Learning Japanese |OT2| Love in the Time of コロナちゃん

Where do I start?

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I'm still learning myself, but In my experience the best way to start, is to learn the two Kanas first. Specifically Hiragana and Katakana.
Learning these two alphabets can be done in any number of ways including using Duolingo's study guide, various mobile games/apps. There's also couple of PC games called "Learn Japanese to Survive - Hiragana" and it's Katakana and Kanji equivalents.
After this though, you might attempt to learn kanji, but you're also gonna want to supplement this with grammar and vocab words. Learn how to put sentences together. Also some words can mean different things depending on how they're spelled. For example: Kami means paper when written one way and when written another way, God.
 
Also, is there an official™ list tools that you guys use to translate or identify symbols? (For any platform e.g. Windows, Linux, Android)
I don't know about "official" tools, but there are plenty of Machine Translation apps out there, including Google translate.
Just don't try to translate entire sentences with them.
 
I don't think I've posted in here yet, but I've been (seriously) learning Japanese since February. I say "seriously", because I've picked up a bit of a hodgepodge of the language through various means off and on over the last 25 years.

I started out with a bit of a refresher course in the kanas, until I could accurately identify all hiragana and katakana and their diacritics. For those I used Tofugu's guides (which were super duper helpful at getting my old ass to remember stuff) and the open source Fun with Kanji app.

Meanwhile, I did a couple of levels of Duolingo, which was fantastic at first, but kinda fell off the cliff of practicality near the middle of section two. It was still worth investing time into though, because it was a good way to learn a few basic phrases and to hear them out loud.

I've moved on now to studying in four different approaches:
  • Listening / Speaking: Pimsleur. I find this to be the ideal way to learn new phrases, although it's totally focused on listening and speaking - so there is no writing. This has the added benefit (for me) of being able to learn / practice while I'm hiking in the woods and nowhere near a computer.
  • Grammar: I picked up a few Genki and other entry-level textbooks, and have been spending time studying them and going through the workbooks.
  • Writing / Kanji: I've been using the Fun with Kanji app, Genki's "look and learn" textbook, and Tofugu's Wanikani website.
  • Immersion: I've been listening to nothing but Japanese language music since February. If a movie, TV show, or video game has a Japanese language option, I've activated it. I've watched a lot of Youtube videos about places to visit in Japan, in Japanese.
Everything together is, I think, giving me a pretty good crash course in the language. I wish I would have had resources like these twenty or more years ago, as I'd probably be fully fluent by now. Also, I wish I were twenty years younger, because I used to be able to digest this kind of information a lot more readily. Between the active lessons (listening, grammar study, and learning vocab / kanji), I'd say I've been putting in between 30-60 minutes a day. Throwing the immersion on, it's a lot higher than that (though that's mostly aided by listening to jpop at work).

I'm definitely still a beginner, but I feel like I'm making progress and hope to keep going with it. My wife and I are planning a nebulous trip to Japan "at some point when we can afford it" - so hopefully by the time that happens, I'll be able to get along fine.
 
I'm back on the language learning train again. Although I don't really feel like I've progressed that much since earlier this year. I plan to immerse myself a lot more though. I listen to a lot of Japanese learning podcasts and study for about 30 minutes a day with notecards. I'll start the writing studies next week. Maybe I'll feel like I've made progress if I'm reading everything in hiragana and katakana.

It is so annoying being familiar with a word that you hear in Japanese interview but forgetting what it means. At least I'm getting a better gist of the conversation these days.
 
I took a month off this summer. I was consuming a lot of Japanese media (in English). I read the Japanese visual novel Witch on the Holy Night, have been watching the Monster anime series, and watched the Suzume movie. All excellent. That got me thinking. How about I try learning Japanese?

I would love to be able to read VN's in their original Japanese. The translations can be dodgy and many VN's are untranslated. At some point I would like to visit Japan and even knowing a bit of Japanese would help.

I've only been at it a week but have so far learned the hiragana. That's a start. I have a beginner's Japanese book coming - not Genki but something cheaper. I am a good visual learner but weak auditory learner. A good book will be important to me.

Next, I would like to learn how to put sentences together, then a bit of kanji, before circling back and learning the katakana. I think it will be important to learn how to put sentences together before learning a bunch of vocabulary I do not know how to use.

I find the lack of spaces between words in Japanese odd. On the other hand, I find the use of diacritics a great way to indicate a similar sound in a lower register, than using a new set of symbols.

I understand that the Korean language no longer uses Chinese characters or only in a very limited way. I understand that after WWII, both the South Korean (not sure about the DPRK) and Japanese governments decided to eliminate Chinese characters from their languages. That stuck for South Korean but not for Japan. Apparently post-WWII, literacy in South Korea was very low so there was not as much push-back as in Japan about eliminating a big part of their written language.

We'll see how far this goes. So far this has been interesting and I look forward to learning more. Maybe at some point I will try taking the N5.
 
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I pretty much have done a reboot on my language learning this time around. I'm currently mastering katakana. For some odd reason katakana never stuck when I studied it in the past. I do have the Genki book and will start studying with that when I have feel I have completely mastered hiragana and katakana. Still studying vocab but mostly just reviewing the old jlpt 5 vocab list right now. I'd like to have the jlpt 5 and 4 vocab mastered by the end of this month. Will probably work on Genki next month.
 
I feel solid on the hiragana but need more practice on the katakana. Some of the katakana characters are easy, others not so much:



This phone app has been fun for learning kana:

I started playing Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ (on the Switch) and spent time wandering around the city reading the signs. I could read a lot of the katakana in the modern shopping area in the game, like note(book) PC, tablet, etc. Though I was thrown a bit by the different font than what I've learned the kana on.

Next step is probably Genki 1. Before learning a bunch of vocabulary in the abstract, I'd like to learn how to put basic sentences together and use the vocab in those sentences.
 
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Just discovered this topic here. I started learning Japanese back with Splatoon, just so I could read the player names. Now, I'm muddling through a few manga and know a few hundred kanji.

Learned katakana and hirgana on my own. Did Genki I with a tutor. Been doing wanikani for years. I took a break from everything during Covid years, but been getting into reading over the past year.

My goal has always been to play Final Fantasy VII in Japanese.
 
I never realized there was a thread for this. I need to read through it and get serious about learning Japanese.
I also want to take a trip to Japan someday and I'm hoping this would come in handy for visiting more rural areas.
 
I've taken the next step in my 日本語 journey. I got the Genki 1 textbook and workbook.

So far I'm impressed with the Genki textbook. I downloaded the Genki audio files which have been helpful.

Before getting Genki, I made sure I was solid on hiragana and katakana. I see in Chapter/Lesson 3 they stop using romanji, which is good because I want to wean myself of romanji.
 
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Japanese verb conjugation seemed remarkably straightforward (unlike, for example, French...), until I got to Chapter 6 of Genki I and the て form.

The て form is going to take a while to grasp.
 
Well I got back into it late last year and mostly just focusing on vocab, but unfortunately in romanji. Which is stupid since what I really want is to be able to read Japanese. I'll move into writing in hiragana and katakana after I've filled up 2 more notebooks in vocab studies. I've been making tons of progress but this cold I got recently is killing my studies.
Japanese verb conjugation seemed remarkably straightforward (unlike, for example, French...), until I got to Chapter 6 of Genki I and the て form.

The て form is going to take a while to grasp.

I totally forgot about Genki. Found the book though. I'll probably focus on that book after my 2 notebooks. It is irritating though listening to these songs and watching these anime and understanding a lot of it but not being able to put it together or when I do put it together it comes out sounding cold like a machine language version versus of what it says in the subtitles.
 
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Well I got back into it late last year and mostly just focusing on vocab, but unfortunately in romanji. Which is stupid since what I really want is to be able to read Japanese. I'll move into writing in hiragana and katakana after I've filled up 2 more notebooks in vocab studies. I've been making tons of progress but this cold I got recently is killing my studies.


I totally forgot about Genki. Found the book though. I'll probably focus on that book after my 2 notebooks. It is irritating though listening to these songs and watching these anime and understanding a lot of it but not being able to put it together or when I do put it together it comes out sounding cold like a machine language version versus of what it says in the subtitles.

I'm not going to say that learning vocab in romaji is absolutely taboo, as the vocab will help you.

But you're going to have to learn and use kana anyway, so it's probably better to do it first.

It should only take a couple of weeks of good studying and practice to get them down pat. Doing so will also help with the resilience you're going to need for studying a language.

Genki is alright. Tobira is better if you want a traditional textbook. However, I suggest the digital Human Japanese series. It also covers kana and a handful of kanji.

The people who made Human Japanese also run Satori Reader, which is a subscription service that is fantastic. It's for use after Human Japanese.

Combine that with NHK News Web Easy, Anki, a Japanese dictionary (I use Takoboto), and some Japanese media, and you're good to go.

I also use the Kanji Study app every day. I feel it more makes you feel like you're learning than actually getting you to learn anything though.
 
I was not aware of the Tobira textbook. I'll check it out.

I like Genki. I find the explanations on grammar to be quite clear. It is the only text book I've used so far. That being said, it is very focused on university students - people in that stage of life and the sort of vocabulary that would be of use to them. It's been several decades since I went to university...

I'm solid on hiragana, and decent at katakana. I try to avoid romanji entirely. I know most of the N5 kanji (about 100 kanji), in terms of being able to recognize their meaning, but not in drawing them.

My struggle is learning new vocabulary - I need to increase my rate of speed on that. It takes me a while to learn the 40-50 new words introduced in each chapter of Genki. I make my own flashcards (from paper index cards).

For learning, I prefer old school - pen, paper and a physical textbook. Screens are ok to supplement, but as my main learning tools I like paper. Of course every one learns differently. Through this process, I am learning about how I learn, which in itself is an interesting process.

At some point I need to start with comprehensible input in easy Japanese. But I think I need to boost my vocabulary first.
 
I was not aware of the Tobira textbook. I'll check it out.

I like Genki. I find the explanations on grammar to be quite clear. It is the only text book I've used so far. That being said, it is very focused on university students - people in that stage of life and the sort of vocabulary that would be of use to them. It's been several decades since I went to university...

I'm solid on hiragana, and decent at katakana. I try to avoid romanji entirely. I know most of the N5 kanji (about 100 kanji), in terms of being able to recognize their meaning, but not in drawing them.

My struggle is learning new vocabulary - I need to increase my rate of speed on that. It takes me a while to learn the 40-50 new words introduced in each chapter of Genki. I make my own flashcards (from paper index cards).

For learning, I prefer old school - pen, paper and a physical textbook. Screens are ok to supplement, but as my main learning tools I like paper. Of course every one learns differently. Through this process, I am learning about how I learn, which in itself is an interesting process.

At some point I need to start with comprehensible input in easy Japanese. But I think I need to boost my vocabulary first.

To each their own.

I found all the traditional textbooks to be rather staid. They give you a good base, but are all pretty bad at bringing it all together.

Anki is incredibly powerful, though setting it up properly is a mess, as is finding a good deck.

Hence why I suggest Human Japanese and then Satori Reader.

The Kanji Study app is great if you have a device with a stylus. It's one reason I have so many Samsung devices. The S6 Lite is good enough for language study.

Really, for building up vocabulary, you want to get to reading stuff you enjoy as soon as possible. NHK Easy News should have some topics that interest you, and I wouldn't scoff at manga like Yotsuba&!. Satori Reader also has a range of stories to choose from, all voice acted.
 
I need to find some "See Spot Run" type books. Learning vocabulary in the abstract as Genki suggests (here is a list of 50 words in each Chapter - go memorize them) is dull and doesn't make it stick for me.

Satori Reader looks like it could be a solution.
 
I live in Japan for 12 years , work in game development (big AAA) only use Japanese at work .

But I don't like anime and I prefer serious story telling games 😂
 
I'm not going to say that learning vocab in romaji is absolutely taboo, as the vocab will help you.

But you're going to have to learn and use kana anyway, so it's probably better to do it first.

It should only take a couple of weeks of good studying and practice to get them down pat. Doing so will also help with the resilience you're going to need for studying a language.

Genki is alright. Tobira is better if you want a traditional textbook. However, I suggest the digital Human Japanese series. It also covers kana and a handful of kanji.

The people who made Human Japanese also run Satori Reader, which is a subscription service that is fantastic. It's for use after Human Japanese.

Combine that with NHK News Web Easy, Anki, a Japanese dictionary (I use Takoboto), and some Japanese media, and you're good to go.

I also use the Kanji Study app every day. I feel it more makes you feel like you're learning than actually getting you to learn anything though.
My mistake with learning the kana is that I'll learn it and jump right back into romanji again and eventually forgot all of the katakana and the similar looking hiragana characters.

Never even heard of Tobira. I'll take a look at the digital Human Japan series and Satori Reader as well. I have several Japanese dictionaries but not Takoboto.

I've used anki several times in the past and it never really stuck with me, but I can always try try again. I probably need to combine it with writing down what I miss for reviews.

I also do watch some Japanese news shorter videos. I subscribed to I think 2 Japanese speaking only podcasts for learning but they are a bit too much for me right now.

For Kanji I have that rtk book and I have first 1,000 kanji card decks to study with.
 
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My mistake with learning the kana is that I'll learn it and jump right back into romanji again and eventually forgot all of the katakana and the similar looking hiragana characters.

Never even heard of Tobira. I'll take a look at the digital Human Japan series and Satori Reader as well. I have several Japanese dictionaries but not Takoboto.

I've used anki several times in the past and it never really stuck with me, but I can always try try again. I probably need to combine it with writing down what I miss for reviews.

I also do watch some Japanese news shorter videos. I subscribed to I think 2 Japanese speaking only podcasts for learning but they are a bit too much for me right now.

For Kanji I have that rtk book and I have first 1,000 kanji card decks to study with.

It's a matter of forcing yourself.

Romaji is great for absolute beginners, phrasebooks, and if you're in a hurry and are being lazy (and not for studying).

But otherwise you need to use the character system that Japanese uses. You need to get used to it as a norm.

RtK is hit or miss. I understand it, but it just doesn't work well for me in terms of using it in Japanese communication. Also, the more complicated the kanji get, the more convoluted and less useful it gets.
 
It's a matter of forcing yourself.

Romaji is great for absolute beginners, phrasebooks, and if you're in a hurry and are being lazy (and not for studying).

But otherwise you need to use the character system that Japanese uses. You need to get used to it as a norm.

RtK is hit or miss. I understand it, but it just doesn't work well for me in terms of using it in Japanese communication. Also, the more complicated the kanji get, the more convoluted and less useful it gets.
Forcing myself to use it only is the plan, eventually. After the 2 notebooks of vocab.

I'm mostly just using Rtk as a way to get a general grasp of kanji at the start.
 
Any thoughts on WaniKani for Kanji acquisition?

On the pluses:
  • It is rather mindless - it does the thinking for you.
  • I did not find an Anki deck for beginner-level Kanji that I liked.
  • Who doesn't like watching progress bars fill up?
  • The website seems well designed.
  • The focus on on'yomi readings is helpful. I had been mostly focused on the reading of stand-alone kanjis, which tends to be kun'yomi. So on'yomi reinforcement is good.

On the minuses:
  • I can see it taking up much of your language learning energy. My focus at the moment is ramping up my vocabulary so I can increase the very shallow pool of comprehensible input (CI) available to me. I'd like CI to be my main learning vector. I found a graded reader ("See Spot Run" type stories) which is good for my level. I'm pretty happy about that - actually being able to read a text (although really simple text) in Japanese and able to understand most of it. It is not easy finding CI suitable for a beginner.
  • The rate of vocabulary acquisition is lower than with an Anki deck just for vocab. My main learning vector at the moment is an Anki deck for beginner vocab.
  • The first few levels of Wanikani goes over stuff I already know.
  • The paywall, which I believe starts at level 4.
I don't see myself getting to level 60 in WaniKani. Maybe get to level 20 or so, call it a day, and then focus on comprehensible reading input for Kanji acquisition.
 
Any thoughts on WaniKani for Kanji acquisition?

On the pluses:
  • It is rather mindless - it does the thinking for you.
  • I did not find an Anki deck for beginner-level Kanji that I liked.
  • Who doesn't like watching progress bars fill up?
  • The website seems well designed.
  • The focus on on'yomi readings is helpful. I had been mostly focused on the reading of stand-alone kanjis, which tends to be kun'yomi. So on'yomi reinforcement is good.

On the minuses:
  • I can see it taking up much of your language learning energy. My focus at the moment is ramping up my vocabulary so I can increase the very shallow pool of comprehensible input (CI) available to me. I'd like CI to be my main learning vector. I found a graded reader ("See Spot Run" type stories) which is good for my level. I'm pretty happy about that - actually being able to read a text (although really simple text) in Japanese and able to understand most of it. It is not easy finding CI suitable for a beginner.
  • The rate of vocabulary acquisition is lower than with an Anki deck just for vocab. My main learning vector at the moment is an Anki deck for beginner vocab.
  • The first few levels of Wanikani goes over stuff I already know.
  • The paywall, which I believe starts at level 4.
I don't see myself getting to level 60 in WaniKani. Maybe get to level 20 or so, call it a day, and then focus on comprehensible reading input for Kanji acquisition.
I've heard of it but never used it. My kanji is really weak. I did buy like 3 books for reading simple stories. I know I haven't finished one of them. I've started trying to combine listening to a recorded audio of me speaking a small list of vocab and studying it in a notebook, and then making a notecards of them. I'm failing on the last one and I'm not quite consistent. I'm juggling learning too many things right now.
 
For kanji, personally what I did was just use a jouyou kanji deck in Anki. Then I had another deck where whenever I came across a kanji or word I didn't know I would throw it in the deck. It was pretty easy and worked well enough.
For WaniKani, I'm personally not a fan. They use their own system of radicals and they rely on mnemonics which are basically adding another layer of translation. The spaced repetition is basically doing all the work with WaniKani anyway, but you're paying for something you could easily do for free with an Anki deck.
On the other hand, some people swear by it and say it's the only thing that works for them.
 
Any thoughts on WaniKani for Kanji acquisition?

On the pluses:
  • It is rather mindless - it does the thinking for you.
  • I did not find an Anki deck for beginner-level Kanji that I liked.
  • Who doesn't like watching progress bars fill up?
  • The website seems well designed.
  • The focus on on'yomi readings is helpful. I had been mostly focused on the reading of stand-alone kanjis, which tends to be kun'yomi. So on'yomi reinforcement is good.

On the minuses:
  • I can see it taking up much of your language learning energy. My focus at the moment is ramping up my vocabulary so I can increase the very shallow pool of comprehensible input (CI) available to me. I'd like CI to be my main learning vector. I found a graded reader ("See Spot Run" type stories) which is good for my level. I'm pretty happy about that - actually being able to read a text (although really simple text) in Japanese and able to understand most of it. It is not easy finding CI suitable for a beginner.
  • The rate of vocabulary acquisition is lower than with an Anki deck just for vocab. My main learning vector at the moment is an Anki deck for beginner vocab.
  • The first few levels of Wanikani goes over stuff I already know.
  • The paywall, which I believe starts at level 4.
I don't see myself getting to level 60 in WaniKani. Maybe get to level 20 or so, call it a day, and then focus on comprehensible reading input for Kanji acquisition.

Wanikani is good, though it's really just Heisig's Remembering the Kanji (RtK) without the prescribe meanings outside of the basics. RtK gets ever more taut as you progress, so Wanikani builds up a better base for that.

It's horses for courses though. I think everyone uses mnemonics to remember the kanji to some degree, but doing it so explicitly and ordered is subjective. If you like or need order, that's probably the best way.

I use an app called Kanji Study. It's excellent and has given me a solid base. I make up the odd mnemonic as I go along, but mostly I stick to the radicals and basic kanji, as well as refering to other kanji I already know.

What I've found to work well recently now that I'm at an intermediate level, is learning kanji in context. It's not learning to write them, just recognise and read them. Not only do I find I remember them better, it also improves all other aspects of literacy at the same time, and is mostly fun or interesting.

The downside is you need the fundamentals down and some confidence and courage to just go for it knowing you won't understand everything.

You can make your own Anki decks at that point.

I still do daily kanji study on the app, and pre-made Anki decks, but that's more to make the studying more varied and therefore interesting than pure efficiency.
 
I'm fairly new to learning Japanese and need to expand my immersion while sentence mining.

Recommend me your best/most entertaining anime with relatively a relatively easy to follow plot and simple language.
 
I'm fairly new to learning Japanese and need to expand my immersion while sentence mining.

Recommend me your best/most entertaining anime with relatively a relatively easy to follow plot and simple language.
That reminds me. I was trying to follow the medical detective anime that came out recently and I totally wasn't thinking about that the fact the anime would have a bunch of medical jargon in it. I really don't have a suggestion since I'm a lot more casual with anime these days.
 
Shirokuma Café.

It's a classic for learning Japanese. Yostuba&! for manga.

I like Gin no Saji/Silver Spoon as it doesn't use too much technical language. You need to like teenage melodrama though.
 
Anyone tried using ChatGPT as a supplement for language learning?

I asked ChatGPT to create an N5 vocabulary deck, and it made an CSV file to be uploaded into Anki. 😲 I haven't tried it yet though, as I have an N5 deck I am working through.
.
I think ChatGPT could be pretty useful.
 
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Thing is, it might help with N5 but it's better when you add your own cards to your deck with sentences to give context to the word or kanji you are learning. And that's the nice part about Anki, if you like anime you can find a section in your favorite anime where they use the word and put a screenshot plus the sentence so that you can have context for the word. When they are simply words is like learning from a dictionary, which eventually gets boring.
 
For everyone using Anki, what card template(s) are you using for your sentence mining decks?

I'm currently using Lapis but really don't like it and am in the market for a better template
 
Anyone tried using ChatGPT as a supplement for language learning?

I asked ChatGPT to create an N5 vocabulary deck, and it made an CSV file to be uploaded into Anki. 😲 I haven't tried it yet though, as I have an N5 deck I am working through.
.
I think ChatGPT could be pretty useful.

I wouldn't trust it with something as big as that, especially with a langauge that already has lots of learning material available.

The chances of it containing some nonsense are high.

I use it in small chunks that I at least have a chance to run over and see if it makes some sense or not. So checking sentences or having conversations.
 
Oh great, gonna post here.

Studying japanese for 6+ years, keep diversifying my input methods, last September I decided do play video games with japanese dubs (I used to hate japanese games) which led me to discover the spoken language barely connects with the english subtitle (an adaptation rather than a direct translation - which is understandable).

I try to read novels in japanese (especially the ones I already read in my own language), listening a lot of japanese music, listening to the radio, etc. I prepared the JLPT N4 last year, couldn't go because of sickness (which was unfortunate), now training for N3, but at a slower pace.
 
Oh great, gonna post here.

Studying japanese for 6+ years, keep diversifying my input methods, last September I decided do play video games with japanese dubs (I used to hate japanese games) which led me to discover the spoken language barely connects with the english subtitle (an adaptation rather than a direct translation - which is understandable).

I try to read novels in japanese (especially the ones I already read in my own language), listening a lot of japanese music, listening to the radio, etc. I prepared the JLPT N4 last year, couldn't go because of sickness (which was unfortunate), now training for N3, but at a slower pace.
My level of Japanese is pretty bad, but even I can tell when subs don't match what they're saying. Once AI improves, a lot of these companies and localizers will be out of a job, and good riddance. Although we won't get ridiculous stuff to make fun of anymore.

I'm thinking about getting back into the grind. Been a while. I do alright with vocab, but kanji slips away from me if I don't use it
 
I finished my N5 vocabulary deck. I feel pretty good about that. It was about 800 words. It took about 2.5 months (78 days per Anki stats). I finished it in the sense that I will not be getting new cards, just reviews of already viewed words. Most of the time I stayed at the default of 20 new cards per day, which I believe is 10 new words (front and back of a card counts as two cards).

It would be tempting to dive into an N4 deck. But I want to make sure I remember what I've learned. If I start learning N4 vocab and start forgetting N5 vocab, I am just treading water.

To help make the vocab stick, I'm making an Excels spreadsheet of N5 vocab, with separate pages for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other words. For verbs I plan to conjugate them into "mas" and "te" forms. This way I'll be able to better recognize the "te" form of verbs, as so far I have been focusing on the dictionary form.

I'm also doing Wanikani for Kanji. I'm furthest ahead in Kanji in my language learning journey - mid-N4 level. I may pause on Kanji and focus on completing N5-level grammar.

When I tried Satori Reader about 2 months ago, even the beginner level text was too difficult. I will try it again now and hopefully with N5 vocab under my belt it will be better experience. The best way to learn a language is comprehensible input, put the challenge for a beginner is finding input that is comprehensible.

I asked ChatGPT to create a document of Japanese counters, as I need to work on that. It did a very nice job (the formatting is nice) and it seems to be accurate. Thank you ChatGPT.

My oral comprehension is still pretty bad. Even when I know the vocabulary my brain struggles to register what I am hearing. But I think with more listening I can improve.
 
I finished my N5 vocabulary deck. I feel pretty good about that. It was about 800 words. It took about 2.5 months (78 days per Anki stats). I finished it in the sense that I will not be getting new cards, just reviews of already viewed words. Most of the time I stayed at the default of 20 new cards per day, which I believe is 10 new words (front and back of a card counts as two cards).

It would be tempting to dive into an N4 deck. But I want to make sure I remember what I've learned. If I start learning N4 vocab and start forgetting N5 vocab, I am just treading water.

To help make the vocab stick, I'm making an Excels spreadsheet of N5 vocab, with separate pages for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other words. For verbs I plan to conjugate them into "mas" and "te" forms. This way I'll be able to better recognize the "te" form of verbs, as so far I have been focusing on the dictionary form.

I'm also doing Wanikani for Kanji. I'm furthest ahead in Kanji in my language learning journey - mid-N4 level. I may pause on Kanji and focus on completing N5-level grammar.

When I tried Satori Reader about 2 months ago, even the beginner level text was too difficult. I will try it again now and hopefully with N5 vocab under my belt it will be better experience. The best way to learn a language is comprehensible input, put the challenge for a beginner is finding input that is comprehensible.

I asked ChatGPT to create a document of Japanese counters, as I need to work on that. It did a very nice job (the formatting is nice) and it seems to be accurate. Thank you ChatGPT.

My oral comprehension is still pretty bad. Even when I know the vocabulary my brain struggles to register what I am hearing. But I think with more listening I can improve.

If such a structured technique works for you, all be it.

All I can say is that I too generally like structure like that and it did help learning Japanese for the basics. However, I hit a wall doing it that way around N3 level.

What has worked for me since then is just using Japanese. As alluded to earlier, this does require a base of Japanese skill, so something like Satori Reader* is in with this. This is commonly referred to as immersion learning, and I think it is the best way.

You can still use Anki and the like (Satori Reader has it's on SRS cards), but it is at this point that you start creating your own decks (or just deck simplify things).

*the creators of Satori Reader have the Human Japanese digital textbooks that are intended as the precursor to using Human Japanese.
 
I'm also doing Wanikani for Kanji.
I ended up dropping Wanikani in favor of Kanji God for Anki.

Wanikani was just taking up way too much time that could be spent on other forms of learning, including immersion.

I also felt like Wanikani needed to focus more on recognition and less on readings, which, honestly, were overwhelming as someone relatively new to the language.
 
I am getting some Wanikani fatigue. After completing my current level I will think about whether I continue with it. I feel like I learned more, and more efficiently, from my Anki deck than Wanikani.

I do want to dive into Satori Reader and hopefully the beginner content will be more accessible to me now. They have a spring sale on.

I have a fairly good comprehension of the French language (I can watch French TV and movies without subtitles, and read a decent amount in French). That is almost entirely from two years of French immersion in middle school, several decades ago. This illustrates the power of immersion, and as a child, to learn a language. I remember the start of Grade 7 knowing barely any French. But myself and my classmates picked up the language quickly because we had no choice. The teacher was just teaching in French with no English ("en francais, s'il vous plait" - if we said anything in English). So it was sink of swam. That was very effective for language acquisition.
 
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