Levelling Up: My next steps to be truly at Intermediate Japanese

Japanese
#1

Almost 2 years ago, I created a thread for “Finished N5, what’s next?”

link to that here:

Finished N5 Grammar - what's next?

But I’ve passed N4 last year and am working towards Intermediate/N3. I feel like among my skills (kanji, grammar, speaking, writing, listening), kanji is my best while listening and speaking are my worst. So my plan is to improve my listening so that at least it is at the same level as my official N4/working on N3. Getting a 31/60 score on listening on N4 is a pass but is not satisfactory to me. To be fair, a Japanese teacher told me last week that the listening section of the JLPT is not regular speech AND is designed to trick you. In any case, I would like to get to the point of understanding conversations better.
Timeline: by June - see improvements while in Hokkaido; by the end of the year - based on tv shows/movies I can watch

The plan:

  1. Continue with WaniKani reviews BUT also add daily reviews using the Self-Study Quiz set to quiz me on the audio of vocabulary only, for Burned Items only and for the level I selected. (btw, this Self-Study Quiz is a user script that you have to install and is not a feature of WK. More here: [Userscript] Self-Study Quiz - API And Third-Party Apps - WaniKani Community)
  2. Continue with BunPro reviews but no new lessons for about a month and a half while I spend more time on everything else on this list. Restart lessons after my vacation.
  3. Just subscribed to Comprehensible Input Japanese and plan to go through their Intermediate videos without subtitles. Possibly with speed slowed down. Maybe watch more difficult Beginner videos but in normal speed. EDIT: Just realized I’ve been watching the Intermediate videos at Normal speed. Will continue to do so. As for other (youtube) videos that are just too fast, I will slow them down to 0.75x.
  4. Continue with weekly online class with my sensei but after completing Quartet 1 Lesson 3, just spend the time chatting with her. Restart lessons after my vacation and concurrent with lessons in BunPro as well as Tokini Andy’s Quartet 1 videos.
  5. Whenever I feel like it, continue reading Yotsuba To online as I am now finding I can understand what I’m reading. I no longer wait for いろいろな日本語’s comprehensible videos as they are slow in coming and I’m several chapters ahead now.

I was considering getting another sensei on italki but after doing a trial with 2 (who were great), I still think I need more listening time which I can do via videos and CIJ’s website. With CIJ, I feel like I can focus on the level I want and see progress clearly. There are 510 Intermediate level videos (free and for members only) for a total of 125 hours. Let’s see how much I can watch this year.

以上です。I wanted to write it down to make it clear in my head what my plan is. I would love to look back on this by the end of the year and see how much progress I’ve done. Taking N3 at the end of the year is not the plan yet. It will depend on what I feel when registration opens. I may use these practice Listening videos then. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lasKN-LsJwQ&list=WL&index=31

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#2

Good luck! I am on a similar stage in my Japanese journey and have decided to slow down and “take a break”. I am getting a bit tired/frustrated learning vocab on Bunpro, but I found that I can finally start enjoying what i have learned by watching anime and reading, so I am planning to let those activities lead the way for a bit.

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#3

頑張ってね。I just finish watching Hotspot (with English Subtitles). I may rewatch an episode or two with Japanese subtitles… or without.

#4

I’m in a similar situation. Passed N4 but my listening score was dreadful, aiming for N3 this December.

Two things have been helping my listening:

  • listening to podcasts while walking my dog or driving. Sometimes I zone out and think about other stuff but that’s fine, just the constant exposure is meaningful. My favorites for intermediate are Akane-teki Nihongo Podcast and the Bite Size Japanese Podcast.
  • watching “level appropriate” shows. I found this site learnnatively.com that rates content by difficulty level and started low and have been working my way up. I loved Pokemon Concierge, which is on Netflix with Japanese audio and subtitles. There’s also a browser extension called ManabiDojo that lets you add Japanese subtitles to Crunchyroll. Every time I start a new show the first episode or two is very difficult but then it gets easier.