新 Monthly Progress Challenge

#PROGRESS POST #: 2

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 9

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 12

#GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: well, I was able to keep my WK routine in a good rythm. Same with Bunpro. KW … not so much (lot’s of reviews to do):sweat_smile: .
Anyway my biggest success was Genki, this week I’m finishing Chapter 12 at last.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: This month will take a break from grammar, I’ll continue with Genki 2 probably in March-April. I think it’s important to review the concepts that I’ve learnt so far, and to read more in order to cemment them.

I’ll do the Shadowing Let’s speak Japanese! book in order to practice to some talking (or at least get use to produce some sounds in japanese), since I know it’s my weakest point so far.

Mostly I’ll focus on my new Anki deck, to practice my known vocab in a series of sentences. So I can really boost both reading and listening as well.

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
This month will be mostly about listening, building vocab and hopefully shadowing.
I learnt about Subs2SRS decks, and how to make them myself with some of the TV shows / Animes that I like, so I have already thousands of flashcards that include readings, translation, image + audio sentences from my favorite shows!! Very stimulating stuff compared to most of my sample sentences so far. Another user pointed me to a great Anki add-on called Morphman that’s allowing me to order my sentences so their are graded to my vocab level and I keep always learning in a + 1 way. I’m very excited about this setup :hugs:

I have continued with the Graded Readers series (level 1 so far), I’ll love to dive into native material to read, but for now this keeps me reading, wich it’s something I really want to do on a regular basis.

FAVE: Subs2SRS + MorphMan it’s this month fave.
But Graded Readers it continues to be a great fave still.

TRY NEW RESOURCE: I’m giving it a try to japanese pods too, all in japanese, so I’ll listen while commuting to work . Very new still… next moth will say how useful is at my current level.

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Speaking still. Will see how shadowing works for me.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:
The idea is Shadowing… An those phrases put them to work in HelloTalk to gradually make some more audio notes instead of just writing there.

#HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Keep it fresh!! Make your routine something enjoyable. Don’t burden yourself with things you don’t like. You’ll probably will be learning for a while, so you might as well enjoy it.

#PROGRESS POST #:

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 3

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL…: 6

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Checked and did reviews everyday

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Continue to get on a routine and explore more

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani, KaniWani, BunPro, Jisho.org, http://nihongo.j-talk.com

FAVE: Don’t have one yet besides this site
LEAST FAVE: DuoLingo
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Open to ideas

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Grammar and lack of vocab

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Continue my path learning kanji and vocab, and making sure I grasp each section of grammar
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: So many resources and media to consume for Japanese. We are lucky compared to other languages people are learning.

#PROGRESS POST #:

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL:
level 5

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL…
Being at level 7 or 8 would be good.

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Using WK more often. Or rather, everyday to work on kanji retention as well as building vocabulary.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Continue at the same pace as it has helped me learn more and level up faster. Practice what I learn in real life. So far, I’ve been able to understand a lot more of the words that I see around my workplace, etc and it’s pretty encouraging.

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: I use WK, and KW (though this one tends to be frustrating at times because of the English words that are used which could be a number of things.) Wasabi-jpn, Bunpro, Jisho, Japanese (dictionary app), Hello Talk.

FAVE: I really like WaniKani, even though the build up of lessons and reviews can be a bit intimating.
LEAST FAVE: On the flip side, Kaniwani frustrates me at times because the English used can sometimes be ambiguous.
TRY NEW RESOURCE: I need to actually use the shadowing book I bought sometime back. My coworker just told me about an app he uses to learn/practice English. After asking if there was a Japanese version and discovering that, yes, there was one, I decided to try it as well.

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:
I think my speaking somewhat improved since I’ve switched to intensive mode, but it’s still a weakness. That and reading (because of grammar).

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: I plan to use my shadowing book just to practice speaking even if it isn’t conversation. Also, I’m trying to narrate more in Japanese. So if I’m watching a show, instead of “Omg, I can’t believe that” It would be more “ええええ、信じられない。” Also, when I read manga in English, I try to translate it into Japanese, but my new method is actually saying everything out loud instead of reading in my head.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:
Try fitting your Japanese studies into things you like. If you like watching movies or anime, playing games, and/or reading. Do it in Japanese. You learn in a context that you enjoy, and it helps keeping up your motivation.
Think of Japanese as one big puzzle, the more you learn and uncover, the more pieces unravel and fall into place. I do this all the time and something like reading 休止 on the printer gets me excited that I can understand what’s happening rather than following steps, pressing buttons and things working just because I’ve done it several times. (I hope that makes sense -_-)

I’m a little late to the party! But I’m gonna write like I wrote this on Jan 1 lol.

#PROGRESS POST #: 1 :confetti_ball:

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 7

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 11

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: 11

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani, KaniWani, angry4squigs (Katakana, lol), Tofugu

FAVE: WaniKani (but otherwise I have loved KaniWani)
LEAST FAVE: LOVE THEM ALL
TRY NEW RESOURCE: BunPro

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Writing

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: I’ll start of writing my Kana once a day at night before I sleep.
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Pace yourself. Don’t burn yourself out.

PROGRESS POST #03

WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 7 (reached goal)

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL: 10

GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Learn 20 more grammar points on Bunpro.
    • COMPLETE
  • Reduce the backlog of SBS Japanese podcasts to less than 15 by listening to one per day.
    • I listened to a lot more podcasts in the past month than I would usually do, but not enough to bring the backlog below 15.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Learn 10 more grammar points on Bunpro (bringing the total up to 43 grammar points in N5).
    • Grad school starts soon, so I’ve set a smaller goal for this month since I’ll have less free time.
  • Reduce the backlog of SBS Japanese podcasts to less than 15 by listening to one per day.
    • There are 28 podcast episodes still to listen to, and they will probably add 15 in the next month, so if I listen to one per day I should just reach this target.
  • Know how to write all the kanji up to level 4.
    • I’m using KaniWani to revise vocabulary and also to practice kanji. I unlock one level at a time and once I’m comfortable with that level I manually unlock the next level.

RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • WaniKani
  • Bunpro
  • AnkiDroid (manually added Genki vocabulary)
  • SBS Japanese podcast
  • KaniWani

RESOURCES ON THE SIDELINES:

  • Genki I (see PP#02)

DISCARDED RESOURCES:

  • Japanese Pod 101 (see PP#02)

POTENTIAL RESOURCES TO TRY NEXT:

  • Japanese Language Meetups
  • Satori Reader

JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

  • Speaking and listening remains my major weakness.
  • I’ve started addressing learning to write and my grammar is getting better, but I still need more work with synthesising writing in Japanese instead of simply recognising it.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • If I get the chance I’ll attend Japanese Language Meetups in my city to work on conversational skills. I probably won’t start Italki anytime soon because I’ll be too busy, but that’s on the cards for the future.

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

  • Be consistent.

PROGRESS POST #: 2

WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 7

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL…11

GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • Achieved the Wanikani Level goal :metal:
  • Catch up to the book club
    - Created the new Yotsuba club.
  • Kaniwani Reviews: Ha. hahahahahaha. (No, but seriously, I’m further behind now) - Unsuccessful
  • Get up to chapter 4 in Genki 1 - Didn’t happen (Left in the middle of chapter 2) Decided to focus on WK a bit more, since Genki was teaching me new vocab too (which was not the point)

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Restart Genki and do parts of chapter 3
  • Explore Human Japanese more
  • Keep pace with the Yotsuba club

RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

Human Japanese is really great

FAVE: HJ (?)
LEAST FAVE: Kaniwani, since it’s a 7 headed dragon that regenerates.
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Human Japanese

JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:
Is it acceptable to say everything? Because everything. <–This is unchanged

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Time + Effort

HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:
Tryst the process

#PROGRESS POST #: 2. Hey, look at that!

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 23 as of yesterday evening

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… Hm. Well, I managed just over 6 levels in roughly a month. If I keep at this pace, I suppose I should shoot for level 29! However, I think I might end up slowing down because the 死 is starting to hit me. For a more conservative wish, level 27 sounds good.

#GOALS

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Keep leveling up at speed if and only if the recent trend of lower retention rates slows or reverses. Otherwise, let’s slow down a little to ~9 days per level. That was never difficult.

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani every day. I also spend a lot of time on HelloTalk. Otherwise, taking a look at what browser tabs I have open… Nihongo no Mori YouTube videos, conjugation drills, Ba Ba Dum (basic vocab practice), Delvin (vocab/listening practice), Animelon (Jap-subbed anime with built-in resources), and Lang-8 (longform writing practice). I also occasionally use Tatoeba and HiNative, and my main dictionary is Jisho on the computer and Shirabe Jisho on my phone. Occasionally I check Maggie Sensei or Tae Kim for grammar instruction.

FAVE: Different things for different purposes. WaniKani is great, of course. HelloTalk has worked wonders for my grammar, vocab, and sentence construction just in the past month. I feel like I could be getting more out of Delvin if I used it more regularly, so let’s check in on that next month.

TRY NEW RESOURCE: I want to take a closer look at BunPro.

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Speaking. I need some serious speaking practice. My grammar and vocabulary are still horrendous, but the recent and massive jump in those regards makes me look more at my speaking ability here.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Keep on truckin’.

#HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Talk to people. Talk to everyone. Go out and find someone to talk to. It’s okay, you’re going to mess up and sound like an idiot, but they will do their best and correct you and ask questions as need be. Just talk to people.

1 Like

PROGRESS POST: 2 :confetti_ball:

WANIKANI CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 11

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 14 it’s a short month

GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • I achieved my WK level goal
  • I learned all of my katakana
  • I began to practice writing Kanji
  • I began reading NHK Easy
  • I didn’t get to use BunPro

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Begin using BunPro or some other grammar resource
  • Read 5 NHK Easy article a week

RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani, NHK Easy

FAVE: NHK Easy
LEAST FAVE: KaniWani (I got behind -cries-)
TRY NEW RESOURCE: BunPro (again)

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Writing

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: I’ll practice Kanji at least 5 nights a week before I sleep.
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Pace yourself. Don’t burn yourself out.

1 Like

PROGRESS POST: 1 :confetti_ball:

WANIKANI CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: Hit 3 this morning

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 6

GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

Successfully moved to Japan
Established consistency in my learning

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

Get to Level 6
Learn 50 common Japanese phrases
Move in to our new house
Find short-term employment

RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani, Duolingo, Japnesepod101.com, Wandering around Tokyo

FAVE: Wandering around Tokyo
LEAST FAVE: Duolingo (it just doesn’t seem to stick with me)
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Genki

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: The whole thing

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: WK every morning and evening. Go out and attempt to talk to people.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Be consistent. Attack it from multiple directions. Immerse yourself if you can.

#PROGRESS POST #4

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 18
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL: 22

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: I’d say I did pretty damn well again, and I am feeling pretty good about my progress.

  1. I did reach my WaniKani goals as well as most of the extra ones I laid out for myself last month. I did not reach my KaniWani goal…I’ve actually fallen quite a bit behind with over 1400 reviews waiting for me.
  2. I did finish with all of my Genki materials, but I still have to organize all of my little “reminder notes” into a more concise format. Unless I get incredibly lucky, I probably won’t get to that this month, though.
  3. Despite a dragging start to the month, I am doing well with going through the Intermediate Japanese textbook, and I’m on pace to finish before the end of March.
  4. I finished the Udemy N5 course quite quickly, and I’ve now just moved on to the Udemy N4 course.
  5. “Get caught up in Bunpro” is kinda a subjective goal, but I still think I did well. I finished Bunpro N4 grammar points, but I still need additional notes and practice with plenty of them before I’ll feel comfortable.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: New, better, more concrete goals this month:

  1. Keep my KaniWani reviews under 1000. More specifically, I’d like to do at least 500 reviews each week, if I can manage it. Those reviews are a chore, but they do help me, which is why I’m determined to stick with it.
  2. Go through the N4 Bunpro lessons one by one, take notes where I need to, and make sure I understand all of them. Get back on the horse in terms of doing reviews regularly again. Pick off the N3 grammar points that I already know and add additional ones to my review queue that I encounter in my textbooks.
  3. Review the first 10 chapters of the Intermediate Japanese textbook. Read aloud fluidly and comprehend all of the readings and dialogues before moving on.
  4. Finish the Udemy N4 course. Not all of it will be as easy as the N5 course, but I still think I can get through everything this month if I make the time for it.
  5. Finish going through the Genki II vocab and N5 vocab courses on Memrise. I started them last month, and I bet I can finish them fairly quickly this month, since nearly everything is a review.

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Primary: WaniKani, KaniWani, Bunpro, Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese + workbook, Udemy N4 Course, Memrise
  • Secondary/Supplemental: Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese, Introduction to Modern Japanese + workbook

FAVE: All of them are pretty good so far. I don’t disproportionately dislike any of them except for KaniWani.
TRY NEW RESOURCE: I still have plenty of resources to keep me occupied for now, thank you very much.

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Speaking, as always.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: There’s plenty I could do for this ongoing problem (like talking to real people), but for now, I’ll just be content in reading aloud. It’ll help make me pay close attention to sentence construction and get used to the feeling of forming the words in my mouth.

#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Set daily and/or weekly minimum studying goals for yourself. On good days/weeks, you can do more if you’d like; and on bad days/weeks, you can do the bare minimum. The important thing is that you keep up some level of regular progress.

Progress Post:

  • 1

WaniKani:

  • Current WK Level: 17
  • In One Month I Hope to Be Level: 20

Goals:

  • Last Month’s Goal Report: N/A
  • This Month’s Goal: (Re)start on Genki, do 2 chapters.

Resources:

  • Current Japanese Resources: WK, KW, iKnow, iTalki, Genki
    ** Fave: WK, iTalki
    ** Least Fave: Genki
  • Try New Resource: None; I’m doing enough.

Japanese Ability:

  • Current Japanese Weakness: Grammar.
  • How Will I Improve It: Genki, sadly.

Helping Others:

  • Tips or Advice for Learning Japanese: N/A

PROGRESS POST 3 (2/4/2018):

LAST PROGRESS POST: 1/4/2018

WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 17

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL: 21

GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • Made my level goal!
  • Am currently working through the vocab from my textbooks using Anki, to some avail
  • Am currently bulldozing through Kaniwani levels in chunks so as not to overwhelm myself
  • Only used Kanji Study in conjuction with Kaniwani, but I did make an effort to write down nearly every Kaniwani review I got, so I got a lot of writing practice there
  • Now check Bunpro reviews daily and add at least five new grammar points a week
  • Didn’t find any dramas to watch, but I have been watching more Japanese YouTube/general Japanese TV on YouTube, and I’m pretty consistently listening to a Japanese podcast (ひいきびいき, definitely recommend)
  • Also found a couple manga that I’ve started reading off and on (ちっちゃい時から好きだけど and 甘党ペンギン; neither’s bad, though I definitely prefer the latter)

THIS MONTH’S GOALS:

  • Continue all the good habits I’ve started this past month
  • Bring three new levels into my Kaniwani reviews
  • Add at least 20 new items in Bunpro
  • Specifically practice less-common kanji using Kanji Study in conjuction with my Kaniwani writing practice
  • Read more often and from wider sources
  • Check Anki more often

RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Wanikani, Kaniwani, Bunpro, Satori Reader, Japanese YouTube, Sokuyomi (Japanese e-manga site), Anki (app), Kanji Study (app), Japanese for Busy People I & II (books)

FAVE: Wanikani
LEAST FAVE: JFBP and Anki (I’m still not entirely comfortable with Anki’s interface, but if I use the app and use exclusively my own, homemade decks, it’s pretty okay)
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Satori Reader and Sokuyomi (more often)

JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Conversation

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Japanese conversation groups through my university (and maybe speaking up in class more often)

HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Don’t let yourself get swamped. It’s okay to do vacation mode or take a break from learning new things for a while. It’s better to only do as much as you’re able, even if that’s only very little, than to find yourself overwhelmed. It’s much easier to coast than to climb your way back to the top.

Progress Post
#1 - February 4th, 2018

WaniKani

  • Current WK Level: 7
  • In One Month I Hope to Be Level: 11

Goals:

Last Month’s Goal Report: N/A
This Month’s Goal: Work on a chapter of Genki I per week, write hiragana without a guide

Resources:

Current Japanese Resources: WaniKani, Genki I, Human Japanese, LingoDeer, JapanesePod101
Fave: WaniKani
Least Fave: Human Japanese
Try New Resource: None

Japanese Ability:

Current Japanese Weakness: Grammar and Writing
How Will I Improve It: Genki and Writing Practice

Helping Others:

Tips or Advice for Learning Japanese: Try doing something every day, even for just 5 minutes to successfully incorporate your Japanese studies in your everyday routine.

1 Like

#PROGRESS POST #: 1

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 6

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 10

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: start studying WK again

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: finish a level every week even if it means waking up in the middle of the night one day a week.

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WK, Youkoso, Minna no nihongo

FAVE: wk
LEAST FAVE: none
TRY NEW RESOURCE:

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Kanji and my grammar is rusty.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: study grammar that I used to know and study wk
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE be consistent. Don’t go years without studying or you lose a lot of what you already knew.

PROGRESS POST #8: February 2018

Long time no see. Yes I am still learning Japanese.

:crabigator: WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 35

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 35

:crabigator: GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

Does not exist, because I haven’t posted here in a while. I regret that, but I am back and ready for …

THIS MONTH’S GOAL(s):

My priorities will be, in order: Reading, Grammar, Listening

Prioritised goals:

  • Every day, practice listening and reading, each with difficult and easy material.
  • Finish Genki II before the end of next week
  • Then head over to Imabi and learn grammar there

Non-prioritised goals:

  • 3-5 new words a day from my Anki deck
  • Continue to practice speaking once or twice a week
  • Keep leeches on WK low

:crabigator: RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Anki ;Genki; Netflix shows; online articles; Tandem partners; WaniKani

  • FAVE: …
  • LEAST FAVE: Anki

TRY NEW RESOURCE: Imabi

:crabigator: JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Listening
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: strangely by practicing reading (but listening too)

:crabigator: HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Speaking is the most important aspect of fluency (at least for most learners). Practice speaking as early and as much as possible. Don’t be me.

1 Like

#PROGRESS POST #: 3

#WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 12

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 15

#GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • done with Genki I . Finally Takeshi and Mary are long gone … hate those guys…:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

  • I was able to keep with WK very well.

  • Bunpro, not so much, but I feel I should.

  • KW I just didn’t continue; I checked the “review only burnt items” , and all went better :sweat_smile: . I didn’t enjoy it and I think right now wasn’t really cementing much, since it was a pain to go with all different ways to say the same word, to only after a couple of times of actually seeing it used in a sentence, be able to know how and when it’s used.

  • Shadowing: I finish the first chapter of the book Shadowing: Lets speak japanese! and I found it great. Besides the actual speed of the dialogue it’s much faster than the typical textbook audio. Still very basic, considering it’s the volume I and the first chapter, but the actual dialogues are a mix of formal and informal; and they feel quite real and well thought to increase dificulty gradually, without burning. Shadowing can end up beeing very tiresome as well.

  • My Anki routine it’s now my favourite activity. Subs2SRS decks treated with the Morphman plugin to give me “+1” sentences and now “+0” sentences (all known words, so I review known vocab in context) it’s proven to be very satisfying. I feel really motivated to find an unknown vocab word, make a card and then see and review whatever sentence in my shows contains that word and HOW it’s used.

  • Besides, after some terrific blogger’s advice I’m enjoying Anki as an application much more

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Keep up with Bunpro, since most of my reviews are sentences, there’re lots of particles that I don’t see often if I’m not reviewing them somewhere, so should keep up with the grammar I have listed now.

  • Pull another unit from the Shadowing book, while slowly making a deck with audio of the last unit. So I keep practicing the reviewed material 'till those phrases come out of my mouth effortlessly.

  • I will continue my Subs2SRS routine, I’ve come with a new show I like (Usagi Drop), and has everyday vocab, so I like it even better. So far I’ve made decks from the first episodes, and the sentences are already comming out in my reviews.

  • I bought the book Common Japanese Collocations. And while I was very into making a deck with all those collocations, I found someone already did this and shared the spreadsheet to import into Anki, so I will see if I can make Morphman look for the actual collocations that are in my level and I’ll start practicing with those (if I’m able to find sentences in my Subs2SRS decks containing those would be great!!)

#RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Anki Vocab deck based on Core10k, Subs2SRS sentences deck (mostly from the shows Dad of Ligth and now Usagi Drop) with the Morphman add-on doing it’s magic.

  • Shadowing: Let speak Japanese! Vol.I

  • Graded Readers: Level 1 (I still love these stories) and are right there in my confort zone.

  • Bunpro, I haven’t been to consistent with my reviews, but will put them into my routine again.

  • WK, now it feels… How should I put it?.. easy. After all the reviewing and context sentences, my vocab in WK and the kanji reviews are comming out like a breeze. No pain in doing my daily WK routine whatsoever.

  • Common Japanese Collocations. A nice book that apparently can really make the connection between vocab and real dialogues by way of teaching the common collocations. Will see how to put it to my service during this month.

FAVE: Anki with Subs2SRS + MorphMan hands down, my favorite method of learning these days.

TRY NEW RESOURCE: Japanese Common Collocations will be my monthly addition, will report about it next month

#JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Still , speaking. But basic (ultra basic) sentences are emerging from my mouth as I repeat them over and over in my Shadowing practice… Found a japanese bookstore in town… will go there to practice a few lines these days.:sweat_smile:

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:
Continue with what I’m doing for now, since I see progress and keeps me motivated.

#HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Make your japanese studies adjusted to your motivation. That can be as basic a make your own decks, dissect the show you watch, basically use the material you consume to learn, since it will make you want to come back for some more the next day!

2 Likes

#PROGRESS POST #: 3

#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 16

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 19

#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Review all finished Genki chapters and be good. Yay! I did it. Also I got through chapter 6 this month.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Finish Chapter 7 and catch up to at least Chapter 6 in the workbook.

#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani, KaniWani, Memrise, Genki I, BunPro

FAVE: WaniKani
LEAST FAVE: Huh. None.
TRY NEW RESOURCE: I might try reading Yotsuba.

#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: ummmm I’m pretty sure I can make coherent sentences now so I guess speaking since I never speak.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: thatsagoodquestion
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:
I don’t know.

PROGRESS POST #04

WANIKANI

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 9 (did not reach goal)

IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL: 10

GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Learn 10 more grammar points on Bunpro (bringing the total up to 43 grammar points in N5).
    • Grad school has left me with little time to learn new Japanese grammar points - I’ve learned 4 in the past month and I imagine it will be less than that this coming month.
  • Reduce the backlog of SBS Japanese podcasts to less than 15 by listening to one per day.
    • COMPLETE
  • Know how to write all the kanji up to level 4.
    • I got up to level 3 but due to me prioritising uni work progress is slow.

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Learn 3 more grammar points on Bunpro (bringing the total up to 40 grammar points in N5).
    • To be honest this goal might be a little optimistic. Slow progress is better than no progress.
  • Catch up with the SBS Japanese podcasts by listening to one per day.
    • There are 14 podcast episodes still to listen to, and they will probably add 15 in the next month, so if I listen to one per day I should just reach this target.
  • Know how to write all the kanji up to level 4 (not inclusive).
    • I’m using KaniWani to revise vocabulary and also to practice kanji. I unlock one level at a time and once I’m comfortable with that level I manually unlock the next level. Basically I want to be comfortable with writing all the level 3 kanji this month.

RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • WaniKani
  • Bunpro
  • AnkiDroid (manually added Genki vocabulary)
  • SBS Japanese podcast
  • KaniWani

RESOURCES ON THE SIDELINES:

  • Genki I (see PP#02)

DISCARDED RESOURCES:

  • Japanese Pod 101 (see PP#02)

POTENTIAL RESOURCES TO TRY NEXT:

  • Japanese Language Meetups
  • Satori Reader

JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:

  • Speaking, listening, and synthesising.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

  • No time to improve the above at the moment.

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:

  • Be consistent.

Progress Post 1

WaniKani

Current Level

15

In one month, I hope to be level

Realistically: 18
As-fast-as-possible: 19

Goals

Last month’s goal report

N/A

This month’s goal

I think I should finish reading English Grammar for Students of Japanese and advance as fast as possible through WaniKani levels by continuing to use the reorder script to postpone studying vocabulary items.

I keep getting sidetracked because I have too many different books that are all partially read – which is not necessarily a bad thing. But I do want to finish this particular book, since it seems like it would solidify the fundamental grammatical concepts for me.

Resources

Current Japanese Resources

General Textbooks

Grammar

Listening

Speaking

Reading

Writing

Vocabulary

Maintaining Motivation

Short-term motivation

I need to be able to speak more Japanese with my Japanese friends that I chat with weekly.

Medium-term motivation

  1. I need to prepare for my third trip to Japan in March 2018.
  2. I need to be prepared for the JLPT N3 by December 2018. I know it will be difficult for me, as I am probably barely able to pass the N4 right now. But I think it’s better to aim higher and fail than to aim low and underprepare.

Long-term motivation

To maintain long-term motivation that will sustain me to the N1 level, I feel it’s important to already be able to consume the same literature that I would like to consume when I am at that level, but in English.

Monkey Business Magazine Issues

http://monkeybusinessmag.tumblr.com/

Granta
Words Without Borders
PEN America
Strangers Press KESHIKI Series

https://www.strangers.press/

(In conjunction with the British Centre for Literary Translation, University of East Anglia and Writers’ Centre Norwich)

Waseda Bungaku

Faves

Least Fave

N/A. I already got rid of the ones I don’t like.

Try New Resource

N/A. I already have too many and have tried too many (i.e. there are about 100 other textbooks not listed here, that I have already tried, but have either postponed or dismissed).

Japanese Ability

Current Japanese Weakness

I don’t practice speaking the grammar I learn about enough.

How I will improve the above

I think I need to try this process more (in order to consolidate my speaking level with the grammar I learn):

  1. Attempt to write a sentence using a new (or previously learned, but not sufficiently practiced) grammar point.
  2. Get that sentence corrected by one of my native Japanese friends.
  3. Use OJAD Prosody Tutor Suzuki-kun to get an approximation of the correct pitch accent pattern to pronounce.
  4. Record my attempt at pronouncing it using this Audio Recorder App.
  5. Send the audio file to as many of my native Japanese friends as possible, to get their honest feedback (as opposed to just the feedback of strangers on HelloTalk who don’t really care about me).

Helping Others

Tip/Advice for Learning Japanese

General Advice

Keep it fun. Find ways to constantly experience how wonderful Japan and Japanese people can be, so that you don’t forget what all of this work is for.

Specific Advice

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PROGRESS POST 3

WaniKani

CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 11

IN 30 DAYS I HOPE TO BE LEVEL…15, with 16 as stretch goal

GOALS

LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:

  • WK level goal: :heavy_check_mark: :metal:
  • Restart Genki and do parts of chapter 3: :heavy_check_mark: :sparkles:
  • Explore Human Japanese more: ~ Not exactly a SMART goal. Did explore some, just not as much as I could’ve
  • Keep pace with Yotsuba club: :x:

THIS MONTH’S GOAL:

  • Genki 1, one chapter a week – Should be at chapter 7 next time
  • Finally catch up to KaniWani (making progress after sealing 3 levels) = ~100 apprentice items, max
  • Catch up to Yotsuba club (At chapter 10, they’re at…12? 13?)

RESOURCES

CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:

  • Tried Satori Reader. Still a bit advanced for me.
  • Youtube channel Japanese Ammo with Misa has been pretty great
  • WaniKani, of course
  • KaniWani (Japanese words/phrases you can learn and use immediately)
  • Genki (for actually doing some grammar)

FAVE: Genki made me laugh yesterday
LEAST FAVE: Kaniwani, since it’s a 7 headed dragon that regenerates (unchanged)

TRY NEW RESOURCE: Maybe if I catch up to the Yotsuba club, might look into more children’s manga.

JAPANESE ABILITY

CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:
I feel like Kanji’s becoming a strength. So everything else is a weakness.

HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:

Time spent on KaniWani, learning vocab. And time spent with Genki, learning grammar.

HELPING OTHERS

TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:
Tryst Trust the process

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