TLDR: I have studied Japanese for 4 years at uni with two other languages. I feel that I haven’t focused enough on Japanese and want to improve. I want to recap JLPT grammar and kanji N4-2 via internet resources and textbooks. Any suggestions? 🙂
I have been studying Japanese for 4 years in September. I studied it along with Spanish and Catalan at university and have just finished my course. I also spent time in Tokyo last year for a university exchange.
Despite having all of these experiences, I’m frustrated with my progress and ability to speak Japanese.
I am around N3 level, yet I still struggle with some basic kanji and grammar. I had quite good grades at uni but I was far from the best. I can listen, read and write Japanese to the standard I should be at but I really struggle with speaking, I always go blank.
I also find kanji hard. During my first two years at uni, I got lazy with kanji and I took learning them for granted. In my classes at Japan, I learned the importance of learning them and now enjoy them. The only problem is I have a mixture of old things that I have forgotten and new N2-3 kanji that I am trying to learn on top of them.
At home, I studied using premade anki decks of Genki 1-2, tobira which worked a lot. What didn’t were other decks, such as the core 2/6k series. Are there any good anki decks that have worked for you? I want to try and find some for grammar and vocab 🙂
At uni, I used Genki, Tobira and other textbooks that I have attached as photos. While I have used these textbooks and their grammar/kanji, sometimes they were not useful and I feel that I wouldn’t use them outside of our lessons. I want to try and learn everyday language because I want to go back to Japan to work by next year. Textbooks: https://imgur.com/gallery/fOEDq3m
I feel that as the textbooks (particularly the one used in final year) were a jumble of N1-3 grammar I found them hard to learn and the level jumped a lot. I want to go step by step and really improve on comprehension.
In the coming year, I want to self study and try and focus, rather than cramming topics like we had to do at uni. At my own pace, I want to recap and go beyond my knowledge of kanji and grammar and want advice on how to do that.
Is there a resource to learn kanji as words, rather than radicals without context? I want to try and work my way up the JLPT levels. Is there a way to do this with grammar too?
I want to recap tobira as we never finished it in class. Perhaps buy JLPT textbooks and meet penpals via hellotalk or ITalki. I already have Japanese friends to practice with too.
As I speak Spanish too, I will be going to Spain to work as an English teacher for a year. Ill have lots of spare time, so want to fit Japanese into my schedule as I did at uni.
What methods did you use? What is your level now? What is your Japanese learning routine like
ありがとう！