Hi!
I’ve been studying Japanese for about 3 years, and I’m roughly at an N3 level. I’m pretty strong when it comes to grammar, closer to an N2 level because I do a fair amount of reading and grammar sticks with me, but on the other hand I’m pretty weak when it comes to Kanji, and somewhat when it comes to Vocab, both at around an N3 level, maybe on the slightly lower end.
I’m planning on going to Japan for Japanese studies, for a university year 2023-2024, but I wanna make sure that when I get there I have done the most I can to improve my Japanese, so I can make the most out of my time there, and hopefully come back having improved a lot. I’ve been trying to push my Japanese to a higher level. One way I’ve done this is reading in Japanese (Manga, novels etc.) but I find my lack of vocabulary/kanji understanding holds me back from having a smoother time reading, and means I spend a lot of time looking up words, only to eventually forget them when I move on to another chapter/book.
I’ve been trying to use Anki to complement my learning, so that I can actually properly go through this content, and hopefully reach around a N2 level before I go to Japan next year. In particular, I’m using N3-N2 vocabulary/kanji decks. They’ve been somewhat useful, and sure some of the words I’ve learnt have actually come up when I read in Japanese, but it also feels like I learn a lot of words which I’ll never actually see (some which, even according to native Japanese friends of mine, they’d never ever use/actually see).
This has me wondering if I’m actually taking the right approach to learning using flashcards. I have a couple of thoughts:
1. Maybe I should be making my own flashcards instead of using ones online. This would definitely help me with enjoying my hobbies/readings more since the vocabulary I learn would be much better suited towards them. This would of course mean I can consume more native material and therefore improve even more. This is the approach I’ve been considering switching to, but I’m also scared all of the new vocabulary I learn would only reflect the one that is used in manga/novels, and leave me with glaring gaps in knowledge or mean I end up missing vocabulary that will be important either in my time in Japan, conversations about non day to day topics or indeed be a pain when taking the JLPT tests which often cover more obscure words I’ve heard.
2. Maybe I’m just using the wrong decks/software, and there’s actually decks out there that would be good/useful for my goals and be more reflective of the words I actually need to know. If anyone knows any such decks, please do let me know :3
I was wondering what all of your thoughts were on this? If you’ve had similar experiences when trying to push your Japanese and improve significantly. Do you have any advice for what I should be/should not be doing? Feel free to ask any questions. Thanks for reading through my long post lmao.
2 comments
They’re not anki decks, but jpdb.io might be helpful since you’re reading stuff.
At your current stage of study, you’re probably better off making your own personalized decks. Use Yomichan, it’s the most effortless way to look up new words and add them into your Anki deck. [Here’s the tutorial that I used.](https://youtu.be/OJxndUGN8Cg).
The cool thing about Yomichan is that you can install cool “helper” dictionaries that show various extra information about the word you’re looking up, such as its pitch accent and its frequency in different contexts (anime, newspaper, etc.) So when you’re mining new words, you can prioritize adding words that are commonly used in newspapers, for example. Once you’re done with installing Yomichan and setting it up with Anki, take a look at some helper dictionaries [here](https://learnjapanese.link/dictionaries).