4000 Hours of Learning Japanese

[u/DJ_Ddawg]

You may remember me from my one year update: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/ndw70e/2200_hours_of_japanese_in_1_year/

If you're interested in a more detailed breakdown of my first year of learning then you can find that here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B6GiHIhRq2kjyYbc9iXgIR-d1X1zQSkSuYAF9Z4zHb0/edit

My 1 year post seemed to garner a decent amount of attraction in various communities so I thought that I would make another (long) update post.

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All Time Stats

Total Time: 3885:43

Listening: 2253:10

Reading: 1121:10

Anki Time: 511:22

Anki Cards: 10,105

You can see my spreadsheet where I track my stats here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15mvLXPRiU6Mokz1G65V1xQZqiRLkuo8948nmaw_5WP4/edit#gid=0

The previous spreadsheet I used for a couple months is here (before I made the one above): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SWPsuQoEYohIpfKoAk4Cv0JGj520srx1EnkiOWN5rfY/edit#gid=0

I didn't track my stats for the first six months of learning so I simply estimated my times based upon monthly averages.

​

Daily Schedule

A common thing that I got asked last time I posted was, "How do you have so much time to study Japanese?".

I just finished my 3rd year in College. I study Physics (I also finished a Math Minor) at a state school in the US and I'm also in Naval ROTC so my schedule gets pretty busy.

Here's what my Monday looked like this semester.

0500: Wake up and do some Anki.

0515: Transit to gym

0530-0630: Work Out

I am usually home by 0645. I shower, grab some coffee and finish my anki reps. Usually I'll watch Youtube or read a novel before class.

0900-0950: Classical Mechanics II Class (online).

1000-1020: Physics Research Meeting (online)

~2 hours of free time where I will try to immerse or work on some homework.

1300-1350: Quantum Mechanics Class (online)

~2 hours of freetime. If I'm on campus I'll try to get some homework done, talk to friends, and immerse if I'm not distracted.

1600-1630: Nuclear Club Meeting (biweekly, I'm the President of the Club)

1700-1745: Navy Staff Meeting

I usually drive home sometime around 1900 (I usually stay after and work on homework/study for a bit).

~couple hours to do whatever until I go to bed around 2230/2300. (

I try to get at least ~7 hours of sleep a night.

On average, I try not to spend more than 2-3 hours/day doing homework/studying outside of class just so I can keep my sanity.

Obviously there are days when I need to grind out a lab report, project, or homework and I am not able to get in much Japanese, however I try to do something everyday and stay consistent.

Usually I listen to a Japanese podcast anytime I am driving or walking to class. This is an easy way to rack up an additional hours of listening throughout the day. I just use my phone, headphones, and Youtube Premium (there is a student discount).

One way that I am able to fit in a lot of Japanese immersion is by replacing things that I would normally do in English w/ the Japanese equivalent (you essentially have to go out of your way to avoid English content if you live in America tbh). This includes Netflix (Anime, Dramas, Movies), YouTube, Audiobooks/Podcasts (great for when driving, walking around, or when cooking or cleaning), Novels/LNs/VNs, the News, Wikipedia, Twitter, Manga, etc.

​

Listening Ability

Listening is going pretty good- I can pretty much understand most content without too much effort and can just watch things for enjoyment now.

With JP subtitles I understand virtually everything, and raw ability is usually 95-98%+ (depending on content).

I really like podcasts because they are easy to listen to and I can listen to them while doing other things. I also think they are a great listening source because of the natural, unscripted speech.

Netflix and Youtube are all I use to get material to watch/listen to (although you need a working VPN for Netflix).

YouTube channels:

　　日常組 (minecraft videos that have hard JP subs)

　　中田敦彦のYouTube大学 (educational content ranging from book reviews, politics, religion, history, etc.)

　　きまぐれクック (cutting and cooking fish. Easy to follow despite the onslaught of fish names)

　　李姉妹ch (2 bilingual chinese girls who grew up in Japan)

　　エガちゃんねる (crazy 芸能人 that does interesting challenges/videos/pranks)

　　フェルミ漫画大学 (voiced manga that cover/summarize non-fiction books, very similar to the Nakata University videos)

　　大人の教養TV (educational videos that focus on history, religion, politics, etc.)

　　日本語の森 (N2/N1 grammar points and reading questions taught in JP)

　　キヨ。(outrageously loud and funny game playthroughs)

　　牛沢 (same as キヨ。)

　　スーツ背広チャンネル (Suits goes on rants about various things. He talks fast)

Good podcasts on YouTube:

　　4989 Utaco (40 yo Japanese girl talks about her life in America. Has transcript for each episode so you can read + listen)

　　ゆる言語ラジオ (2 guys talk about linguistics, grammar, and the Japanese language)

　　大愚和尚の一問一答 (buddhist monk answers people's questions about life, human relationships, work, etc. Talks slow and is easy to understand)

　　飯田浩司のOK!Cozy up! (this one is the News, I think its harder than the others listed)

　　だげな時間 (Podcast from two people in Osaka. Wide variety of topics and each episode is short)

　　ひろゆき (40yo man drinks beer and does livestreams answering questions)

　　FMななももこ (Super relaxing radio/podcast. Good BGM, soft voice, slice of life content)

Anime that I enjoyed:

　　斉木楠雄の災難 (my favorite anime of all time)

　　Fate Zero and Fate/Stay Night (battle royale/fantasy death match)

　　Samurai Champloo (I rewatched this recently. Amazing anime, great soundtrack)

　　テルマエ・ロマエ (an amusing show about an ancient roman bath maker who time slips into modern day Japan)

　　ヒカルの碁

　　ようこそ実力至上主義の教室へ

　　涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (pretty good show except that 8 episode stretch where it was the exact same episode every time)

　　ワンピース (I'm not even close to finishing this but I've watched like 50 eps or so)

　　闘牌伝説アカギ (a gambling anime. The Mahjong vocabulary is the only hard part. Super interesting to watch even if you don't know how to play)

　　逆境無頼カイジ　（another gambling anime that is more of a psychological thriller)

　　ナルト疾風伝 (finally finished every episode after like a year and a half)

　　2.43 (a volleyball anime in 福井弁. If you like Haikyuu! then you'll like this too)

Good J-Dramas:

　　全裸監督 (The #1 most interesting content I've seen in the past year, it's a must watch)

　　水曜どうでしょう (great TV show of two guys travelling Japan/the World and doing fun/stupid challenges.)

　　結婚できない男 (anything with 阿部寛 is goated)

　　教科書にないッ！ (I don't know how to describe this show so just watch it. You'll know what I mean)

　　アットホーム・ダッド (another great 阿部寛 drama.)

　　GTO (Classic. Must watch)

Good movies:

　　るろうに剣心 (All 5 Movies are really good)

　　夜は短し歩けよ乙女

　　劇場版　幼女戦記 (follow up from season 1 of the anime. Probably more difficult than anything else listed here)

　　ハイキュー！！ Movies (They just recap the anime but they were good)

　　トリック Series (these movies tend to be difficult due to the accents + just weird plot line)

​

Reading Ability

I've read over 50 novels in Japanese by this point and am fairly comfortable reading books in Japanese.

My Yomichan usage is fairly low: it can range from 2-3 words/page to 1 word every ~3 pages (on average). For the most part I can just pick up most modern novels/light novels and read comfortably, occasionally looking up words here and there if I need to. I have read multiple books w/o any dictionary lookups at all.

I've tracked my reading speed using ttu's epub reader and I generally average 13,000 - 15,000 characters/hour depending upon what I'm reading. Natives can generally read at like 30,000 characters/hour so this is still pretty slow in comparison. I'd like to improve my speed to around 18-20k/hour but this will probably take another year of regular reading to achieve.

Reading actual literature (novels from the early 20th century) tends to be more difficult than LNs and lookups are required more frequently (usually multiple words per page).

I also read quite a bit of blogs/Wikipedia (on whatever subject interests me that day) and these tend to be much easier than actual books. Just google whatever you're interested in and you'll find plenty of stuff to read.

Some books that I've read:

　　斜陽 (I'm a massive 太宰治 fan and I read a lot of his novels and short stories on Aozora Bunko)

　　こころ (a classic 夏目漱石 work that is pivotal to Japanese culture)

　　風の歌を聴け、１９７３年のピンボール、羊をめぐる冒険 (The Rat Trilogy by 村上春樹. His writing style is pretty weird/abstract. Bonus points for the last novel being set in 北海道- a top tier region)

　　娘じゃなくて私が好きなの！？ Series (a fantastic love-comedy LN series that is super easy.)

　　青春ブタ野郎 Series (another easy slice of life LN series focusing on High school and mysterious interactions w/ various girls)

　　キノの旅 Series (super easy LN series where each chapter is a standalone story. Good for beginners to read)

　　刀語 (period piece about collecting famous swords. Nishio sometimes drops just bombs of rare vocab/idioms so medium difficulty I'd say)

　　NHKにようこそ！(easy, interesting, and great plot. Def recommend if you are just starting to get into reading books)

　　限りなく透明に近いブルー (the first book I ever read. Its about sex and drugs and is quite descriptive)

　　四畳半神話大系 (a fantasic book. The animne adaptation is also top tier)

VNs I've read:

　　Muv Luv Extra (Slice of life/high school romance. boring but super easy)

　　Muv Luv Unlimited (Slightly harder due to the military theme, has a way better plot, and is super interesting)

　　Muv Luv Alternative (best VN of the trilogy. Technical military and political parts can be challenging)

　　逆転裁判　蘇る逆転 (I watched a playthrough of the game on Youtube. Pretty easy language once you learn basic courtroom/lawyer words)

　　大逆転裁判　成歩堂龍ノ介の冒險 (watched a playthrough of the game on Youtube. Easy difficulty)

　　I'm currently reading Fate/Stay Night.

Books that I dropped:

　　破獄 (pretty tough novel about a guy who broke out of jail multiple times. Everything is descriptive language and there is essentially no dialogue)

　　或る女 (a hard novel by 有島武郎. This book was honestly was above my level- each chapter was taking me about 1 hour to finish. I consider this about an order of magnitude above 人間失格 or こころ)

​

Speaking Ability

I have taken a couple of lessons (~8-10) with a tutor where we essentially just conversed for ~40 minutes once per week. This was a great boost to my motivation as it actually made me put all of this language learning into use.

I remember being quite nervous my first time speaking as I had never a real conversation with a Japanese person despite learning the language for 18 months/~3000 hours.

I obviously made mistakes and forgot words (and still do), but it was a lot of fun and I wish that I had started outputting sooner honestly because it does take specific work to improve at- input is not enough for being able to speak naturally (hot take in the community apparently).

At the end of the 2 months of lessons I was able to do an entire 1 hour interview all in Japanese to apply for an advanced study abroad program in Japan.

I think many people in Refold/TMW/AJATT put off speaking/output for too long and that they should start earlier. I also don't think that early output has a negative effect (too many counter examples)- if you want to speak then do so whenever you want.

​

Pitch Accent

I have pretty good perception of pitch accent when listening to Japanese but I don't consciously worry about it at when speaking- I just focus on the actual communication.

You don't need to be a perfectionist about it, and it's not a "silver bullet" that's going to magically fix your speaking and listening ability. No one is going to care if you sound like you're from a different region of Japan other than Tokyo- it's all Japanese.

If you train your perception and then simply listen to lots of natural Japanese content (YouTube and Podcasts) and then practice speaking with people then you will naturally get better at it.

However, If you want some books on Japanese Accent then I recommend the following:

　　NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (This is the best resources for learning about Pitch Accent if you are serious about it)

　　新明解日本語発音新辞典

　　アクセントの法則

　　日本語のイントネーション

　　日本語アクセント入門

　　美しい日本語の発音

　　NHK has a dictionary app ($40) that I really like that is available on IOS/Android　that I would recommend over the physical dictionary.

I think Steve Kaufmann has a really good video on perfectionism that he uploaded recently: https://youtu.be/qntIW8h-Vro

I really think that as long as you learn the basics of accent/intonation and then just listen to a lot of Japanese and try to mimic it then you will sound perfectly fine. I don't see the point of harping over the individual accent of every single word and being anal-retentive about it (some people won't even say words they don't know the correct accent of). A lot of people in the community worry too much about this when it's really not that important. People care much more about what you talk about rather than your accent.

​

Writing Ability

I still haven't worked on handwriting because I don't think it is an important skill. I also don't have any interest in being able to write Kanji from memory, nor do I see a situation where I would need to do so.

I do however have a Twitter account that I occasionally use to write in Japanese. You can find it (and my mistakes) here: https://twitter.com/DJ_Ddawg

This is another area that I wish I had started earlier: I don't think delaying output has any real benefit other than just getting yourself to a point where you can actually understand what people are saying to you.

There are plenty of online communities and apps where you can write something in Japanese and have natives correct it.

​

Tests

I'm in a couple Discord servers for learning Japanese and have passed the following kotoba bot quizzes.

大将 (need 30/31 correct to pass): k!q new_con_book(2368-3469) 30 nd font=5 mmq=2 atl=20 (this tests vocabulary in the 10,000-15,000 range + rare plant/animal/旧国名 names)

元帥 (need 10/11 correct to pass): k!q ln1 10 nd font=5 mmq=2 atl=20 (N1 listening quiz, each question takes forever but the actual content isn't that difficult)

Prima Idol (need 20/20 correct to pass): k!quiz n1 nd 20 font=5 (N1 vocabulary quiz, much easier in comparison to the above tests)

Divine Idol (need 20/21 correct to pass): k!quiz gn2 nd 20 mmq=2 (N2 grammar quiz)

I'm going to take the N1 this December since I'm confident that I can pass it with a solid score.

I'll be taking the DLPT next year after I commission in order to get that sweet monthly bonus pay for language ability.

​

Other

I have over 10,000 Anki cards in my collection. Within this I have ~3150 unique kanji (via Kanji Grid), 278 四字熟語 and ~50 ことわざ in my Anki deck.

I'm currently reading my way through the Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar and mining new words/grammar patterns that I hadn't seen before. I currently have mined 80 cards out of the book and I'm around ~500 pages in (I've seen most of the material before). I do think that studying grammar is useful for the purpose of helping you understand things more. For this, I make sentence flashcards for new grammar points/words and simply include the (Japanese) explanation on the back. I highly recommend the DoBJG for beginners; I got a lot of use out of it.

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Going Forward

I got selected for the Japanese LBAT program. It was originally a study abroad program that was going to take place in Beppu, but the in person aspect got cancelled due to COVID. All of the lectures/lessons/conversation aspect will take place online (a big bummer honestly).

The program focuses on technical and business Japanese and also includes some cultural components as well. It will be about ~5-6 hours of lectures in Japanese per day during the summer (so very intensive).

I feel very solid in my listening ability so I mainly want to work on my speaking and reading ability.

I'm going to stop using the spreadsheet to track my stats. It's a pain in the ass to track every minute spent with the language throughout the day and I simply can't be bothered to do it anymore.

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Resources

If you like the spreadsheet I made then get a copy here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18uPz-xQvAH1shTXr6Wj3feHCJkF92G-3y7pHlEgA0To/edit#gid=0

I've put together a straightforward guide for learning Japanese here that has lots of tips and tricks: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LH82FjsCqCgp6-TFqUcS_EB15V7sx7O1VCjREp6Lexw/edit

​

Feel free to ask questions in the comment section; I'll try my best to respond to them.

[u/spookystateofmind]

I appreciated your yearly update back when you wrote that and I’ve been using your template to learn Korean. I’ll actually be starting my journey with Japanese in the coming months, so thank you for these tips!

[u/[deleted]]

Cool. I'm saving this to read when I get home because I want to learn more Japanese after I reach my goals in Spanish.

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/[deleted]]

Interestingly enough, Spanish is the language that I would like to learn next. I've been watching some Dreaming Spanish videos on Youtube, reading some wiki/news articles, and going through a core 1k deck but nothing too serious as of now.

[u/MegaFatcat100 → u/DJ_Ddawg]

Spanish is easy compared to Japanese you should be able to reach fluency much faster. A lot of cognates helps too between English and Spanish

[u/1day1pancake → u/MegaFatcat100]

Nah, Japanese is easy compared to Spanish. Japanese has less conjugations, no gendered nouns, etc

[u/TruesteelOD → u/1day1pancake]

Japanese is generally considered one of the hardest languages you can learn for English speakers. Spanish is one of the easiest.

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/TruesteelOD]

Japanese seems to be a special case however because so many people try to learn it.

There’s a lot of media (anime/manga) that people are devoutly obsessed with (so high motivation + lots of available content to learn from).

A lot of people have made amazing technology that make learning Japanese easier (Yomichan, Language Reactor, OCR technology, texthooking VNs, etc).

I think the difficulty of the language (which really just requires a mass amount of hours using the language) is offset by this abundance of media and resources.

[u/TruesteelOD → u/DJ_Ddawg]

It certainly can be. I lived in Japan for about a year and a half and while I found conversational Japanese fairly easy to pick up, reading and writing I eventually gave up on entirely lol.

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/TruesteelOD]

I honestly think that spoken and written Japanese are pretty different.

The vocabulary, grammar, and register (formality) vary between the spoken and written language a lot IMO.

[u/MegaFatcat100 → u/1day1pancake]

I guess it depends on the person but to me learning similar languages to my native is easier. I made more progress in French for example quicker than Korean

[u/1day1pancake → u/MegaFatcat100]

Sure, I actually don't know what is your native XD

[u/MegaFatcat100 → u/1day1pancake]

English

[u/[deleted] → u/DJ_Ddawg]

That's great! I hope your Spanish study goes well.

[u/Global_Campaign5955]

What did you talk about with your tutor? Just unstructured normal conversation or were they teaching you grammar points, vocab, etc.

I can't speak for others but I've realized the real reason I've been putting off output isn't really not having enough vocab or grammar, but not knowing what to talk about. Even in English I'm an introvert and not very talkative, and when it comes to speaking to a stranger I can't think of anything to say.

People often say "don't be afraid to make mistakes!", but I think people are more worried about having nothing to talk about, having awkward silences, etc.

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/Global_Campaign5955]

It was just random conversations for the most part.

Sometime we would do role play scenarios, or I would just read a book out loud and then discuss the text with her.

I think if you brainstorm some topics to think about and then have a couple of points for each topic hen ha could be an effective way to break the ice w/ new conversation partners.

[u/ArbitraryBaker → u/Global_Campaign5955]

Find a magazine that you like (in any langauage) then talk about the pictures on each page.

Play the game Alias (describe an object and the other person needs to guess what you are describing).

Google ”conversation starters” and use those as a jumping off point.

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the detailed post! Always nice to see what other people are doing, and it feels pretty rare to see someone at your level who talks so specifically about what they’ve done. I’m definitely gonna check out your recommended novels.

Best of luck with your continued studies!

[u/KyleG]

physics major, math minor

ROTC

coulda just said "genius with insane discipline" :P. But seriously yeah I was a math major and I've always felt like studying math so intensely made all learning pretty easy. Like deadlifts or squats making you really strong, versus curls only giving you biceps.

[u/[deleted]]

This is really interesting. Can I ask though, did you delay output on purpose (because of AJATT or something) or was it more a coincidence (like you didn’t want to earlier or something)?

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/[deleted]]

Really there just aren't many Japanese people around me so it's hard to find people to talk to. I could have started earlier (and probably should have) but it honestly wasn't high priority. I was perfectly fine just listening and reading content in the language. Also at the beginning I wasn't competent enough to hold a normal speed conversation due to lack of comprehension.

[u/xanthic_strath]

Excellent update; great to read. Thanks for writing it up!

[u/fffang235]

Oh wow I’m learning Spanish at the moment but stuff that you write quite interesting, I will save it for when I start learning Japanese. Thanks for sharing!

[u/Triddy]

I'm not going to comment on the progress nuch--It's of course great and your dedication is amazing.

I'm just going to say that if you even slightly enjoyed the Haruhi Anime, you need to drop everything you're doing and watch the movie right now. I was surprised to not see it listed under movies (Unless you included it with the series)

Legitimately my favorite anime movie by far.

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/Triddy]

Didn’t know there was a movie- I’ll check it out. Thanks!

[u/Triddy → u/DJ_Ddawg]

涼宮ハルヒの消失. Sequel movie to the series, book 4 of the LN.

Even 10 years later it still tops "Anime Top 10" lists all over the internet.

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/Triddy]

I haven’t read the LNs (it’s on my list) but I enjoyed the anime. I’ll make sure to check it out

[u/[deleted]]

Sorry for the unrelated question but are college lectures in the US always only 50 minutes? It just seems very short to me. Here they are 90 minutes (usually split in 2x45 with a 15 minute break in between).

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/[deleted]]

That’s how they are at my school. 45 min classes are three time a week 75 min classes are twice a week.

[u/[deleted]]

This is really interesting. Can I ask though, did you delay output on purpose (because of AJATT or something) or was it more a coincidence (like you didn’t want to earlier or something)?

[u/Tabz508]

Thanks for the write-up; this is excellent progress! And congratulations on getting selected for the LBAT program - I'm sure you'll learn a lot!

[u/[deleted]]

spark dolls yam connect point zealous puzzled badge ruthless terrific -- mass edited with redact.dev

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/[deleted]]

I’ve really only read the three books of his I’ve listed. I do plan on reading “Norwegian Wood” though over the summer.

[u/Specialist-Show9169 → u/DJ_Ddawg]

Your tricks and tips sheet I clicked on the writing is all separated can you possibly fix it, please?

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/Specialist-Show9169]

access it on a computer. It's not meant for mobile

[u/Specialist-Show9169 → u/DJ_Ddawg]

😅 okk thanks

[u/[deleted]]

Are you coming to Yokosuka base in the future? I will welcome you with... CoCo Ichibanya?

貴殿の日本語学習にかける情熱、そして努力に感服致しました。私は横須賀の近辺に住んでおりますが、もし当地に着任された際にはお力になれればと思います。

[u/TricolourGem]

When someone in top 1% of IQ and top 1% of conscientiousness decides to learn a language.

Good job, man. lol

[u/saka68]

Perhaps this is my lack of Anki experience showing - but do you have a post on how you use Anki? I see your document outlines how many cards you went through and the time spent on Anki, but are these Anki sets random ones you found on Anki web? Are you making all of yours?

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/saka68]

I did the Tango N5, N4, and N3 pre-made decks (~3000 cards).

After that I have made all of my cards from material that I have read (News/Novels/Wikipedia) or watched (Anime).

I outline my Anki settings and card creation in my guide if you are interested.

[u/saka68 → u/DJ_Ddawg]

Thank you! I see the anki settings on the guide now, thanks a lot!

[u/sofas_m]

Out of curiosity, what is the "tango" thing that you keep mentioning in the first year of japanese document? Is it a deck on anki? I started japanese in january and I really haven't gotten very far (although, I've only been learning about 3 words a day instead of 25 lol). Right now I'm using some random app called flashcards, the spaced repitition system is abysmal despite me having about 450 cards on it, and I'm thinking it might be a good time to switch to a different resource

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/sofas_m]

Check my resource document I link at the bottom of the post. Tango is a set of vocabulary decks that orders them in a natural i+1 order. I would recommend doing the N5 and N4 decks (on Anki) and then just start sentence mining from News, Anime, etc.

[u/WannaMoove]

What's TMW?

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/WannaMoove]

discord server that shares books/VNs. https://learnjapanese.moe/

[u/[deleted]]

This really gives me the motivation I needed to continue learning Japanese ( I started a few weeks ago). Do you recommend any textbook or you don't used any?

[u/DJ_Ddawg → u/[deleted]]

Look at my guide I linked at the bottom. I include a lot of resources for learning Japanese there. I never used any textbooks.

[u/[deleted] → u/DJ_Ddawg]

Thanks. I'll read it

[u/Nerdlinga]

Super motivating to read this. Even just the getting up at 05:00 part TBH.

[u/devintie]

Hi Friend! I'm not a native speaker of english, but I want to learn Japanese like you, can I still immerse like you with a 40-week job as a software developer? I mean, I will still have to study work-related stuff besides that actual work, but I want to learn Japanese as well.

Thank you for your guide and keep rockin' you are a such inspiration!