My road to Jouzu

Japanese
#1

April 22nd, 2022

Future Goals/Things I hope to achieve

  1. Prove that I am steadily improving
  2. Show/quantify the improvement
  3. Become confident in Japanese before my 6-month study abroad in Osaka on 2022-08-15T04:00:00Z
  4. Become Jouzu (Self-explanatory, read or watch whatever I want without getting headaches)
  5. Get feedback from the AJATT and JP learning community
  6. Optimize myself for speaking as much as possible before my study abroad
  7. Learn Pitch accent and pronunciation
  8. Optimize learning
  9. Make the Monolingual transition
  10. Acquire particles

Overview of my current situation
I spent a whopping year on Heisig’s RTK only to drop the SRS reps in order to put time into immersion. I don’t really count this time period as learning Japanese as I didn’t learn a thing other than what Duolingo taught me. I regret this, and if I had just done recognition for Kanji, I could’ve been a year better than what I am now.
It was around New Year’s that I started taking Japanese seriously; sentence mining, doing Anki decks, studying Tae Kim’s, and losing sleep to do Japanese. I cannot quantify my level and cannot tell you how good or bad I am, but I believe I am, at the very least, above N5.

My current daily habits

  1. Get Anki out of the way as early as I can (around 300 cards a day)
  2. Do some light immersion when I have time before, during, or after classes with little load (daily average of at least 40 minutes of semi-active or active immersion with Hololive (Usually around 7-11 AM EST so perfect time for catching Hololive streams))
  3. My fourth period (90) minutes is a study hall that I dedicate half of to BunPro reps (I’m around halfway through N4 and a quarter through N3) and new topics (anywhere between 5-10 new topics) and a half to reading Manga (right now I am on ニセコイ vol 7)
  4. I either go to a local cafe, or go home, where I spend, on average, 20-60 mins on manga, and 1-3 episodes on whatever anime I am watching (I usually watch with subs. Currently, I am watching Sword Art Online and Anohana)

Conclusion
While I only track my hours roughly in a normal habit tracker app, I would like to eventually begin tracking with something like Megumin details in their post " My 1 year+ streak of doing Japanese daily"

Thank you, everyone, for providing a great community to receive recommendations from. Please let me know any websites, programs, trackers, or methods you recommend. I am always open to new ideas. I hope to see you all from time to time so that I can share my progress some days, I feel amazing at Japanese, and on other days I feel like I’m the worst. I hope, at this rate, I can become Jouzu.

Ill be tracking my hours more accurately and let you all know every so often how it’s going, although I don’t know how to prove I am improving. Now I shall return to reading manga and squaring up, ready to fight Japanese particles.
L4uwiUV

Links
https://bookmeter.com/users/1307839

15 Likes
#2

Good Luck!! :+1:
Im sure you will be very nihongo jouzu

3 Likes
#3

Glad I could be of reference sort of!
I love seeing these kind of posts pop-up.

My two cents:

Tracking

I highly recommend tracking. Also having an accurate tracking let’s you judge where you can improve or what might need more of your time.

As I detailed in the post you link, I use currently a custom system and a Kanban Board.

I could really just replace it all in the Kanban board right now, but the custom system has some discord integration and a statistics system that I don’t want to really drop.

As I understand self-hosting a kanban board is not something for everyone, I recommend going for a Trello one, it’s free.

Also if you don’t want to go that hardcore, my version 1 of tracking was just a google form with some fields and checkboxes, and it dumped it on a google spreadsheet.

Reading

I sent you a お気に入り on Bookmeter!. I recommend learnnatively as well, as it’s a good reference for levels. If you get a profile there, let me know!

Now as a suggestion for reading, I’d try to diversify as much as possible. Currently I’m hooked to a light novel series (from kid books, so they are easy to read), but I’m trying to spice the variety by reading at the same time different manga from different series/authors.

Kanji recognition

I’m very focused on being able to read as soon as possible. I’ve tried multiple Kanji sources, Kanji Garden, Wanikani, RTK, and a lot of other books and resources.

In the end, I found out that the ones that either force a mnemonic on you, or just focus on one reading were no good for my purpose or my brain.

I switched to Kanji Kentei and going by School Grade and everything got better:

  • While Kanji Kentei is focused on writing (aside from reading, stroke order, etc), if you are able to write it, you have better chances of recognizing the character.

  • Going by school grade instead of “arbitrary” order chosen by whatever learning method you are using, allowed me to enjoy reading sooner, by being able to start picking up books that are similar to the current grade of kanji I’m learning.

While I understand is not for everyone, I would recommend anyone to at least give it a go to this method. There’s multiple sources, 3DS software, mobile apps, and the practice books are very good as well.

In any case, Good Luck!

I’ll be stalking your progress, as this always is a source of information seeing how other people do and what I might adopt to improve my routine.

ezgif.com-gif-maker(13)

9 Likes
#4

I’m interested in trying out the kanji kentei method as you’ve outlined but really no idea where to start, would it be possible to do a write up? Are there any android apps one can write directly to.

1 Like
#5

TL;DR

I would recommend going for the books. Complement it with the 3DS software if possible.
Otherwise find a way to repeat the exercises from time to time, by either doing the exercises on a notebook and leaving the book in blank, or a similar method.

Long version and I suck at explaining:

It depends on how you wanna tackle it and your current Kanji level.

I use a combination of books and 3DS Software. There are mobile applications but I haven’t used those much as I find them inferior to the 3DS.

These are the books I use and I recommend (red ones are for learning, green ones are mock-up tests).

For your reference:

Kanji by School Grade

First grade (80 kanji)

一 右 雨 円 王 音 下 火 花 貝 学 気 九 休 玉 金 空 月 犬 見 五 口 校 左 三 山 子 四 糸 字 耳 七 車 手 十 出 女 小 上 森 人 水 正 生 青 夕 石 赤 千 川 先 早 草 足 村 大 男 竹 中 虫 町 天 田 土 二 日 入 年 白 八 百 文 木 本 名 目 立 力 林 六

Second grade (+160 kanji = 240 kanji)

引 羽 雲 園 遠 何 科 夏 家 歌 画 回 会 海 絵 外 角 楽 活 間 丸 岩 顔 汽 記 帰 弓 牛 魚 京 強 教 近 兄 形 計 元 言 原 戸 古 午 後 語 工 公 広 交 光 考 行 高 黄 合 谷 国 黒 今 才 細 作 算 止 市 矢 姉 思 紙 寺 自 時 室 社 弱 首 秋 週 春 書 少 場 色 食 心 新 親 図 数 西 声 星 晴 切 雪 船 線 前 組 走 多 太 体 台 地 池 知 茶 昼 長 鳥 朝 直 通 弟 店 点 電 刀 冬 当 東 答 頭 同 道 読 内 南 肉 馬 売 買 麦 半 番 父 風 分 聞 米 歩 母 方 北 毎 妹 万 明 鳴 毛 門 夜 野 友 用 曜 来 里 理 話

Third grade (+200 kanji = 440 kanji)

悪 安 暗 医 委 意 育 員 院 飲 運 泳 駅 央 横 屋 温 化 荷 界 開 階 寒 感 漢 館 岸 起 期 客 究 急 級 宮 球 去 橋 業 曲 局 銀 区 苦 具 君 係 軽 血 決 研 県 庫 湖 向 幸 港 号 根 祭 皿 仕 死 使 始 指 歯 詩 次 事 持 式 実 写 者 主 守 取 酒 受 州 拾 終 習 集 住 重 宿 所 暑 助 昭 消 商 章 勝 乗 植 申 身 神 真 深 進 世 整 昔 全 相 送 想 息 速 族 他 打 対 待 代 第 題 炭 短 談 着 注 柱 丁 帳 調 追 定 庭 笛 鉄 転 都 度 投 豆 島 湯 登 等 動 童 農 波 配 倍 箱 畑 発 反 坂 板 皮 悲 美 鼻 筆 氷 表 秒 病 品 負 部 服 福 物 平 返 勉 放 味 命 面 問 役 薬 由 油 有 遊 予 羊 洋 葉 陽 様 落 流 旅 両 緑 礼 列 練 路 和

Fourth grade (+200 kanji = 640 kanji)

愛 案 以 衣 位 囲 胃 印 英 栄 塩 億 加 果 貨 課 芽 改 械 害 街 各 覚 完 官 管 関 観 願 希 季 紀 喜 旗 器 機 議 求 泣 救 給 挙 漁 共 協 鏡 競 極 訓 軍 郡 径 型 景 芸 欠 結 建 健 験 固 功 好 候 航 康 告 差 菜 最 材 昨 札 刷 殺 察 参 産 散 残 士 氏 史 司 試 児 治 辞 失 借 種 周 祝 順 初 松 笑 唱 焼 象 照 賞 臣 信 成 省 清 静 席 積 折 節 説 浅 戦 選 然 争 倉 巣 束 側 続 卒 孫 帯 隊 達 単 置 仲 貯 兆 腸 低 底 停 的 典 伝 徒 努 灯 堂 働 特 得 毒 熱 念 敗 梅 博 飯 飛 費 必 票 標 不 夫 付 府 副 粉 兵 別 辺 変 便 包 法 望 牧 末 満 未 脈 民 無 約 勇 要 養 浴 利 陸 良 料 量 輪 類 令 冷 例 歴 連 老 労 録

Fifth grade (+185 kanji = 825 kanji)

圧 移 因 永 営 衛 易 益 液 演 応 往 桜 恩 可 仮 価 河 過 賀 快 解 格 確 額 刊 幹 慣 眼 基 寄 規 技 義 逆 久 旧 居 許 境 均 禁 句 群 経 潔 件 券 険 検 限 現 減 故 個 護 効 厚 耕 鉱 構 興 講 混 査 再 災 妻 採 際 在 財 罪 雑 酸 賛 支 志 枝 師 資 飼 示 似 識 質 舎 謝 授 修 述 術 準 序 招 承 証 条 状 常 情 織 職 制 性 政 勢 精 製 税 責 績 接 設 舌 絶 銭 祖 素 総 造 像 増 則 測 属 率 損 退 貸 態 団 断 築 張 提 程 適 敵 統 銅 導 徳 独 任 燃 能 破 犯 判 版 比 肥 非 備 俵 評 貧 布 婦 富 武 復 複 仏 編 弁 保 墓 報 豊 防 貿 暴 務 夢 迷 綿 輸 余 預 容 略 留 領

Sixth grade (+181 kanji = 1006 kanji)

異 遺 域 宇 映 延 沿 我 灰 拡 革 閣 割 株 干 巻 看 簡 危 机 揮 貴 疑 吸 供 胸 郷 勤 筋 系 敬 警 劇 激 穴 絹 権 憲 源 厳 己 呼 誤 后 孝 皇 紅 降 鋼 刻 穀 骨 困 砂 座 済 裁 策 冊 蚕 至 私 姿 視 詞 誌 磁 射 捨 尺 若 樹 収 宗 就 衆 従 縦 縮 熟 純 処 署 諸 除 将 傷 障 城 蒸 針 仁 垂 推 寸 盛 聖 誠 宣 専 泉 洗 染 善 奏 窓 創 装 層 操 蔵 臓 存 尊 宅 担 探 誕 段 暖 値 宙 忠 著 庁 頂 潮 賃 痛 展 討 党 糖 届 難 乳 認 納 脳 派 拝 背 肺 俳 班 晩 否 批 秘 腹 奮 並 陛 閉 片 補 暮 宝 訪 亡 忘 棒 枚 幕 密 盟 模 訳 郵 優 幼 欲 翌 乱 卵 覧 裏 律 臨 朗 論

During Junior High School (+316 kanji = 1322 kanji)

握 扱 依 威 為 偉 違 維 緯 壱 芋 陰 隠 影 鋭 越 援 煙 鉛 縁 汚 押 奥 憶 菓 暇 箇 雅 介 戒 皆 壊 較 獲 刈 甘 汗 乾 勧 歓 監 環 鑑 含 奇 祈 鬼 幾 輝 儀 戯 詰 却 脚 及 丘 朽 巨 拠 距 御 凶 叫 狂 況 狭 恐 響 驚 仰 駆 屈 掘 繰 恵 傾 継 迎 撃 肩 兼 剣 軒 圏 堅 遣 玄 枯 誇 鼓 互 抗 攻 更 恒 荒 香 項 稿 豪 込 婚 鎖 彩 歳 載 剤 咲 惨 旨 伺 刺 脂 紫 雌 執 芝 斜 煮 釈 寂 朱 狩 趣 需 舟 秀 襲 柔 獣 瞬 旬 巡 盾 召 床 沼 称 紹 詳 丈 畳 殖 飾 触 侵 振 浸 寝 慎 震 薪 尽 陣 尋 吹 是 井 姓 征 跡 占 扇 鮮 訴 僧 燥 騒 贈 即 俗 耐 替 沢 拓 濁 脱 丹 淡 嘆 端 弾 恥 致 遅 蓄 沖 跳 徴 澄 沈 珍 抵 堤 摘 滴 添 殿 吐 途 渡 奴 怒 到 逃 倒 唐 桃 透 盗 塔 稲 踏 闘 胴 峠 突 鈍 曇 弐 悩 濃 杯 輩 拍 泊 迫 薄 爆 髪 抜 罰 般 販 搬 範 繁 盤 彼 疲 被 避 尾 微 匹 描 浜 敏 怖 浮 普 腐 敷 膚 賦 舞 幅 払 噴 柄 壁 捕 舗 抱 峰 砲 忙 坊 肪 冒 傍 帽 凡 盆 慢 漫 妙 眠 矛 霧 娘 茂 猛 網 黙 紋 躍 雄 与 誉 溶 腰 踊 謡 翼 雷 頼 絡 欄 離 粒 慮 療 隣 涙 隷 齢 麗 暦 劣 烈 恋 露 郎 惑 腕

End of Junior High School (+285 kanji = 1607 kanji)

哀 慰 詠 悦 閲 炎 宴 欧 殴 乙 卸 穏 佳 架 華 嫁 餓 怪 悔 塊 慨 該 概 郭 隔 穫 岳 掛 滑 肝 冠 勘 貫 喚 換 敢 緩 企 岐 忌 軌 既 棋 棄 騎 欺 犠 菊 吉 喫 虐 虚 峡 脅 凝 斤 緊 愚 偶 遇 刑 契 啓 掲 携 憩 鶏 鯨 倹 賢 幻 孤 弧 雇 顧 娯 悟 孔 巧 甲 坑 拘 郊 控 慌 硬 絞 綱 酵 克 獄 恨 紺 魂 墾 債 催 削 搾 錯 撮 擦 暫 祉 施 諮 侍 慈 軸 疾 湿 赦 邪 殊 寿 潤 遵 如 徐 匠 昇 掌 晶 焦 衝 鐘 冗 嬢 錠 譲 嘱 辱 伸 辛 審 炊 粋 衰 酔 遂 穂 随 髄 瀬 牲 婿 請 斥 隻 惜 籍 摂 潜 繕 阻 措 粗 礎 双 桑 掃 葬 遭 憎 促 賊 怠 胎 袋 逮 滞 滝 択 卓 託 諾 奪 胆 鍛 壇 稚 畜 窒 抽 鋳 駐 彫 超 聴 陳 鎮 墜 帝 訂 締 哲 斗 塗 凍 陶 痘 匿 篤 豚 尿 粘 婆 排 陪 縛 伐 帆 伴 畔 藩 蛮 卑 碑 泌 姫 漂 苗 赴 符 封 伏 覆 紛 墳 癖 募 慕 簿 芳 邦 奉 胞 倣 崩 飽 縫 乏 妨 房 某 膨 謀 墨 没 翻 魔 埋 膜 又 魅 滅 免 幽 誘 憂 揚 揺 擁 抑 裸 濫 吏 隆 了 猟 陵 糧 厘 励 零 霊 裂 廉 錬 炉 浪 廊 楼 漏 湾

During Senior High School (+333 kanji = 1940 kanji)

亜 尉 逸 姻 韻 畝 浦 疫 謁 猿 凹 翁 虞 渦 禍 靴 寡 稼 蚊 拐 懐 劾 涯 垣 核 殻 嚇 潟 括 喝 渇 褐 轄 且 缶 陥 患 堪 棺 款 閑 寛 憾 還 艦 頑 飢 宜 偽 擬 糾 窮 拒 享 挟 恭 矯 暁 菌 琴 謹 襟 吟 隅 勲 薫 茎 渓 蛍 慶 傑 嫌 献 謙 繭 顕 懸 弦 呉 碁 江 肯 侯 洪 貢 溝 衡 購 拷 剛 酷 昆 懇 佐 唆 詐 砕 宰 栽 斎 崎 索 酢 桟 傘 肢 嗣 賜 滋 璽 漆 遮 蛇 酌 爵 珠 儒 囚 臭 愁 酬 醜 汁 充 渋 銃 叔 淑 粛 塾 俊 准 殉 循 庶 緒 叙 升 抄 肖 尚 宵 症 祥 渉 訟 硝 粧 詔 奨 彰 償 礁 浄 剰 縄 壌 醸 津 唇 娠 紳 診 刃 迅 甚 帥 睡 枢 崇 据 杉 斉 逝 誓 析 拙 窃 仙 栓 旋 践 遷 薦 繊 禅 漸 租 疎 塑 壮 荘 捜 挿 曹 喪 槽 霜 藻 妥 堕 惰 駄 泰 濯 但 棚 痴 逐 秩 嫡 衷 弔 挑 眺 釣 懲 勅 朕 塚 漬 坪 呈 廷 邸 亭 貞 逓 偵 艇 泥 迭 徹 撤 悼 搭 棟 筒 謄 騰 洞 督 凸 屯 軟 尼 妊 忍 寧 把 覇 廃 培 媒 賠 伯 舶 漠 肌 鉢 閥 煩 頒 妃 披 扉 罷 猫 賓 頻 瓶 扶 附 譜 侮 沸 雰 憤 丙 併 塀 幣 弊 偏 遍 泡 俸 褒 剖 紡 朴 僕 撲 堀 奔 麻 摩 磨 抹 岬 銘 妄 盲 耗 厄 愉 諭 癒 唯 悠 猶 裕 融 庸 窯 羅 酪 痢 履 柳 竜 硫 虜 涼 僚 寮 倫 累 塁 戻 鈴 賄 枠

End of Senior High School (+196 kanji = 2136 kanji)

挨 曖 宛 嵐 畏 萎 椅 彙 茨 咽 淫 唄 鬱 怨 媛 艶 旺 岡 臆 俺 苛 牙 瓦 楷 潰 諧 崖 蓋 骸 柿 顎 葛 釜 鎌 韓 玩 伎 亀 毀 畿 臼 嗅 巾 僅 錦 惧 串 窟 熊 詣 憬 稽 隙 桁 拳 鍵 舷 股 虎 錮 勾 梗 喉 乞 傲 駒 頃 痕 沙 挫 采 塞 埼 柵 刹 拶 斬 恣 摯 餌 鹿 叱 嫉 腫 呪 袖 羞 蹴 憧 拭 尻 芯 腎 須 裾 凄 醒 脊 戚 煎 羨 腺 詮 箋 膳 狙 遡 曽 爽 痩 踪 捉 遜 汰 唾 堆 戴 誰 旦 綻 緻 酎 貼 嘲 捗 椎 爪 鶴 諦 溺 填 妬 賭 藤 瞳 栃 頓 貪 丼 那 奈 梨 謎 鍋 匂 虹 捻 罵 剥 箸 氾 汎 阪 斑 眉 膝 肘 阜 訃 蔽 餅 璧 蔑 哺 蜂 貌 頬 睦 勃 昧 枕 蜜 冥 麺 冶 弥 闇 喩 湧 妖 瘍 沃 拉 辣 藍 璃 慄 侶 瞭 瑠 呂 賂 弄 籠 麓 脇

Level 10 would be 1st Grade
Level 9 would be 2nd Grade
…
Level 5 would be 6th Grade
…

Since you are learning Kanji in a new way, not only to recognize it, I would still recommend starting at level 9 (level 10 is way too easy) even if you have a higher level of Kanji knowledge.

If you look up in DuckDuckGo images with the term 漢字学習ステップ you can find how it looks inside for the most part.

The 3DS software is hard to come by (I got it second hand from Japan), and if you don’t own the hardware then it’s emulation. It’s just a shame that there’s no Switch version.

My workflow basically is:

  • Kanji Introduction page, I look up the Kanjis individual meaning, and write down all the vocabulary I don’t know in a notebook and after feed it to Anki.
  • Do the exercises
  • Every 5 steps you have a self-test.
  • At the end of the book, every 7 days I do a mock-up exam, while progressing on the next level.

Hope I haven’t been too terrible at explaining how I do it.

1 Like
#6

I am guessing that you are studying something related to Japanese in school / uni…

Main advice: Sleep is super important and going for an exercise (eg walking for 40+ minutes a day, running 2 / 4 times a week). Happy mind and body = more concentration :smiley:

It may be just me after reading your post… Try to relax more and not worry about moving to Japan and being “ready”, you will never be “ready”, sorry but its true (just saying from experience hehe) . There is no need to rush so much. Enjoy life wherever you are and spend time with friends / family. Experiment with different study methods and just enjoy the journey.

Personally I would forget pitch accent and pronunciation (for the most part) until you go to your Study Abroad. My reasoning is that you will make mistakes whatever you do, it’s better to just relax and talk to as many people as possible when you are there. You will pick up Kansai ben and improve a ridiculously a lot just by being in Japan and speaking to people.

If you can find a language partner / teacher where you are currently or on iTalki, practice with them some simple conversations (this will really help). Eg: Where you are from, your hobbies, a little bit about yourself, why you like Japan etc…

If possible, make time for writing and coping. Eg one NEWS WEB EASY (nhk.or.jp) article per 3 or 4 days. It can really help in the long term. The articles are not that long plus they use simple-ish vocab and grammar. Additionally on some words there are simplified explanations. This will hopefully provide some ideas how to transition to Japanese only:

image

If you have a Japanese teacher at uni / school and they agree to check your work, try to do extra writing – (1 or 2 page short stories , what you have done during the weekend etc). By writing and experimenting with grammar / vocab and then re-writing the corrected work, it will really help (at least it did for me ).

Moving to monolingual…. This is a bit difficult and lightly frustrating initially…. In some ways, maybe it’s a bit early however go for it as early as possible!!!

I would look into N3 and N4 Kanzen Master grammar books and also パターン別徹底ドリル 日本語能力試験 drill books (fully in Japanese) for N4 / N3 / N2…… Nihongo no mori on YouTube as their explanations are fully in Japanese.

Eg if you write : jlpt やすい online: this will show up which explains the grammar point fully in Japanese:
【JLPT N4】文法・例文：〜やすい | 日本語NET (nihongokyoshi-net.com)

Just be lightly careful as some grammar points are very similar or have multiple meanings!

The way that I re-wrote my grammar notes to fully Japanese was to :

  1. Look up the grammar point on Kanzen Master / online / Pattern betsu / other grammar books
    1.5 Put a sticky note that I have studied it
  2. Find it on Bunpro
  3. Make my own note, combining most of the info and copy some example sentences
  4. Leave some space in my notes for extra information in the future for that grammar point.
  5. Go through my notes from time to time (sometimes daily, sometimes monthly, etc…)

For vocab, it’s a bit more difficult …. I mainly use Goo dictionary & images…. There are dictionaries for high school students in Japan with simplified explanations too. But its way too slow compared to searching the word online haha

Have a Japanese Meaning field in Anki and write the English meaning there. Over time when adding new words just start to use more Japanese and no English.
eg for 暑い (warm / hot eg for weather), I would write “<>寒い” opposite is cold
make explanations as simple as possible hehe

Click me to see examples of how I do it

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Fully in Japanese even the Kanji meaning

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The downside is that making new cards for me takes time (I made my own add-on to fetch info from goo dictionary and to speed up some copy paste actions), so every new card needs to be relevant and actually useful in some way.

In my case, I use Kanji Senpai (like WaniKani) for new kanji / vocab and Renshuu.org
as supplements as they have pre-made decks. From time to time, while doing reviews I would write on paper what I got wrong a few time to help me remember.

For reading, just read, its like a muscle. What helped me a lot was to just accept that I will “use” a light novel as an experiment and did not really care how much I understood. So I just “read” as much as I could without stopping and checking anything. It was brutal experience but really helped me to find a balance between checking new words and just going for it.

Something that could help: apply for the JLPT N3 for December while you are in Japan. More motivation to study :smiley: and it will be a lot of fun to take the exam in Japan. The other reason will be to fill in gaps and learn some generic / everyday use vocab.

Hope this helps.

6 Likes
#7

Have you made this publicly available? It sounds very useful.

#8

No, I haven’t. Its a bit on the janky side and basically made to work with how I set up my sentence / vocab / kanji cards. The moment goo dictionary changes their html code, my addon will partially break :smiley:

From goo, I only copy the kanji meaning : eg for 夏, I get this:
" ①あつい。気温が高い。「暑気」「炎暑」「酷暑」 ［対］寒 ②あつい季節。特に、夏の土用一八日間。「暑中」「大暑」"

I downloaded the KANJIDIC2 xml file (what jisho uses for kanji) and I from it I only take the kun / on readings.

#9

Have you had any experience with Skritter? Any thoughts?
https://skritter.com/

#10

I have not, but it requires a credit card for the trial, so it kinda is a red line for me. It’s also kinda expensive.

I tried the demo, but I couldn’t figure out much about it. What order do they use? That would be my first question and one of my main gripes against WK

#11

April 24th, 2022
I am already done with Kanji and plan to work on writing and speech when I am better, so for the most part, those are goals for after I get a decent amount of ground in the language. Furthermore, I already completed RTK and don’t want to go back into that realm for awhile as it was the sole reason I didn’t have any time to focus on other aspects of Japanese.

Also, I have started something similar to what I believe is a 看板, It is in Pomodoro cycles, currently this is what today’s looks like:

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1 Like
#12

There’s two versions: “Skritter” and “Skritter: Write Japanese”. The 2nd is the newer version and it doesn’t require anything for the trial.

The trials has a simple list, but subscribing gives access to several different lists, including jōyō, JLPT, and core 6000.

#13

Just one question,
Is writing important at this stage? I can recognize a lot but if you ask me to write down what I just saw I would not be able to. I spent a lot of time on RTK stressing over being able to write the kanji I know but since your mind sees words, not the individual primitives or kanji which make up a word, it was useless for me and felt like wasted energy.

Thank you

Notes to self from this:
*Get an Italki practice partner, it will help
*Get sleep and exercise down and as a habit (generally just get my shit together lmao)
*Practice writing at least once a week, get it checked
*“I would look into N3 and N4 Kanzen Master grammar books and also パターン別徹底ドリル 日本語能力試験 drill books (fully in Japanese) for N4 / N3 / N2…… Nihongo no mori on YouTube as their explanations are fully in Japanese.”
*For Monolingual translation with notes: " The way that I re-wrote my grammar notes to fully Japanese was to :

  1. Look up the grammar point on Kanzen Master / online / Pattern betsu / other grammar books
    1.5 Put a sticky note that I have studied it
  2. Find it on Bunpro
  3. Make my own note, combining most of the info and copy some example sentences
  4. Leave some space in my notes for extra information in the future for that grammar point.
  5. Go through my notes from time to time (sometimes daily, sometimes monthly, etc…)"
    *Consider applying for N3 in December in Japan
2 Likes
#14

I’d say it depends on what your goals are. While I have no interest in writing myself by hand, it helps me with recognition/memorization/reading.

Nowadays almost everything is done with a computer anyway, and then you have IME which pretty much dumbs down the whole process.

1 Like
#15

Are you using Skritter?

I use it for writing; I think it has pretty good coverage of kanji (many cheap apps only do ~2000 for writing) and I like that I have to write the entire word/phrase/sentence including kana (many cheap apps only do one kanji per card or only the kanji in a word etc.). I’ve used several of their official lists, and I use it to maintain my own lists since I can just enter a word and in 95% of all cases it has a definition for it.

I think it’s too expensive though, especially if one doesn’t want the writing features. The subscription does include both Japanese and Chinese so that might also be worth something. But I basically only use it because the writing reviews work much better for me than anything I’ve managed with Anki or other apps. If I didn’t care about writing I would only use Anki.

#16

Regarding writing your own essays / short stories, It kinda depends on the person (and how they learn) to a point and their goals. Considering when you go to Japan, its very likely that you will have to write sentences / essays, having some practice beforehand would not hurt.

If possible, just try to copy 1 NHK web easy article (or from anything) per week or so … Very low investment and time commitment. ie 5/6 sentences. It can be very useful as it kinda forces the writer to be more conscious of what they are coping. It can really help with understanding things & memorization.

Personally, writing my own essays or copying from native material on paper really helps.

4 Likes
#18

I used to. It was a couple years ago, using the older version, but I really liked it. I didn’t keep up with it because my perfectionist tendencies on kanji were slowing me down on vocab and grammar, and because I wasn’t following the lists systematically. I changed my focus to just building up quantity and recognition of words.

I agree that it’s kinda expensive. But I’ve been thinking about jumping back into kanji now that I’m feeling comfortable with vocab/grammar. Also the new version, Skritter: Write Japanese, looks a lot cleaner and more user friendly app.

#19

I love the idea of copying article … I should try that for both reading comprehension and writing :smiley:
I’m just writing my bunpro answers recently (native jp hand writing recognition on iPad), but it’s mostly Kana and/or easy kanji

1 Like
#20

May 3rd, 2022
While this is not just for Japanese, I have started a daily habit journal on メモ帳 with a month-specific habit I want to pick up. If you have any tips on defining your drive/any philosophy or ergonomics I should check out, drop them in the comments. I would like to get to the point where I can focus on anything for as long as I would like through disciplining myself.

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#21

May 5th, 2022
Update; Now that Chemistry is over with I am focusing on going to the gym more often, meditating 10 minutes a day, going to work, and going to bed between 10 and 11 and waking up at 6.
Furthermore, I am going to try and do the NHK writing thing.

2 Likes