This will be my second attempt at learning Japanese– it seems like a lot of the logs are from relatively advanced learners, so I thought it might be interesting to keep a log of starting pretty much from the beginning.
My current language level is extremely basic. I know hiragana, katakana, and some basic greetings, but really nothing else. I did study Chinese for a year in college, so that’s given me a leg up on learning the kanji. Even if I don’t remember the exact meaning many of them are familiar, and I have a good sense of stroke order logic when writing.
Current study plan:
Refreshing myself on the hiragana and katakana with an Anki deck.
Going through the NihongoShark kanji deck from Anki, learning 20 new cards per day. I switched the card layout so it’s keyword –> kanji. I see the keyword, write the kanji out once, then flip to check and write the kanji a few more times.
Calculating out, if I stick with this progress I should be able to learn the 2200 kanji by sometime in March 2019. Not sure how long it will take to mature cards, but I’m assuming I’ll still be doing reviews for quite a while after that date.
I’m also trying to mix up the kanji studying with some general vocab and conversational learning. I have an NHK app with basic Japanese lessons, and I might listen to JapanesePod101 a bit, but I’m not pressuring myself to do that every day. Really only when I feel like it. Trying to keep my focus on learning the kanji for now.
Progress:
So far (on day 3) so good haha! I think I’m spending about 20-30 minutes per day on the Anki decks; I’m sure that time will increase as I get more kanji to review.
Thoughts:
March of 2019 seems far away, and that’s only the beginning of my learning progress. I’m trying to focus on developing the habit of practicing Japanese every day, instead of thinking about why I’m not there yet. It’s frustrating to think that if I’d just kept up my first attempt of learning, I’d be so much farther along. But the only thing I can do is start again now and take it one step at a time.