Was writing up this post for something on reddit, but I figured some people might find it useful here. This is basically my “Japanese Studying” history condensed into survey form. I often get asked how I got started and how I learned and this is basically of summary of how I go about it along with some advice I would give people looking back at my own experience.
1. Out of 10, roughly how skilled are you in the following areas (1 is absolute beginner and 10 is native level fluency):
Speaking: 7 Listening: 8 Reading: 9 Writing: 7 Grammar: 9
2. How long have you been studying Japanese? 4.5 Years. 2 in college, got good grades but only studied with an aim of doing well on the tests. The rest has been as primarily an Elementary/Kindergarten ALT in somewhat rural Japan, a fairly immersive setting where I don’t really have any coworkers who can speak anything beyond rudimentary English.
3. What’s your Japanese vocabulary?
4. Why are you learning Japanese? I want to achieve near fluency and be able to use Japanese alongside my business/economics degree (and hopefully a future MBA) in the business world.
5. What resources do you use to study? I use Anki for an hour+ every day while writing everything down with a pencil and paper except for the most basic kanji and the hiragana/katakana-only words.
I used the first two text books in the Yokoso! Series in college. Pretty good.
The only textbook I have used in Japan is the Minna no Nihongo Intermediate II Textbook at a local volunteer 日本語教室. It was also good. Nowadays I mostly read newspaper articles there.
I am a big fan of the Kanken (漢字検定) exams because they expose you to lots of useful kanji, sentences, idioms, and opposite pairs that you might not otherwise see in textbooks made for foreigners. I just study the practice exam books, putting everything I don’t know how to write or read into a Anki deck. In 2 years I have been able to work my way up from level 8 to level 3 and am currently studying for the pre-2 and level 2 exams.
I am fortunate (for my career and language goals) to work in a place where basically the only English I speak is with my elementary students in class every week. All my work/meetings at school are conducted in Japanese, I make my lesson plans in Japanese, and while I do my best to expose my students to English and international culture, all my time spent playing at recess, eating lunch, or volunteering afterschool is pretty much free Japanese practice time with eager conversational partners.
I am a fan of Japanese Vocaloid music and for the past few years my hobby has been translating and subbing Vocaloid songs and videos for foreign fans to enjoy. You can find some of my work by looking up “descentsubs” on YT but unless you are into anime-type stuff you might not find it interesting at all.
I am also in an English Novel Translation group. We slowly translate novels (currently Animal Farm) into Japanese. I am the “English Advisor”, helping with English metaphors, idoms, colloquial sayings, and archaic grammar, and the Japanese members correct my translations which is really helpful because while I have improved enough to not actually make many actual mistakes anymore, my Japanese writing is not at all “natural” so I get tons of advice on how actual Japanese people would reword the translations I create.
6. How many hours per week do you actively spend studying?
Anki and Kanken studying usually adds up to about 14 hours a week. I spend a good 4-5 hours on my translating hobby, a few hours reading, and another 3-4 hours at my Japanese class or Translation circle each week. As long as you have a smartphone/dictionary near you, anytime can be study time though.
7. Do you tend to focus more on reading & writing, or speaking and listening?
I have to do all 4 of them currently for my job, but listening and reading are the most important. People can still largely understand you if you write or speak poorly (and I make plenty of minor mistakes every time I open my mouth) but there are no “easy documents” or “easy meetings/lectures/conversations” in the workplace, you either got to know it or you don’t when the moment comes. My solution to dealing with this is to focus on increasing my vocabulary over everything else with grammar given secondary priority.
8. What country do you live in?
10. Any final words for beginners and fellow /r/learnjapanese folk?
-Lots of people talk about how things like Kanken or JLPT aren’t real indicators of Japanese fluency and they are not, but what they are is excellent goals to help keep yourself motivated and honest as you move forward.
-Anki is an amazing program. It really works and if you stick with it every day you see real results. I only started using it 1.5 years ago and I regret that greatly. Back them I was between N2-N3 in level from accumulated experience, but once I started digesting some essential lists (JLPT N3, N2, N1 Kanji/Vocab lists, the Japan Elementary School kanji list, Core 6000) my life changed in a huge way. I was able to functionally (if slowly and painstakingly at times) read basically everything in my daily life and work environment. I finally started understanding enough Japanese to better know what I DIDN’T know. I could listen to a conversation or read something and understand it to the point that I could easily begin to realize things like “oh, I didn’t catch that one word” or “what is the nuance of that grammar he just used?”. That is when you really start getting on the path towards functional fluency.
-To go along with the last point, BUILD YOUR VOCABULARY (語彙力)! Until at least the N3 level I do think it is important to go along with a textbook like Genki or Minna no Nihongo to help understand the fundamentals of Japanese grammar and build a good base that will allow you to move forward into advanced levels. But once you are able to process the majority of basic grammar forms, pure vocab and kanji rapidly outpaces the usefulness of the grammar points you will encounter in high level textbooks and study materials, even for N2 and N1. While I may hear (or poorly try to use) something like ～ざるを得ない or 揚げ句 once a week, I am constantly bombarded with vocab from even my youngest elementary students (including bug, flower, food, and objects names) that really strains my memory because I don’t have the same life experiences as them. The only way to make up for that lack of experience is to STUDY YOUR ASS OFF! This doesn’t mean you don’t study grammar, but rather from the intermediate level on you should mostly look up grammar when you don’t understand something, don’t waste time studying chapters full of expressions that you may almost never use. Let your real experiences start to dictate what grammar you look up, learn, remember, and use. I never studied grammar by rote for either N2 or N1 and passed just fine using this approach.
-Finally, the only thing that will make these last 2 points worth your time is to find a way to apply your Japanese on a daily basis. Read books, read manga, watch anime, find conversation partners, translate songs, move to Japan, whatever. Anki and drilling are effective but what they really do is get things floating around in your head that are now ready to make a real life connection and be truly remembered. Pretty much every difficult word or phrase I have been able to learn and make my own to use in daily conversation over the past few years has started with memorizing in Anki and THEN encountering it once or twice in conversation or reading, having that A-HA! moment, and finally grasping what it really means. Whether you are in Japan or not, this “application”-phase of Japanese study can take all kinds of forms, just find something that suits your interests. I’m not a big anime fan but I disagree with some people who say “anime doesn’t teach you real Japanese”. If you approach anime or manga with a “I want to understand everything approach” and not just remember words like “senpai”, “dokidoki”, and “kawaii” you will learn and progress. It really doesn’t matter, just find SOME way to live and experience Japanese constantly.
-(For advanced learners) Once I got far along enough in Japanese to make heads and tails of my daily life over here, I couldn’t shake the ever present desire to want to understand EVERYTHING and not be perplexed by things Japanese people do without second thought. I am constantly looking up stuff I encounter. See a sign you can’t read completely? Look it up. Listening to your drunk boss ramble on at the enkai about stuff you don’t care about? Look it up while doing あいずち. Stuck at a meeting or event that doesn’t really apply to you? Silently aim for 100% comprehension trying to jot down every word that you didn’t understand. You won’t be able to do this all the time, but when life or work allows it, turn parts of everyday life into listening or reading exercises. This “looking up” habit is similar to using Anki; it primes your brain and breeds familiarity, just waiting for your next encounter with a newly learned word or phrase to cement it into your memory. Chances are that if it is worth remembering and you continue to watch the same kinds of shows or work in the same workplace it WILL come up again.
-Language is a never-ending process. Learning it is also progresses extremely unevenly when approaching the language as an outsider who didn’t grow up immersed in the culture. After these few years of hard work, I can show my elementary school students how to write any kanji or phrase in their homework, I can out-do the middle schoolers in town for the most part as well, I can dazzle adults with my knowledge of 四字熟語 but in the end, I am not native and never will be. I’m still not anywhere remotely close. All I need to do to prove it is open my mouth for a few seconds and speak Japanese. But it doesn’t matter. Learning this language has provided me with all kinds of amazing human connections, wonderful memories, and a new outlook on my future life and goals after years of fighting depression through college. Good luck and keep grinding!
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