u/herovillainous

Hello dreamers, I’m back with 300 hours.. Some of you may recognize me from the Dreaming Spanish subreddit, where over the last two years I posted my updates as I worked my way through the 7 levels. After some time doing some French, I decided to switch to Japanese as it interests me more ultimately.

Progress since 100 hours

I have definitely noticed more comprehension as I’ve gotten more input, but the progress is very slow. I’m hovering around level 40-50 on Natural Japanese’s website, and around a N5-N4 level on Youtube videos. I’ve found that my comprehension varies heavily depending on the content of the video. Cooking/food videos are the most comprehensible because so many beginner videos focus on food. Thinking back to my time with Spanish, I do feel like I’m around where I was at 150 hours back then, which is to say, starting to notice the separation of words, the sounds of the language, and more common grammatical constructions. 

I am repeating a lot of content at this stage. There simply is not enough beginner content to get to 600 hours, and even if I repeat everything on Natural Japanese and Youtube within my range, I will come in under 600 hours. I hope that as I get more hours, intermediate content will start to unlock as there seems to be more of that type than any other content online. 

The biggest issue with CI in the Japanese space is that many creators are still finding their feet. I mentioned this in my last update, but it’s very frustrating to find a potentially good channel and then they ruin their videos with hardcoded subtitles, or constant English interjections. It feels like once I break through the beginner stage for good, I won’t have this problem. 

I am able to listen to some very basic non-video content, like Nihongo con Teppei, but most podcasts are still too difficult. This also tracks with my Spanish journey, where at level 2 the only podcasts I could manage were super beginner stuff like Cuentame and Chill Spanish. 

Reading is still pretty much impossible. I have noticed I recognize common kanji/words, which is cool because I have not studied kanji pretty much at all since the beginning. I’ve also noticed that hiragana is pretty easy for me, but katakana is more difficult as it comes up less frequently. My plan is to try a few very simple graded readers during the next level and see how it goes. 

Tools I am using

I am still using NativShark, but I have slowed down from doing daily lessons because the reviews were building up and taking a ton of time each morning to do. I still do a lesson every once and a while, but it is definitely not my priority at the moment. 

I have all but stopped using Anki, but I do plan to add it back in soon, as I think it will help me speed up acquisition. The main roadblock with Anki is that it’s just super boring and I don’t feel motivated to do it. 

I gave up on all other tools, like Wanikani and RTK. I don’t like the amount of time for very little return that they offer. 

Plan Going Forward

I will continue doing what I’ve been doing. The method I used for Spanish definitely works for Japanese, but I can see why things take so much longer. There are no cognates whatsoever (besides borrowed words, but even they sound different enough that I don’t immediately recognize them) and the opposite grammar is still a lot to wrap my head around just yet. These first couple levels are basically about building that base that already existed in Spanish, and once that’s set, I can begin to make more rapid gains. Still, I am pleased with what I’ve accomplished so far. The fact that in just 4 months I have gone from Japanese being completely foreign sounds to being able to follow beginner videos is a huge achievement, and I’m excited to keep progressing forward.

Please leave any questions below and I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks for reading!

Hello dreamers, I hit 100 hours yesterday and thought I would write my first update. Some of you may recognize me from the Dreaming Spanish subreddit, where over the last two years I posted my updates as I worked my way through the 7 levels. After some time doing some French, I decided to switch to Japanese as it interests me more ultimately.

Intro

For Spanish, I took a purist approach to the process. I did not study any grammar or vocab and I thought it worked out very well for me. However, for Japanese, I decided against this, at least during the beginner stage. I saw a video by Pablo where he detailed exactly how he started learning Japanese. Basically, he memorized all the kanji using Remembering the Kanji and then did just immersion after that. I decided to try this, but pivoted after a couple weeks as it wasn’t working well. 

In fact, almost all methods recommended on reddit and other websites I tried and found did not work well for me. Wanikani, Bunpro, Genki, etc were all things I dabbled with and dropped later. 

Tools I am Using:

Comprehensible Input

Obviously, since I am posting in the Dreaming Languages subreddit, the main source of my daily studies is CI. I have primarily been using CIJapanese, but I also use any Youtube videos I can find that are easy enough. As others who have been doing Japanese this way can attest, there really isn’t enough beginner content in Japanese in general, so I do rewatch a lot of videos. CIJapanese currently has about 50 hours of “complete beginner” videos, and by the end of these I was not ready to move onto beginner videos, so I had to find other videos on YT and repeat things a lot. The vibe I get from the community is that Japanese learners/teachers are just starting to really catch on that CI helps a lot. The state of things reminds me of CI for Spanish in 2022-2024. People are starting to make great content, but many channels unfortunately do not understand what makes CI good, and many videos have hardcoded subtitles, or lots of English.

I hope that as I progress, more and more things will open up so I have to repeat things less. I sort of took it for granted on Dreaming Spanish that the amount of content meant you don’t have to repeat anything. 

RRTK Anki Deck

RTK is fine for some kanji, but I found the order of kanji strange, and the mnemonics in the book are downright awful. I put the book down after around 300 kanji. I found an anki deck called RRTK that reorders the kanji into a more sensible order (more common kanji first) and also puts the kanji on the front of the card instead of the back. This method works a lot better for me. I review this deck frequently and don’t try too hard to memorize anything.

Kaishi 1.5k Anki Deck

I use this deck the same way I use the RRTK deck. I review it frequently but don’t put a ton of effort into memorizing anything. When I first started, this deck was honestly just a bunch of gibberish, but after 100 hours, I am starting to see that I know a lot of words. 

Tofugu Kana Guides

I used these for a few weeks to get the basics of kana down, then I stopped using them. Kana is quite simple to learn and there’s no need to keep referencing it once you have the gist of things. 

Nativshark

This is the best website I have found for a general all-encompassing Japanese resource. It is organized in mini-lessons that take 5-15 minutes to complete, and are a mix of grammar, kanji, and vocabulary. There is also a lot of cultural info mixed in. I blitzed through the first couple sections on kana and now do 1 lesson a day. I am currently on lesson 75 as of this writing.

What I can do:

So far, as to be expected in level 1, I can just barely follow beginner videos. While I know a lot of individual words, most complex sentences are sort of a blur. On CIJapanese’s website, I am around level 30 in difficulty, although depending on the content my comprehension varies quite a bit. I cannot watch anything without visual aids at this point. I am hopeful by the time I reach level 2, this will change so I can integrate more podcasts into my routine.  

Plan going forward:

I plan to continue getting as much input as I can each day. I have started dabbling in the super easy beginner books on Tadoku, but just like with Spanish, reading really won’t be there for a long time. I’m doing my best to power through this part of the process as I know it’s the hardest part. 

Thanks for reading, and please leave any questions below!