Is there someone that has the same reason as me for starting to learn Japanese?

Japanese
#1

My journey has started when I’ve got the sudden idea of trying Japanese on Duolingo. After the first reason there, I’ve fallen in love with the language.

After a few weeks I’ve stumbled across Anki. This random occurence has helped me a lot and even outside Japanese learning. I don’t think I’d be able to learn 50 new words a day with Duolingo.

I don’t even know when I have found out about Bunpro, but it has been also a valuable addition to my Japanese learning, because I’d say that Anki is better for vocabulary than for grammar.

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#2

I literally did the exact same thing(Maybe not the 50 new words a day part), except sprinkle in finding WaniKani right after Duolingo. I picked it up just because I wanted to challenge myself to learn something new, I never had interest in things like anime and stuff, I just decided to go with Japanese because I thought it would be fun.

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#3

I started Korean waaay back then because I liked languages but stopped because I found it was really easy at the beginning, and learning how to read can be very fast, so I switched to Japanese because I heard it was harder with the different writing systems. This was before I got into anime, manga or that much into other Japanese content, so it feels like I got into all of it because I was learning Japanese. Probably doesn’t say a lot as it’s been years and I’m very bad because I haven’t consistently studied until around 1 year ago, but all the passive immersion has helped tons in keeping me motivated, and over the years, I’ve piled up a bunch more content I’d want to enjoy once I get better at it!

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#4

I don’t know the exact reason for most of my languages – I’m just passionate for languages and don’t need any tangible reason to start learning a new one :grin:

#5

Yep! Samesies.

I already spoke Spanish and French when I moved to a big city and heard lots of languages being spoken around me. I added a bunch of languages to Duolingo, but Japanese was the one that I’ve stuck with. It’s just fun and interesting.

Duolingo didn’t get me very far though, and I’ve spent a lot of time trying different approaches. I’ve landed on Bunpro and Wanikani which has worked really well for me, but I’m still working on how to improve my listening and speaking practice.

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#6

I got more serious with Japanese when Iknow was free. There was also a kind of learning platform, edufire, and many teachers there were Japanese ones. I even organised my own class to help each other. I was trying to collect some material but then everybody was welcome to help. Some real teachers saw me as a threat because I was trying to help, share material and so on. While I was really trying to teach the basics with the help of the others.
It was fun but it did not last long.

Duo is always fun but seldom very useful. Anki… I often fall out of love for it but it works. Now with the help of the most hated ai I am building my mining decks very fast with exactly the information that I want.
Iknow helped a lot. Minna no nihongo was also nice. I am checking bunpro and have a lifetime account for wanikani, yet with both I have endless reviews. That is why I stick to 10 new words a day with anki, or I would get mad.

#7

Maybe I should increase the daily load of words from 50 to maybe 75. Out of the 50, I only have problems with around 6-7 on average the next day, though often it is less than that.

To reduce the review load the next day, I click easy button for Katakana words that sound similar to English counterparts or for words I know that I have also seen in immersion a few times and understood them there.

#8

The rough rule of thumb with SRS is that if you are doing X new cards a day, you will be doing roughly 10X reviews per day in the future.

You can do words more occasionally, but it is not sustainable in the long term.

#9

This is why I eventually dropped to doing 25 new words a day.