Completed all the lessons available 💮

Just added the remaining N1 grammar structures I had left in my lessons :partying_face: Now I’m curious how long it’ll take me until all the grammar is mastered :eyes: :fire: Probably a few more years xD

Do I recommend BunPro?
Yeah! I think it is good for practicing both grammar and reading sentences. Good for searching up grammar whenever you need it, too. And maybe it’s just me, but I used to get really angry and annoyed when I failed my reviews, so I guess my foul mood issues got therapy from keeping up with the reviews :joy:

I’d recommend textbooks on the side like Shinkanzen Master / Genki for extra explanations.

Random stuff:

I started using BunPro on April 27, 2019 apparently

More stats

ちょこちょこ with the lessons


No super brain by any means (compared to the global average) :brain: I still have N5 grammar I haven’t mastered yet.

Plans
  • Current goal is to read a bunch of 活字 books (I’ve read 40 novels already) and eventually reach 100 000 pages! (Inspired by senpais like Naphthalene on the WaniKani forums)

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  • I’m considering going for N1 next year. I passed JLPT N2 last year (December 2021). The gap between N2 and N1 is just much bigger than between the other levels, so I’m not sure I’ll be ready by JLPT time next year.

  • Move to Japan? No such plans! But I’d like to go sightseeing again someday :blush: Went there for two weeks in 2018.

Socials

Bookmeter: Redglare - 読書メーター
WaniKani community: Profile - Redglare - WaniKani Community (log in first to access)
Youtube channel: Redglare - Youtube

That’s it, no more socials image

Will there be more lessons added in the foreseeable future?
Please let me know! :smiley:

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Congratulation!

One Question I have for someone who has finished both WaniKani and BunPro would be if finishing these 2 resources would be enough to get you to a point where you can read light novels and watch anime without big trouble or if you did other things for studying along the way?

I am about one third done with both WaniKani and Bunpro and cant imagine reading a book in japanese yet.

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@Redglare
Congratulations :partying_face:

Of course! :wink:

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Happy to answer your question! The short answer would be “no”.

Here’s the long answer:

In my experience, both resources definitely help a lot along the way with recognizing kanji and grammar patterns, but in the end, the only way to practice reading books is by actually reading native material.

Same with anime, you’ll have to practice your listening skill to pick up what they’re saying and for that I’d recommend listening to podcasts or just jump straight into watching anime. Preferably without Eng subs. There’s a lot of content on youtube you can listen to/watch in order to practice listening.

The main trouble is vocab. That goes for both reading and listening. While there are quite a few kanji and grammar structures, there are only so many of them that are used frequently, so as you progress in your studies, vocab will become the main bottleneck. For example 2000-3000 common kanji vs. 10 000++ words. Also depends on the genre. You can “master” the vocab in one genre for example by reading a ton of Slice of Life and you’ll feel like you know most of the words, but as soon as you switch to fantasy or something else, it’ll almost feel like you’re back to scratch (tbh I don’t know if that’s an exaggeration or not).

You might think finishing Wanikani is going to leave you prepared, but it’s not like WK has all the kanji and much less the vocab required to read novels with ease. As you probably know, WK is not meant to teach the most frequently used words and barely has any kana words (can only think of テーブル and ベッド at the moment), and even if it is great for studying kanji, it does not include all the readings. Be prepared to become best friends with a dictionary (jisho, takoboto or better yet: yomichan). You might want to pick up an SRS resource for practicing vocab. I’ve used koohi.cafe which was great (type the reading/meaning) and now I mainly use jpdb (anki-style rate your own knowledge).

In addition to WaniKani, BunPro, koohi and jpdb, I’ve used a few textbooks along the way, starting with Genki I & II, then AIAIJ and SKM N2 for grammar and reading. I think I was in the middle of Genki II when I started reading my first manga in Japanese: Haikyuu, a series I was quite familiar with already. I read quite a few volumes of that plus a few random volumes of other manga series before I started reading novels. I read the novels Hyouka and SAO 1, but finished Hyouka first because it’s much shorter and I read it with the book club on WK forums (I wouldn’t recommend reading mystery as your first book unless you’re very familiar with it, I wasn’t xD ). Can definitely recommend joining a book club though!

I don’t think there’s any way around it. If you don’t have much reading experience, the first book is always going to be slow and test all your patience. As you get acquainted with the vocab within a single book, you’ll read the book a bit faster towards the end of it. That’s why it is recommended to follow a series as a beginner since an author usually will stick with much of the same vocabulary within a series. The second book will also be tough, but with the third and fourth book you’ll get rolling. Following one series is almost like a self-contained SRS in a way. Best tip is to read what you want to read and especially something you’re already familiar with.

TL;DR
WaniKani and BunPro only goes so far to help with reading and even less with watching anime imo. Main bottleneck as you get kanji and grammar down is vocab, so you might want to use an SRS for learning vocab. Textbooks and other resources can help, but is not a must for reading skills. Reading takes time, pick a series to get familiar with vocab rather than jumping between random books. You get another advantage by reading something you’re familiar with.

Hope that answers your question! :smiley: Feel free to ask more if anything is unclear.

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Congratulations on your completion!

Gave you a follow over bookmeter. I’m guessing you don’t have a learnnatively account by any chance?

N0 level confirmed!

Very true. I think jumping into reading was what has made most progress for me, aside from doing Kanji by grade level instead of WK-curated-feels-like-random order.

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Amazing work, well done

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Wow, we mere mortals can only promise in vain to achieve such a thing within our finite lifetimes :bowing_man:

I see you chose your username specifically to match your completely red “JLPT Progress” bars :wink:

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Thanks for posting your socials, loving the content on your YouTube channel :+1:

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:wink: :wink: :wink:

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Great effort congratulations, to clear all this grammar in 3 years, alongside all your other accomplishments, is very impressive!

Inspiring!

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Congrats!!!

Slightly jelous as I am only 30 grammar points away from the same thing hehe

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I do, actually! Joined last week so I’m new to the site, but here’s my profile: Redglare's profile | Natively (Not a rick roll this time, I promise :joy: )

Not at all, I’m nothing but a mere mortal myself :bowing_woman: There’s absolutely hope for you too! Just keep chugging along and you’ll get there someday :grin:

Actually inspired by a character from Homestuck :joy:

Almost there! Ganbatte! :muscle:

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Congratulations!! Killer consistency, huge props!

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