Hello, I just finished the first Genki book through college classes. Two semesters covered all of the pages of vocab, kanji, grammar, speaking and listening exercises within the textbook and workbook from front to back. I’m going to keep going with classes, but I find that I can’t recall all of the Kanji I learned.
I would usually study the lesson’s kanji right before the test, pass the test, then forget them. What do I do to retain kanji, and keep other parts of JP learning fresh in my mind? People always say “Anki,” but now that I’m months into JP learning I don’t know how to pick the right deck to start or how to use it only for review since I have so much to review and no “new” cards. I also do not know how I could practice recalling and writing kanji on paper using Anki.
Next semester I am getting Genki II, but I am scared I will lose a lot over the summer if I do not make some kind of proactive measure. Should I use Anki for reviewing a textbook’s worth of information, and should I use it for kanji or find another tool?
5 comments
Definitely recommend anki if you want to go with traditional memorization. Its temping to go with premade decks but many find that making your own is helpful. Make a deck and go 5-10 characters a day. should only take you 2 weeks or so to get them into the review stage, and then you have all summer to hammer them in.
Thats the one problem with Japanese in college.
I went through with the entire degree and the graduating class had a HUGE gap in skills mainly for that reason.
They treated language acquisition like a typical college course.
Cramming and dumping will get you passing grades, but you will progress slowly if at all.
The people who got a bachelors in Japanese and did that were barely N3 when they got the diploma, while those who studied to retain were easilt N2 and some N1s.
These guys would complain about not being able to keep up but few worked and they definitely took too much time playing instead of studying. Ironically the n1 students had full time jobs, and college. One even had a kid on top of work and school. So there was no excuse for those who didnt apply themselves.
You absolutely need to review your lessons ahead of time. Be ahead of the classes in grammar and exercises so theyre easy for you.
Then focus on studying your vocabulary and kanji to RETAIN, not to finish a chapter.
You should be 100% confident in your kanji and vocabulary before the next chapter starts.
All of the vocab and kanji you learn now WILL appear again later.
So by not learning it to retain it, but last minute for tests, you’re just making the next lesson and every other lesson after that more difficult. And that will continue until you are lost and overwhelmed.
The good thing is that you care enough to ask.
First of all, youtube Tokini Andy. He has a lesson on grammar for every single chapter of genki. Watch that video before your class and pay attention. Rewind. Pause. Use a journal to write down examples. Then your class will basically just be a good session of review and repetition exercises.
Absolutely get an anki deck. Theres a ton. Grab one that breaks it down by each chapter and go from there.
You should be 100% confident in genki 1 and the first chapter before your class covers lesson 1.
Thats how these textbooks work. You should NOT show up to class having not read the entire chapter.
If you are between classes, study your book and continue your anki decks and reviews. Japanese doesnt stop just because youre waiting on classes to start up again.
Your weekends should also consist of anki reviews. They dont take long so theres little excuse not to.
Keep a document on your phone or carry a journal. Utilize both that and your communities to answer questions. If you go to order cury at the local thai restaurant think “do I know how to order my thai tea with coconut milk instead of half and half in Japanese?” If not, write it down so you can find out later.
You can study and have an easy college experience while ALSO learning the foundations of a language, or you can not prepare and have an awful language learning experience while retaining nothing. Its your choice.
I think you can do this man. Its not as hard as it seems. The biggest challenge is remembering to set aside 30m a day and to retune your brain to always be learning.
Youre quickly approaching the point in Japanese where youre going to be expected to consume Japanese media to progress. After Genki 2 you turn off The English subtitles and invest more time into reading things in Japanese if you ever want to progress.
You need your grammar vocabulary and kanji to be up to date to comfortably read even the easiest things, even alongside a list of vocabulary.
Those flash card and cram and dump techniques that get your average B+ to A- student through their classes so they can sign up for the next semester arent going to help you in the long run. Its the opposite of how you learn a language.
Theres no point in learning a word just to forget it, because if you ever need to use it in conversation its not going to be in your toolbox.
Again, you got this.
Get a Genki anki deck. Tokini andy grammar. Learn to retain, not to pass. Always be thinking about how to say things in Japanese and asking how if you dont kniw. And go back and review previous lessons here and there to make sure you actually remember things! If you dont, make sure that you practice them.
Almost nothing at this phase is expendable and so worthless its cram worthy. Even the stupid words youll never use in real life will reappear when you hit 300 level japanese and are translating entire passages by historic japanese authors.
Anki. Get a Genki deck and add it. Id just treat them all as new and power through them in a few days. It should be fast to get through those initial reviews if you already know the words. Then just do your reviews throughout the summer.
For kanji get Ringotan. Do the same, adding the kanji you know and doing the reviews. I believe it lets you do it in order of Genki so it should be easy.
The summer is a long time too, so probably consider adding new material if you have time so you don’t just forget everything. If you’re using Genki II then grab that deck and you can make a huge head start on vocab and kanji that will really make your life easier.
Get a Genki vocabulary deck for anki, set the new words per day to 15-20 and work through all the vocab again over the summer. Should be pretty effortless if you know most of it already. Do the same for the Kanji if you want.
Reading graded readers and watching stuff you already know or is very easy to understand in japanese is also a good way to repeat what you learned. I like to watch Bluey and Seinfeld in Japanese 😄
Find a tutor and practice what you’re weak in