Hey Bunpro Community,
I just started getting into learning Japanese again and I plan on completing N3 by March 2026 (my trip to Japan), which means I got like a year and a half left.
To set smaller goals my current plan is to take the N4 in July of next year.
I’m currently doing 3 Grammar points and 10 Words a day on Bunpro and 10 lessons on Wanikani. Since I am also starting to study I don’t want to do too much, I’m also going to do one Genki Lesson per Week from Tokini Andys Course. I do think N4 is achievable with this approach, I’m just looking for some advise from the people who finished n4.
What is it you would do differently looking back?
Y’all have fun learning!!
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You’ll finish n1 grammar 10 months, congrats 
I liked reading mode because it forces me to thing about sentence and not about recalling translation. If you can do both - much better, but I’m in hurry. I mean don’t use even first hit, try to read it with yomitan (if there are unknown words) and then feel the gap.
Don’t be afraid to take breaks (but your pace right now is good, so I don’t think it will happen so soon). Sometimes we overwhelm ourselves and breaks can help the brain to consolidate information (since it takes time). You don’t need to don’t study at all, some ideas is don’t do any new lessons for a while or consume media in Japanese for fun and just let it be
After finishing N5, I suggest watching this video (there’s for others levels too)
Consume media in Japanese, whether it be native content or comprehensible input like this or this. I think both are beneficial in different ways
Probably do less Bunpro and more conversation …
But I am where I am.
Literally.
On Bunpro, again 
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Why we’re like this 
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If you have a handle on all of N4, you can get through Dragon Quest 1 with a phone nearby to search the medieval words and the occasional stray higher level kanji.
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Focus on colocations/phrases in my SRS instead of just straight singular words.
Why learn just「磨く」 when you can learn two words and something you can actually use, like 「腕を磨く」
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Using satori reader as my big source of SRS vocab is insanely good for this reason. I see the words in action, and with 3 full context sentences it really helps. Often times I’ll get two words from the same sentence and makes me breeze through vocab from the priming that I got from doing another card.
When I used lingvist (rip free lingvist) to learn french, it did everything via typing in the answer to a phrase… and that’s how to this day I can quote random parts of the bible which I’ve never even read(French simple past isn’t really used so that’s what they had, I presume)
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May I ask, when in your journey you started using Satori Reader?
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Definitely way too early. Probably only 4 months in(so like… late 2020 x) ), I think I was like maybe half way through genki 1, maybe 2/3rds at best. Only in like the last year have I really gotten the discipline to fully use it well and correctly. They’ve added a good amount of beginner stuff since I started. Honestly finishing N5 on here is probably a super solid start to the beginning of satori reader. I’m planning on rereading all of it once I finish up the vocab, I’m 20 new cards a day since like July and I still have 1500 new words to learn :x
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Actually doing it. I kept stopping for months at a time. I’d be at N1 by now if I had knuckled down and done the work. They are right when they say 95% of success is just showing up.
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I wish that: I started kanji study sooner, didnt do Japanese From Zero 1&2 and did Genki straight away. I wish I started bunpro sooner. I wish I tried watching native content sooner. and I wish I studied more vocab. If I did that I would be where I am now after year of study not 2 years. I also took loads of breaks my first year cuz of university and in my 2nd year cuz of personal issues. That cant be helped really, but if it wasnt a problem I could maybe be at N2 level by now, not studying for N3.
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I think the daily goals you’ve set are very reasonable. I’m studying N2 right now but when I studied N3, I started out studying 6 grammar points a day. It turned out to be too much as I would end up with long reviews while not being able to retain everything I learned in a day. It’s also better to have a light daily study routine because it will be easier to stick to when life gets busy. Now I’m studying 3 grammar points a day with N2, and I am on track to finish this course in the same amount of months it took me to get through N3.
Collocations are so under-rated, it’s baffling. There are so few resources on collocations, I’ve had to custom create so many flashcards.
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This day has come:
Not learning 1500 kanji’s meanings as the first thing after katakana.
Heee, not like its a bad thing but if one does that they need to be consistent and follow it with needed type of other activities, and not like starting reading with furigana and learning words from listening -_-
Don’t be wedded to the number of lessons if you start to find the reviews creeping up. Do as many different things as possible, bunpro and wanikani are awesome but read and watch whatever you can. Don’t get disheartened when progress feels slow. Good luck
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I’ll note that while I haven’t officially taken N4, I’m beyond that point in Japanese proficiency.
Undoubtedly, the one thing that has improve my Japanese learning is writing down kanji for words and phrases as a review them. Currently, I only do this for WaniKani as I consider it my central pillar in guiding the learning experience. When I do a WaniKani reviews, anytime I get the prompt to give the Japanese reading for a word I input my answer then write down the kanji in a notebook. A key point is that I attempt to write out all character(s) without looking back at the screen. Once I look back, if I notice a mistake, I will re-write the kanji. The key is that I make a full attempt from my brief glance so that if I do make a mistake, I know exactly where my weak points are.
I also experimented with doing this with KaniWani (they prompt you with an English word and you input the Japanese word) but quite frankly, I got bogged down but how long this took. At the most extreme point I tried writing down the Kanji for every, single, WaniKani prompt and KaniWani prompt. While very effective, this was effectively a part-time job.
I’ve still got a bit of a craving for active recall to supplement passive recall and have a few study methods I’m experimenting on through Bunpro and an app called Kanji study.
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I would start much, much sooner than I have. I wish I’d started back in secondary school or something. I’m not sure if I would have had the determination back then that I do now, but I did still have a young brain that was much better at learning and retention.
And it would have given me different life options if I had been able to read and speak Japanese before going to uni or getting an office job.
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