4.5 months of learning Japanese, progress report

# Greetings!

Hello there, I started learning Japanese exactly at November 31rd, and I’ve wanting to do one of those “progress report” posts since I’ve read a lot of them, and they helped me so much that I want to contribute and help anyone that is thinking on starting or have already began and want some advice (like I did).

Of those progress reports, some are from people that started years ago, some are from people with just a few months of progress, I think both are valuable, those people with more experience are bound to (generally) have more precise information and advice, while people who’ve just started still have fresh memories of their first baby steps that an advanced student might have forgotten.

# Things I had in mind before starting

I’ve already tried learning a third language before, Italian, mostly because I liked the culture, food and it’s generally on the easy side for portuguese speakers (my native language), but the whole thing felt apart about by many reasons:

– **Overconfidence and cluelessness about SRS** – I’ve just learnt SRS and downloaded a Anki deck thinking it would be the end-of-all. Letting the reviews of the deck to late-night, when I was exhausted and taking a lot of time, more than I should, I also

– **Those motivations weren’t enough** – While I liked Italian in the first days, I didn’t have anything in mind to when to start using.

– **Didn’t have a schedule** – basically all days was just procrastinating all day and didn’t have any diversification of my studies, I was just using anki and only anki.

I thought carefully about this issues as I was about to begin.

I set up a minimum goal of studying **2 hours a day**, 1 on busy days, and free to do more If I felt like it.

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# My Journey so far

I did a lot of research as I started, some of them include:

– [SuikaCider guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10bRzVblKVOsQJjTc2PIi1Gbj_LrsJCkMkh0SutXCZdI) – this one is wonderful, it gave me a lot of advice, not only for japanese learning, but for general learning as well! really helped me set my way on the right paths and opened my eyes on many stuff, it is also the source of many of the resources that I’ve used and I’m still still using.
kudos for you, SuikaCider, if you are reading that, 本当にありがとう!

– [Livakivi](https://www.youtube.com/@Livakivi) – Has many videos about the topic, many of those on how to start and set up.

– …And probably many more that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

I must mention that, while I’ve read a lot that overplanning is dangerous, because this delays the actual start, while I think that is true too, but…, the lack of planning was also one of the main reasons that I failed, so in in parallel, I was already learning hiragana, using a mix of Read the Kanji and a Anki deck.
After about a week, I tried the [Kanji damage](https://www.kanjidamage.com/) deck, which I hated (not because of kanji damage tough! more on that later) then about 2 weeks later I tried using Genki together with [Seth’s interactive website](https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/), great stuff for beginners!

Then I downloaded the main core deck, the 2k/6k, but this time, I made sure to actually understand SRS and how to configure and use Anki properly.

I eventually ditched Genki, I mean, it still is a good book and I still recommend , but The exercises felt too boring to me and many of the grammar explanations felt short, so I tried watching [Cure Dolly](https://www.youtube.com/@organicjapanesewithcuredol49) which is highly recommended here, and it is honestly it explains some of the grammar way better then genki, also, [This specific video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkS5APqAFHA) helped me SOOO much in keeping my motivation to keep learning up, I recommend anyone to watch it!

Moving to the from the first month I’ve started using [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/) inspired by [this post](https://redd.it/102im8o), and started using to set a [daily goal of objectives](https://imgur.com/a/AsciJge), this helped me a lot, having a goal set already everyday helps me preventing procrastination-I just can’t lay my head on my bed If I didn’t finished the 3 checklists, or least 2 on busy days.

One thing I had in mind even before learning Is that I wouldn’t bother learning how to write kanji/stroke order, I’m doing this to read and watch japanese content, no physical writing. But I gave it a shoot, and it really makes a difference, I was better able to *feel* the kanji when I see it if I have written it, that tactile aspect really is something, all the components where more a lot more clear, also if is somehow relaxing and satisfactory writing it, I never thought calligraphy would ever be interesting to me! I normally write it while see the Kanji Damage entry, I know some people hate it because of the heavy language, but personally, this is the very reason I love it, cursing and jokes get on my head way better!

On the grammar side, I discovered [bunpro](https://bunpro.jp/), and I’m still using it to this day, I love how neatly and optimized the order of each grammar point, and it really helps being divided as I set a daily goal set on it.

I started then immersing at about 1,5 months with [tadoku](https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/#l1), great website, very easy to read texts (although not so much on the beginning, haha) I finished all Level 1 books, nowdays I’m reading Yotsuba, currently on the 6 volume, most of the time I don’t understand (specially when the adults are talking) but many stuff Yotsuba says is generally easy to get and it’s very adorable and funny, I’m really enjoying it.

# My current routine

– Anki reviews, 8 cards a day, as soon as possible (do not procrastinate until late at night!!), currently about at the 1000 studied cards, 370 young, 596 mature.

– 3 Kanji of some of the words of the 8 new cards, If there’s not a new kanji, I usually pick one that is being hard to remember, then I write it while I read the [Kanji damage](https://www.kanjidamage.com/) Mneumonic.

– 2 Grammar points, Usually from bunpro, Which I take a note with my own words of my interpretation of the grammar point, or update an old one that just has additional content to it, [example](https://imgur.com/iVgQFiY), [example with image](https://imgur.com/a/hTAHQKE).

– Read some Yotsuba, trying to understand in japanese, and then seeing a translation to confirm if I’m not 100% sure. or any other way of immersion, normally anime. using [ChatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/) to give me some clues about some sentences, some of the answers became new grammar point entries on my obsidian vault, I really recommend using it.

# General advice that I have

– **Keep the streak!!** – consistency is proving to be the key for not only for me, some days might be impossible, I know, but setting a bare minimum goal is really helpful.

– **Be flexible!!** – I listed a lot of resources and methods here, but a lot of them I ditched, because I wasn’t enjoying using it, I can’t put enough emphasis on how important that is, If *any* resource you see people saying that is a silver bullet, but you are not enjoying to use it, just drop it, find another.

– **Diversify your methods!!** – Keep your studies diversified to avoid getting dull/bored, and to keep the growing of your skills balanced, as you I’ll be using it all.

– **Immersion might painful at the beginning but it gets easier!!** – Even the most basic sentences at tadoku Level 1 were a pain for me to understand (some of them still do) but the things are getting easier each day (very slowly).

– **Anki is powerful but know how to use it** – flip and fail the card if you took more than 5 seconds to remember, even if it is at the tip of your tongue, and personalize its settings to fit **you**, those 2 tips made my reviews that were lasting about 40min to just 15-20min and the whole experience a lot easier.

I know some people can study for 5-10 hours, but I, when I’m doing anki and than 30 minutes I fell like I’m dying, literally, I have a history of procrastination and being easily distracted, (in fact, as I’m writing this, I’m currently under diagnosis to see if I’m neurodivergent, as I suspect having ADHD to some degree), so normally my study hours aren’t that productive as I spend a lot of the time procrastinating distracted, but being scared of the difficult is not a thing for me, **I know I can do it** if I keep trying enough, and I think you too can!

Thanks for reading this far! I Hope I’ve inspired at least someone, and happy studying!