Japanese New Years Resolution Feedback Request

Hello Everyone!

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**Some Background**

I am Xefjord, and I have been a fan of language learning for 11 years now, and Japanese was kind of my first love when it came to languages. I started studying in my final year of middle school because of anime and manga (familiar story I am sure) but continued to study intermittently for 7 years with the end goal of teaching English in Japan. I went to college for IT because my parents agreed to pay for my degree (Despite wanting to go for English or Japanese) and with the coronavirus and some health anxiety, I slowly kind of gave up on those dreams and went on a 4 year hiatus of the language. I have worked in IT for 2 years now, and while it is a good job, my anxieties and overall health has improved substantially, and I have been thinking about Japan again. So I made studying JP my new years resolution.

I have read the entirety of Genki 1 roughly 4 times over during my 7 year study, and gotten a couple chapters into Genki 2. I was very good about talking with Japanese natives locally and on HiNative/Tandem, and I also talked to myself frequently. I finished the entire Lingodeer Japanese course (Which is supposedly about all of Genki 1 and half of Genki 2), I also kept a journal which I had going for half a year in only Japanese.

The first 4 years of studying Japanese were so intermittent because I was a young kid who had no idea how to study, this was before Japanese Duolingo. The last 3 years were so intermittent because I kept getting distracted by studying Korean and Chinese which was more locally relevant to where I lived in Midwestern America. So I am in a weird position where I have studied a long time, but very intermittently, and made a lot of progress in random areas, but unaware of what all those areas are.

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**New Years Resolution**

I want to try to reach at least the beginnings of a JLPT N2 level by the end of the year. I understand that to be roughly 1k Kanji and 6k vocab. I have split my study into daily checkboxes that go something like this:

**○ JP Grammar Study** \- This will involve daily progress in a grammar course, I am using the new app YuSpeak made by a friend of mine to review all the JLPT N5 content in a new way before I tackle the same old Genki 1 review for a 5th time. I hope to finish both YuSpeak and Genki 1 by or shortly after the end of this month, because it is all technically review. After that I plan to read Genki 2, then Tobira, and I own the Shin Kanzen Master Series JLPT N2 books. I am going to shoot to get as far as I can, but I am confident I can at least finish Tobira by the end of the year.

**○ JP Vocab Study** \- This almost universally takes place on Anki, where I have three primary decks I am progressing. The first one is the Kodansha Kanji Learners Course deck, where I am (for right now) doing 8 new kanji a day. It teaches the core 2300 main Kanji. And with each flashcard I am practicing writing the character, understanding the meanings, as well as memorizing at least one related word’s meanings and readings so I know how to use the Kanji in at least one instance. I also have the Core 6k deck which I am going about 20 cards through a day. and I have a personal deck where I take words I encounter in reading, writing, listening, and speaking practice that I want to learn and memorize sooner, and I add them in the natural context I encountered them to a personal deck which I do 10 cards of a day. These study numbers may go up or down based upon the workload/demand.

**○ JP Writing Study** \- I have a google doc where I am journaling every day in only Japanese. I don’t allow myself to use google translate at all except for translating for Japanese -> English to double check my work. I will use Jisho for some words I don’t know, but when I do I will add them to my personal Anki Deck.

**○ JP Speaking Study** \- For right now I have this set to 3 times per week dedicated, but it will likely increase as I get further into my study. I spend at least 30 minutes on Tandem/Discord talking in only Japanese with natives or other learners of a similar or higher level. Especially if I can get some Japanese friends or a static study group, I expect this number to go up substantially. I also practice speaking to myself in Japanese daily.

**○ JP Content Study** \- I am not doing this as much until I get to the end of Genki 2, but this is essentially where I am going to just force myself to sit down and read a LOT more. I have numerous physical volumes of Yotsubato, Chii’s Sweet Home, Nisekoi, Golden Kamuy, and an assorted range of light novels. As well as over 50 visual novels that support Japanese. There is of course free resources like NHK News Easy and more that I can rely upon as well. I will be dedicating myself by hopefully at least 1/3rd to halfway through the year to spending a good chunk of time on just reading native content. I also have a large amount of Japanese Youtubers I can follow as well. I will likely switch to a full immersion environment halfway to 2/3rds through the year by only allowing myself to do things in Japanese.

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**Conclusion**

If this sounds like a lot, that is because it is. I am looking at at least 3-5 hours of study every day. I am being a little more relaxed this first month as it is all mostly review, but I plan to pick up the pace considerably after I have kept a solid streak and start getting into newer content. I have previously done months of 8 hours of Korean study a day (which I ultimately burned out from, but I don’t plan on going that intense if at all until near the end) so I know how to put in the hours on daily study.

I think motivation is a huge factor in regards to language learning success, part of what made studying Japanese difficult in the past was not seeing a near term use for the language and conflicting thoughts on where I might want to go teach English after college. But I have set a very specific goal and intention for this year:

I am interested in teaching English in Japan in 2024, so my desire is to reach the highest level of Japanese possible this year, so that my time spent in Japan next year can be enjoyed as fruitfully as possible. I have a bachelors IT degree, a decent history of working with language learning app companies, my own language teaching website, and a passion for educating others (Plus I am a native English speaker). So I think I can be an attractive candidate.

I am using this goal as mid term motivation to succeed and at least thus far have a week long unbroken streak.

If anyone has any feedback on how to improve my study, or just general advice on reaching my goals and going to Japan in general, it is all appreciated 🙂 I am definitely not *new* to Japanese per say, but I still have a lot to learn and plan to take it seriously.