I’m starting to feel like people here are under the impression that SRS is literally all I do.
To be fair, this is a forum for an app that uses SRS, and you have only really mentioned Bunpro and WaniKani as applications you’ve used/are using for your information, aside from textbooks.
The only other thing you’ve mentioned is potentially getting tutoring for 1-2 hours a week, which as I mentioned would likely be insufficient for your goal.
I don’t know what you do, as I am not you. I’ve seen a couple things in your posts that may lead to bad learning practices in the future, and I’m trying to provide an outsider’s opinion incase it may be helpful to you.
We will only know what you tell us, and we say the things we do because you are not the first nor will you be the last person to attempt this gauntlet. I’m just trying to cover all my bases, and I’m sure others are too.
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I didn’t assume that you only do SRS but I can see why people can have that impression. I try to have daily reviews at about 30 per day on average because I spent time on kanji and vocabulary otuside of bunpro (Skritter) and then outside of apps I do some textbook grammar exercises to reinforce the grammar, I do some native content listening and when I play video games I play them in japanese to hunt for some extra vocabulary and I try to practice speaking for about an hour a week (not a lot, I know, but my priority is input). All of that takes time and 30 grammar points a day on average is a lot when I do that extra stuff and have a full time job, hobbies and also need some free time to unwind/meet up with friends and so on.
Also people study differently, for example when I do grammar reviews on bunpro, I read sentences several times to make sure I understand all of the words and all of the grammar used in the sentence, sometimes I say out loud the breakdown of the grammar used in the sentence as if I was explaining it to someone, so 1 grammar point can take me more like 30 seconds to even a minute or more. People might assume you study like them.
So what you’re doing is really impressive and takes a lot of time and dedication, that’s why I think people might assume you only do SRS because adding more stuff on top of that is crazy! Good luck! Fingers crossed you achieve your goal! 
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Not to mention you need to find the time for eating, sleeping, socialising, work etc etc. hahah
Y’all are straight up demons sent by Satan himself to demotivate me or something lmao
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It’s okay, I can take the negativity. I’m built different.
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I don’t think anybody is trying to demotivate you. Quite the opposite—they’re trying to prevent you from being too aggressive and getting burnt out/demotivated in the end.
If you really can power through that crazy volume, then all power to you. Just don’t beat yourself up if it proves to be too much.
Personally I’m in the middle of trying to do something similar. Just passed the N3 in December, and aiming to take the N1 next December. Did the math and that meant I have to do 2 grammar points + 15 vocab items per day (plus learning base kanji, listening, long form reading, etc). I knew it was a stretch, but I figured I can always course correct and settle for the N2 if it proves to be too much.
At first it seemed to be going surprisingly well, but in the past week or two I’ve suddenly hit a wall where two things are happening:
- older vocab items are coming up and I can’t recall them (sometimes I don’t even remember learning them in the first place)
- example sentences come up with alternate meanings that I need to learn
So now the Ghosts are piling up and I’ve decided to pause learning new material until I can get them under control. Starting to look like I won’t make it to N1 in time for December, but like I said, I always knew it was going to be a stretch.
Times like this I’m always reminded of something a friend told me: most people overestimate what they can accomplish in 1 year, and underestimate what they can accomplish in 5 years. Try to keep that in mind and don’t feel like you can’t adjust your goals if/when you need to.
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Part of me thinks that is a bit too ambitious… I can see where its coming from… Whatever happens, I hope that you can at least stick with Japanese in the long term and try to study most days. ( Ie not burn out completely and try to remember that this period of studying a lot helped you accelerate your Japanese language ability)
Just some things to keep in mind:
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Try different learning methodologies from time to time as some techniques become more effective at different stages (eg shadowing, coping small passages from books etc)
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Reading / listening become more and more important over time as your knowledge increases. Towards the end of N3 manga / simple light novels become quite accessible
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If a light novel / book / manga / podcast etc is not interesting enough, drop it and move to something else. Sometimes I would pick a light novel and force myself to read the volume to the end even though I realised by 1/3 of it that I don’t enjoy it. In these cases it takes me months to finish a book compared to days to finish a book that I find interesting haha.
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N3 / N2 grammar at one point is kind of hellish as many grammar points are very similar . Push through and don’t give up. Maybe try Kanzen Master N3 and N2 grammar for extra question practice.
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Maybe after every grammar level, try to do a mock JLPT test to see how things are going?
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Don’t be afraid to lightly change your goals and postpone them (not give up!). Eg try the actual JLPT N3 exam (this December) and N2 exam (eg next July) to see how it goes. It would be cool to have the certificates and it will help with motivation as you can see your hard work has some physical results
Good Luck! I really hope you succeed and in 2026 you look back and get amazed at your progress.
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This mindset is really reminding of the protagonist David from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, you should give it a watch if you haven’t. Because I don’t think the other people in this thread are intending to kill your motivation, they’re just trying to think ahead and look out for you so you don’t end up like David.
He was “built different” too, until he wasn’t…
But on a serious note though, you know yourself better than any user here. If you feel it’s working for you just keep going until you need / want to adjust your routine.
There are always outliers that can perform at a higher level than expected, no reason to believe you’re not one of them.
Good luck, I hope you smash your goals.
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Go for it! This is the spice that makes self-directed language learning so interesting and addicting. You’ve armed yourself with your chosen hypothesis and you’ll adjust and learn lessons about yourself and language learning along the way. Why pick any path other than what feels right? Have fun!
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Fun!
Try going for the N4 this summer at least. They put a lot of margin on these tests so that most higher-level test takers don’t “top out”, so to speak, with a perfect score. So long as you’re not above, say, N3, it’ll give you a good idea of where you’re at.
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Give it all you have
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If he understands example sentences and not just feeling the balnk without reading he should be good to go even without a single drop of native content, in my humble opinion
Just it during my tripe to my friend in France.
Ye, he wasn’t build different.
But Adam Smasher was 
And well, burning out from Japanese means opening something new after that. I do this all the time with my hobbies, it’s a grate thing that makes brain learn a lot of different things
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This is absolutely insane and crazy just like you said.
But you know what that’s okay because you’d be surprised how far you can get when you’re really pushing yourself!
I have an outrageous goal of maxing out level 60 for Wanikani by the end of this year too!
Let’s make our crazy goals happen!
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Take a year off work, get an amphetamine prescription, play eroge all day long.
Just give it a go, worst case scenario you get exhausted and slow down, but some people can do it so why limit yourself. Not everyone burns out in one year.
You already have some degree of familiarity with Japanese so the slow most difficult hurdle (in terms of study exhaustion, not time consumption for immersion) is already dealt with. After building a half decent vocab and grammar base it’s mostly just using the language all day every day and having fun anyways, people should aim to get there sooner rather than later so they don’t get stuck in a limbo of not using the language enough because it’s exhausting when you haven’t used it a lot.
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I wonder how many times these sort of posts will pop up. When will the first person to follow through with it happen.
For anyone that uses Wanikani I was following this one as it went along
https://community.wanikani.com/t/japanese-in-one-year-not-your-usual-study-log/64062
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I wish we had a log from the perspective of a 30+ year-old with family and a full-time job.
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the example sentences aren’t always how native speakers talk though, and it’s different to hear people talk than to read a sentence.
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Yo, I could do that 
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