It seems my 100th day of #WaniKani was two days ago.

I'm enjoying the journey so far. But I fear my brain will explode...

Nearly finished with level 8.

Just reached level 10 on #WaniKani.

Completing this one means the end of the "pleasant" levels. It's also on my objectives before I try to read the simplest #aozora book, for which this level should give me nearly enough vocabulary. After that I'm really interested in level 16.

Regarding level 9, it's the one that took me longer so far. Not because of its difficulty, but because I didn't manage to complete at least 10 lessons on some days as I usually do.

WaniKani's email reads "Level 10 is also a really good time to start learning grammar." Which is precisely what I've been thinking. I can now get the gist of sentences involving kanji and vocabulary I know, but I need to step up grammar to really understand things.

So I'll try to study more #genki.

Reached 1000 enlightened items!

#WaniKani

Level 11 baby!

From the congratulations email:

"You know 98.73% of the JLPT N5 kanji and 75.9% of the JLPT N4 kanji. You know 88.75% of the kanji Japanese kids learn in second grade. Even more impressively, you can read 65.75% of the kanji on NHK News Web Easy, 54.96% of the kanji that shows up on Twitter, and 54.1% of the kanji on Japanese Wikipedia. And, you’re still only 10 levels in!"

#WaniKani

I've just reached my first burned items at #WaniKani!

I'm fearful I may have forgotten things that are now going to be reviewed to become burned or not. Let's see...

I'm at level 12 btw. This level is taking longer than usual because I had to stop studying new cards for around a week, due to some events in life (I managed to more or less keep reviews up to date). But I'm back to studying now.

Finished level 12! Unto level 13!

Failed a few items that would be burned otherwise (a bit of a distraction there, but if they were actually burned wouldn't have happened, right?). Took me a while to remember 木 as もく yesterday (since it hasn't shown up a lot, I think).

Yesterday I picked up an old Japanese Shonen Jump I once got and tried to read a few things. Some are beyond my level, some others are understandable if (the gist of it) with some effort, some are relatively fast to read and have a good idea of what they mean.

I need to work more on grammar.

Anyway, progress!

#wanikani

Reached level 14 on #WaniKani!

I've been failing some items that would be burned otherwise, but generally I'm getting them right.

I've also been failing a bit more kanji from recent lessons. I think it's because many of them are abstract (feelings, ideologies, etc) and similar, which are harder to grasp.

But... There's definitely progress. I picked up #Genki and read a dialogue and I knew all kanji and vocabulary on it, which was a great feeling. I knew most of the vocabulary list as well.

I'm planning (and starting) to spend a little less time with new daily lessons and focus that time in going through Genki, as I feel I really really need to develop more basic grammar at this point.

I don't like the idea of slowing down new lessons, but I need to get that grammar-time from somewhere.

PS: this level has an abnormally low number of radical items. Don't know if that will start to be a trend or if it's just this level.

Finally finished #Wanikani level 14. Took nearly a month.

I'm slowing things down since:

• I need time to study grammar
• I have something coming up and know I probably need less reviews per day to be able to keep up during it

A bit sad to slow down, but better to do that than stop altogether.

Just reached #WaniKani level 16!

I took very long to get to this one. I went on a trip to Japan and had to slow down before I went, not to have too many reviews. I was kinda studying everyday anyway there.

It was quite useful to know the kanji/vocabulary I learned on WaniKani. I could not have actual "conversations" but being able to read some things and say some things in Japanese was useful in multiple situations. Many of them continue to be terrible with English. Approaching situations in Japanese was something I could do, but understanding the replies is quite challenging, I'm not trained in that and they talk veeery fast 😅

Since I've come back I'm slower with new lessons, but still progressing. Before I was typically doing 10 new lessons per day, now I'm doing ~5.

I've started to read some very basic free graded book as well.

Anyway, let's keep at it!

Just reached #WaniKani level 17

(I still have quite a few vocab items from 16 to go through before I really start 17.)

Been reading the most basic free graded reader books at https://tadoku.org .

I've just yesterday started to try and read some news on #NHK Easy. I can somewhat understand them. Not with precision, but I can definitely get the gist of them!

I'm also watching #Naruto. Not really as Japanese practice, but actually it's quite nice to be able to recognise the sound of some vocab/verbs. Some simple sentences too.

It's been almost a year since I started #WaniKani. I have just bought the lifetime subscription, which is on the usual Christmas/new year sale. I really love the app, and it has helped me progress so much in a year...

I'm nearly finished with level 17.

#japanese

Reached #WaniKani level 18.

Picking up some speed again lately. Before Japan I was consistent at 10 and after I've been at 5. Back to 5+ new items per day, up to 10 (actually more than 10 sometimes if I see some simple vocab).

#WaniKani level 19, here I am!

Been using this site for the first time to complete Genki exercises. I get autocorrection, which is nice (not perfect), you get to do it on the go without carrying the book, and it helps with exercises that you'd normally need a colleague for.

https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/lessons-3rd/

This #WaniKani example sentence is me! 😆

"起きたらすぐにワニカニをするようにしてたんだけど、それが一年間も続いたんだ！すごくない？でも、まだレベルは１９だよ。

I decided to do WaniKani right after waking up, and I kept it up for a whole year! Isn't that amazing? But I'm still only at level nineteen."

Just reached #WaniKani level 20!

"Welcome to Level 20. Kind of a milestone, if I say so myself. It’s also the last level in the “苦 painful” category too. I wonder what’s next 🤔

When you finish up Level 20, you’ll know quite a bit.

• 98.8% of the JLPT N4 kanji (as well as 100% of the JLPT N5 kanji).
• 65.94% of the JLPT N3 kanji.
• The amount of kanji a Japanese 3rd grader should know (and 70% of what a 4th grader should know).
• 87.03% of the kanji on NHK Web Easy.
• 76.92% of the kanji on the average Japanese Wikipedia articles."

#WaniKani "Level 21. Out of the 苦 levels and into the 死 levels."

Should I fear what's coming? 😰

Today's a troublesome selection... Will probably confuse some of these.

#WaniKani #JapaneseLearning

#WaniKani level 22 here I am!

がんばれ！

Very recently I tried do listen to ドラえもん in Japanese, without subtitles. I'm bad at listening, but I get some things, which is nice.

I've started #WaniKani 502 days ago! Studying Japanese everyday since then.

I'm reaching level 23 soon.

#WaniKani level 23, I've arrived!

"I don’t know if you realized this, but you’re getting close to the halfway mark."

Eh, still a bit far.

I'm still slacking off on grammar...

I've finished #WaniKani level 23 yesterday. Onto level 24.

I like to follow song lyrics in Japanese as I listen. I'm not able to read everything, but it's still enjoyable and I get an idea of some unknown kanji and their meaning.

When I'm not looking at lyrics, I find it good listening practice (my weakest point for sure).

Just now I was listening to 君に触れるだけで , from るろうに剣心 .

I'm still utterly lagging behind grammar. But hopefully I can change that a bit in the next few days.

When I finish level 24, I'll be at 40% of #WaniKani completion.

Yesterday I reviewed and practiced some grammar. Yay me.

A bit shocked to learn the kanji form of たくさん、沢山 .

Same happend some weeks ago with 有り難う、ありがとう .

#WaniKani #JapaneseLearning

Finally learned 違う , that I hear frequently in anime.

#WaniKani #JapaneseLearning

Finished #WaniKani level 24.

I'm making an effort to study/practice grammar every day and go through #Genki. This week's been the best in a long time.

I'm also about to drop #Duolingo. It never brought me much value, and I'm feeling it's just wasted time, even if only ~5 minutes a day (can invest those is grammar). It's a chore. Today I jumped to the end of a section and tried a lesson in the new section. It was more interesting in terms of grammar. I'll probably do a few more jumps to test myself sometimes, but I'll not try to keep a streak any longer.

Dropping #Duolingo is one of the best things I did lately.

I'm now studying grammar multiple times per week, with #Genki. I study a lesson, then do reviews as needed, and complete the exercises.

I love not having the stress to complete Duolingo daily by midnight. I can actually learn things and improve multiple times per week. And if I slide past midnight that's totally fine, it still counts.

#JapaneseLearning

Reached #WaniKani level 26.

I've been consistently studying grammar with #Genki. I read the whole section, then do some exercises each day (not every day, my objective is at least four times a week). I do them on the website below, which allows me to get automatic correction of my answers. And it also has summaries of the grammar points. I re-read parts of the section as needed as I progress through the exercises. When I finish all exercises for a section, I move to the next one.

https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/lessons-3rd/

I feel my reading comprehension is improving since I'm finally dedicating myself to grammar.

I'm currently completing section 8 from the first Genki volume. It's quite behind compared to my progress at WaniKani.

#JapaneseLearning

I've reached 3000 burned items at #WaniKani!

It's been 617 days since I started. Studying every single day since then. It's been a great journey so far.

Reached #WaniKani level 27! Closing in on level 30!

I'm progressing in grammar too. But still to finish Genki I. I'm at section 9. I feel that I study new grammar and forget how to apply parts I already studied, which is frustrating. I probably should use Bunpro to help (which I've seen @indutny mention many times), but I've decided to stick with Genki I and II (which I own) before going for Bunpro...

I've very recently started listening to the reading practice from the YouTube channel below. They upload lots of listening content. I'm very bad at listening. I'll only be able to improve my comprehension by practicing listening and studying more grammar. No way around that.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_GlNwPQ1DCGjIiJAsKmHMw

#JapaneseLearning

#WaniKani level 28!

The recent changes on the home screen brought some some nice features such as the Correct Percentage widget that stipulates the learning zone corresponds to 85-95% accuracy. I'm normally a bit above 95% without knowing if that's good or not so good, and now I know and have a way to monitor. There's also the Days Studied widget which shows I've never skipped a study day since starting WaniKani 😄

I'm studying grammar but slacking off lately. My objective is 4 times per week but I'm studying around 2 times per week... Need to get back to it. I frequently forget grammar points or am unsure about them and that discourages me. But practice makes perfect.

Finally reached #WaniKani level 29!

This one took me two months, instead of one. I slowed down. I felt I was spending too much time on Japanese and missing out on many other things.

Before I was studying 5 new items per day on average. Now I'm still studying everyday, but I pick new items in a way that I end up with about 20 revisions for when I wake up the next day. So now I study maybe 3 new items on average. But some days may be 0, others may be 5 or more.

Grammar... I've completely stopped since early November. I'm not proud of that. I should invest in grammar so I can start reading/listening more. That will help me advance by making all the vocabulary useful. If I study just vocabulary it's pretty pointless. I'll try to get back to it.

Anyway, I'm still pushing forward!

PS: talked with a Japanese yesterday at a street food van. My simple messages went through, but when he replied I couldn't understand and had to get back to English, which he talked (he asked if I had lived in Japan and that's why I knew Japanese). I can say things, but it's hard to understand replies. I'm always embarrassed when that happens 😅

I'm nearly finished with #Genki I. Only a few exercises left. I've been studying consistently every week since start of January.

When I went to Japan I bought some manga. I planned to try to readドラえもん volume 1 when I finished Genki I, one of the simpler manga I bought.

With this in mind, the other day I looked at #Natively (learnnatively.com) to see what it said about Doraemon. It says #WaniKani level 21. I'm currently finishing 29. No issue there.

I read some comments to see if anyone mentioned grammar level. I found a few comments mentioning N3. I'm not sure whether they're mentioning it in terms of vocabulary, grammar or both. But I know my grammar is barely a solid N5...

I looked up some more books. Many had WK level around 30, mostly below.

So... I've come to the hard realisation (which I already knew, but it hit me harder now) that my grammar is lagging behind. A lot!

With that in mind, I jumped into #Bunpro three days ago. I planned to do it after finishing Genki I and II, but now I know that's a mistake. I need to move much faster and in a solid way with grammar (spaced repetition, because I learn grammar and forget it...), and I think Bunpro will help. I'm enjoying it so far, let's see how it develops. (Ah, I synched vocab with WK, so I don't get furigana I should know. Also disabled English translation by default.)

I'm using the Genki I grammar deck for now, as a full review of everything I should already know and as a way to practice. And I'm learning new things/nuances because Bunpro has different explanations for the same grammar points.

Anyway, I'll soon try to read ドラえもん and see how it goes. The extent to which I'll understand it or not will be important information to assess how far or short I am in this long road of #JapaneseLearning .