What should I do after learning hiragana/katakana?

5 comments

1. I was just wondering this myself like to I dive into kanji or focus on vocab I’m abit lost

2. I’m in a similar situation. I’ve started going through genki 1 and started learning the kanji.

3. Probably get a beginner textbook like Genki

4. Stop wasting your time asking questions to people you can’t trust and figure it out for yourself.

5. Get the jlpt flashcards for 1. Vocab, 2. Kanji, 3. Grammar, and clear each jlpt grade before moving to the next one. E.g. clear n5 before going to n4 etc.

   Once you clear n5 + n4 (roughly 3~6 months) you will have enough language knowledge to start consuming beginner level media (anime, vlogs, news, manga, etc). Practice that along with the n3 flashcards.

   If you follow that consistently for at least 1~2h a day, I am pretty sure you can pass n3 by the end of the year. I did that.

   Repeat the same thing for n2, but with harder books and movies and you should be done with the flashcards by end of next year.

   Repeat the same thing for n1, and you should be done with flashcards by end of next next year.

   This is a list of how many kanjis you should know for each level

   N5 – 80 kanji
   N4 – 170 kanji
   N3 – 370 kanji
   N2 – 380 kanji
   N1 – 1136 kanji

   In other words, you will study 2136 in 3 years with this plan.

   By the way, this is an average estimate based on my circle of friends who regularly study Japanese, not full time.

   I have a friend from China who went from 0 to n2 in one year, and also I heard there is a legendary Vietnamese youtuber that cleared n1 in 1 year. But this studying full time everyday.

   Anyways, stick with the 3 year plan and you will be fine.