Got myself centered on my studying and Japanese in a whole in this post I made for some feedback, and I got very helpful feedback. Am realizing I'm stressing myself too much about the Japanese and am not enjoying it too well. Any tips? - #2 by Daisoujou
With that said, my confidence has risen seeing someone I kind of related to, and their helpful feedback.
I made this post to sink it into me that I will be continuing and to stress less.
Best of luck to you! Hopefully I can remember to glance in here from time to time. In addition to how I was saying I kinda related to the struggles, I also used Genki and WK, so although I never used Bunpro, even your process is pretty relatable, heh.
Excited to see big progress here, you got this 
Thank you so much!
Since I only have done vocab lessons in the past couple days, I’m feeling ambitious and doing some extra lessons. I’ll do all the radicals probably.
Kind of ambitious for me.
35 lessons on Wanikani alone in one day might be a bit to process, but we’ll see how it goes!
I want to try speedrunning a level one time, but don’t want to get burned out after so I’ll try to just speed up gradually to the point where I’m down to speedrun one comfortably.
One month anniversary of the study log!
I finished the first chapter of Genki 2 and it’s now circulating my Bunpro review pile.
I skimmed the second chapter of Genki 2 to get a feel for it.
Not too big of an update, but I decided to make one because it’s the one month and one day anniversary of this log.
Have been pushing at it to advance in the language but I’ve been doing a bit too much and it isn’t as fun as it used to be I’m feeling. Not boring but not as fun. That’s why I’ll be slowing it down a bit and add some more intervals between checking wanikani I think. I’ll do one at 7 am for reviews 9 am for lessons on wanikani and three Genki grammar points from the book and on Bunpro then reviews at 1 pm around then another session at around 8 or 9. No matter what I won’t stop or burn out. Will not make that happen. Instead I’ll adjust my pace accordingly.
I ordered よつばと！１ to practice reading, found it to be popular for entering the manga space as a Japanese learning. I know I won’t be “reading” this book, I’d rather be decoding it to learn the vocab and grammar it uses.
To make the experience easier, I’ve decided to use the community-made よつばと！１ deck on Bunpro which has grammar and vocab in it. I’m glad that Bunpro filters out the grammar I already have floating around reviews there or this would be more tedious.
With that being said, I feel like doing the whole deck then the book so it’s easy, but then I’ll have to wait quite a while to read the book, so I think I’ll decode, but I also want the deck in Bunpro to have some new stuff floating around my review pile for SRS in the future, also because I was meaning to add a vocabulary deck, maybe from my Genki book or something, but after I complete this deck/book’s lessons, I’ll add one from my textbook probably, or maybe a JLPT level. Either way I’ll add one.
As for lessons, the first half of the Kanji for level 9 is in my review pool on Wanikani. I did my 3 grammar points from the Genki book with Genki and Bunpro explanations and they are now floating around my reviews. As for よつばと！１ I also did those 3 lessons, all vocab.
Yotsubato! I read it early too, and loved it. Will still be a struggle at this stage, but it sounds like you have the right expectations already. Hope you like it too!
That’s nice! I’ll probably like it after I’m done. I’m planning to go through the absolute beginner book club guide post, wherever it is and find a good strategies and the websites and stuff I need to decode. Glad to say I got through most of the first page without struggling too much, but there’s a lot more to go.
As for my vocab decks on Bunpro for it, the deck is kind of messed up with repeating items and stuff. Not too big of a deal, but yeah. I feel like I’ve been enjoying my reviews there with Anki mode on for the vocab but still recall.
Follow up to my よつばと！１ experience;
I’ve been lots of stuff so far, and the pictures really helped with context. The casual grammar has been taking some adjusting, but I can sort of make out what’s going on with being able to understand ~50% of the writing fully and the help from pictures. Less decoding than reading but that’s because I haven’t been trying to FULLY understand everything yet. So far around halfway through the book and contemplating ordering the second volume so that by the time I finish this one I have the second one.
Have been noticing my review sessions are taking way longer and have been getting angry at that, but that’s probably because I’m practicing using a Japanese kana flick keyboard on mobile now which is where I’ve been doing most of my reviews lately.
Also notice I’ve been getting a bit angry because I’m forgetting stuff. Stuff I had a good grasp on only around a month or two ago has been fading out of my mind and I can’t remember a lot of it, but I guess that’s the SRS system trying to remind me right before I forget. My brain might just need to adjust how long it keeps stuff by a bit longer so the SRS and my brain sync up again and I can remember stuff longer with it.
Have had full days this weekend and have been not having too much time for my studies, but I can’t stop, so I’ll keep going, but I’ll make sure I don’t burn out too. But I also kind of have to keep going for JLPT this summer, but I’ll make sure I can accomplish both.
Gonna be the last single-character kanji for the number now, so I’ve gotta enjoy it. As soon as I finish level 10, I can proudly tell myself I am 1/6th of the way done with unlocking all of Wanikani’s lessons and adding them to my reviews!
Ended up diving into a rabbit-hole of beginner Japanese videos from somebody which only confused me more than helped explain stuff and now I’m extremely confused about particles and sentence structure. None the less, the more I do, the more I’ll understand, so I’ve just gotta keep telling myself to not give up, and the more I do, the more I’ll understand and the language clicks together. Also making sure not to burn out of course, that’s the main priority.
Finally finished procrastinating and added a Genki vocab deck to Bunpro. I don’t have a set lessons on it every day, but I just do it as I want and am learning my vocab that way. I’ll make sure to do some every day though.
Have been noticing Wanikani has been drifting away from me a bit. When I wake up I don’t feel like doing reviews. I just don’t feel like doing reviews a lot now and when I do, I want to get them done as fast as possible. Either way I guess I’m not as interested in it right now, but I’ll keep forcing myself to do them until I am interested in it again. But yeah, nothing too new, just getting confused by new grammar but have been finding that they sync in the more I practice usually on Bunpro.
Got a Genki1 workbook so I can do the exercises there as I finished the textbook, just to do whenever I have free time or as I please.
Disinterest is usually a warning sign that you’re pushing too much and risk burning out, maybe take it easy for a while on the WK side and do something else ?
Alright then! I’ll just do it 3 times a day and get my lessons in, might slow down grammar for a bit to get everything else to sync in with me.
Have you start regular reading practice yet ? If I remember yours goals you wanted to read manga… It’s very rewarding for motivation to decipher through a volume even if it is only one or two sentences a day.
Joining the 📚📚 Read Japanese Every Day Challenge - Spring 2025 🐍🐸 was a game changer for me and made me enjoy again learning kanji for the times where I’m seeing them in my novel.
The important point being that your enjoyment is capital to learn well and the more you like the experience of learning the easier it’ll be to dedicate those hours to it.
Sure, I’ll definitely look into it, thank you so much for the suggestion!
