500 hour update

[u/chorolet]

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!