TLDR: Started learning Japanese in late Jan./early Feb., knew zero Japanese beforehand, just finished N1 grammar and vocab this week - how did we get here???
The Who
Hi y’all, I’m a PhD student of modern Korean history and started learning Japanese early this year so I can research in the colonial archives! I know, not exactly the most relatable position, but I think if I can do this when I’d previously had zero intentions to learn Japanese, then people who have the passion and motivation can definitely do it. Plus, I really feel like I just tripped and ended up here - I cannot stress enough that this was an entirely accidental speedrun motivated by me wanting to not disappoint my advisor 
I really do NOT recommend speedrunning - taking your time is always best.
The What
Started learning Japanese early this year with zero prior knowledge and just completed Bunpro’s N1 grammar and vocab decks this week. I think I finished N5 in late February, N4 late May, N3 early July, N2 mid September, and N1 this week. Was not intending to go this fast at ALL, but anxiously working to make sure you’re not the biggest dummy on the planet is quite a motivator apparently 
The How
Full disclosure, I think I was only able to go this fast because I am fluent in Korean (lots of grammatical and lexical similarities) and in my field, lots of people speak both Korean and Japanese, so I sort of passively got to learn more about the region’s linguistic history and politics. That being said, I was really held up by my own lack of exposure to really any kind of Japanese media so I’ve had to learn all the prosody, humor, etc. from scratch.
Learning method wise, I used Bunpro, Wani Kani, and started a Japanese class in September, and started reading early since that’s how I learned Korean.
My minimum Bunpro goals were 3 grammar points and 10 new vocab in a day, and clearly I did more than this (especially during the summer) when I felt like I was absorbing and remembering things better. For Wani Kani I did about 15 a day, but I did more on days when I got new batches of kanji and radicals so I could cram in more vocab (again, a lot of the words with Sinitic origins are so similar to Korean).
What I think really helped lock things in my head was a TON of reading and writing - a sentence a day, writing down what I didn’t understand from NHK articles or books like Harry Potter, then going back to find their meanings and add them to my SRS routine. Speaking wise, I’m still not great, but I think narrating what I’m doing around the house has helped with spontaneous sentence production outside of the classroom, and I’m going to start layering in Japanese podcasts to help with my listening comprehension (any recs are always welcome!).
The What Now
Honing in on everything here by cramming a ton and writing at least two practice sentences for each grammar point! I need to get even better before I do a program that will help me learn how to actually conduct my research in Japanese effectively, so from here on out it’s practice, practice, practice. I’ve already started poking around in the archives, but it’s so different from modern Japanese I know it’ll be like learning another language entirely. I also have to learn Literary Sinitic for the academic job market, so I feel like I’m still on first base.
Cheers to everyone on their journeys to learn Japanese, and best of luck! I’ve only ever been inspired by how hard everyone here is always working, y’all are so awesome. And thank you to Bunpro for being one of (if not) the best learning tool(s) out there!
Catch y’all on the flippety flop!
?
i keep on getting tempted…
normally I average around 200-400 bunpro reviews and like 100-200 wani kani reviews? sometimes more though, I think the most I’ve done in a day is 1100 