**Trying to get back into Japanese 🇯🇵**

Japanese
#1

Hi everyone!

I started learning Japanese about a year to a year and a half ago and managed to reach the N5 level. However, I eventually stopped studying and haven’t been consistent with Japanese for quite a while.

Recently, I’ve been wanting to get back into learning Japanese, but getting started again has been harder than I expected.

I’m hoping to rebuild my foundation, get back into a daily study routine, and eventually reach a level where I can comfortably understand and speak Japanese.

If anyone here has gone through a similar experience, I’d love to hear how you got back on track!

I’m looking forward to starting this journey again. 頑張ります！ :muscle:

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#2

I’ve started studying Japanese years ago and focused more on kanji and vocab, without doing too much grammar. I’ve done that for about 2,5 years and then got a bit burnt out and forgot why I was even doing that. After about 5 years, last year went to Japan and got so inspired again that I started with renewed vigor from the beginning, focusing more on grammar than I did before. I’ve since developed a very solid habit of studying every day for at least an hour using BunPro, Wanikani and occasionally writing my own sentences.

It was probably a necessary break, which showed me that my approach and mindset weren’t ideal and that as in any marathon, you need to know why you’re doing it to keep on going! So welcome back to studying, 頑張ってください！

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#3

what would you recommend for me? currently i only have bunpro did use wanikani before i do like it but now i am kinda unsure about what to use and where to focus like reading, listening, vocab, grammer, kanji… i am kinda confused and dont really know where to start.

#4

That’s the tricky part, since in the end it always comes down to every individual, but one thing to always keep in mind is that it needs be fun in the long run. Learning Japanese will take years and speedrunning will only damage yourself and your learning journey so whatever you end up doing, do it in such a fashion that you still enjoy it (bein occasionally frustrated is fine). It is also absolutely fine (and probably necessary) to increase/reduce/add everything mid-journey.

That said, I can share my personal journey and how it evolved over the last 1,5 years:

1. Started with BunPro (about 4 grammar and 10 vocab a day), Wanikani (10-15 items a day).
2. Started listening to a podcast called “Nihongo con Teppei” while joggign to add a bit of listening understanding. Didn’t understand much in the beginning, but the goal was immersion and not complete understanding.
3. After some months the amount of lessons and reviews was a bit much so I reduced it gradually until I came to 2 grammar and 5 vocab on BunPro and 10 items on WaniKani per day.
4. I started using SakuGo, it’s an AI powered app someone developed in beta where you translate sentences from english to japanese using vocab and grammar from a particular N level (N5 for me at the time). This proved to be extremely valuable (but also quite difficult and time consuming in the beginning), since it connected the grammar and vocab for me in a very profound way. Here I started actually understanding the language and how to think in Japanese.
5. Currently I’m on N3 grammar and I decided to switch stuff up a bit and I’m doing 4 grammar points a day and no new vocab, while also focusing more on every individual lesson and review (as in reading every sentence properly, translating words I don’t understand, reviewing grammar which I learned earlier but forgot). The goal here is to finish N3 and N2 grammar, to focus on more vocab afterwards. WaniKani stays at 10 items per day and I don’t plan on changing that.

Basically, I never stopped questioning my approach and changing stuff, sometimes because it was too much and sometimes just to change things up a bit for variety. What I can say for sure are the following 2 points though:

  • Never stop doing reviews. Unless you’re physically or mentally incapable, always do your reviews. Pausing lessons is absolutely fine, but having a habit of reviewing every day is what’s going to make the difference.
  • WaniKani and BunPro both are invaluable. There is a big overlap in vocab in both, but there were so many words I learned in BunPro first and then just couldn’t remember them for whatever reason, but as soon as they popped up in WaniKani, it sticked (maybe due to nice mnemonics WaniKani provides). Doing both is IMHO very important and helpful.

Hopefully some of this stuff helps!

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#5

This has been incredibly helpful—thank you so much for providing such detailed information! I feel as though I’ve finally found my path. Could you perhaps tell me a bit more about the listening and reading resources you’ve used? This is the area where I’ve felt most indecisive so far; there are so many resources out there, but most of them are quite disorganized and confusing.

#6

Happy to read that!

I’ve stopped listening to the podcast I’ve mentioned before, but I do need a good replacement at some point since listening is a big issue for me currently. At the moment I just try to carefully listen to the voice overs of the sentences in BunPro and hope that it does something, but I’ll need something dedicated. I think BunPro does offer some exercises for it though.

As for reading, same situation basically. Earlier I just used to try and put in the correct answer without reading the whole sentence and mroe often than not it would be fine, now however I try to actually read it completely (even if I already know the answer to the particular review) and I notice that I do encounter a lot of earlier grammar which I end up passively refreshing. Sometimes new vocab which I then add to my review. As soon as I’m done with N3 I think I’ll start trying to read mangas again and see how enjoyable that’s gonna be :slight_smile:

#7

For N5 listening I wound not recommend nihongo con teppei. He is great but definitely not for beginners instead I had really good results with „Japanese with Shun” his podcasts are about N5-N4 level and really great for beginners. Immersion is good and all but if you don’t understand 80% it’s not really productive.

For reading I would recommend tadoku at first. After that manga has worked extremely well for me. They are interesting to read, you can find all levels, they have live language that is actually used and contain all kinds of vocab and grammar. Also they are a great indicator of your progress, you will see huge difference when you come back to it after few months of studying, which is a great motivator when you loose faith in yourself.

In those I would recommend (my subjective order of difficulty): チーズスイートホーム, ハピネス、 レンタルおにいちゃん、よつばと。
Just don’t get discouraged because at first it will be tough but it’s worth it :wink:

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