LLearn Japanese

2 months in, 2 hours a day, 14 hours a week, and I don’t always feel like I’m retaining everything or grammar structures. Is this common this early in, or should I be doing something different?

Please feel free to share some of your experiences:) It seems to be taboo, but I am currently using Duolingo, Drops, and playing games in Japanese (but they are subtitled in English, unfortunately)

5 comments

  1. Do you mean production or recognition? You’re still very early on so don’t be hard on yourself

  2. First of japanese with eng sub is almost completly worthless, if it would be remotely usefull i would already have been a fluent speaker before even starting to study japanese.

    Secondly, duolingo and drops are neither serious a grammar source, you cant retain grammar if you didnt even learned any to begin with.

    And lastly, encountering grammar in the wild(after learning the points obv.) will help retaining it for ever, but youre far off this stage, you could maybe try some graded readers/crystal hunter non native version.

  4. Just don’t expect any miracles with 2 hours per day with varying intensity and see it as a long-term hobby. It’s easy to get lost in wrong expectations seeing all the success stories and “speedrun results” of learning languages, but for most people, it’s a journey of multiple years with very slow progress that will make you feel like you are forgetting more than you learn on a regular basis. As long as you have things that make you spend these two hours per day with Japanese, things will stick and you will improve over the years. Even if you forget some grammar rule for the 5th time and need to re-acquire it, at some point it’s part of your knowledge base.

  5. The resources you’ve named aren’t really proper resources. They barely teach grammar and there are better alternatives for learning vocab.

    ​

    1. First off you need to find yourself your main grammar resource, a structured grammar guide.

    I recommend **Misa’s grammar playlist**, 1 or 2 videos a day. When finished with that, move on to **Tae kim’s grammar guide**.

    You can also supplement Misa’s grammar playlist with the [NHK grammar lessons.](https://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/english/learn/list/)

    I saw someone suggest Cure dolly, you can do that too, or her transcripts if the voice is annoying. But I find Misa much much better at teaching. Misa + Tae kim will really have the grammar sticking.

    ​

    2. You need SRS for vocab.

    Pick up anki and get the timer add-on.

    There are tons of decks to choose from, I recommend:

    [Core anime deck](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/493795566)

    [Core 2.3k](https://anacreondjt.gitlab.io/docs/coredeck/)

    [Tango N5](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1679429599) + [N4](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1585001017)

    If you like anime, get the core anime deck then finish it, since its not that long, you’re gonna need to move on to one of the other 2 decks after. So basically:

    Complete core anime deck then move on to the Core 2.3k or the Tango series.

    The tango series is better, but it might not be for everyone, so start the N5 deck and get 200-300 or so sentences in, then decide if you wanna continue, or switch to the Core 2.3k

    Now you have your Grammar, and your Vocab, next you need Exposure.

    ​

    3. Expose yourself to Japanese content, even if you don’t fully understand, you need exposure and immersion to it irl to get the grammar points to stick.

    I suggest reading an [NHK easy article](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/) every day, its a good way to learn new words and get used to the sentence structure, its okay if you don’t understand jack, you’ll find yourself being able to comprehend more and more as the days go on. Once they become too easy, move on to mainchi, then eventually normal japanese news.

    Make this along with anki a daily habit.

    Trust me when I say this, reading an article a day will help drastically.

    Check out this subreddit to compare translations: r/NHKEasyNews

    ​

    If you watch anime, rewatch anime’s you’ve already completed in [Japanese subs](https://animelon.com/about), knowing the context and the major plot points will make things less confusing, which is why I suggest starting off with anime you’ve already watched. You can also watch Doraemon , im pretty sure every japanese learner has used this as one of their immersion resources, since its an easy anime to comprehend compared to most.

    You can also make a new youtube account, set your region to Japan and subscribe to Japanese channels.

    Theres also graded reading, manga, etc.

    That’s pretty much it, after that you can start sentence mining, or whatever, you know how to use google.

    ———————————————————————————————————————–

    To simplify:

    ​

    1. Pick and follow a grammar guide, take notes and study.
    2. Do your anki daily
    3. Read 1 nhk easy article a day
    4. Expose yourself to Japanese content as much as possible, make it fun.
    5. ?? Done

    ​

    Also,

    If you need more help with kanji, I recommend Wanikani

    Here’s a free deck so you don’t have to pay for it:

    [https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1609000301](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1609000301)

    There’s also RTK, RRTK, KKLC, Kanji garden, other kanji apps, etc..

    ​

    That’s about it, a fun way to learn japanese, no need for some boring ahh textbook 🙂

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