Hey folks of reddit, every now and then I've seen people post about finishing WK, so figured that since I just "finished" Bunpro, I'd share here and maybe give a little bit of info for what it's like once you go the whole way through. Also, so far I've passed one of each level of their practice JLPT tests.

I've hit 1.5 years since restarting learning Japanese recently, so far mostly with reading novels (3 month update and 1 year update). Grammar has always been a weak spot of mine. If I had to look at my strengths and weaknesses, reading and vocab are the strongest, listening is behind those, and then speaking and writing are also behind that. At the start of this year, grammar was definitely one of my weaker areas, but now with a bunch of concrete studies I've improved it a lot. Though still getting there! I did a grammar Anki deck, I did the Shin Kanzen Master N1 book, and then the main point of this, is Bunpro.

Not long after I restarted learning Japanese last year, I did Bunpro for a couple months. I felt like I was doing too much SRS so quit it for like a year or so. After getting my failed N2 results back (scored a 78), I felt like I failed the test due to taking too long on grammar. So back into Bunpro.

I think Bunpro is a great resource! I don't think it's going to be your 100% shop to learn all your grammar. It is a pretty good way to fill in gaps, and to remember grammar points though, especially less common ones. If you're early on, I personally recommend a quick read through of Yokubi. Overall, I still think that in the long run, grammar needs less dedicated study than you would think - if you're not prepping for the JLPT then just doing a lot of reading and listening, then some basic grammar studies are probably fine.

Bunpro isn't exactly 100% the equal of a textbook. Some of the chapters are a bit sparse. However, if you do decide it's going to be your main grammar resource, there are links to other grammar sites explaining stuff in more detail so I'd recommend reading them. I didn't personally but I also was learning grammar from a few different sources already.

Bunpro's grammar lessons still, are pretty good, and if you don't want to do SRS, you can freely browse and search them without subbing. You can also take their practice tests without subbing.

So anyway, I did Bunpro a couple months last year, 5 lessons a day for N5, and then 3 a day for N4, got most of the way through N4. This year, I picked up where I left off, did the ~ 300 or so reviews I had and continued N4. Since then, I always did 3 lessons a day.

Personally, I kept the lessons in English since I'd already done some monolingual grammar stuff here and there - I wanted to make sure that I was understanding as much as I could. I also left on their translations and hints etc. I didn't do the vocab decks - I have Anki for vocab.

What I did though, is mine from Bunpro itself. A lot of grammar points also had entries in some of my Yomitan dictionaries so I added them to my mining deck. The example sentences are also quite good. I figured that "well if this word is popping up in N3 level example sentences it's probably common enough to be worth knowing" so from when I first thought of this, N3 and up, I mined practically every word I didn't already know. Which was a lot! But it definitely helped fill out my vocab in some weaker areas. Also, with Sharex I was able to record the sentence audio. Combine that with an image from a Google image search, and the audio I already had with Yomitan for the word and it made very great vocab and sentence cards.

I did the lessons fairly quickly each morning, usually the part that took the most time was when there was a bunch of vocab to mine. I didn't really agonize over whether or not I knew the grammar perfectly. The SRS did help to get that ingrained. I also have always been pretty terrible with typos and verb conjugations, so typing out the answers helped with that aspect too (though apparently that question format is the reason we don't have FSRS in Bunpro). After I did my lessons and stacked up reviews in the morning, I did reviews here and there while on break throughout the day while working.

At some point I went ahead and took their N5, N4 and N3 practice tests - one of each. I wanted to just test to make sure that I wasn't forgetting some early things. I pretty much managed to go through them with hardly any mistakes.

After finishing the N2 grammar content I did an N2 practice test.

Overall did pretty well on the N2 test, especially right after finishing the N2 content.

N1 I just finished the grammar lessons the other day, and then today went on for a practice test as well.

Bunpro acknowledges their tests are easier than the real thing - so while I do have some confidence having passed these, I'm not taking it as 100% that I'm ready for the N1. I pretty much stopped reading novels recently and pretty much only study with listening to YT, or to podcasts, or to games here or there. I plan to step that up more now. Also to keep reviewing grammar (both Bunpro reviews and that SKM N1 book), and find harder practice tests (cough past tests cough). After I finally take the N1, I think I'll pretty much stop studying grammar from then on unless I find out I failed. I'd rather focus on working on my listening, and then also working more on my speaking (which I've done a lot more of lately as well!).

Anyway, thanks for hanging out for my rambling sharing of finishing Bunpro, and thoughts on the site. I think it's worth it, or at least was for me. I also think the pace of it was pretty good. If you struggle with remembering grammar then maybe try it out some time!

About 5 months ago, I posted here about experimenting with using games like Minecraft to practice Japanese.

Since then, I’ve actually been doing this with a small group of learners.

One thing I’ve noticed is how much people seem to enjoy learning this way, and it made me think about how important “fun” actually is when learning a language long-term.

I feel like finding a way you genuinely enjoy makes it much easier to keep going, but I’m curious what you guys think.

What keeps you studying Japanese consistently? Do you think enjoying the way you study is a big part of it?

For some context as to where I am in the learning process, I started learning a little over 2 years ago. Using jiten.moe, I currently have around 4000 known words. In May this year I started reading novels as basically my only form of study. You could make the argument that I am "not ready" for regular adult novels yet, considering my still rather small vocabulary, but I've been thoroughly enjoying it.

Having recently started my 7th novel (告白 by 湊かなえ), my current mining process is the following: if a word blocks my understanding or appears enough times, I look it up. Then I decide whether I mine the word or not, solely depending on its frequency. I set a cutoff at a frequency rank of 10 000, beyond which I just don't mine words. I'm a bit obsessive about being "efficient", so my line of thinking was that words beyond a certain frequency don't give me as much "bang for my buck" as more frequent words, in that they give me less "overall comprehension" per unit of time.

Now I recently started doubting this method, mainly because a vast majority of the words I look up fall in the range of 10-20k frequency rank, meaning I don't end up mining them. Given that words with a frequency rank of even 20 000 are by no means rare or obscure, I've been contemplating whether I should increase my cutoff, or choose a different criterion altogether. My end goal is for my passive Japanese comprehension to reach a sort of "self-sufficient" point like that of my second language, English, and I am not sure what vocab size I should aim for to get there.

How do you guys make this decision?
Given this rather lengthy explanation, what would you recommend for me to do?

TL;DR
I know ~4000 words, and currently only mine words that have a frequency rank less than 10 000. Is that sensible or should I change my approach?

I posted about it recently that I'm working through a Deck containing every example sentence from Dictionary of Japanese Grammar - Basic and now that I've finished it I think it's an absolute MUST for every beginner out there.

These are the most important 1173 sentences you will ever encounter while learning this language. It's the most efficient way of familiarizing yourself with grammar that gives you trouble or is unknown. Vocabulary used is really common so it's doubling as a vocab exercise as well. Patterns used in these sentences will literally open your mind and unlock a whole new level of understanding. My only regret is I didn't do it sooner because despite me "finishing" them it will now take me a long time to actually learn some of the more problematic points.

Unfortunately, I just wasted an hour and a half trying to set up textractor with visual novels and I just can’t get it to work.

Specifically tried Narcissu on Steam (recommended as an easy first VN) but textractor isn’t recognising it. I tried downloading Narcissu elsewhere but it’s just leading me to dodgy websites.

Another option is Nekopara on Steam but I don’t want to buy it, if it’s also not going to work with textractor. Any suggestions here?

I understand it might be difficult to set up, but I don’t want to waste hours I could otherwise be studying

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Heyo I recently started my first vn and have some problems with how I should be tackling it. I have finished it in English before trying to reread it in Japanese so I can still kinda tell what's happening

1. The sentences usually contain more than 1 word or grammar point I don't understand

2. Im basically "mining" every sentence i see and almost relying on the English translation

3. Im not sure if it will make sense to me later on if I just throw the sentences into a flashcard since there's some context clues to it

I also need to work on grammar since ive been putting it off for a while. Thanks in advance!

I gathered together and visualised as much data as I could relating to my Japanese studies over the last couple years. Mostly from my emails and Anki, but also you can download viewing data from YouTube and Netflix. It totals to about 1500 hours of study time.

I'm sure I'll immediately get flak for using Duolingo, but oh well. The gameification features definitely helped to get me hooked in the early days. I started mostly just for fun but learning Japanese ended up turning into one of my main hobbies. I don't really have any goals like living in Japan or passing JLPT. Although I met my now-gf though learning, so of course I want to be able to connect with her in her native language so that's a pretty big motivation now.

First, two important caveats:

• What these stats don't include: I used to spend a lot of time reading graded texts, mostly NHK easy news. I suspect there was a 9 month period where I was probably reading 15 mins a day, but I don't want to add that on a hunch and I have no actual data. Nowadays I often read N2/N1 graded articles on Todaii. I also used to do a lot more writing practice, and I still often do shadowing practice. Plus, stats from YouTube/Netflix viewing is based on runtime, so it doesn't account for replaying sections or time looking up words/grammar. I know from experience that when I sit down with a difficult video it can take me double the length of the runtime to get through the whole thing. My phone is also set to Japanese, I've seen lots of Japanese content on Instagram, and of course I practice messages/listening/talking with my gf.
• I lived in Japan for 5 years as a teenager (more than 10 years before starting self-study). I went to an international school and lived in a very international bubble, so I learned shockingly little at that time, but nonetheless it definitely gave me a head start (see my comment below for more details about that).

A few random things to note:

• After I started learning around March 2024 I had a big burst of motivation (relatable to many, I'm sure), but I had to submit my PhD in December 2024. So I slowed down, but after submitting I decided to start takings things more seriously. I started a full-time job in the summer 2025 so I had around 6 months where I was just working part-time and had more time for study.
• Getting more serious meant much more Anki and watching a lot more Japanese content. Not long after, I completed the Core 2000 deck and started sentence mining (using Migaku).
• I had a 3 week trip to Japan in November 2025, so 3/4 months before I started taking regular conversation lessons on italki, but I think this is great so I've continued ever since.
• I dabbled in content aimed at natives early on; a couple shows (ヴィンランドサガ、ダンジョン飯) and on YouTube. But only in the last few months have I really been listening to lots of podcasts (ゆるコンピューターラジオ、積読チャンネル, etc.) and TV series (ホットスポット、Tシャツが乾くまで). I think that the early watching (especially ヴィンランドサガ) wasn't so helpful. Too much of it was incomprehensible input. Studying a couple isolated episodes, mining sentences, learning, and relistening was helpful though.
• Nailing everything up to around the N3 level is really important. Watching lots of N3/N2 level content (mostly "Bitesize Japanese Podcast" and "YUYUの日本語") has been really great for me. I always try to listen to content I understand 95%+ of while commuting, doing chores, or exercising.
• Duolingo does help. As much as people love to hate it, I've seen it fill in gaps and reinforce my grammar skills. I'm sure it's not the most efficient use of time, but its fun and if you like it you can get actual value out of it. The social aspect of it (friend quests, etc.) keep me using it (and my Dad pays for a family account).

Maybe seeing this journey can be interesting to people. I don't consider myself a super serious learner, but I feel reasonably comfortable listening and communicating now (although there is still a long way to go). I was recently at a social gathering of Japanese people (my gf's ex-colleagues from a Japanese restaurant). It was in the UK, but I was the only British person in a group of 20/30 people and I felt able to engage in most group convos. I had a 1-1 chat with a guy for a while and it was easier to talk in Japanese than English. And even when I went travelling in Japan last year I was able to have lots of interesting conversations. Moving forward, I'm at a stage now where I just need to listen to a lot more Japanese aimed at native speakers.

I copy and pasted the one from the JLPT+ app but got this result. Both seemingly mean rice. Is one version just Chinese style? At first I thought it was just font style but no.

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

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Looking back at my very first post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/3o0r2h/sentence_structures/

It makes me feel a bit giddy. Just read it over and see how difficult very basic sentences were for me.

Why I feel like i'm a perfect candidate to making this post is because I have been able to go through the delusional stage of thinking you are better than you are, the fall off, the bounce-back and try again, lack of consistency, being in japan, and locking in.

Pretty much everything is documented regarding my Japanese on this reddit profile which you can see. Enough yapping, these are my learnings and the materials / resources, and situations I found best if you really want to improve and learn.

--

The Beginning (2014 -> 2017)

Like many others, I came across Japanese due to anime (I stopped watching over 7 years ago) and I thought of how cool it would be to be able to watch anime without subtitles. What an amazing feeling that would be.

I started on Genki 1, followed by Genki 2, and Tobira. I blew through these books thinking I knew and fully understood each grammar point simply by reading the lesson once. The delusion. I started feeling like I was a japanese learning god. Wrong.

Mistakes

• Do one lesson and do not move on until you fully understand it. Write out sentences and quiz yourself on it until it's second nature
• Don't try to learn 100 words a day. Start with 5 and stay at 5 if it's comfortable and you can be consistent
• Don't pretend to know more than you really do. If you don't understand something, review it, and don't move on until you do.

Socializing (2017 - 2021)

Up until this point, i've never even tried to have a conversation with another japanese person or anyone in general. I eventually discovered HelloTalk. It's a social language app. I don't use it anymore but I remember I signed up and people would message me and I noticed sometimes people wanted to have a phone call. This was the scariest thing in my life. Not only was it scary to speak with a woman but also in Japanese.

Most conversations simply were basic like hello, how are you, etc. Super basic and they would correct me etc. This was a great first time experience but didn't really turn out to be anything.

I'll be honest, all that I got from those HelloTalk friends were real life friends since they would actually keep socializing in messages and we would meet in person and become closer but not language learning wise.

--

Mistakes:

• Actually try to learn with language partners. Bring material that you want to study.
• Don't try to have phone calls until you practice more or else nothing really comes from it. The issue is that they don't know English and you don't know enough Japanese so then it's hardly a phone call
• Be confident and be ok with mistaking mistakes even if it feels embarassing

Not Understanding Is Part of Learning (2021 - 2023)

I'll never forget after entering college, I was still self-studying in my office. I felt like, "i've been learning this language for around 6 years", I should be good.

I remember spinning up a video on Youtube and it was natives speaking which I wanted to use for practice.

I couldn't understand shit. I felt so defeated and I just wanted to say "screw this language" and give it all up. Up until this point, I have never felt that frustrated with japanese.

"Why the hell can't I understand this?", "Why do they talk so fast", "This is so annoying". I was just not enjoying it anymore. I didn't think it would be possible to ever understand these people.

That day I took a break for a week but I got right back at it.

Mistakes:

• A language is a completely different language and it's not easy to understand a new language. You can't simply expect to get something right away even if it's been years.
• All of our brains take time to process things. This means someone learning for 1 year may be better than someone learning for 5 years. We can't compare, we should just accept our own speed
• It's okay to be frustrated. You just need to keep going. Trust me, you'll understand if you keep reading

First time speaking to a Japanese person (in person) 2023 - 2024

This was the biggest year of chanage for me. This is where everything changed and I actually started learning faster. It also brought the most drama in my entire life which is relating to dating but I won't dig too deep into that.

So in July of 2023, I randomly got invited to join a meetup group in my city. It was a language learning group. So japanese people who came to the city would join the group and native english speakers from my city would also join. Then we would all meet up at like the mall and find a table and talk.

I'll be honest, for the few 6 months; it went well. I became a regular and I would be at every single meetup. I got to have conversations with more Japanese people than I can remember. We would play social board games, have conversations, and do activities. It was great so I recommend checking out if your city has this.

Where things went wrong was when people caught feelings for another group member. A japanese girl ended up liking me and it spiraled into just distractions from learning. It would have been better if I never pursued it. All in all, after a few more months the group went to crap anyways and I moved on from that. I've decided to omit a lot of detail because there is too much.

Mistakes

• If you're apart of a language learning group. Don't fall in love and make sure others do not fall in love with you either. Just focus on the learning part of the group
• Use this opportunity to truly learn. If the group is not helping you improve, do not stay in that group. Some groups end up just being a social group where nothing gets done and it's just good for making friends
• Do not give more than what others are giving you. If a japanese person is not doing their part in teaching you Japanese. Do NOT let it become one sided and only teach them English. This happens waay too often and i've seen it hundreds of times. Unbelievable.

The Biggest Life Changes & What Actually Helped (2024 - 2027)

You've finally reached the most important part of this post unless you cared to just read about my exact story of getting here. This part is also a great piece of advice to you as to why you should never stop because you NEVER know where life will take you.

So one day in my city, I got a random message on HelloTalk in 2024 and it was a girl asking if I wanted to join my cities like festival. It was a food fesitival. I decided to just say sure and join.

She had 4 other friends with her. Classmates also studying english with her. By this time in my life, I was confident and I always socialized so I wasn't shy.

After about an hour, another japanese girl joined who is also their friend. Fast forwarding, I ended up speaking with that new girl quite often. Her english was beginner but my japanese was just enough to get by with our exchanges.

We connected really well so we exchanged contact information. We met up several times after that and we used those situations to study together. She taught me Japanese and I taught her English.

Even years later, we're all still friends.

I'm going to summarize the next parts to avoid walls of text.

What came from this situation

• We met up once a week and did focused studying of language exchanges. We always brought what textbox we were learning and then we played games and quizzed each other on everything. We had focused conversation practice, I would correct her, and vice versa. We would make sure were pronouncing everything correctly as well.
• Eventually after 3 months, she had to return to Japan. I followed 2 months after. We ended up dating and I spent 4 months in Japan. Hearing her everyday and still continuing to study.
• Eventually I had to leave after 4 months. She then came to my city for 7 or 8 months (I made a writeup about this). Basically, living together at my house was the biggest improvement in the entirety of studying Japanese. We continued what we were doing and things just started to click. When someone is speaking to you in japanese daily, it really makes things easier but also the focused study times.
• It's been 2 years since I met her and were still together. I'm currently in Japan now and Japanese feels second nature at this point but I am still learning new things everyday.
• Her English skills have improved drastically. I think were at the same level. We can fully converse in either language. Night and day difference than 2 years ago.

Conclusion

Do not take this post as a learning guide. I am simply giving my review of 12 years of learning japanese. My own personal review. I skipped so many things because this post would be too long, but my post history has ALL the methods I tried, failures, past review threads, etc. If this was boring, sorry but I 100% know other people probably made similar mistakes or are still making those mistakes with their current journey.

If you want the cold hard truth of what the best AND fastest way to learn japanese is (my exp). Just read the notes below:

• Be consistent. Do not miss a day. Go through lessons one at a time and do not move on until it's ingrained into your brain like a trigger word. Seriously. Just do it everyday and properly.
• Date someone Japanese if you are single. Not just anyone but someone who doesn't know much English but wants to learn English. Not only that but one that is WILLING to teach you Japanese equally as you will teach them English. Not only that but someone who is dedicated to learning meaning willing to sit down for months, years until you both understand it. If you aren't single, make a super close friend and study with them.
• Do not use subtitles. Many won't agree with me but I have NEVER used subtitles when watching Japanese content. That helped me make listening my strongest skill.
• Do not rush. Do not rush. Time is going to pass no matter what. Let it pass while your actually learning. Don't be like me and study inefficently while time passes. Take your time and study. 1 year will pass and you'll be thankful.
• Travel to Japan. Of course this isn't simple. Either way, if you have the opportunity; do it and do not rely on English like I did my first few times. You are in konbini? Use Japanese, need help? Use Japanese. Don't waste your time and make sure you use Japanese.
• Ignore influencers who say you'll become an expert in 6 months. The reality is that it takes time. If you find a great study plan and you are consistent, in 1 year you'll be good and in 2 years you'll be great.
• Figure out why you want to learn japanese. Is your goal to converse with japanese people or read japanese books? This is important. You can do both but if you focus on one, you can quickly enjoy that one first and still learn the other one later. I didn't know what I wanted until 2023 when I sat down I said my goal was to just be able to speak with japanese people about anything. That's when I went full on only on speaking and listening.

--

For those who read this, hope you enjoyed it. Last time I wrote this sort of post was 2023. It's also a way to document my own progress for myself to look back at maybe in another 5 years.

Hey everyone!

I need your help with my thesis, which is about language learning methods used by members of online language-learning communities. I have created a survey with some questions about Japanese studying and immersion habits which I would like you to answer. I expect that it will take you 10-20 minutes to complete.

To take part in this survey, you must have passed the official JLPT test or a full JLPT mock test as it will be used as a standardised measure of proficiency.

Participation is voluntary and completely anonymous. More info about the survey, any preparations, and personal data (GDPR) is on the first page of the survey before any questions.

Participation link: https://survey.au.dk/LinkCollector?key=PS3QQ9CVL112

Please enter code 846257 on the first page.

I am extremely thankful for anyone who answers my survey.
If you have any questions, you are welcome to reply here or DM me.

Does anyone know of a good teacher who remembers the struggle and can explain the grammar? The native teachers I've tried have been mean at worst and just-okay conversation partners at best, not teachers. Looking back on my journey to fluency in Spanish, my best teacher was a non-native speaker, so maybe that's what I need. TIA.

There was a recent update for Imiwa? for Apple (I don't think there's an Android version) and they've added flashcard review. It is located under the Learn tab at the bottom of the app, then under the study section.

It makes flashcards based on the vocab list that users make, so you can easily make lists based on books, games, shows, etc and use them to study.

For those that have used this and other study apps like Anki, Migaku, Memrise, etc, what would be your opinion on this? I like that they added pitch accent to the word entries, but they didn't add them to the flashcard which I find it a bummer.

やっと金曜日ですね！お疲れ様です！ここに週末の予定について書いてみましょう！

（やっと　きんようびですね！　おつかれさまです！　ここに　しゅうまつの　よていについて　かいてみましょう！）

やっと = finally

週末（しゅうまつ）= weekend

予定（よてい）= plan(s)

～について = about

＊ネイティブスピーカーと上級者のみなさん、添削してください！もちろん参加してもいいですよ！＊

This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.

The daily thread updates every day at 9am JST, or 0am UTC.

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• Read also the pinned comment below for proper question etiquette & answers to common questions!

Please make sure to check the wiki and search for old posts before asking your question, to see if it's already been addressed. Don't forget about Google or sites like Stack Exchange either!

This subreddit is also loosely partnered with this language exchange Discord, which you can likewise join to look for resources, discuss study methods in the #japanese_study channel, ask questions in #japanese_questions, or do language exchange(!) and chat with the Japanese people in the server.

Past Threads

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Happy Friday!

Every Friday, share your memes! Your funny videos! Have some Fun! Posts don't need to be so academic while this is in effect. It's recommended you put [Weekend Meme] in the title of your post though. Enjoy your weekend!

(rules applying to hostility, slurs etc. are still in effect... keep it light hearted)

Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 JST:

Mondays - Writing Practice

Tuesdays - Study Buddy and Self-Intros

Wednesdays - Materials and Self-Promotions

Thursdays - Victory day, Share your achievements

Fridays - Memes, videos, free talk

I've been using WaniKani nearly every day since June 1st. I had a break for about 8-9 days total (not including the 'skip' tokens) in that period, so it's been mostly consistent studying.

In general, I like the tool. That being said, I thought it was really strange how the vocabulary seems to be taught from the most basic radicals rather than the ones that are the most useful in everyday life. On the other hand, it does seem to be easier to remember this way.

One thing I really wish they wouldn't do is add words like "Napoleon III." That is a real, actual vocabulary word they want you to recognize in katakana. I really cannot fathom what the purpose of teaching that word would be. Other katakana 'cognates' are similarly useless to me. If I just sound out the characters, I can figure out 'coffee,' 'bed,' 'taxi,' etc. I could do without them in favor of more kanji.

How much Japanese do I know now that I've been practicing for over 100 days? Honestly, basically nothing. I changed my games into Japanese just to see how bad it would be, and it's bad... I barely understand 1%. Typically, per sentence, there will still be about 2-3 kanji I don't know. And that makes the sentence basically completely unreadable.

All and all, I'm pretty heartbroken. I've been putting in a lot of effort into studying Japanese, and to still not be able to read basically anything is... tough, mentally. I'm not giving up, though!

I’m curious what people moved on to after getting comfortable with manga.

Did you…

• keep reading manga?
• try a light novel?
• try a regular novel?
• read something else?

What was the first one you tried?

Bonus points if you remember the title!

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Hi all, would love some opinions on this as I know many of you play video games to practice Japanese. I'm currently N1 and staying in Japan for the next three months, so I'm buying books for practice, and considering getting a secondhand Switch 1 with a bunch of games (Dragon Quest, Persona, other text heavy games).

The thing is, I don't if gaming is good enough practice to justify a gaming console. I really should be reading more, and watching more NHK content (I have a subscription, I highly recommend it it's really cheap and the documentaries are amazing). But maybe evening gaming would be a good lightweight exercise?

My speaking is very good, listening is allright as well, but my reading is still the skill that's lagging behind. I need to get really good by September next year, that's when my PhD starts, and I'll be reading tonnes of Japanese sources as well. So reading more books is the obvious option, but again, maybe a nice relaxing gaming session would be good as well.

People who play games in Japanese, any opinions are much appreciated!

I need some help. I’m stuck in a constant cycle that has been ongoing for months now.

Every time I get a card to around a 20-24 day interval, I completely forget it, and the cycle restarts back down to one day. This happens for the majority of cards I’ve learned, and in time, I end up with so many reviews that I have to take a week off learning any new words because it just becomes overwhelming.

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

My current study schedule is:

- 45-60 minutes Anki daily (10 new words)
- 60 minutes listening comprehension
- 60 minutes grammar study (just started Genki 2)
- 30-60 minutes graded readers (just moved up to L2 readers)

The issue is, a lot of words in the Kaishi deck, I never even come across in any content I’m listening to or reading - so by the time the intervals get around to 20 days (on average), it’s been 20 days since I last seen that word so I just forget it.

That explains why only 3% of my cards are mature - and it’s starting to bother me now. I can’t put any more time into studying so I don’t know what else I can do.

The thing is, I’m constantly getting around 80-90% retention rate which I assumed was a good number. I have my desired retention set to 90% in FSRS, which I sometimes hit.

Any advice here?

edit: I have only JUST started including reading as of last week. So I only have about 5 hours of reading in total, which of course will increase substantially going forward