Long story short, I have used LingQ since April 2014. It has definitely helped my Japanese language abilities quite a bit! I’m also at around 18,000 on the “words known” counter, too.
However, I feel like I’m hitting a dead end since I’m running out of materials to use that I can easily find. I also need to practice my listening skills, too.
So, is there anything very reliable podcasts (with transcripts), news articles with audio, and things related to those purely in Japanese audio/text? Thank you to those who reply to this!
Give yourself a pat on the back; You’ve done well. I can only tell you what I do at this stage, so just my opinion.
I start watching films, TV and reading books in the language. I write in forums and converse if possible. I don’t understand every word in a film or show, but I understand enough to know what is happening. Once I know enough that I can enjoy Tv & film, learning the language ceases to be ‘work’.
If your listening really is lagging behind, you may need to do more listening on LingQ before moving on to TV. Could you both read the lesson in japanese, and then copy/paste the lesson into a roman alphabet converter to help with pronounciation whilst listening?
For anyone who was curious, I had experience with Japanese before I found LingQ.
I took 3 years of Japanese classes in high school (2006-2009). I bought James Heisig’s book Remembering the Kanji Vol. 1 in Fall 2009. Eventually, in 2011, I completed the book after doing it on and off from 2009 to 2011 (did it again in 2012 where I completed it in a month and a half).
Moved onto Anki where I did up to 6,000 words in it. Then I heard of LingQ when I watched Steve’s 90 day challenge with Korean.
Signed up, and never looked back.
For those who are struggling with anything to do with the Japanese language, whether it be Kanji or any major roadblocks, don’t give up! I considered stopping several times, but I continued studying!
I’m aiming for fluency in Japanese some time in 2015. It wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for LingQ! Thanks to everyone who made this site possible!