If you haven’t seen his videos on YouTube, I greatly recommend it. He has very good N5-N4 videos where he covers many topics.
My favorite are his videos in Osaka and Kyoto, as I am going there when I visit (next week!) There are Japanese subtitles which makes it easy to understand, and he speaks slowly, repetitively, and with energy.
As for the level you should be at: I am at 1300 words in JDPB, watched Yuru Camp and did Japanese from zero 1. More details in comments if needed.
by royalagegaming
3 comments
Okay, so full rundown of my journey to see where you are at. Watched anime all my life, started learning this March with the fact that I am going to Japan in a week.
Played Learn Japanese to survive hiragana battle, katakana war, some of Kanji combat, learned hiragana and katakana through kana app, then tried anki and hated how dated it looked. (Did Duolingo consistently for 150 days).
Tried Genki but couldn’t enjoy it, did learn Japanese from zero 1 and wanted to do 2 but I found JPDB and all of the immersion people on YouTube saying to immerse instead of learn grammar. So I started grinding Yuru camp, Genki 1, top 1000 and Genki 2. I finished Genki 1 and stopped Yuru camp after watching the actual show.
I have also added other shows, but that’s maybe 300 words max. My brain REALLY struggled to focus when watching anime.
Then I found this guy at the perfect time. I understand about 50-70% of every sentence and the general idea the whole time. He repeats things, shows real life Japan, and is entertaining.
I’ve learned words like deer and everyone, strengthened my understanding of a ton of words, and gotten extra excited to go to Japan.
Good luck everyone!
Thanks for sharing! He talks at a great learning speed and uses a lot of あの、えーと which I think is great for people learning JPN to pick up and use instead of the english “uhh” etc.
I used his videos and podcast when I was starting out as well and I highly recommend them to anyone who’s struggling with listening or really anyone just starting out. They helped me a ton in gaining listening comprehension and vocab since in both his vlogs and podcast he puts some of the words and phrases in english. While I think you will still struggle immensely in japan with listening and reading if you’re going so soon I think you’ll still have a lot of fun.