I need to do more reading as well, so I’ve now made an account on that site as well. This does sound like a fun read, so on the wishlist it goes for now.
About Kanji Kentei: would I need to get a Japanese 3DS console as well to use the software?
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Nice! I gave you a follow there.
You don’t need a Japanese 3DS if you install a custom firmware on it. I’m playing my cartridge just fine on my European 3DS.
There’s also the option of emulation, but I’m not sure how good is that input wise, unless you have a touchscreen and a pen.
Such a shame that there’s not a Switch version…
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It really is a shame, but on the other side, you can buy a cheap used 2DS and still get the game to run.
2DS 3DS 3DSXL N3DS N3DSXL N2DS, any of these devices will run the game, so there’s a lot of used hardware out there capable.
I’m not sure why, but this is the first time I’m hearing about Learn Natively! I’m trying to read more books too so I’ll give it a shot. Thanks!
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Small update:
While I reduced the amount of books consumed per month drastically as I have moved mainly at reading novels instead of manga, I feel like I’m reading a bit more and I’m getting a bit more of speed and kanji/reading recognition.
I’ve finished the second book of the series I have started a while ago and wrote a review:
I really really like these series, and I’m so glad I stumbled upon them! I might do a couple manga volumes before jumping to Vol. 3 which I already have at hand to start. As always I’ll update my learnnatively and bookmeter if anyone is interested in keeping up to date for what I’m reading.
I’m trying to get used to the electronic dictionary and reduce dependency on J-E definitions and try to go first for J-J ones, but the vocabulary is still on the weak side for some words.
On the other side of things, I started my seasonal work, and I might be in a new position, so I’m not sure how that will fare on my free time for doing my Japanese tasks, but I’ll try to find empty times to at least keep my averages to the best of my availability/strength.
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I didnt know about this Kanji Kentei,
I have a 3DS and will give it a try. But I guess it is quite advanced right?
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You can start with Kanji Kentei level 10 which is very basic (only 80 Kanji).
List of Level 10 Kanji
一 七 三 上 下 中 九 二 五 人 休 先 入 八 六 円 出 力 十 千 口 右 名 四 土 夕 大 天 女 子 字 学 小 山 川 左 年 手 文 日 早 月 木 本 村 林 校 森 正 気 水 火 犬 玉 王 生 田 男 町 白 百 目 石 空 立 竹 糸 耳 花 草 虫 見 貝 赤 足 車 金 雨 青 音
The important part is that you understand the exercises and what is being asked on each part. Figuring it out only takes once per level at most though, so you are not learning new exercises constantly but actually reviewing once you have them figured out.
I’m currently at level 7 with a completion rate of about a 25%, which is after using the software for more than 380 hours and answering more than 9400 exercises.
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Small update before my high season work
Finished reading vol. 3 of the light novels. I can clearly see picking up some speed and being able to have (sometimes) longer reading sessions. Probably is also a factor that I moved to the kindle versions now that I managed to unlock Amazon JP purchases again.
As always review is here:
In the other hand, at the same time, I started reading some manga in order to go out of the comfort zone I have gotten while reading the light novels. I recently finished それでも歩は寄せてくる and now started with 貧乏神が! which I had laying around.
As for the daily grind, today I finally managed to pass a 7-kyuu Kanken exam on the 3DS. While my objective is still being able to finish this level before the year ends, now I don’t think I’ll be able to get on the level 6 too far, which was also an objective. The difficulty really picks up.
That’s about it. Currently sitting at 480+ days with a 93 minutes/day average of studying. I do hope to be able to keep increasing this average despite work. While I had a change in roles recently, I have reduced my hours, so we will see how it goes.
Some other things that I’m considering:
- Finding a place and time to do an official Kanken test. These are not as common as the JLPT ones, so we will see if I manage
- Maybe retaking JLPT N3 or giving N2 a shot to see how far I am from it.
As always, new suggestions and questions welcome if anyone has one.
I keep trying to improve the way I do things, how I keep track of them, and ways to expand the time I spend doing them.
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Congrats!!! Its really cool seeing you consistency!
Hopefully work will not get in the way too much.
In one way, taking the N2 just for fun is a great experience… I applied and took the N2 exam just as an incentive after a long break from studying. No regrets. I failed miserably but passed some sections haha and the experience made me really think about my study methodology.
If possible and not in a rush, take the N3 this December (Probably its too late for July 2022) ??.. Passing the exam and getting the certificate should give you a really big boost… Just trying to say that its nice to get the paper for the effort hehe…
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Thanks for the encouraging words!
I already (barely) passed N3 although I feel it was more sheer luck than anything else.
That’s why I’m at a loss still if I should retake N3 to see if there’s progress or go N2 and have a laugh at myself of the long way I have in front of me.
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OHH in this case, go for N2 this December if possible!
Everybody (including me) was laughing when I said I will take the N2 exam. (I had 1 month of Japanese classes in Japan before the exam). Its a really strange and freeing experience taking the N2 without any expectations. Highly recommend it!
There is still a lot of time, maybe applying for the exam will motive you to continue to daily study even when work gets too much 
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End of year report (2022)
So another year goes by, and I try to make sense of the tracking I do and see how I did and if I got any objectives done, and how to improve for the next year.
Totals
For 365 days, tasks related to Japanese learning were done every single day again, even if I wasn’t feeling that well, I still tried to get something done.
A total of 542.78 hours have ben put in, which gives an average of 1.49h per day)
This number is down 30 hours, and the average down from 1.59h per day.
This is a graphic of time per day and a distribution on what tasks it has gone in:
Bunpro (23.0h | ~0.06h/day | Streak 498)
Finished N4, but didn’t progress too much beyond that.
Kanji Kentei 3DS Exercises (156.1h | ~0.43h/day | Streak 414)
Levels 10, 9 and 8 are cleared with 99%. Level 7 is at 98% and I’m ready to start Level 6 in the next few days
Kanji Kentei Books (52.4h | ~0.14h/day)
I finished just in time for the year the Level 7. Ready to start Level 6 in the next few days.
Watching content (116.6h | ~0.32h/day)
Content in Japanese without subtitles. Mainly anime but some other variety programs also included.
Reading (113.8h | ~0.31h/day | Streak 6)
I started reading not only beginner novels, but also full fledged novels.
You have the titles I have read on my Bookmeter and LearnNatively profiles.
Vocabulary / Anki (66.5h | ~0.18h/day | Streak 297)
Currrently sitting at over 2880 generated vocabulary cards from the Kanji Kentei books.
Other content (3.8h| ~0.01h/day)
This is mainly one-off stuff that I don’t specially track because it’s not significant in recurrence. Such as the taken JLPT N2.
Objectives Report
Keep the average of 90 minutes per day global.
Finished Kanji Kentei Book level 7 but didn’t start Kanji Kentei Book level 6.
Finished only N4 grammar but didn’t finish N3 on Bunpro.
While I read more, I didn’t read every day.
Conclusions and moving forward 2023
The numbers are down, and objectives were mostly not completed successfully which is a bit of a downer. If I try to look at the numbers positively, the watching hours are down while I have increased in harder tasks such as reading.
With all these in mind, I have tried to rearrange the expectations for the next year.:
- Increase the average study time to 100 minutes/day.
- Finish Kanji Kentei level 6. Going to try to set a deadline for a lesson every week to keep the pace.
- N3 Grammar in Bunpro, increase time spent by using Cram 2.0 too.
- Read at least 20 minutes a day.
While the numbers aren’t that positive, I’ll try to improve for next year. As always, feedback and discussion is welcome!
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There is one now.
I haven’t tried it myself but seems like reviews are mixed due to not working docked mode (well this should have been obvious anyway, as you need to write on the touch screen), and that the fact that the interface is not as polished as it was in the 3DS.
Other than that, it seems to be good content wise.
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Was excited for a second when this popped up in the Switch newsfeed but the reviews have been mixed so far. They seem to have made some interesting choices with the UI.
@jrmr50 If you already have a non-JP 3DS, the DS games should be region free. This is the one I have and if you’re okay with used, you may be able to pick one up for a decent price. The shipping becomes much more palatable if you are also ordering something else. Iirc I ordered it with some books and it only added a few hundred yen to the shipping.
Edit: Sorry turns out this was the one I have, I haven’t check what is different that makes it プレミアム though. (There should be used options)
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I detected a slightly downbeat mood with your post, but I think you’ve forgotten these important points:
- You’ve another 500+ hours of Japanese in your brain
- You’re still going!
Another huge achievement
Another huge achievement
Don’t allow a tiny decrease of 5% to take the shine of your outstanding accomplishments!
It’s really inspirational…
EDIT: typo
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I guess the speed at what I’m learning kanji has been a bit of a downer, but you are right.
There’s no way I’d have been able to pick a full fledged novel at the beginning of this journey, and now, although slowly, I’m scrapping by.
It just comes to the perspective of how I/you look at the numbers.
Thanks for the uplifting words!
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Hey Megumin! I really enjoy reading about your journey and I’m especially interested in the data you are collecting. I have been playing around with collecting my own data, but it is all manual. I was wondering if you could share how you automated everything. Let me know if you are on discord as well! Here is some of what I’ve been doing and thinking about.
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Heya! Glad you like it!
At first my data collection was similar to yours. Google Spreadsheets, with a Google Form that I would fill at the end of the day, with all the tasks I have done.
I would have a form in paper, fill it, then give the data to the form/sheet.
Then I wasn’t very fancy going API or anything, I was just parsing the output with a crude PHP script, and then posting it to a discord server I have with a friend (with the help of a bot), were we share the adventure and other common interests.
Moving forward to V2.X of the system, is a 100% self-made thing on PHP and MySQL.
I also keep a track of the details of the tasks in a Kanban Board (If I was better at coding I’d probably integrate both, but I’d rather spend the time learning Japanese than coding to be honest)
This has a number of advantages:
- I can fill as I complete tasks, on any device, and I get rid of the paper.
- I get reminded of which tasks have not been done yet, both via the Kanban and Streamdeck API.
- I can also see at a glance, which of the tasks have been neglected and for how long.
You can see the screenshots in the previous post here.
I can potentially evolve this system since it’s completely self made, to make funny graphics and a number of things, but it probably won’t get any major upgrades, as it does already it’s purpose.
In the end, IMHO, the important thing is that you can take conclusions of the data, and see what areas need more focus. I think your system is very neat, and the graphics give a lot of insight that I have to build myself.
If you want to reach me on discord, I’m on the official bunpro server. You can find me there!
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Reading is definitely the best thing you can do to improve your Japanese skills! Currently I am reading 25 pages of manga a day using OCR Manga Reader to scan words I don’t know and then allow me to manually add them to Anki for review later. My goal is to take and pass the JLPT N1 this December through constant reading and practice.
We have the same goal of understanding Japanese media as well, which is great! Thank you for sharing your routine with everyone and for being an active part of this community.
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