So I’ve been learning on and off for most of this year but recently picked up the genki books and have been getting to do it every day but I feel like I’m not doing enough. I’m basically a complete begine, I can string together some basic introductory stuff but that’s about it and next year in August, me and a few friends are going to Japan for a few weeks and I wanna be at a level where I can have a bit of small talk. I can read hiragana and about half of the katakana and have been working on getting the lesson 1 stuff from genki one into memory every day with flashcards but at the speed I’m currently going I feel it’s not going to be enough. It could just be me worrying too much but I don’t know when I should start the second Lesson or even how long to study for cause RN it’s just get the flashcards done Anki is giving me and that’s it. I also don’t know if there’s stuff I should be doing alongside the books as well or not. Basically I feel like I’m doing too little and was wondering when people started to introduce in new genki lessons and also what people did alongside the genki books to aid their studying
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If your goal is to have small talk in Japan, you absolutely need practice speaking on top of everything like Genki and Anki you’re already doing. Practice with your friend at first, and consider finding a native speaker/tutor to aid you depending on how far you want to take this.
If you want to become really good at Japanese, you should know that multiple hours a day for multiple years is what it realistically takes. If you can’t read all the hiragana and katakana after a year then you haven’t been doing enough.
For example in my university course we had to learn the hiragana until the end of week 1 and the katakana for week 2.
For small talk and travel you’ll need to boost speaking. Hire a tutor or find language partners.
Most people do best concentrating for 45-90 minutes. A 60-minute study session, or maybe more, is probably best.
This is just *my* recommendation and it’s not a hardcore rule. I based this estimate on unofficial JLPT study hours. N1 = ~4800 hours, divided by 365 days over the course of 4 years = ~3 hours daily.
“Study” can also include listening to level appropriate podcasts, reading, meeting up with Japanese friends and whatever else makes study enjoyable to you.
Genki (and other textbook) Study Plan:
Two or three 45-60 minute study sessions a daily. Example: Chunk A – vocab, kanji and dialogue; Chunk B – textbook; Chunk C – workbook.
Before studying the chapter, get the majority of the vocabulary and kanji (if any) down.. Genki marks the vocabulary used in the dialogue, so it’s easy to prepare for.
Try reading the dialogue WITHOUT looking at the English translation. Try to guess the meaning from the pictures and the dialogue prompts. Check to see how you did.
Chunk A: Everyday practice vocabulary, kanji (if any) and dialogue, shadow the audio, review the previous day’s work… you can preview the exercises you’ll be doing so you can brush up on the vocab you’ll need.
Chunk B: Everyday work in one grammar point. Do the associated exercises in the textbook. If it’s a speaking exercises, do both parts.
Chunk C: Do the workbook exercises sometime later.
Don’t forget to do the reading and writing in the back of the textbook. You can get your writing checked on an app like HelloTalk. Do corrections and resubmit. Move on to the next chapter and repeat.
You can add and subtract chucks or mix things up depending on your preference and life factors. You can combine low effort and high effort study in a day or study session, or break up the hour.
For example: while making and eating breakfast, listen to a podcast (30 minutes), watch a YouTube video for grammar during lunch (30 minutes). During your commute (60 minutes) do Pimsleur. Read manga for 20 minutes a day, do the workbook for 20 minutes and meet with a tutor for 30 minutes.
When we used genki in university, we did one chapter (all vocab, all grammar, all kanji) per week. It was fast paced but manageable – 30~40 hours per week for 2 terms and we were done with all genki books. On top of this we had 2 hours of conversation practice per week, and twice per semester we’d speak with native speakers (which you could do through italki). We wrote essays once we got into chapter 18 and chapter 23, which you could also try to do once you reach that level.
I’d recommend it!
My goal is always to finish at least one chapter per week. Next week, I will review everything I’ve learned so far, plus an additional chapter. In the subsequent week, I will review the content from the last two chapters, along with a new chapter, and continue this pattern. I will only stop reviewing when I can recall almost all vocabulary, Kanjis and grammar rules. I’m not certain if this approach would be effective for you, but I have found it to be successful for myself.
That is about 1:30 to 3:00h per day. It really depends how fast I go. I do at least 30 min per day of reading/listing as well. Doesn’t matter what. But the minimum is 30min