Recommendations for grammar level goal with 3 months until Japan

Bunpro
#1

Hello, I am looking for advice on the amount of progress I should try to make in my specific time frame! I am studying abroad in Japan in April, and so I have about 3 months to study Japanese more aggressively before I start my semester there. I just started Bunpro, so I was wondering if anyone has recommendations for a certain level of grammar on here that would be the most beneficial to reach before I get there. I am just working part-time until I leave, so I am open to any suggestions of the amount of time I should spend on grammar to get to a particular level. Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

Edit: I thought I should specify that the study abroad program is in English, I’d just like to reach a grammar level in order to understand people and generally help me navigate Japan and read/speak etc.

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#2

If you’re aiming to understand people, it’s not gonna happen in 3 months, and that’s fine. Just do what you can before then and work hard. That’s all you can do.

But, to answer your question, I’d say around N3 is when you really start learning the language. N5 and N4 are still basic levels, IMO.

Enjoy Japan!!

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#3

Yeah, you’re totally right, I definitely know I’m still gonna be super beginner no matter what, but I still want to do what I can! Thanks for your advice, I’ll aim for N3!

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#4

Just to follow-up on what @Jose7822 mentioned. Unless you already have prior Japanese knowledge, I don’t think trying to get to N3 in 3 months is a realistic goal. He can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think what he was saying was that it’s not until you reach N3 that you really start to understand people/are able to navigate life in Japan.

If you are studying 2-3 hours a day, I think you could realistically finish N5 material, and maybe get a start on N4. However, if your goal is to be able to do common everyday tasks in Japan I would highly recommend supplementing your studies with more targeted material. For example, youtube videos on how to buy groceries, order coffee from a cafe, etc. It might be a bit advanced for someone first starting out, but I personally love Akane Sensei on Youtube because she has a great mix of travel and everyday Japanese videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNsjl7WFtRY

Regardless of what you end up doing, good luck and enjoy your time in Japan!

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#5

I don’t know how viable N3 is in 3 months. N5 is quite possible, and you’re absolutely fantastic if you can finish N4! I and reaching 6 months myself, and although I finished the N4 points, i couldn’t really be confident on saying i have this level of comprehension yet.

A recommendation to speed up your grammar acquisition is to learn from other resources as well, at the same time. Some people use the grammar books path, and go by it. I have seen the N5 Tokini Andy Livestreams before going into Bunpro, and I could blast 10 grammar points a day on N5. After starting N4 I couldn’t do it, and i attribute it in part to the fact that I didn’t see nothing of the N4 material in any other resources besides bunpro.

Now I would recommend Cure Dolly instead. I found it after completing N4 points, but her explanations kinda improved my overall japanese by 30% if i had to guess :joy:

Also, read a lot. Reading also increase the grammar speed, since you can see the points being used on various ways and get used to them.

Other than grammar, assuming you’re not bound by WK or RTK types of studies to “learn” kanji, if you spend the next 90 days learning vocab on SRS, you can amass quite a big vocabulary (2.7k on 30/day, 1.8k on 20/day; N4 is 1.5k). At this amount, you will still find 1-3 new words by sentence at minimum, but if you focus the vocab on daily use words, you would be on a pretty great spot.

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#6

Is the Pimsleur course on Japanese still a thing? Maybe if you pair it with a basic textbook, you could achive navigate through basic daily tasks more easily.

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#7

You got it :+1:. That’s what I meant.

After 2 years of studying around 4-6 hours a day, I was able to pass the JLPT N3 test in December of 2022. A few months later, in May of 2023, I went to Japan and felt comfortable speaking to natives and navigating around the country. It was a very satisfying experience, but it’s as you said, unrealistic to achieve in 3 months.

I agree with your recommendation that those 3 months might be better spent memorizing common phrases, and targeting N5 vocab/kanji/grammar. That should give the OP a good and realistic foundation before commencing his/her studies there.

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#8

Oh okay thank you for clarifying, sorry I am totally clueless about the N levels :sweat_smile: I appreciate the advice!

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#9

Ah okay, I will check those out, thank you so much!

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#10

Ahh I see, thank you for giving a time frame and number of study hours, that helps gives me some context for where the levels can get me comprehension/speaking wise.

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#11

I don’t really have a recommendation for a specific spot to aim for – I’m personally a very slow and steady learner myself – but I’d like to chime in a bit about “navigating daily life” in Japan. If you’re worried about your ability to take the train/order coffee/buy groceries, you can actually relax a little bit about those, especially if you’re going to be in a relatively urban environment. Japan has a LOT of support in English, although it does taper off as you go further into the countryside.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t learn as much as you (reasonably) can, because I think that’s a great goal and it will definitely make your life easier. One bit of hyper-specific knowledge I would recommend researching is the kanji for your local train/bus lines; for example, if you were going to be in the Osaka area, it would help to familiarize yourself with the 阪急 and 阪神 kanji, because those are common transit hubs here and its helpful to be able to tell them apart, lol. Also stuff like “local” vs “limited express”, etc. It’ll likely be written in English as well on most signs, but it’s nice not having to wait for the electronic ones to change.

Once you are over here, a lot of those little daily things will make for good immersion practice and/or help you to learn new things, too. They’re a great way to pick up new vocabulary or more natural ways of speaking.

I will say, in general, try to get in whatever listening practice you can. Learning to understand people speaking at native speed can be rough, so it never hurts to get a head start on it.

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#12

Lots of good advice here…

I started learning Japanese with the, “I just want to be functional”, goal. The course I took used the Japanese for Busy People textbook (vol 1) which did a lot of this stuff. After using it, I went to japan for the second time (the first time I knew no Japanese) and was surprised at how much was useful. The book comes in a romaji version, if your focus is not on writing/reading.

The textbook does not appear to be widely used, and if you get more interested in Japanese, then I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the second and third volumes (though my school continued to use them). It is a little business-situation focused.

I’m not sure I would go as far as to say that this is a recommendation, but perhaps something to look at as you make your decision.

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#13

I would focus on vocab over grammer. “Without grammer you can’t communicate well, without vocabulary you can’t communicate at all”. I got the advice to learn kanji first.
so this sentence from my textbook:健とメグの対話を聞き,質問に答えよう。その後、学校級新聞内のメグの自己紹介を読んでみよう
My understanding after 1 year of studying: Ken and Meg… Listen… question…after… school newspaper.
My understanding now (4 years of studying) Let’ｓlisten to Ken and Meg’s converstaion. After that, let’s read Meg’s self introduction in the school newspaper.

translation in textbook: listen to the dialog between Ken and Meg, and answer the questions. then read Meg’s self introduction.

These are the vocab decks I recomend:
Japanese course with anime example sentences Or Japanese core 2.3k

at some point I recomend playing with the card templates and anki settings, but you can get started first.
Things I needed to learn my first week in Japan. 自己紹介, introduce your self. Everyone asks you to introduce your self. Plastic bag is 袋(ふくろ). I don’t need is いらない. Cash is 現金(げんきん).
Katakana is super useful.

As far as grammerpoints: learn the ます and casual present past and negitive (non-past in bunpro). So you know if that sign says you can walk here, or can’t walk here becuase there is a land slide risk.
…てもいい？ Can I …
…てすみません Sorry I…
[危ない]あぶない、[違う]ちがう、ダメ - words used when telling you to stop, or that you are wrong. In English we would use “no” or “don’t” 注意 is “caution” and more often on signs.
Not sure you need:
…くれてありがとう Thanks for… Not sure you need this one. You could say “waited. Thanks!” 待ちました。ありがとう! instead of “thanks for waiting” まってくれてありがとう
…ことがある? Have you ever been… you could just say the past tense with once/never. I never went to tokyo instead of I have never been to tokyo.
まだ yet/still
まで until, to
から from, because
たいwant for verbs, ほしい want for nouns
みたい want to try
遠慮 refrain. I didn’t know this word and saw “[word I don’t know] drink please” and drank from the park fountian. Oops.

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#14

As someone in the country side. many signs lables are in both English and Japanese. Don’t count on people willing to speak English. They do learn English in school, but like Calculus and Chemistry, alot is forgotten quickly.

Resturants often have pictures on the menus.
You do have to be carful if you have an alergy. You might have better luck learning to read it and only buying pre-packaged foods where you can read the ingredients list.

All the doctors know medical words in Latin/English, even if they don’t know conversational English, which is enough to look up on wikipedia/mayo clinic.
EX)Pharamsist didn’t know the word “motion sickness”, but did know “dimenhydrinate”

Hope that helps!

#15

My advice would be to get a tutor on italki and role play some common situations with them. They’ll give advice on what phrases and things to learn. Better to have a tourist mentality with such a short time frame imo.

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#16

I’m afraid I had a good laugh at your expense here, sorry lol.

Your comment is full of seriously solid things for a beginner to learn before going over there. OP would do well to learn everything you suggested thoroughly. Especially 危ない and 注意, for safety reasons.

You do have to be carful if you have an alergy. You might have better luck learning to read it and only buying pre-packaged foods where you can read the ingredients list.

OP, if you have allergies, the word for this is アレルギー. Learn that and the words for all of your allergies, and drill the pronunciation until you sound like a parrot of any pronunciation recordings you can find for them (e.g. on Jisho.org). Last thing you want is anaphylactic shock in a foreign country (or hives, or vomiting, or unspeakable diarrhoea).

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#17

Hello. I did 6 grammar points a day iirc and got to n3 in about 3 months or a bit less. (slowed down after that so took longer to get to n1 where I am now) So it is definitely possible you will just need to do a lot of reviews
However, I think n4 is a good target as that it where the basic foundations can be built upon. After n4, most grammar is just extensions upon it (n2 and n1 are primary examples of this being just regular easy to look up vocab-like points in a way)

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#18

Sure you can focus on one thing, such as grammar, for 3 months and get to N3 level, but it wouldn’t be as beneficial to the OP (at least not in the short run) as learning common phrases used in different situations. That’s because you’re neglecting Kanji/Vocabulary, Reading & Listening comprehension, Speaking the language, etc. All of which also take time to assimilate and acquire.

Even if you did N3 level Grammar and Vocabulary, there’s just not enough time in 3 months to ACTUALLY learn that much material. At best, you’re just getting familiar with it. That’s not learning it, IMO. My definition of learning is to acquire knowledge, not to simply get familiar with it.

So what would the OP be able to do with N3 grammar? Not much of anything. In this situation their time would be better spent learning useful everyday phrases, as others have suggested.

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#19

I also whilst doing 6 points a day leant 40 or so words a day on Anki + did some listening alongside it occasionally. Imo I learn alot in that 3 months and I was reading ready very early
I agree I definitely didn’t fully learn the grammar and intake it but it primed me for whenever I did reviews where I reread the point and took it in better

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#20

There is also Marugoto which focuses on communication over all of other skills.

It is free through the Minato portal. I’m not sure if it will be as fast as needed, but another option.

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