Does anyone have some tips on how I can structure my learning plan to reach this goal?
I have studied in bunpro and I am learning with the Genki I book. I think it’s difficult to retain the information because I’m super stressed out in my life right now. I understand the first two chapters. I was wondering if there is any learning material that is easy to do while driving, cleaning, etc, as I think it would be more efficient for me time wise, and I am usually an auditory learner.
I think N5 in 3 months should be attainable since you already have previous experience. But I think that at a beginner level it is difficult to practice while driving/cleaning… We require a lot of active attention to recall vocab and understand the structure of each sentence.
That being said, I used Nihongo con Teppei (on Spotify) a lot for listening practice during N5. The good thing is that each episode is only a couple of minutes long, so you rarely get lost. You can easily fit an episode in between tasks in a busy schedule. The bad thing is also that it is only a couple of minutes long lol. You might get tired of listening to the intro all the time
Hot take incoming, but Duolingo is actually pretty good for N5 and low N4. After that you gotta branch out, but it does a pretty good job getting you familiar with the basics, and obviously the barrier to entry is minimal. Agree with @btluppi on not having many options for passive engagement until you hit high N3. But JapanesePod101 is a solid option if you absolutely need to be doing other things as well. Just know it won’t be as effective as dedicated time spent.
LingQ Mini stories is a sieries of 60 stories, each has 4-5 minutes of content and it covers all essential grammar structures. I recommend listening them on the background, each repeatedly until you can just read it out of your head.
You are basically rising a template for all the grammar this way.
One of the things I struggled with n5 was, bizarely, the lack of Kanji. Make sure you’re quite familar with the vocab so you can spot the words with hiragana only.
+1 for the nihon con teppei - but make sure you get the ‘for beginners’ one; he has a few different ones.
also for listening practice, numbers, day counters are useful as there is often a question with a calendar and the answers are different dates. (but don’t worry if you don’t know as it’s only 1 question lol!)
Here’s some textbooks I used and would recommend. If your goal is just passing JLPT N5- I wouldn’t especially recommend using Genki, use specific textbooks but that’s just my opinion. (Genki is great for getting started at learning Japanese generally)
I am not thinking of taking the N5 test, but likely waiting till N4 or N3, but I took a practice N5 and was annoyed by the lack of Kanji for words I had learned in Wanikani, and I’m only level 6 in WK.
6 years ago in March I started learning for July N5 after a few years break having remember only kana, a couple of basic kanji, vocab and grammar. I did some regular vocab learning with flashcards, learned N5 in Kanji Study, learned N5 grammar from Tae Kim’s and did mock tests from some apps. The only thing I didn’t do properly that nearly cost me the pass was listening practice – I was surprised taking the test because it felt like N4 to me. But the other parts I did really well and passed overall. So it’s indeed doable
It sounds like you’re already well on your way with the resources you mentioned.
Another podcast you could consider is Sakura Tips – it might be closer to an N4 level, but she deliberately speaks slowly and includes free transcripts on her website. And in terms of books, I went through the Nihongo Somatome N5 a month before the test and found it helpful.
BTW - Hoping that you’re not so stressed now! Fwiw, I was actually planning to take N3 this summer but life got in the way and so I’ll try to take it in December or next year instead. Anyway, good luck!
