I spend at least an hour a day (sometimes more) revising japanese, doing Anki, and textbook exercises. I’m not even counting the time I spend on input like reading graded readers and watching anime/dramas.
I’ve read through Tae Kim, finished Japanese the Manga Way, currently re-reading Genki I and doing the exercises methodically. At the same time I attend a physical japanese class for 2 hours a week. I’m much farther ahead than the class now, since they haven’t gone into any verb conjugation, Te-form, plain form, etc.
The one thing that it provides is an opportunity to practice output. Also, I guess compared to just reading on my own, they spend a lot of time on a single topic to really cement it into memory. Like 4 hours on how to use より, or どちら . On my own I would have probably read that chapter in 20 minutes and moved on.
My aim is not to take the JLPT but rather to understand Japanese media and communicate with locals when I visit Japan. Do you guys think I should continue with the classes? Kanji is a non-factor since I can already read and speak Chinese.
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The class, if anything, might provide you with opportunities to speak, listen to, and write the language which might be useful when visiting Japan.
Nahhhhhhhhh. Unless of course that that would be the only thing motivating you. Otherwise nahhhhh.
Self study
I found classes to be helpful when I was attending language school for a bit. I was ahead in reading/writing with vocab and grammar and stuff, but my speaking was basically at the level of the class since I never really spoke much in self study. So I felt the classes really helped cement those concepts when outputting.
I’m back to self study as I switched back to working instead of school, but I want to find evening classes or a tutor to get back to having speaking practice with feedback.
If the class is moving too slowly you might get more out of an online tutor (e.g. italki or similar services) to do focused conversation practice with.
Depends if you are the type that learns and makes progress in that environment. It will also give you plenty of opportunities to converse in Japanese which is valuable if that’s what you are looking for otherwise self studying is fine.
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Problem with classes is that you might forget everything you learned after you leave.
I’m on the fence as well. I think the main benefit would be having a chance to speak to people. But at the same time they’re beginners so they won’t be speaking well or listening well either. Depending on where you are and the price it might be better to do 1:1 with an italki community teacher or similar. I think that’s probably what I’ll do and pay the extra couple bucks per hour to get targeted instruction and individual attention from a native speaker going at the pace I want.
Like you’ve said, it’s a great opportunity to practice output (and get corrected) and deepen some topics. I also find it helpful for getting different perspectives on Japanese language and culture.
Perhaps you can ask to skip into the next harder class if there is one?
For some people classes are beneficial, but for some it’s detrimental. It’s mostly about a kind of initiative and motivation. Classes have a premade program, so you don’t need to do anything besides attending it. Also teacher can answer on your questions, so you don’t need to spend time on googling yourself. On the other hand classes also have a specific tempo, if your tempo doesn’t fit it, then efficiency drops significantly. It’s not so much a problem of approach itself as individual groups, because some classes/people have a very intensive programs. I wouldn’t be surprised if some language school aims at N1 in 1-2 years.
You shouldn’t judge classes so much as opportunities, because things like talking are possible in other areas too, like you can talk with natives or use discord learning channels for it. Similarly you can spend money on personal tutor to ask any questions you have.