Hey all,
This post is largely for the longer-time learners out there who are out of school and don't have an immediate requirement or deadline to learning Japanese, but still want to make steady progress while holding down a 9-5 job and juggling other adult commitments (i.e. how to avoid the feeling that studying Japanese is just one more chore).
To that end, after lots of experimentation and trials of different methods/apps/etc, the stuff I've found to be most successful is as follows:
10-20 new words a day + review of old words (15-30min):
I've personally loved Satori Reader for this because it has graded reading content combined with a built-in anki-like flashcard system AND detailed grammar explanations, but whether you use that or a custom anki/mining plugin setup, I'd say only do enough that you're getting a small yet steady flow of new vocab. It's SUPER easy to go hard on flashcards and feel like you're making progress, but then also super easy to burnout on them (and/or spend soooo much time doing flashcards that you run out of time for anything else.)
For me, I limit my intake to about 10-20 words a day, depending on how big my existing backlog is. That way I can spend the bulk of my time doing…
Fun/Sustainable Immersion:
Switching from primarily flashcards/textbooks learning to primarily immersion has been the BIGGEST language leap for me, both in terms of how much more my brain absorbs and how much less burnt out I feel by the concept of "studying." This whole next section will be largely a list of various youtube channels, games, podcasts, etc I've been enjoying at the ~N3 level.
The biggest reminder I tell myself while engaging in the following media is to treat it like tadoku in that I DON'T STOP to look up every word/definition I don't know. Of course, if the same word keeps popping up over and over again, sure, at that point I'll do a quick dictionary check, but otherwise "it's okay to not understand every sentence 100% as long as I'm still getting the main gist of things" is my mantra.
In general, immersion's main purpose is to solidify words you've already been learning through your flashcards + imprint grammar as more of a set of instinctive interlocking patterns vs something you try to learn and memorize out of context. (There's nothing quite like having a super old vocab card show up in your anki deck again and you realize its easy because you've been seeing it over and over again in native media.)
Super Helpful Plugins:
Yomichan/yomitan — For quick kanji/word lookup on websites
Language Reactor — For quick kanji/word lookup on Netflix and Youtube
Youtube Channels (great for small bits of downtime, laundry folding, etc):
https://www.youtube.com/@tnc8958 — Fukuoka News, lots of short 4-10min videos on local topics. The talking pace is often FAST, but subjects are focused enough, and clips are short enough to for me to hold focus.
https://www.youtube.com/@BappaShota — Japanese travel vlogger. I like travel vlogs in general so substitute your own favored topics here, but watching Japanese versions of videos that I already like in my own language make me way more excited to watch than just your basic Japanese learning videos. I especially like his videos on visiting the US for that "foreign view of your own culture" role reversal. (Like, the one he did on the biggest truck stop in America was just plain fascinating; I was even able to discuss the stuff in it with my partner who isn't seriously interested in learning Japanese).
Podcasts (great for driving in the car):
Sakura Tips — ~5min podcasts on a single subject. Mari speaks in slightly slower Japanese if listening is a weak point. Updates roughly once a week with hundreds of episodes dating back to Oct 2020.
Learn Japanese with Noriko — ~10min podcasts on a single subject. Good if you've gotten used Sakura Tips' speed and are ready to leap into something faster. Noriko loosely follows the Tobira/Gateway to Advanced Japanese textbook and mostly limits her lexicon to that. She's also REALLY good at phrasing things multiple ways when she talks about them, which really helps me with listening comprehension. Updates twice a week with hundreds of episodes dating back to Feb 2020 (if you want to relive the outbreak of covid and evolving news coverage but from the perspective of a Japanese woman in Northern Ireland).
Games (great for a full night/hours of dedicated immersion):
The youtube channel Game Gengo is an AMAZING resource, so I'm just going to list some of the games that I've personally had a good time with (along with their pros and cons). (I like to play on the Switch so I can play on the couch, during the occasional plane flight, etc, so all of these are Switch games but they can be found on other platforms):
新すばらしきこのせかい//NEO: The World Ends With You — fun gameplay, lots of topical/casual speech since it's set in Shibuya. Main downside is there's no furigana, so if you don't know the kanji of a word, it's harder to both lookup and lodge in your head via repetitive pronunciation (to the point where I paused my playing until I learn more kanji). Another pro = you can switch to Japanese even with an American copy of the game.
クレヨンしんちゃん 「オラと博士の夏休み」〜おわらない七日間の旅〜//Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey — very much a walk, explore, and talk kind of game. there's a decent amount of voice acting and furigana, with a lot of useful vocab. Main downside is there's a lot of random chance to the areas and things you can unlock and after awhile (for an adult) it ends up feeling very much like a "study" kind of game, so i'd say play it while it's still fun and don't be afraid to drop it once it starts getting boring. NOTE/WARNING: You have to order a Japanese copy from Japan to get the full Japanese language options, but they're easy to find on ebay
大神//Ōkami — This has been THE game I've been playing for the past several weeks and the one I think I'm going to end up seeing to completion. Main downside is that there's no voice acting, so it's a full reading game BUT it's got a great story, great gameplay, and furigana so I'm able to read everything aloud/practice my own pronunciation as I play. There's also a decent amount of old-timey speech but not enough to alienate me; like, the only characters that are legitimately hard to understand are the constellation zodiac animals, who I think speak specifically in an older/more complex, godlike style. Another good aspect is, when the game gives you a new important goal or story-related concept, the phrase will be in red to call it out, which helps if you start getting a little language fatigued. It's also just such a joy to play in the native Japanese because the game is such a love letter to Japan. Location names like 神木村 and 花咲谷 end up feeling natural instead of "exotic", various puns hit harder… you name it. Overall A+ recommendation game. On top of that, because its such an older game, the remake is only $20, supported on multiple systems, and you can switch to Japanese even with an American copy.
by theclacks