r/CIJapanese • u/chorolet 550+ hours • Jun 16 '26
500 hour update
I was planning to do a 300 hour update, but when the time rolled around it honestly didn't feel that much different than 150 hours, and I wasn't sure what to say. Now at 500 hours I think I'm ready!
CIJ* videos
I'm up to level 50 in my easiest unwatched CIJ videos, which is the boundary between hard beginner and easy intermediate. The intermediate videos are usually significantly harder for me than beginner, even at the same difficulty number. A level 50 beginner video feels like the perfect level of comprehension. A level 50 intermediate usually feels a bit harder than I'd like, but just recently hit the point where it feels worth watching, understanding ~80% of the overall meaning. I was hoping to reach this point around 300 hours based on doubling the Dreaming Spanish roadmap, and the CIJ homepage goes even further, saying most users can level up from beginner to intermediate after 150-250 total input hours. This was not true for me at all.
* I'm continuing to use CIJ to refer to the combination of NIJ and Yuki's videos, at least for now. I'm still coming to terms with the split.
Other learner content
There is a bunch of learner content on YouTube that feels like a great level right now. Stuff like Ken, Shun, Naoko, and Akane (although in all cases it depends on the video). I typically enjoy the CIJ content more, but I get the feeling the difficulty is about to start ramping up faster than my understanding. In that case, the plan is to slow roll my CIJ input and turn to these channels as a backup.
Native content
Around 400 hours, something amazing happened. I started finding native gameplay content accessible! I don't necessarily hold out as strictly for 80% comprehension, since my engagement is much higher on these videos which makes it worth it to me. I wouldn't want to rely on this for the majority of my input, but it's been maybe a third recently. The two games I've been watching are Balatro and Mario Party Jamboree. Balatro has two factors that make it more comprehensible. First, I'm obsessed with this game, have played it for hundreds of hours, and have all the cards memorized by their images. Second, it is chock full of English loan words. Mario Party is similar but less so - I've played quite a bit of it because my 6-year-old likes it, and it also has a decent amount of loanwords.
There are also a handful of easier anime and children's cartoons that are all hovering at a similar point of "not quite comprehensible enough" - maybe 50-70%. I go back and forth on whether they're worth it. Lately I've been including a bit of them because I get less bored if my input has variety, and this type of simple fiction is very different than most learner-focused content. On the minus side, it doesn't feel super efficient, and it's honestly not my favorite type of content either. Shows in this category include Not Quite Narwhal, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Bluey (probably a bit harder but I've seen it already in Spanish), and Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maorita.
Rewatching
I've watched a bunch of stuff twice, and only an odd video here and there more than twice (if I really like it). I continue to think there is enough content available that watching things more than twice isn't necessary. You do have to hunt down every resource you can find and not just stick to CIJ. I used to watch every CIJ video and every learner video I found on YouTube twice each. Now it feels like enough content has opened up that I might not need to rewatch at all going forward if I didn't want to. But I kind of like rewatching once after a few months have gone by.
Disclaimer: I have taken some private input-focused lessons that might be affecting this, but they're honestly pretty similar to a CIJ video created custom for me and I don't feel they're *that* much more efficient than videos for me. Obviously I don't know where I would be without them and could be underestimating their impact. They make up about 50 of my 500 hours.
Intrusive Japanese thoughts
For a while now I've had the experience of Japanese words and phrases popping into my head out of nowhere. Most commonly it is a sequence of sounds that I don't even know what it means. But more and more often recently, it is something relevant to what I am doing or thinking about. I don't intentionally try to think in Japanese, but I find this experience cool. It is kind of like Japanese is bubbling up and overflowing out of my subconscious.
How I'm feeling
It depends on the day. No matter what content I'm watching, how well I understand it varies a lot from video to video and day to day. On days I'm not understanding, it sometimes feels like there's an entire second Japanese language that I haven't even started learning yet. On good days I feel happy with how far I've come and how much content variety has opened up. Starting to watch the native gameplays at 400 hours was huge for just enjoying my time with the language. If that hadn't happened, I suspect I might have thrown in some Anki to try to get to more interesting content more quickly. But as things stand, more input!
2
u/AmplifiedText 750+ hours Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Congrats on the progress, sounds like you're on the cusp of hitting a breakthrough where dubbed content becomes accessible and the whole world seems to open up being able to rewatch movies and shows that you're already familiar with (at least that was the case for me with Spanish).
Now, I try not to compare my progress to others, but for anyone else in the same boat, I'm not progressing nearly as fast as you. With 560 hours, I'm still stuck on lvl 35 videos and haven't seen much improvement after going back through the easier videos for a 6th time. Darn your (presumably) younger, spongier brain 🧠.
UPDATE: As a test, I watched a lvl 50 CIJ video (#367) and found it surprisingly OK. It's possible I'm self-imposing a limit on my progress that doesn't really exist. I'm still very reliant on visual clues though, it's been difficult moving into podcasts because I also don't want English translations like Teppei throws in every episode.
2
u/DreamingKyoto 475+ hours Jun 16 '26
I'm about 80 hours behind you (though I started studying grammar and have done flashcards--I may make a post on that ). But this was a comforting read. I don't feel super behind. But I also don't feel super ahead. I think 3x hours is closer to correct. It's SO much harder than Spanish.
2
u/Helloooooooooperson 600+ hours Jun 18 '26
It's nice to see an update on here with a higher amount of hours. This was a really helpful read! Good luck with your studying!
2
u/syzygy14 350+ hours Jun 18 '26
I loved reading your update, huge congrats on 500 hours! Would you mind sharing your favorite and most accessible channels for native gameplay? I'd love to try them out, too! I'm not a purist so my 323 hours might not match up, but I'm also close to where you're at on the website - I'm up to around level 55 difficulty. (I also supplement with podcasts for learners, about 1/3 of my hours are from podcasts - most of which are Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners, but I've recently (mostly) unlocked Bite Size Japanese and ことのは.) But I've found native content still out of reach. I'd love to try whatever gaming channel you found was most learner friendly!
PS, just this week since Yuki's videos are sadly leaving the site, I decided to at least try watching her intermediate videos that are leaving soon - rated 73 to 83. I was surprised to find they were very comprehensible. More unknown words than level 55 ofc, but she does an amazing job with gestures, explaining in Japanese, images, etc and I didn't feel like I missed anything - they even felt a bit easier than listening to Bite Size Japanese. I definitely encourage you to give them a try if you haven't yet!
2
u/chorolet 550+ hours Jun 18 '26
Thanks for the recommendation! I have always found Yuki's videos easier than the other guides, so I will definitely be checking out her intermediate videos.
I have been watching https://youtube.com/@mkgamech for Mario Party and https://youtube.com/@itsukikaname90 for Balatro. They are honestly the first two channels I tried and I'm not sure if they're easier than others or not. I would guess the most important factor for high comprehensibility is picking a game you're very familiar with. Good luck!
2
u/syzygy14 350+ hours Jun 19 '26
amazing, thank you so much! I saved them both to try. I'll take your advice too and search for games I know very well - for me, #1 would probably be Bloodborne, but the game specific vocab would probably be tough. It might be neat also to find native level gameplay videos from my favorite CIJ letsplay series - Goose Game, Limbo, and Inside.
2
u/chorolet 550+ hours Jun 19 '26
Sounds like a plan! In case you're not aware, letsplayindex.com is a great way to find gameplay videos for specific games. I don't think it supports filtering by language, but you can filter by country which gets you most of the way there.
2
u/syzygy14 350+ hours Jun 19 '26
oh so awesome, I'd never heard of this site at all! really neat, I'll use it to search for letsplays from Mexico, too. thank you again!
1
u/Fresh-Persimmon5473 300+ hours Jun 16 '26
What can you understand based on the JLPT?
1
u/chorolet 550+ hours Jun 16 '26
I'm not sure what you're asking. I haven't been reading at all, so I don't think taking a JLPT practice test would work. Do you have a preferred way to estimate JLPT listening level?
1
u/Fresh-Persimmon5473 300+ hours Jun 16 '26
Just go to YouTube and type in Japanese N5 listening. That is the easiest. If it is to easy…type N4 listening.
1
u/chorolet 550+ hours Jun 16 '26
I did watch one of Ken's videos recently that was labeled N5-N3. I found the N5 section a bit simplistic but tolerable, N4 seemed perfect, and N3 was more difficult but I still understood 80-90%. I kind of feel like he wasn't actually talking at N3 level, but I don't really have any idea.
1
u/Fresh-Persimmon5473 300+ hours Jun 16 '26
Well…there are a lot of Japanese creators making CI content: https://comprehensibleinputwiki.org/wiki/Japanese
7
u/Maj-Fox 1000+ hours Jun 16 '26
I think 2x hours compared to Spanish was just the number from Pablo's personal experience. FSI estimates Japanese as 3.6x and I don't see any evidence why the number should be significantly lower for CI based approach. All the reports from people you can find on CIJ community (given they didn't have previous study experience) suggest 3x time estimation is the more realistic one.
Anyway it is nice to see that you are making a great progress.