After 1 year, I finally finished all the grammar points!
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Congratulations! I read an old post where you wrote that you had learned very well the elementary blocks of grammar. May I ask what your methodology was?
I’m asking because, even though I am completing the N1, I still struggle with some N4 and N3 grammar points (weirdly, I found N2 easier to learn).
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I also read someone say they found N3 easier than N4 
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If you let me know exactly which points you’re struggling with, I might be able to help.
For me, the hardest part was truly grasping the why behind the basics, aka the concept, the etymology, the reasoning behind their existence. But once I understood that foundation, around 90% of the other grammar points became much easier, since most of them build on or refer back to those core ideas (like particles, for example).
What helped me was approaching Japanese grammar from the perspective of an outsider, rather than forcing Western grammar rules onto it, as many textbooks tend to do. Instead, I tried to abstract the meanings based on Japanese etymology and sentence structure. Foundational grammar usually doesn’t translate cleanly into one English equivalent; it’s more like layers of concepts stacked together, like Lego blocks.
The downside of this approach was that I basically had to gather all the information on my own, without much help from Western textbooks. Since the beginning of my learning journey, I’ve been writing everything down and correcting any misconceptions I had along the way. That document has now grown to around 200,000 words (though it’s probably still full of early mistakes). Still, I highly recommend doing something similar, it’s like creating a miniature version of your own brain that you can reference and build on over time!
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Judging by the accuracy, your memory must be amazing! Something I myself am not blessed with.
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それじゃなくて、あいつはものすごい仕事をできた。
たくさん書いたり、たくさんの語源を調べたりした。
尊敬する
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Thank you, it is very kind of you to offer. I wanted to ask which resources you used, besides Bunpro of course, to build a good foundational knowledge of Japanese grammar, since you were avoiding Western textbooks.
It is much less memory and more understanding how the concepts work.
Similar to math or physics, when you understand how stuff works you dont need to memorize and go by intuition instead. (Not that Im good at either maths or physics lol)
I did watch all videos by Cure Dolly (she explains a lot of common misconceptions from a linguistic perspective and I highly recommend watching all of her videos from oldest to newest. Even if the presentation appears a bit odd at first, they are genuinely insightful), but that’s pretty much it.
Beyond that, as silly as it sounds, my main “resource” is really just my own intuition and the Word document I worked on as I went by.
I’m a native German speaker, and I’ve noticed that some aspects of how Japanese approaches language feel similar to how German does. So in a way, drawing comparisons between the two languages has also served as a kind of resource for me but only on a very surface level basis.
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I love Cure Dolly as well! I was considering binge-watching all her videos once I complete Bunpro. It’s a pity she passed away…
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感謝してる
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あいつってすみませんでした😖
You can understand the concept but forget things quite easily. Like the other day I forgot the word for “rarely” but it was an obvious grammar concept otherwise. The same happens in my native language where I can’t come up with the word at the moment but maybe later in the day I can recall it easily. Even now, I forget the word for bystander which is used in a simple N1 grammar. Do you use reveal and grade?
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Bro is working his ass off like crazy. I am studying Japanese at university and even before that I used Bunpro. As of right now, I’m at 328 days total, but I got overwhelmed a few times (also because I’m lazy AF) and had to reset my progress and start over. Since November, I try to do all my reviews daily, but I also have a rule of never exceeding 6-8 beginner cards in my progress bar as I will get too frustrated and will have too many reviews if I do so.
Having it all done within one year is truly impressive, especially if you are actually able to use the learned grammar. But even if you can’t Congratulations on your achievement nevertheless.
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Amazing how if you do 3/day every day, it only takes 305 days to finish every lesson on Bunpro! I’m currently 40% there, and wish I had started earlier rather than floundering for a year.
What has been your vocab routine? How do you feel your comprehension had improved through the year?
I put vocab on pause to get thru N3 at least, which has slowed down my perception of progress in comprehension, but grammar has definitely helped some places I was stuck.
I only use reveal and grade precisely because of this. Like you mentioned, when not using reveal and grade, I just end up needing to translate words from “English ->Japanese” instead of the other way around.
100% of all immersion will always be “Japanese → English” and especially in beginner stages It is much more efficient to concentrate on comprehension first, then focus on production later.
The more Japanese you read and hear, the more internalized patterns you’ll build. Then, when you’re ready to speak or write, those patterns will come out naturally without needing to translate from English.
This is the case for every language afaik (I only learned Latin and English in school)
At least that is the case for me personally.
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I do Anki every day. 15 New vocab words, and around 170 reviews a day, thats it. Im at around 4.5k words and 1.2k Kanji learned.
Im not sure how much I improved, but right now I am able to read novels like キノの旅 and 嫌われる勇気 with migaku at a pace of around 1300 words / 30 minutes.
Im probably not able to reproduce every single one, but I am sure I will recognize most when hearing them, which is my main goal for immersion.
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大丈夫 
気にしないで
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+1 for your strategy. The more you focus on consumption, the more language building blocks your brain absorbs. And when you start using the language, your brain already has all the building blocks and doesn’t need to rely on translating. But you will still be quite unskilled in the beginning, when you first start out, cause you lack experience.
I don’t think it’s the most efficient/fast route (studies usually point out the importance of textbook/writing exercises), but it’s definetly the easiest and most comfortable route, which is key for adherence. And for folks like me, who just want to immerse it’s perfect.
I’m not interested in language production at all, so I just intentionally skip this step. For everybody who thinks language production is the main point (probably most?), writing/talking/production should start at day 1. You only learn the skill you’re actively learning.