yuka Sensei then breaks down the grammar point in both meaning and structure before giving 3-4 quick examples of how it could be used, and what each of those examples mean, before diving into a much more detailed breakdown of 3 full-blown example sentences using the grammar where she also explains the nuance of any esoteric vocabulary they use. She then plays the example conversation from the beginning of the video again, and proceeds to break it down. The videos usually wrap up with a quick summary of the points meaning and structure, with an additional explanation of how formal the grammar point may be/what situations it may be used in, and how you can convey the same meaning in a more casual way for day-to-day use, or with friends.
She also frequently writes the example sentences using specific combinations of vocabulary that the grammar point is often (or exclusively) used with.
11/10 on the grammar for me.
Vocab
The vocab section is also very well done, though may not be as intuitive as the grammar section for some users. The videos are separated based on practice question type, those being reading, context, synonym, and usage questions. Let me elaborate.
Explanation of question types for those that need/want it.
Reading questions are straight forward, choose the proper reading for the underlined vocabulary word written in kanji.
Context questions have you choose which of 4 words best fits the blank in a given sentence. The 4 answers are typically fairly similar in meaning, or at least all share a common kanji or reading.
Synonym questions have you choose the answer which could best be used to replace the word underlined in an example sentence.
Usage questions present a word and have you select the sentence which most appropriately uses the word.
Each video contains a handful (changes depending on the question type) of vocab practice questions. After you answer each question, Yuka Sensei shows the correct answer and proceeds to explain why this is the correct answer, usually even going into great detail to also explain why the incorrect answers are incorrect.
It can be a bit of a slog at times if you already know the vocab presented, but that absolutely doesn’t take away from the value of the content itself, as it’s still great listening practice and I usually walk away with something I didn’t know regardless, a deeper understanding of a word I already knew at the very least.
Some Numbers
I did a very rough estimation of the number of hours of content provided for the N1 level, so here we go!
Grammar: ~14 hours across 16 chapters, 120 videos (and grammar points) in total.
Vocab: ~17 hours across 10 chapters, 195 videos, and 745 practice questions in total.
Kanji: ~36 hours across 20 chapters, 310 videos, and 829 kanji in total.
So you’re getting about 67 hours of content in total spread across 625 high quality instructional videos.
There are still the Reading and Listening sections yet to be released, and I doubt at this rate that they’ll be out in time for the Summer 2021 exam. However, I have no doubt that they’ve been delayed in part due to Covid, and to ensure they stand up to the standard of quality that the rest of the videos do. N2 and N3 are also on the way, with no mention of N4 or N5, but there’s no timeline on those levels yet.
TL;DR- It’s a great program, and I highly recommend it as a primary source of study for JLPT and even just Japanese in general, as Yuka Sensei provides the casual/daily conversation equivalent for all formal grammar points, and explains both nuance and use-cases for vocabulary. 10/10, well worth the money and something I will personally continue to support and use even after I eventually pass N1 (whenever that may be).
