How to budget time between Vocab, Grammar, and Kanji

Japanese
#21

There has been a lot of good suggestions in this thread but just to emphasise some points I think are important.

  • You should do what works for you and what works for your goals.
  • You should be realistic about what is achievable given the time and effort you put in (Japanese takes thousands of hours to get okay at).
  • Your main source of learning should be using the language naturally (input/ouptut).
  • Input comes before output (but you still have to practice output).
  • If native sources of input are still too hard for you then use every trick available to you to make it easier (rewatching, yomitan, grammar study, cramming core vocab, graded readers, anything).
  • As per all of the above, SRS should exist in service of actually using the language (so don’t burn yourself out on it for no reason).
  • Above all: just keep going and don’t stop.

In terms of dividing time, I would strongly suggest just trying things out and see what you like. Try something for a few months and see how you feel. As you can tell from the replies in this thread, everyone has their preferences. Preferences also change over time and along with goals. If you are earnestly studying and at least somewhat doing what I laid out above then you will get okay at Japanese sooner or later. Good luck and keep going!

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#22

Any thoughts on the importance of audio plus vocab/kanji? While I think reading is important, I think it’s best in conjunction with audio while learning. It’s easy to get set in mispronouncing words and frustrating to have to relearn pronunciations, especially if you have two words that have the same Kana but it’s in the pronunciation that makes the meaning. I’ve recently been trying YomuYomu, but I do like Bunpro has the tones for their vocab.
Also, writing on the other hand I think allows for better quick acquisition and recognition of words and the shapes of the sentences. Especially with words that are written more often in Kana. Writing 初めまして or よろしくおねがします a couple of times allows for a quick glance to recognize as a word. And with the more conplex Kanji, I found writing it at least once made it easier to distinguish from a similar Kanji.
But again, I think proper pronunciation is king in the context of pronouncing sentences, not singular words. But I’m barely 100 days into my journey, but listening and repeating sentences definitely has hammered in more than multiple reviews of words or grammar points has (with having the translation of the sentence there). That and having fun. Learning the Kanji, is a fun activity for me (meanings in the sentences, not the various readings). I just started using WaniKani, but I don’t know that it’s something for my longterm learning. I like copying example sentences that I’ve listened to and looking up the Kanji individually. Figure once I hit the more advanced levels I’ll have less to unlearn and less practice in the future, I like the idea of challenging myself with the Kanji Kentei down the road. For now, I aim for neat singular sentences when I do write out a few of them. I don’t think repetitions are necessary in the beginning.