Hi everyone! I’ve come to a crossroads with my Japanese learning, so I thought I would ask for advice here and see if anyone could help me find the best path forward!
For context, I’ve been studying Japanese for a few years now, mostly in university. I’ve just completed the second to last class offered, where we completed An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, but I don’t feel confident enough to continue on to the last course yet, so I’ve decided to put it off a semester and self-study to just enjoy learning without the grade for a bit and hopefully, that’ll raise my confidence some, too.
So, I have until January to do some self-studying, but I’m not exactly sure how to go about it considering where I’m at. I’ve been considering picking up either Tobira or Quartet since they’re both very highly recommended here for intermediate, but I’m unsure if I’d be wasting time going through another intermediate textbook. On the other hand, two of my professors have advised that from here, it’s best for me to just enjoy the language and start learning with immersion and flashcards, and my classes really promote regular immersion/enjoying the language, but I’m admittedly still a bit nervous about it. I’m also considering budgeting to get an italki tutor every once in a while to improve my speaking skills, as I found I can understand and respond okay in conversation, but in presentations or trying to start the conversation myself, I really blank.
That all being said, would anyone be able to give advice on where I should go from here to spend my time until January? Is it best for me to pick up a different intermediate textbook and self-study with it, or should I jump into immersion? Or maybe something else I hadn’t even considered?
Thank you in advance!
5 comments
You shouldn’t put off the course if you passed the previous one. What you get from classroom learning is more time spent practicing listening and speaking and access to a knowledgable teacher. You can do that and apply flashcards and other study methods to what they teach you. You will likely find the course consists of more prescribed readings from native texts, which you will have to learn the vocab/kanji for as you get to each one anyway – exactly like you would in self study. Being nervous is to be expected but don’t let it slow you down.
> That all being said, would anyone be able to give advice on where I should go from here to spend my time until January? Is it best for me to pick up a different intermediate textbook and self-study with it, or should I jump into immersion? Or maybe something else I hadn’t even considered?
If you actually want to get good at Japanese, start consuming Japanese content. You’re at a level where you should at least be able to deal with simple light novels, manga, games, anime, whatever interests you. Since you seem adamant in continuing your formal JP studies (nothing wrong with that), the **best** way you can spend your free time from now until then is to give yourself a **massive** advantage over your peers by just building intuition, resilience to unknown words and grammar, and just make the language fun to you. You can only do that by consuming native content out of your own personal enjoyment. There’s no other way around that. No textbook will help you achieve that, you just have to do it in your free time because you **want** to do it. Grab a manga, a novel, a book, a game, whatever, and just start reading.
The students that actually excel over their peers when it comes to language school are usually those that understand that the language exists outside of school, that it’s a real thing that people use to communicate and that, especially, it’s a thing they **want** to use out of personal enjoyment. Those that get stuck and struggle are the students that fail to make that step and get stuck reading textbooks and thinking languages are just a subject to mark off their academic curriculum. Don’t get stuck in that mindset. Go grab a book and read. You will blaze past everyone else if you just do that.
I always advocate for private lessons. I never would have progressed in Japanese to where I am now had it not been for the great tutor I had!
Others recommending consuming media, which I agree with, but you also need to start expanding your vocabularly into more of the perhaps “boring” areas like the news in order to bridge the gap between intermediate and beyond. I recommend reading news on NHK Web Easy (which shows a short version of an article, maybe N4 level) and then reading the actual article connected to it (N1+ level). By doing this you already understand the content/topic but can start picking up the basic words and kanji used in all kinds of sectors, which will greatly help you in preparing for N2+ level Japanese
Like others have said, I think the single best thing you can do at this point is to just get tons of input (reading and listening). You’d be hardpressed to find a person who reached a high level of proficiency in a second language who didn’t also have massive amounts of exposure to it. **But**, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to dive straight into the deep end.
One fantastic resource I’ve been using lately is [Satori Reader](https://satorireader.com/). They have a large amount of reading material ranging from approximately N4-N2 (ish). You can click on each word for its definition (not just the dictionary definition, but the definition of the word *in the context* in which it’s being used), explanations of tricky grammar points, translations of every individual sentence, and full audio recorded by native speakers. I’m currently working my way through their catalogue and am finding it immensely helpful. (I’m not affiliated with them in any way. I just think it serves as a great bridge into native material.)
Or, if you would rather head straight into native content, then I recommend checking out [Natively](https://learnnatively.com/), which is a site that lets you search for material by difficulty level.
Whichever method you choose (or even if you do a combination of both like I am), reading extensively at your level will help tremendously to prepare you for your next class and just improve your Japanese in general. Also, if you’re looking for a study buddy or “accountabilibuddy” to ensure you keep on top of things, feel free to PM me! Good luck!
With seven-ish months to play with? I’d probably spend the first week or two obsessively trying different things to narrow down what gives you a workable mix of motivation and progress. It’s not the same for everyone, and there is no substitute for grinding out hours.
My personal poison is Subs2SRS decks, which are entire shows broken down into (free) flashcard decks. Can be used for reading, listening, vocab and/or kanji. The guide I wrote is [here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15ELElkomfixdS4-dNrpxrNl14mlJUZrdD0h7N6iEE2k/edit#gid=1813815789). Catalogue is in a tab at the bottom. My personal decks are made carefully if you want something high quality, just search the catalogue for “cacophony”. My older decks, listed under “revision planned”, are less polished but still pretty good.