I’m hearing about people studying up to three hours a day and are wondering what your schedule is during that. Are there any ways you make it more enjoyable? Thanks.
During my study time, I read and take notes on grammar, practice kanji, practice reading out loud, practice conjugation and write a few random sentences to get the sentence structure right (currently my biggest weakness). I also often have an anime playing on my second screen with no subtitles, so I can get used listening to Japanese. I also make sure to look up and write down any new words I come across to try to expand my vocabulary.
I’m not that good yet though. I’ve been learning for 2 months so I only know a couple dozen basic phrases and expressions, can only read about 150 kanji correctly but not with all readings, can’t really conjugate well, and struggle to form more than a basic sentence yet, so do take all of this with a grain of salt since I do not have a shred of a clue as to what I’m doing, and I’ve kind of just been winging it.
When I was learning Japanese hardcore I used immersion. The main tool I used was Anki to take care of scheduling my reviews. A typical day was:
1) Wake up and use an mp3 player with Japanese audio from anime/dramas/youtube I liked (important that you like what your listening to). I would leave an earbud in my ear with the audio low until I got ready for bed at the end of the day.
2) Throughout the day while working I would periodically append words I was encountering in the audio to a google doc so I could find example sentences later.
3) During small breaks in the day I would study using Anki (I had two decks: Remembering the Kanji and Japanese Sentences).
4) After work I would spend about an hour mining sentences from the vocab in the google doc and adding them to my Japanese Sentences Anki deck. My daily goal was at least 30 new vocab words a day (this usually took about an hour).
5) I’d relax by watching Anime/Drama/Youtube in Japanese (no English subtitles or with Japanese subtitles) and also read Manga with furigana.
6) The whole day I’d still have that mp3 player going.
​
I think the best thing to do is to develop strong daily studying habits. Only the Anki reviews I would consider hard studying. I did go through Tae Kim’s guide, but after it was just about getting as much input as possible.
To practice speaking I never tried to make up my own sentences. I would hear a phrase or sentence from what I was watching / listening and just try replicating it verbatim. Being able to replicate it means you can understand it.
Wake up, do my Anki cards and that’s it for routine. At that point I just try to have fun with the language (read, watch, play a game, etc) which I feel works best for me, I am no doubt learning things slower, but I feel I’m more engaged by not taking it too seriously, doing tons of notes, etc. I forced myself into something more rigorously studylike before and burned out pretty hard. I’ll make a new Anki card if there is something I’m coming across a lot that I’m struggling with, but otherwise, if it’s important enough, I’ll come across it in my immersion enough to get it eventually.
I took 2 years in high school, finished the 200 series in college, and used a few phrases with my wife who studied with me at those times. Have conversations in my head while traveling or cooking.
Now I use Duolingo to remind me a lot that I forgot, or add new vocabulary.
Once you get to the higher lessons, you start seeing Kanji and can turn off roomaji and even the furigana. I keep a notebook where I rewrite the sentence in Kanji with jisho.org open and ready. If I don’t recognize the Kanji, I play the audio. I look up what I hear in jisho, find the matching word. Then I go to the “日本 #kanji” search which gives me details on the Kanji 日本 so I can practice stroke order.
I am noticing little patterns in the radicals that help me memorize the writing. Just rote repetition is helping me learn more and I have to say my Kanji skills have improved. Slowly, but wow do I need to just take pen to paper more often. I realized while I get through lessons faster without writing the Kanji, I just don’t think about it long enough to memorize it without forcing myself to write it down.
Just today I found the Kanji for 洗濯 (せんたく – laundry). Sen- like sensei, which I knew to Kanji for 先. With a quirk. Oh and look the right side of 濯 looks like the right side of 曜 from the days if the week. Laundry does seem to take a whole week to get through… so I’m building these memory cues that will help me.
I only get through 1 lesson a day due to other priorities but I haven’t given up my passion to learn this awesome language.
4 comments
During my study time, I read and take notes on grammar, practice kanji, practice reading out loud, practice conjugation and write a few random sentences to get the sentence structure right (currently my biggest weakness). I also often have an anime playing on my second screen with no subtitles, so I can get used listening to Japanese. I also make sure to look up and write down any new words I come across to try to expand my vocabulary.
I’m not that good yet though. I’ve been learning for 2 months so I only know a couple dozen basic phrases and expressions, can only read about 150 kanji correctly but not with all readings, can’t really conjugate well, and struggle to form more than a basic sentence yet, so do take all of this with a grain of salt since I do not have a shred of a clue as to what I’m doing, and I’ve kind of just been winging it.
When I was learning Japanese hardcore I used immersion. The main tool I used was Anki to take care of scheduling my reviews. A typical day was:
1) Wake up and use an mp3 player with Japanese audio from anime/dramas/youtube I liked (important that you like what your listening to). I would leave an earbud in my ear with the audio low until I got ready for bed at the end of the day.
2) Throughout the day while working I would periodically append words I was encountering in the audio to a google doc so I could find example sentences later.
3) During small breaks in the day I would study using Anki (I had two decks: Remembering the Kanji and Japanese Sentences).
4) After work I would spend about an hour mining sentences from the vocab in the google doc and adding them to my Japanese Sentences Anki deck. My daily goal was at least 30 new vocab words a day (this usually took about an hour).
5) I’d relax by watching Anime/Drama/Youtube in Japanese (no English subtitles or with Japanese subtitles) and also read Manga with furigana.
6) The whole day I’d still have that mp3 player going.
​
I think the best thing to do is to develop strong daily studying habits. Only the Anki reviews I would consider hard studying. I did go through Tae Kim’s guide, but after it was just about getting as much input as possible.
To practice speaking I never tried to make up my own sentences. I would hear a phrase or sentence from what I was watching / listening and just try replicating it verbatim. Being able to replicate it means you can understand it.
Wake up, do my Anki cards and that’s it for routine. At that point I just try to have fun with the language (read, watch, play a game, etc) which I feel works best for me, I am no doubt learning things slower, but I feel I’m more engaged by not taking it too seriously, doing tons of notes, etc. I forced myself into something more rigorously studylike before and burned out pretty hard. I’ll make a new Anki card if there is something I’m coming across a lot that I’m struggling with, but otherwise, if it’s important enough, I’ll come across it in my immersion enough to get it eventually.
I took 2 years in high school, finished the 200 series in college, and used a few phrases with my wife who studied with me at those times. Have conversations in my head while traveling or cooking.
Now I use Duolingo to remind me a lot that I forgot, or add new vocabulary.
Once you get to the higher lessons, you start seeing Kanji and can turn off roomaji and even the furigana. I keep a notebook where I rewrite the sentence in Kanji with jisho.org open and ready. If I don’t recognize the Kanji, I play the audio. I look up what I hear in jisho, find the matching word. Then I go to the “日本 #kanji” search which gives me details on the Kanji 日本 so I can practice stroke order.
I am noticing little patterns in the radicals that help me memorize the writing. Just rote repetition is helping me learn more and I have to say my Kanji skills have improved. Slowly, but wow do I need to just take pen to paper more often. I realized while I get through lessons faster without writing the Kanji, I just don’t think about it long enough to memorize it without forcing myself to write it down.
Just today I found the Kanji for 洗濯 (せんたく – laundry). Sen- like sensei, which I knew to Kanji for 先. With a quirk. Oh and look the right side of 濯 looks like the right side of 曜 from the days if the week. Laundry does seem to take a whole week to get through… so I’m building these memory cues that will help me.
I only get through 1 lesson a day due to other priorities but I haven’t given up my passion to learn this awesome language.