Hello All,
I made a post around three months ago asking for advice if my “roadmap” for proficiency was viable.
From the original post:
> Assuming the approach:
>
> 1. Kana (done)
> 2. RTK (500 kanji?)
> 3. Tango (300 cards?)
> 4. Genki I
>
I received some good feedback and reassurances the above approach was good.
However, I’ve just hit 400 kanji a week ago and have paused new cards (I’m using a/the RRTK deck). While I enjoy learning kanji this way, I only feel I truly know them by writing them down three times each before rating my answer, and to avoid burnout I think I can get away with 400 for now.
I’m currently through 150 cards of the Tango N5 MIA (Omega, I believe) deck, and I know these cards thoroughly (no new cards for a number of months now).
My plan was to add new cards from the Tango deck while going through Genki I, but due to new projects at work and changes outside of employment, Genki I is going to be too much to fit in currently and it may be months before I can commit to it.
While I will continue with my current cards, I have my doubts that new Tango cards will suffice to push me forward, especially with view of taking the JLPT N5.
As such, is there any viable way to implement the benefits of going through Genki via just using an Anki deck? i.e., new Tango cards and read grammar points on Tae Kim? Is there an additional deck I can download that would bolster my learning with the Tango deck? Is there any point in going through Tango unless I commit to Genki I in tandem?
I’m very unsure of where to move on to next when taking circumstances in to account. Any help would be greatly aprpeciated.
7 comments
Maybe chill a little bit, it’s just N5, you’re overreacting
Am I reading this right, that you’ve been “learning” Japanese for 3 months and haven’t started Genki/any grammar?
Drop the other things you’re doing and work through Genki 1. You only need like 140 kanji for N5. Go through Genki and as you learn the grammar, also learn the words (varies by chapter, normally like 30 per chap) and kanji (10 per chapter). If I’m reading your post right, it seems like you’re absolutely wasting your time right now.
Edit: adding on much later, but learning a little bit of everything together is also far more efficient, since you can solidify everything together. Vocab, kanji, grammar and semantics don’t exist in a vacuum; if you learn a word, learn the kanji and learn how to conjugate to te forms all together, you’re going to learn it a lot faster (and remember a lot better) than if you try to memorize those 3 things separately and put them together later. Seeing vocab appear in your exercises helps you memorize it; hearing a conjugation while you’re watching anime helps you memorize it; seeing a new word spelt with a kanji you already know helps you memorize both of them… You’re kind of missing out on that if you try to learn a bunch of kanji and nothing else for months
500 kanji is a lot more than is required for N5, you can definitely pause this for now if you’re already at 400. I’d focus more on grammar. Leaving Genki for some unspecified later doesn’t seem most optimal to me. If you’re only doing vocab cards and Tae Kim you’re missing some listening and reading practice.
Tbh I think your problem is not that you’re learning too much or overplanning as everyone says, but actually your problem is that you’re underselling yourself by trying to do N5. You sound like you’re trying to optimise and learn as efficiently as possible, so don’t stop learning more kanji just because you won’t need it for the test, the goal is to get good at a language, not stop at some arbitrary test level. The N5 is useless besides a nice milestone but you won’t be functional in the language till way later.
If you search this sub there have been people who got to N1 from zero in 9 months (by immersing like 5 hours a day, not textbook study), so you reaching N5 in 6 months is absolutely doable and you can probably pass by just doing what you’re doing.
[deleted]
Out of curiosity, any reason you want to take the N5? It’s a very entry level and with enough time and motivation you can easily achieve N4 by the end of the year. If you want to do N5, you would need to do some exam-specific prep around 2-4 weeks before to adjust to the format, so that’s cutting around 1 month out of study time.
Regarding Anki and Genki, I think there are Genki-specific Anki decks out there, but some said you will probably benefit more from one of the lower level Tango decks. In which case Genki + Anki for vocab review should be your way to go :).
For listening practice at N5 level the entry courses from JapanesePod101 are pretty decent.
N5 to N3 is a mere waste of money… Not even employers would care about that level. Most employers IN JAPAN don’t even know about JLPT, imagine in your country 😀
Save yourself a ton of money and trouble and buy a test book, the day of the exam you can test yourself following the times with a clock if you really need the challenge.
It’s really really really pointless, like burning money.