I feel that I've reached a level in my Japanese where I understand and can speak very well however I feel like I have a hit a wall. I'm not sure what to study anymore I've been reading up on it and I hear that it's better to set goals I was wondering does anyone have any goals for the Japanese. Has setting goals worked for anyone if so could you share some of those goals if so could you share some of those goals and your progress. Thanks in advance.

This is a pretty personal question so I don't know how much people will be able to help you. When it comes to people asking how or what they should study, I am a big fan of trying to get to figure out what motivations the person to learn Japanese. Why are you learning Japanese? When you started, what did you want to do with it? Do you have any long term goals involving Japanese (working/living in Japan, etc)? 


Me personally, I can converse well enough (as far as LINE and emails go, at least. Speaking is rough but I don't speak much but I can manage), but I would ultimately like to work in Japan after I graduate this year, so I've been working on my keigo/business Japanese a lot recently and some programming and computer science field-related terms here and there. Eventually I'd also like to start reading more editorials and news in general since regular websites and chats/emails and the novels I'm interested in aren't all that challenging anymore. So those are my current "goals".

You could also take a look at your hobbies maybe. My field of study and hobbies sort of overlap a little bit (programming), and I also have other things like playing musical instruments that I enjoy, and I enjoy Japanese music. So I've spent some time reading about things like music theory and technical analyses of albums/bands/musicians I like. I'm learning some (not so typical?) Japanese and stuff I can apply to my hobbies at the same time, so it's pretty cool.

Depending on where you are, JLPT might be one well-defined goal, with the plus of being a useful metric for your Japanese if you need to apply for something.

I don't think I'm quite at your wall yet, but for me I would probably find some fun looking books and just read novels like I love to in English, which then has the added bonus of boosting my vocabulary with some less known/used words

Yes, setting goals worked for me.
This is a little below your level, maybe, but when I decided to study for the N1 last year, it forced me to recognize what I suck at and to study what I had previously ignored (mostly grammar). Even though I didn't pass, I noticed a considerable increase in my abilities.

This year, though I'm going for N1 again, I'm mainly working on output skills; I try to think of how I'll phrase things during my next conversation and do intermittent journal entries, which forces me to think of which vocabulary I need and how to phrase them.

Basically, when coming up with a goal or task, think of something that will force you to do things that you aren't particularly good at compared to your other skills. If you aren't good at reading technical writing, for instance, go read some technical journals or textbooks.

I one of my goals is to work in Japan as well as a programmer. I want to take the jlpt n2 as well i feel that it would be easier to get a job in Japan if I have that. I know I could go to English teaching route but I know I have to the in America probably for the next 2 years so I thought why not take the JLPT and save money at the same time so when I do get back to Japan I can be prepared. I want to try to get my speaking and reading up as well. @zx573 where do you get your programming words from

In my personal opinion it is rather helpful to set goals just so you learn the knowledge required for it.
Given your level I would suggest starting with the Kanji Kentei exams level 5 (that is when it starts the difficulty). There are many books available for practice searching through Amazon.
I hope that my point of view was useful. Good luck!

(2016-02-17, 10:32 pm)jordan3311 Wrote: I one of my goals is to work in Japan

You should be focusing on passing N1 as soon as practical. Not only is it useful for having on your resume in order to get past HR screening but it also gives you 15 points towards the 70 points you need to qualify for a highly skilled foreign professional visa.

(2016-02-17, 10:32 pm)jordan3311 Wrote: I one of my goals is to work in Japan as well as a programmer. I want to take the jlpt n2 as well i feel that it would be easier to get a job in Japan if I have that. I know I could go to English teaching route but I know I have to the in America probably for the next 2 years so I thought why not take the JLPT and save money at the same time so when I do get back to Japan I can be prepared. I want to try to get my speaking and reading up as well. @zx573 where do you get your programming words from

I agree with tokyostyle's recommendation, then. If you have enough time (you should it sounds like) then it's worth going for N1 if possible. N2 at the bare minimum (won't help towards point on visa though).

I think your goals are pretty clear cut in my opinion. You should be studying for N2 and then N1, working on your keigo and general business Japanese (JLPT will NOT prepare you sufficiently for this), and also working on anything else that would make your career go smoothly.

As for programming words: Start reading programming-related articles and books. If you've never read Japanese programming books then, maybe look for a book for a language you already know or is simple. It wouldn't hurt getting a Japanese copy of something like K&R C, which is already a pretty easy ready in English and is (compared to other programming books) short. Read some Japanese programming blogs too.

(2016-02-18, 1:35 am)zx573 Wrote: Read some Japanese programming blogs too.

For me as well as the OP, do you have any recommendations?

(2016-02-18, 2:07 am)sholum Wrote:

(2016-02-18, 1:35 am)zx573 Wrote: Read some Japanese programming blogs too.

For me as well as the OP, do you have any recommendations?

Unfortunately not. I haven't really found much that interests me. I don't even really like English programming blogs too much unless I need to learn something specific. :\

Might be useful: https://www.reddit.com/r/software_ja
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming_jp

Ruby might be worth looking into because it's a Japanese-made programming language, so I would assume the documentation would be pretty decent and the community would be sizable.

https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-...ooks-ja.md
That could help with Japanese programming vocabulary. It's a list of free Japanese programming books.

Personally setting goals has NOT worked for me. I find it much better to take it one day at a time. Past and future seem irrelevant as you cannot interact with them, so it's best to just focus on what you can do now.

(2016-02-18, 2:07 am)sholum Wrote:

(2016-02-18, 1:35 am)zx573 Wrote: Read some Japanese programming blogs too.

For me as well as the OP, do you have any recommendations?

I follow a few Japanese programmers on Twitter, if that's a thing you do.

- https://twitter.com/ikawaha is into Go (bleh) and NLP stuff (!).
- https://twitter.com/akky is a tech journalist. Both he and ikawaha retweet other Japanese programmers.
- https://twitter.com/herumi is into low-level high-performance assembly for number-crunching on x86.

My Japanese skill isn't nearly good enough to know what these guys are talking about most of the time, but it shouldn't be hard to find the corner of the Twittersphere talking about the language stacks you're into. Recently I was surprised at the number of Japanese names on Scalatra's (a web framework for Scala) gitter, e.g.

(SO, if you find someone tweeting in Japanese about React, Clojure, or Julia, let me know .)

(2016-02-17, 10:32 pm)jordan3311 Wrote: I one of my goals is to work in Japan as well as a programmer.

What do you think about getting a remote job (our profession is a perfect fit for remote work), which you can do from anywhere, and moving to Japan? Is that even possible, or would you need to get hired by a proper Japanese company first and/or marry a Japanese person to be allowed to live there and work a remote job? (It might be hard to land a remote job as a beginner programmer, but if you're good, it's a definite possibility.)

Also, this: http://atilika.com/en/company/internship.html they're they company that wrote Kuromoji (which I use instead of MeCab) and are looking for an intern for their Tokyo office, and seem open to foreigners. (They also seem like a reasonable company, i.e., they say that unlike most Japanese companies, their employees actually DO use the 2 weeks of vacation they're promised!)

[s0apgun]

(2016-02-18, 1:35 am)zx573 Wrote: I think your goals are pretty clear cut in my opinion. You should be studying for N2 and then N1, working on your keigo and general business Japanese (JLPT will NOT prepare you sufficiently for this), and also working on anything else that would make your career go smoothly.

This. There is very clear goals you should still accomplish right now in front of you. Complete those and then set some new ones because along the way your goals will probably change anyways.

You can consider trying to read one of the Japanese translations of SICP if you haven't already read it in English. Two birds with one stone.