Objectives of this long post:
Get feedback, share the methods, and maybe get new ideas.
Background:
What I’ve been doing since a bit earlier of new year, as the usual new year self-objectives, is a set of exercises/tasks to help me on my quest to learn enough Japanese where I can confidently read and enjoy Japanese media. Note that my main objective currently is reading, so it might not be the best for everyone.
I do have N5, N4 and N3 certificates, although this last one I feel a bit like a cheat. I signed up just to test my level before taking it seriously, and I ended up getting a passing mark by acing the listening and scratching the pass mark on the other sections. I kind of think I shoot myself on the foot by doing this, as you are not allowed to re-take levels you have obtained a certificate from, so the next JLPT has to be N2, which is currently out of reach for me.
What it works for me and what it doesn’t seem to work for me:
Accountability and tracking. This is a big thing. At first, I was keeping track of what I did daily on paper, and then pass them to an google docs spreadsheet through a survey. This generated a report at the end of the day with a score based on the objectives I completed that day.
With time, I developed my own system in PHP, moving away from the docs, where I keep track of everything I do. This system calculates average times and scores my daily Japanese grind. It could potentially calculate the streaks, of each task too, but I’ve been quite busy with work, so I haven’t had the chance to get around that yet. This system currently also shares the progress on a private discord via a bot to a server I have with other friend that it’s also in the task of learning Japanese.
I plan to have an end of the year report where I can see some nice stats and graphs hopefully. I also have in my to-do list updating to match new daily tasks I do.
WaniKani. Although this was part of my daily to-do exercises, I’ve moved to other Kanji learning methods that seem to provide better progress for myself. I’m still a subscriber although in vacation mode for quite a few months, but I’m always pondering if I should drop it for good. Part of the reason of not working for me is the lack of feeling of progress, frustration with it’s not very flexible SRS system, and apparently weird kanji ordering. This last problem is also something I have problems with Kanji Garden.
With the new Kanji learning method I’ve jumped on, that I discuss further down this long post, I feel like I’m getting closer to my objective to start being able to read things.
My daily grind:
- Bunpro. I do the Minna No Nihongo I and currently II path. I used this briefly in Japanese language school and I feel comfortable with the format. I have no idea where I’ll go from there, so we will see.
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- My current method is I mix this with some grammar lessons that come from an online course from the Attain language school for N5, N4, N3 methods… I take the lesson, then look up in what part of the Minna No Nihongo book are those grammar points, review them, and then I add the lessons on my Bunpro account.
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- I have finished the N4 course, so now I plan to finish adding all the pending Minna No Nihongo II grammar points, and from there, I’ll do the remaining N4 grammar points with the Bunpro order.
- Japanese media. Anime / Comedy shows / Talk shows. I try to select easy to understand ones, and sometimes fail miserably thinking they are easy when they are not. I watch with soft subs (disabled by default), so if I get stuck in a part, I enable subs and replay the part that I previously watched without subs. I have a self-imposed maximum limit of 50 minutes per day (which is around two episodes of anime), as I’ve noticed that after a time you start losing focus and absorbing new things.
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- Currently for example, I’m watching Yuyushiki.
- Kanji Kentei, Kanji Kentei 3DS and Anki. This has been a big discovery for me. I’m currently learning Kanji with these books ( https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/489096410X ) , instead of WaniKani.
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- Currently at Level 8, they are cheap, and the order makes somewhat more sense. They are in line with Japanese school grade, and that means you can start reading easy content from almost the beginning. I pair them with the mock-up exam books https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/4890964568/ and the Kanji Kentei exercises for 3DS https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B00M92YCPQ/, are part of my daily objectives, which is like taking an exam every time. This software is hard to find in retail, but it gets a big fat recommendation coming from me.
It’s quite obscure and not many people seem to care or know about it, but you can see some videos of how it works here: Kanji Kentei - Improve Your Japanese! Test Explanation and 3DS App Play-Through - YouTube (Around minute 19’) and this Testing my Japanese kanji level using 3DS game kanji kentei training 2 漢字検定 トレーニング 2 - YouTube
- Currently at Level 8, they are cheap, and the order makes somewhat more sense. They are in line with Japanese school grade, and that means you can start reading easy content from almost the beginning. I pair them with the mock-up exam books https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/4890964568/ and the Kanji Kentei exercises for 3DS https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B00M92YCPQ/, are part of my daily objectives, which is like taking an exam every time. This software is hard to find in retail, but it gets a big fat recommendation coming from me.
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- So my current workflow with this is: Do the lessons → Write to a notebook the words I do not know on that particular → At the end of each set of lessons I add them to an Anki deck I have.
- Other misc tasks. Although they don’t have their own dedicated section on the tracker I have, I sometimes do:
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- Reading Japanese Manga (Currently trying to go through Yurucamp), hopefully I’ll start being able to read novels at some point. I’ve tried but it’s too slow currently for me. (Useful tools for this: https://jpdb.io/ and https://koohi.cafe/
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- Japanese Kanji Study in the phone, because sometimes you are somewhere in the wild and you only have your phone at hand: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mindtwisted.kanjistudy
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- Reading news, although very sporadically, because the world is rotten and the real life news usually depress me: NEWS WEB EASY
Further improvements to the system I plan to take:
I want the system to generate statistics automatically, currently it all gets dropped in a database and a simple, end of the day report is generated, which looks something like this:
I also want the system to take in mind the time I spend studying for the scoring instead of just the tasks. It’s currently possible to “cheat” the system by spending 1 minute on each task and moving on.
Closing the long post:
If anyone is interested in seeing the stats/report at the end of the year, do let me know!
Also I always welcome and appreciate new methods and feedback. I’m constantly looking for new materials and methods that could help me speed up the process.
Do please take in mind my main objective is reading comprehension currently, second would be listening, although I think I’m doing okay on this last one.
Thanks for reading and hopefully I didn’t bore you to death.