Learning Japanese: first 2 weeks

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1

Hello!

Here is a short intro and overview on my first 2 weeks with Japanese.

For a long time I had a fascination with Japanese culture consuming all that I could (anime, movies, books, manga, etc.) Last year I was in Japan for 3 weeks and I have to say that it’s as fascinating as I thought and it left me wanted more.

So at the beginning of the year with the encouragement of a friend who was very enthusiastic about lingq I gave it a shot. Here’s my report for the first 2 weeks:

  • 72 known words
  • 372 lingqs
  • 7 hours listening

It’s not as much as I wanted but being a completely new start I had to invest some time in other non-lingq Japanese activities:

  • learn hiragana and katakana using the bellow guides
    Learn Katakana: The Ultimate Guide
    Learn Hiragana: Tofugu's Ultimate Guide

  • started using wanikani to learn kanji at the same time. Considering the daunting task of learning kanji I thought it might be worth trying a different approach as well. There I almost finished the first level, reaching “guru” status with: 26 radicals, 16 kanji, 11 words.

  • I’ve also been listening around 1,5 hours a day(travel to work) to the Japanese audio flashcard courses which are nice because they have both English and Japanese in the audio.
    http://www.japaneseaudiolessons.com/

I think it’s good progress but my biggest issue is being consistent in the long term so trying to keep up the work.

For the next 2 weeks I aim to:

If you have any advice especially about learning kanji and staying motivated long term do share.

Cheers,

Alex

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2

Thank you for sharing this here. I will be studying Japanese for 3 consecutive months later this year. These resources will come in handy. I like you have a near life long fascination with Japan, Japanese culture–before, during and after my brief trip there with my parents and one of my brothers.

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Great stuff!

Japanese is my first L2, and it has given me the freedom to realise that we can learn any language we like.

I have no advice that is specific to Japanese. Just do what you enjoy.

In terms of kanji, I have acquired all my kanji from LingQ itself. By simply seeing the words in context–many times–I can understand them. However, I cannot hand write kanji at all because of this.

But again, this is the way I am enjoying the language.

In order to stay motivated long term, just ensure that any task you do is fun. For me, this meant not learning to handwrite kanji, but to study new words from video game podcasts, haha.

If you’re not going to take a test, then do not allow yourself to bound by its restrictions. Just have fun!

頑張ってください!

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Cool. I think wanikani is a great resource for studying kanji, especially when you’re just starting. It works best when supplementing daily reading in my opinion.

I find that daily interaction with Japanese speakers, as well as stimulating materials (books, websites, manga, tv shows, etc.) has helped me to sustain my interest and motivation.

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A great app that is helping me a lot is Kanji Study:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sieuduahau.kanji&hl=en

This one uses picture illustrations to help you remember the kanji. I also use Obenkyo to test myself on memorizing Kanji:

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