Is now the best time to go to bars? But yeah it would be the best
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The apparent lack of Android compatibility doesn’t help the cause here, unfortunately. I’d never heard of it before myself.
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Ahh yes, I know it doesn’t have Android sadly. But it does have a web based version.
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Obviously not the best time now sadly. No VR bars yet either 
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I loved Human Japanese since it: 1) it is very fast; 2) gives you a big picture of the language; 3) the exercises (even if they are too easy) help you to consolidate your knowledge, but the advice I’d give me two years ago would be:
Do not substimate the slow pace of Genki books and do evry single exercise in them (book and workbook!). I started using them after finishing Human Japanese (I and II) but stopped and for some time tried to learn Grammar thru Tae-Kim guide or BunPro. I love BunPro to practice grammar but not to learn it. Genki dialogues and explanation work better for me. Tae-Kim covers a lot very fast but most material lacks exercises. You would be better of using a grammar dictionary instead. Genki exercises (reading, writing and listening) are terrific. Old grammar points appear again when you are learning new grammar so you really consolidate your knowledge.
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As it took me waaaay too long to find a good starting point, I’d tell myself to go to r/LearnJapanese and ask/scroll through everything so to get to see possible starting points and learn about different approaches/apps/websites.
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I’d simply say: Don’t be afraid of Kanji! (And check out WaniKani)
When I started out with my Genki books the first two chapters were a breeze. I had much fun and it was fairly easy. Hiragana and Katakana were no problem. But when I hit chapter 3 that’s when the first Kanji are introduced. I was so scared, that I had to learn these Kanji and memorize them, that I put the books down for over a year before I discovered WaniKani. And through WaniKani I learned not to fear Kanji. I picked up Genki a couple weeks ago again and blazed through chapter 3 without worrying too much about the Kanji. And I’ve actually come to like Kanji now. I love how they bring strcture to a sentence, I love how they convey an idea.
So I’d say, don’t be afraid of Kanji, it’s okay to not know them all when you start. (And check out WaniKani xD)
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When you see honorifics, run away 
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- Use good SRS like anki decks for vocabulary
- Do grammar on bunpro and fill your anki vocabulary deck with new words
- Do it now and not 10 years later
God I wish I knew about SRS when I was still in school and had more free time, it’s basically legitimate cheats
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You’re at that age now where you have to slowly learn vocabulary and practise your grammar daily… 
Also, taking two weekly classroom courses is a really good idea. This is your passion now, follow it!
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Don’t be afraid to go into native content. For too long I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go into it and that it would be a struggle. Yes it’s true, it’s difficult but I have improved so much because of it. In a year and 4 months time I have gone from not being able to read many things from NHK News to Yotsuba to being able to read manga, and play games such as Persona 5 (admittedly it’s a challenge). If you ever feel like you are not sure just go for it. It’s important to try! It made me so much more interested in the language when I would recognise similar grammar or vocabulary that I already learned or saw.
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Persona 5 uses lots on non-joyou kanji, so I feel the struggle! Hahah. The first time I saw 淹れる I was like ‘why is this not jouyou… It’s so common’
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I think this thread got too many answers and needs a wiki or an aggregation of some sort to make it bearable and useful to newcomers.
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Don’t you dare thinking that avoiding BunPro and WaniKani will save you a lot of money. It won’t. But using them will save you a lot of nerve cells LOL That’s what I’d say to myself. Because after a year of studies with books and teachers only I’ve just started SRS thingies (yeah, call it a new year resolution or whatnot), and I’ve already noticed that I’m getting out of the “already-not-a-beginner-but-still-not-an-intermediate” slump…
So yeah, that’s probably it 
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There are too many varying opinions for it to be useful for a beginner haha. Ideally you could sort by the amount of likes a post has, potentially bringing more useful answers to the top, but that is a bit beyond Disqus capabilities… From what I know.
It’s better to think of the posts as people sharing their struggles, and what helped them break through it, rather than advice to others. We all struggle with different things, so naturally the answers will be wildly different.
On the bright side, you are posting in the Bunpro forums, which I guess means that you are a Bunpro user. That in itself, would be my biggest tip to anyone. Use Bunpro 
.
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I’ve been playing 街 on and off for over a year now. I’m pretty sure that game’s writers set out to use every kanji ever! It took me the better part of an hour to look up 瀟洒; that second symbol looks like 酒 but turned out to be missing one stroke, and I didn’t notice until Google finally corrected me.
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Study grammar, and words that don’t use kanji. Don’t focus too much on wanikani.
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DROP DUOLINGO, LINGODEER, ETC in the TRASH. Get Anki decks. Use Anki for vocab (it’s spaced repetition, and it works.) LEARN PLAIN (Dictionary) FORM OF VERBS AND ADJECTIVES FIRST. Before you learn ANY polite speech or conjugation. Stop rushing. You won’t die tomorrow (hopefully). BUNPRO for grammar. Use Youtube for further explanation of grammar after learning a new point, and to hear real people speak sentences. Not recordings that are meant to demonstrate perfect pronunciation. You need to hear natural, local dialogue, with natural emotion. Study everyday for at least an hour even if you don’t want to. It makes a difference. 1 hour won’t kill you.
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To High school me: class is not the goal. Here is anki. (RTK deck and All genki vocab deck) The goal is to learn Japanenes, not pass the test. It’s called “self study”. Now turn off those English subtitles on Netflix and do your best! Also, that was back in the hey day of “All Japanese All The Time”.
College me: More listening practice! And, unfortunately, reading along is still reading. Turn off those Japanese subtitles.
Don’t stop studing after passing N5! Join a tea circle or anime club or something besides playing on your phone and actually make friends. This would’ve been a good time to buy Jalup or Bunpro if it exists I think Subs 2 srs was created around this time.(2015?)
First Job: Your job is boring, and your boyfriend is worse. Join a club or networking events to find new ones. And listen to Japanese podcasts at work. Hustle is a lie.
To me now: the road to hell is paved with “about” you spent the last /hour/ giving Japanese advice when you have 200 reviews due!
Do your SRS then go watch a Japanese Lets Play on YouTube. Shoo!
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(Oh Sweet. I found such a thing on Reddit. Parentheses are my own thoughts and not compiled from Reddit)
Advice:
Step 1: lea ひらがな and カタカナ
Step 2: go through kanji Damage (the one I used), RTK or Wanikani any kanji app until you feel stuck. Learn 5 to 10 kanji a day.
Step 3: 50% of your time to Japanese fun. Play a Japanese phone game, watch Netflix/YouTube in Japanese. You won’t understand. The important part is it is fun
Step 4: go through ATJ Kanji transition (the one I used) or https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/911122782
Or
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2141233552
For vocab
Step 5: go through the genki Textbook, 5 pages a week. Do the work book exercises one week later to practice remembering (If you are using Bunpro, replace work book exercises with Bunpro)
Your vocab should be ahead of genki (or Bunpro) so you know all the vocab words in the Example sentences
At this point you would be N4, or as much Japanese as a Japanese Major in college. Getting to this level took the author (and me) 3 years. If you actually are taking the N4 do Kaizen Master and old JLPT tests to practice test taking specificly
Step 6
Now your 50% of ‘study time’ is spent looking up new words you come a cross while reading Japanese. In a Japanese dictionary.
The r/LearnJapanese guide cautions you to not add to many vocab words. Ask yourself “is this word important to me” before you put it in anki
And when making this transition
If you understand 80% of the words, it /feels/ like you understand nothing at all
95% of the words and you got a 50/50 shot at answering multiple choice reading comprehension questions.
98% of the vocab before you pass reading comprehension test.
(There’s 30 links next of where to practice reading and listening to Japanese. I used https://animecards.site/ guide in conjunction with tazumoto ren’s on how to add sentences from anime which is free and Item Store - Japanese Level Up which costs $300 for 9,000 Example sentences with definitions written in Japanese and the first few chapters of 30 manga with native Audio. )
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