IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… 30. If I thought it was bad last month, the 死 is really paining me now. At least for Level 27, I’m slowing on the leveling and not doing new lessons except when I want to.
#GOALS
THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Get back to normal in leveling (but also learn my kanji a little better).
#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Mostly WK at the moment. Life has gotten crazy. I tried a little HouHou but haven’t gotten into it yet.
FAVE: Self-explanatory.
TRY NEW RESOURCE: I want to give HouHou more of a chance.
#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Everything? I feel that I’m trying to reach above my level constantly, even though I can understand a lot in context.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Set aside dedicated Japanese time, rather than relying on having time spent at home in the evening.
#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Finish Chapter 7 in Genki and catch up to at least Chapter 6 in the workbook. I didn’t do it. I mean I read through Chapter 7 but it’s still a bit shaky and I think my workbook’s still at Chapter 5 T_T
THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Read up to Chapter 9.
#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani, KaniWani, Memrise, Genki I, BunPro
FAVE: BunPro?
LEAST FAVE:KaniWani probably
TRY NEW RESOURCE: oh right I tried reading Yotsuba! and then I gave up after 5 minutes… so uh no thanks maybe next time
#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Since I can probably make coherent sentences now and tell people what I did during the day, probably listening or speaking because I barely tried them before.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: good question. #HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:
#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 22
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL: 27
*note: I will be hitting my first wave of burns here within the next month. Hopefully that won’t do anything to slow me down.
#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:
KaniWani: Complete failure on this part. I started doing well at my 500 review per week goal only in my last two weeks. So I’m keeping it around 1500 pretty stably.
Bunpro: I took a different approach to Bunpro than planned. I completely reset all of my progress, and I’m now taking it one chunk at a time. It seems I bit off more than I could chew the first time.
Intermediate Textbook: Nearly screwed myself over due to laziness. The month was almost over, and I’d hardly done anything. Still got through Chapter 5, though.
Udemy N4: I just managed to finish before the month’s end.
Memrise: Done and done. With the Genki II and N5 vocab courses, at least. I made good progress on this front, at least.
THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
KaniWani: At the very least get back on track ~500 reviews per week.
Bunpro: Continue adding 10-20 items for every 3 days until I feel like I’m hitting unfamiliar grammar. Then slow down to ~5-10 per 3 days and start taking notes.
Intermediate Textbook: I’d still like to try finishing off this textbook by the end of March, if I can. I know that it’s not that this textbook is too difficult or that there’s too much content; I just got lazy in this past month. So I’ll make up the work this month to keep on pace.
Udemy N3: I’m not going to jump straight to getting through this just yet. I’ll take a short break and work on catching up on my textbook and solidifying the N4 grammar points before. I’ll aim to start this within the first half of the month.
Memrise: I’m already through about half of the N4 vocab course, which I plan to finish by the end of March, and I’ve started both the N3 and Tobira vocab courses. My goal is simply to keep on track with those.
#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
Primary: WaniKani, KaniWani, Bunpro, Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese + workbook, (Udemy N3 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: I think I’m going to bite the bullet and start trying to go to a local conversation club. I don’t like people and I don’t like talking, but at least some regular exposure will be good for me.
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… : Hmm I really don’t know! I will go for 3 but close to 4!
#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:
THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
1- I am like… 2 steps away from being overwhelmed. I will set up a divided plan for what to study and when I will study it.
2- Finish all reviews every day. There’s not too many right now, but I think by the end of this month it will feel a little crazy. I’ve definitely been warned a lot!
3- Get a textbook to follow along with. I see a lot about Genki? Maybe I should buy that? These are not strong goals
#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
I have only really used WaniKani, though I’m excited to start trying more!
FAVE:
LEAST FAVE:
TRY NEW RESOURCE: I am going to start working on Bunpro!
#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Welllllll… of the things I’ve actually practiced, I have a hard time distinguishing similar kanji/vocabulary. For example, I have messed up “size” and “big” 19 times now.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: I need to accept that I don’t have to keep it all in my head. Going to start a notebook midway into this week.
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Just keep going. If you keep practicing with good resources and getting help when you need it, you will get better. I’ve only been doing this for 10 days technically, but the first few were spent learning hiragana! I already feel excited about my progress
#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: finished a level every week. I did have to wake up in the middle of the night to do it though.
THIS MONTH’S GOAL: Better utilize reorder script so I can time my reviews better and still finish one lesson a week.
#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WK, Youkoso, Minna no nihongo
FAVE: wk
LEAST FAVE: none
TRY NEW RESOURCE:
#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Grammar is rusty and listening isn’t too great.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Study grammar. Try to listen to NHK and watch more dramas. #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.
Didn’t quite manage to get three new levels in Kaniwani (I think I got like two) but I’ve decided to take the levels there more slowly and work on lower levels because it was messing with my accuracy over here. (So not a huge loss.)
Not sure how many I added to Bunpro, but I’ve been killing it.
Have not done a lot of specific kanji writing practice…
Haven’t read enough (the manga website I use started offering smaller samples )
Have kind of completely given up on Anki and currently looking for a more user-friendly SRS to replace it… So any suggestions are welcome.
THIS MONTH’S GOALS:
Check Kaniwani every day (even if I only do like ten 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
Do more specific listening/speaking practice
Oh, yeah, uh. Don’t @*#$ up my first burn reviews that I should be getting this month.
RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: Wanikani, Kaniwani, Bunpro, Satori Reader, Kanshudo, Japanese YouTube, Sokuyomi (Japanese e-manga site), Kanji Study (app), Japanese for Busy People I & II (books)
FAVE: Wanikani (I would love Satori Reader and Kanshudo if I could afford their full sites atm. )
LEAST FAVE: Will always be Anki (again, any suggestions for replacements much appreciated)
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Satori Reader and Sokuyomi (more often)
JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Conversation and Listening
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:
Japanese conversation groups through my university (and maybe speaking up in class more often)
Listening practice for comprehension instead of just immersion
HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Don’t let yourself burn out. Take it slow if you have to, but don’t stop. Push against it, because you can come out the other side.
Reached my WK goal for the month and a bit more as well. Given I’ve manage to make WK into a daily habit, it’s certainly the most regular goal to achieve
For vocab I’ve mantained my routine very consistent (about 20 lessons / day) with Anki. Great thing it’s later see those vocabs in actual sentences, one of my most enjoyable routines.
Bunpro was a no go this month. I didn’t fell like spending the time there, felt like doing chores, and I’m avoiding feeling like that when learning now.
Shadowing, I only did half of the 2nd unit from the book (Shadowing: let’s learn japanese). It was pointed to me that I might be trying to cover too much ground with japanese learning right now, and since talking it’s the routine that I will practice the less for now it will remain on queue. Same for the Collocations book, it’s very much attached to speaking. I’m planning to complete the book a couple of months before going to Japan this year though.
Writing, I’ve retake Kanji Study as a tool for remembering my kanjis. I found it specially helpful, given the these last WK levels are full with similar Kanjis, that can be correctly differentiated after actually writing them somtimes.
After seeking advice on WK forums I’ve decided to resume my grammar studies; Genki lost the apeal for me after completing the first book, and since I’m spending that many hours to learn japanese every day I’ve turn to material that I actually enjoy. In this case Japanese the Manga way has been the proposed option, wich it’s been to my surprise an engaging reading for the last week, hopefully will make me continue learning grammar at a constant pace.
Reading has become a priority. I’ve rushed to finish my current Graded Readers (Level 1) and have odered the next Level. I’ve notice less and less unknown vocab came from the last stories, so I was feeling good about my vocab improvement there.
THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
WK, Anki for vocab and context sentences will most certainly remain as my most constant routine.
Reading all or most of the Level 2 stories from Graded Readers would be a real improvement for increasing my actual reading.
Listening. I’ve finally managed to rip audio from my Netflix shows .I’ve integrated listening to the show’s audio while doing other activities as a daily routine these last week, mainly while commuting to work.
RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
Anki Vocab deck based on Core10k and Context sentences (Subs2SRS / Morphman). A great change has been using a particular card syle for Anki that allows to show furigana only if hovering over the kanjis. I’ve shared here .
Netflix for inmmersion (show’s with jsubs and listening to the shows audio later).Currently Wakako Sake, Million Yen Women, Usagi Drop, Kids on the Slope.
Japanese the Manga Way: great book to get interested into learning grammar once more.
FAVE: Sentence Mining with Subs2SRS and Graded Readers
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Japanese the Manga Way, I’m just turning pages in the first chapter, but has prven to be a fascinating reading (funny to say this over a grammar book actually)
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: enjoy learning japanese
#WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 1, I just started!
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… : 10!, idk if that is even possible, but I believe in my abilities.
#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: N/A
THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
1- Flash Cards. I seem to do well when i have something to physically work with, so I’m drawing some of those up
2- Finish all reviews every day. I signed up for WaniKani at the beginning of the year, and I have all the reviews to do
3- work with my textbooks in a more direct way. Actually start and finish each lesson, rather than skipping around to whatever.
4- Writing to my Japanese pen-pals. I feel like I’m letting such a wonderful resource go to waste.
#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
WaniKani, Japanese for Busy People 1, Genki 1, ケロロ軍曹の漢字ドリル小学1 年生, lingodeer, yomikata Z, kanji study (app)
FAVE: I feel like I’ve used the Kanji Study app the most, but it’s solely for Kanji practice (obvs…) however, it is super easy to pick up and do some quick drills on the phone so it has that benefit.
LEAST FAVE: So far Japanese for Busy people has been the most challenging for me to get anything meaningful out of. It is more business oriented and though could be adapted for casual use I also made the mistake of buying the romanized version, so I feel like i’m missing out on a lot of practice. I do only have the first level and a lot of what It’s covering is review for me.
TRY NEW RESOURCE: I am going to start using TangoRisto for that reading practice.
#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Oh man, my vocabulary is seriously lacking. I should work on my handwriting as well, I can read most basic sentences but ask me to write one and I will fail hard.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Maybe using flashcards for the vocab, but definitely getting out my notebook and writing some sentence drills, or possibly even starting to write those pen-pals.
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: It is best to just dive in, don’t get bogged down planning everything, find something you want to work with and just start it. I think for me, I lose interest in it since I have waaay too many resources going i get distracted and lose focus. So just start somewhere, like learning katakana, grammar structure, or pronunciation and go with that until you are comfortable moving up your skill then maybe start adding more features to your reviews.
Reach level 20 on wanikani and finish lessons up to lesson 5 in Genki 1.
Learn to write the first custom group on Kanji Study App (Wanikani Kanji level 1-15)
Wanikani /Billingual News because I can quickly do them anywhere at anytime. I also like to listen to BN news when I’m working or doing chores.
LEAST FAVE:
Genki because it’s still hard to get myself to sit down and do my grammar lessons.
TRY NEW RESOURCE:
N/A
#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:
Grammar
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:
Getting more consistent with doing mit Genki lessons. after that I can reinforce them with Bunpro or Human Japanese.
#HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE:
Don’t give up if you feel you don’t make any progress. I was stuck for maybe a year on level 7 and had about 500 reviews piling up.
It was partly because I had no motivation and partly because I was working very often,so I forgot about Wanikani a little bit.
Just find your own pace and try to customize your learning schedule the way it fits you the best.
IN 30 DAYS I HOPE TO BE LEVEL…20, with 21 as stretch goal
GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:
WK level goal:
Finally catch up to KaniWani (making progress after sealing 3 levels) = ~100 apprentice items, max: This was tough (at one point I was doing 400 KW reviews daily) but it feels great, being all caught up
Catch up to Yotsuba club (At chapter 10, they’re at…12? 13?): Didn’t manage to catch up, but did finish Volume 2. I’m counting that.
Genki 1, one chapter a week – Should be at chapter 7 next time: The thing that kept it from being a cleensweep. Haven’t made any progress since the last post. Gonna have to focus back on it.
THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
Genki 1, one chapter a week – Should be at chapter 7 next time
Actually catch up to the Yotsuba club and start participating in discussions
RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
WaniKani,
KaniWani- The new update is fantastic. Whenever i use it I can literally feel my brain making new connections.
Hine’s awesome core 10k mod
Genki - Primary driver for grammar
Bunpro - Will be using it for logging grammar points
Japanese The Manga Way: To supplement Genki for grammar
Yotsuba Volume 3: For reading practice
FAVE: Wanikani
LEAST FAVE: Genki feels a little ridiculous at the moment
TRY NEW RESOURCE: Japanese The Manga Way.
JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS:
GRAMMAR GRAMMAR GRAMMAR
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE:
Resume Genki, do 1 chapter per week.
Use Japanese the manga way to supplement understanding.
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT:
I hoped to be more consistent in my practise, ideally practising once in the morning, and once in the evening. So far I have been doing this. I also think that I am developing better memory strategies.
THIS MONTH’S GOAL
I would like to lower my leveling time from 21 days to 14 days. I think this is very doable considering many people are leveling in 7 - 12 days.
RESOURCES
WanniKanni
Genki 1
Weekly iTalki Japanese lessons
TRY NEW RESOURCE
Nope. I will be sticking with what I have listed above.
JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Almost everything.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: I will be learning how to order food in Japanese. I hope to only engage in Japanese while at restaurants. I will also be learning directions in Japanese. I hope to start using Google Maps in Japanese for navigation.
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL… I don’t really care now. As long as I can get a 0/0 I will be happy.
#GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: Read up to Chapter 9. HHAHAHAHAHAHA well I think I’m good up to Chapter 8. My workbook studies are still at Chapter 7 though.
THIS MONTH’S GOAL: same thing.
#RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: WaniKani, KaniWani, Memrise, Genki I, BunPro. Does a Taiko game count? because I’m playing it and trying to read the story
FAVE: I dunno. They’re all OK to me.
LEAST FAVE: I still don’t know.
#JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: probably grammar now. I kinda forgot how to conjugate verbs for a second so that’s probably shaky now.
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: review in Genki. Also that one website I found that has verb conjugation tests. #HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: idk
WANIKANI
CURRENT WANIKANI LEVEL: 16
IN ONE MONTH I HOPE TO BE LEVEL 18
GOALS
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: N/A
THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
Finish Genki II Chapters 17-20
Finish Jpod101 Beginner Season 6 + Japanese for Everyday Life
Study the first 4 N4 sections on BunPro
RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES:
Wanikani, Jpod101, Genki II, BunPro, KaniWani, native books (Kiki’s Delivery Service etc)
FAVE: WaniKani
LEAST FAVE: BunPro (sooo hard to motivate)
TRY NEW RESOURCE: NHK podcast
JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Listening
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: more podcasts + N4 practice papers
HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: Consistency is key! It’s better to do a smaller amount but do it every day than do loads and then flake out for months
Started writing Kanji and reading One Piece in Japanese
Essentially stopped using Genki, really slowed down on BunPro, NHK Easy, KaniWani
Never did try Animelon
THIS MONTH’S GOAL:
Keep reading One Piece at a pace of 1 volume per week
I feel like I’ve been very turned off by learning grammar but I’ll keep trying to push through with Genki and BunPro with a goal of one chapter per two weeks
Write Kanji 2X a week. At this point I am not focused on learning the characters but rather developing my penmanship; hoping memorization will come naturally
LEAST FAVE: KaniWani - it’s very hard for me to catch up
WILL TRY: Animelon (again, lol)
JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: Writing
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: Get back into grammar. I will try to find grammar points I learn from Genki in One Piece. I am worried this will take the fun out of reading, but I’ll give it a shot.
HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: It’s okay to slow down but never stop learning
since I’m at lvl 16 too I thought that maybe we can motivate each other. if it’s ok for you I would like to have you as study partner, just for exchanging progress and so on
LAST MONTH’S GOAL REPORT: I wanted to be level 7 by this month but I only just made it to 6, I learned that maybe I can’t do all the levels at the fastest speed. I wanted to go back to minna no nihongo but instead I went back to Tobira so whatever I guess, at least I’m practicing grammar again.
THIS MONTH’S GOAL: do 3 chapters in Tobira
# RESOURCES
CURRENT JAPANESE RESOURCES: wanikani (duh), dogen on patreon, podcasts, Tobira
FAVE: wanikani
LEAST FAVE: N/A because i don’t use resources i don’t like
TRY NEW RESOURCE: satori reader
# JAPANESE ABILITY
CURRENT JAPANESE WEAKNESS: production (writing/speaking without thinking about it for a long time)
HOW I WILL IMPROVE ABOVE: writing a few sentences in japanese a day
# HELPING OTHERS
TIP/ADVICE FOR LEARNING JAPANESE: don’t give up! do your reviews every day, write a journal or a blog in japanese
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PROGRESS POST 1:
