Upper-level beginner Japanese learner here!

First time poster so I’m not sure what I’m doin. Ive self studied Japanese off and on for years without making much progress (and also took a semester of Japanese in college), and I decided at the very end of January that I want to buckle down and LEARN!

So far I studied almost every day of February; I know around 280 Kanji, and I’m not sure the exact statistics of my vocab but its pretty low, still better than it was though! (I use a list of core 6k words in Anki 10 words per day at a time, sometimes an extra 10 if I’m up to it).

I also watch LOTS of Youtube on grammar and other topics, and I’ve tried using SatoriReader a bit. OH and for Kanji I use an app that teaches you around 2300 Kanji by JLPT level.

My problem is I’m having trouble coming up with a good working routine. I’m not sure how to immerse myself well. (I’ve tried watching some anime with no subs, and I am playing a game I really like in full JP). I want to develop my reading skill a lot at the moment and go from there. Any advice?

2 comments
  1. The thing about immersing is, even though it sucks for a bit, if you don’t do it, it will never stop sucking. Just keep doing it and doing your flash cards and you’ll do OK.

  2. It’ll depend on how much time you’re willing to devote to learning, ideally for me I like to alternate between doing to one thing at a time (for example one Youtube channel) along with doing something random and different everyday (explore a new resource, listening/reading whatever I like, learning from a particular song…), this allows me to keep the learning more fun and enjoyable but avoid making it completely random, sticking to one thing is great because words tends to be repeated in the same resource and it also gives you a sense of achivement while random exploration keeps you from getting bored and you may discover better and more engaging resources on the way.

    I’d also suggest trying to mine words from the resources you watch/read along with the pre-made deck and rather than focusing on grammer try to watch channels with comprehensible input on various topic along with recorded conversations for learners (I can recommend you some if you like)

    For reading you can start with simple manga like yotsobato, if you have an ios device you can use kantan manga app (it allows you to directly translte any word)

    Good luck

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like