私の日本語の勉強 ✿ My Japanese studies 01 ✿ What I did this last year

こんにちは、みなさん
元気ですか？元気だよ！今日のテーマは、私の日本語の勉強についてだね！

After discussing for 10 minutes with ChatGPT… we agreed that my intro sentence was well written! Yay for me! 🤣 So today I want to start the first post about my Japanese studies. I really, really love talking about this. You have no idea 🙈✨

It has now been one year since I started studying seriously, which feels like the perfect time to share my journey. But first, let me tell you where I was a year ago.

At the end of 2019, I passed the N5 exam. It was a close call, but I passed. From then until 2024, I studied on and off. I am self-taught, so everything depended on my own effort and motivation, and that is hard to keep up for so long.

Around this time last year, I decided to commit fully. I began studying for 1–2 hours every single day without skipping. My two main rules were to avoid burnout and to keep learning, and I allowed myself the freedom to change what I was studying at any time (this might be the most important thing of all) ✨

The first step was to refresh my N5 level. From July to August, I went through Genki 1 again along with Bunpro to refresh vocabulary and grammar. I skipped the exercises because I do not like them, but I read the texts several times until I understood them almost perfectly. By the end of August, I had a better grasp of the level than ever before.

In the last two weeks of August, I worked through the entire 300 Kanji Book (留学生のための漢字の教科書). I already knew most of the kanji and I do not plan to learn how to write them, only to read them. I also quickly reviewed several N5 preparation books, that I bought long time ago, to make sure I had not missed anything.

It was then time to start N4. I went through Genki 2 back to back, noting down all the important grammar. Looking back, that was not the most effective approach because practice is what really makes things stick, so I should have spent that time reading more.

Around the same time, I started the Kaishi 1.5 Anki deck with 1500 common words. That turned out to be one of my biggest mistakes. I burned out, did it badly, and had to redo it twice. Even now, there are words I still struggle with. The word 施設 (facilities) is one I have seen over 100 times, yet I still miss it (I do not delete it because I know it will eventually stick).

In December, I also started Wanikani, but using it along Anki nearly burned me out again, so I had to stop at level 12 🥲

By February, I had finished my second revision of the Kaishi deck and my vocabulary was much more varied. To complete N4, I started using the 新完全マスター reading and grammar books, which are amazing. It will destroy your joy and confidence but will prepare you for the JLPT exam pretty well.

Once I finished that grammar phase, I moved on to reading books at my level and mining vocabulary from them. The ミラーさん series and the Japanese version of Magic Tree House were both great.

This last months, I have added part of the 2k/6k deck to my Kaishi deck and have been doing a lot of active listening on YouTube, which used to be one of my weakest skills.

I tried N3 grammar but decided it is not the right time. My focus now is to learn around 3,500 of the most common words and to improve my listening (I'm around 2500). So in December I can start reading Harry Potter along the audiobook. But we will see... 🙈

As you can see, I have changed my study methods many times. I tried many different approaches before finding what works for me, so don't be afraid of trying new things, even if they don't work on the long run, the important thing is to keep learning.

In my next posts, I will explain how I would study if I were starting from scratch now that my ideas are clearer. With all the resources I use for each level!

Let me know any questions you have or if you want me to talk about anything specific!💖