Hello frinds,

I am learning Japanese since January2015 i have already given 2 times JLPT N4 but unfortunately i didn't crack JLPT N4 in the 1st attempt i got 86 2nd attempt i got 87 both attempt i failure in

どっかい friends i am littlebit nervous about Japanese study i have dream to crack N3 but i am struggling N4 my friends are cracked N3 and they join MNC i need study tips material and suggestions  i am using みなの日本語　and Basic 320 kanji books.

Well if your problem is reading comprehension you should get more practice. It's hard to find material at this level so I'd say buy JLPT books for 読解 like Kanzen Master, So matome....
And if kanji is the problem maybe use Remembering the Kanji (RTK) with a SRS?

Since you're already using みんなの日本語, I'd recommend the two workbooks which are good for cementing what you've learned (they're not reading oriented but it's good practice).

Tae Kim's grammar guide is a good, free online resource. Most of it should be around the level you need or higher for pushing you up. NHK Easy News? Easy manga (never read it myself but Yotsuba&! is the one everyone recommends to start with)? RTK+anki for the kanji like EratiK said. And lots of immersion in real/natural Japanese...

(2016-02-22, 10:40 pm)m.bhushan Wrote:

both attempt i failure in どっかい

Are you using Anki? If so are you adding full sentences from みんなの日本語 as you get practice reading a whole sentence? That would be the first step because everything you need to pass N4 is in those two beginner books. There isn't a whole lot of books targeting that level because it is covered so well by beginner textbooks but you might try going through something like 新にほんご500問 N4-N5 and see if it improves your reading speed and sentence comprehension.

(2016-02-22, 10:40 pm)m.bhushan Wrote:

Hello frinds,

I am learning Japanese since January2015 i have already given 2 times JLPT N4 but unfortunately i didn't crack JLPT N4 in the 1st attempt i got 86 2nd attempt i got 87 both attempt i failure in

どっかい friends i am littlebit nervous about Japanese study i have dream to crack N3 but i am struggling N4 my friends are cracked N3 and they join MNC i need study tips material and suggestions  i am using みなの日本語　and Basic 320 kanji books.

I recommend taking online lessons at the Japanese Online Institute (JOI). 

I can also recommend this book for N4 reading practice.

Maybe all you need to do is push forward instead of getting stuck? For instance, here's what I've done so far in about 5 months of intensive study:

* Both Genki 1-2 alongside RTK.
* Read a handful of very basic graded readers while I made my way through Genki 2.
(This helped me a bit, but in the grand scheme of things, RTK + Core 2k is what really helped me reach a level where I can do Tobira without being overwhelmed.)
* Upon finishing RTK, I finished Core 2k + a whole bunch of words that I randomly picked up and decided to add.
* Read DoJBG from cover to cover while unsuspending a whole bunch of sentences that I thought were useful in the deck I found.
* Watched all videos available on Erin's Challenge.
* Tobira has a list of words you're supposed to memorize by the end of each chapter. I SRS'd pretty much all of those words in advance.
* After having done all these things, I started Tobira. As of now, I'm in chapter 3.

I didn't study for N4, but I would be shocked if I failed after having done all I mentioned above. Because my current level may not be N3, but I'm definitely overprepared to begin any N3 textbook.

My point is, I've just moved on. Reading is far more challenging in Tobira, so I'm sure anything that wasn't easy by the time I finished Genki 2 is going to be a whole lot easier now. The fact that I finished RTK and Core 2k means I'm not lost in a sea of unknown kanji and words anymore, let alone the fact that  I'm also used to most of the grammar introduced in the first couple of units in Tobira.

Of course, you can also worked on specific things that are difficult to you. Just make sure you're actually moving forward instead of getting stuck in an N4 loop.

(2016-02-24, 6:00 am)Ash_S Wrote: Tae Kim's grammar guide is a good, free online resource. Most of it should be around the level you need or higher for pushing you up. NHK Easy News? Easy manga (never read it myself but Yotsuba&! is the one everyone recommends to start with)? RTK+anki for the kanji like EratiK said. And lots of immersion in real/natural Japanese...

I gave NHK Easy News a try by the time I finished Genki 2 and it was fairly difficult  because there were so many words I'd never seen before. Having to rely on furigana for most words was also a pain.

I think becoming a little more fluent in reading really helps, e.g. finishing RTK + Core 2k first. The way I see it, NHK Easy News isn't a very efficient way to improve until you reach a certain level of proficiency. I don't mean to say it doesn't work, but I'm glad I worked on the things that make it easier first. Being overwhelmed by kanji, vocabulary, and things other than the actual message itself takes away a lot of the fun in reading.

(2016-02-25, 11:01 am)FlameseeK Wrote: * Upon finishing RTK, I finished Core 2k + a whole bunch of words that I randomly picked up and decided to add. 

Ok, I have to ask, how did you do that? Just power through? Core2K is just whipping my butt, but I just started I suppose. I like that there are 4 cards per word but it also means a shload of reviews. As well as 8000 cards to complete it. Oy vey.

I think if I could find a list of vocab words for Core2K as they're introduced that would help a lot as I do better if I've seen the word before seeing it in Anki.

I admit that I don't have as much time as you though as I work 8-10 hrs/day and I have some other activities, so at max during the week I have 1-2 hours to dedicate per day. I spend weekends doing practice and loading more RTK cards.

And I am also aiming for the N4 in December! It's definitely more than doable I think, and I plan to be done with Genki II around the beginning of September.

(2016-02-25, 11:21 am)uchuu Wrote:

(2016-02-25, 11:01 am)FlameseeK Wrote: * Upon finishing RTK, I finished Core 2k + a whole bunch of words that I randomly picked up and decided to add. 

Ok, I have to ask, how did you do that? Just power through? Core2K is just whipping my butt, but I just started I suppose. I like that there are 4 cards per word but it also means a shload of reviews. As well as 8000 cards to complete it. Oy vey.

I think if I could find a list of vocab words for Core2K as they're introduced that would help a lot as I do better if I've seen the word before seeing it in Anki.

I admit that I don't have as much time as you though as I work 8-10 hrs/day and I have some other activities, so at max during the week I have 1-2 hours to dedicate per day. I spend weekends doing practice and loading more RTK cards.

And I am also aiming for the N4 in December! It's definitely more than doable I think, and I plan to be done with Genki II around the beginning of September.

I just powered through you by adding hundreds of words whenever there was enough time by the end of the day. I remember one day I spent 7 hours reviewing/adding cards on Anki. But I only did that because I was on vacation and wanted to finish Core 2k literally asap.

But there's a huge difference in what we're doing, because you're doing all steps. I'm only doing recognition right now. I thought of adding listening cards first at one point, but that would be too much of a hassle in the long run. For now, I'm just working on my reading comprehension and allowing my listening to catch up as I internalize the vocabulary I've "learned" with Core along the way.

The fact I have review RTK daily means I'm not neglecting writing entirely though. Once I feel my reading and listening are good enough, I may start working on speaking and writing a little more. But for now, all that matters to me is input. Once I reach a good level of comprehension, production will come more easily anyway.

(2016-02-25, 11:21 am)uchuu Wrote:

(2016-02-25, 11:01 am)FlameseeK Wrote: * Upon finishing RTK, I finished Core 2k + a whole bunch of words that I randomly picked up and decided to add. 

Ok, I have to ask, how did you do that? Just power through? Core2K is just whipping my butt, but I just started I suppose. I like that there are 4 cards per word but it also means a shload of reviews. As well as 8000 cards to complete it. Oy vey.

I think if I could find a list of vocab words for Core2K as they're introduced that would help a lot as I do better if I've seen the word before seeing it in Anki.

I admit that I don't have as much time as you though as I work 8-10 hrs/day and I have some other activities, so at max during the week I have 1-2 hours to dedicate per day. I spend weekends doing practice and loading more RTK cards.

And I am also aiming for the N4 in December! It's definitely more than doable I think, and I plan to be done with Genki II around the beginning of September.

Printable Core 2k list: http://forum.koohii.com/thread-9762.html

頑張って!

(2016-02-25, 11:47 am)FlameseeK Wrote:

(2016-02-25, 11:21 am)uchuu Wrote:

(2016-02-25, 11:01 am)FlameseeK Wrote: * Upon finishing RTK, I finished Core 2k + a whole bunch of words that I randomly picked up and decided to add. 

Ok, I have to ask, how did you do that? Just power through? Core2K is just whipping my butt, but I just started I suppose. I like that there are 4 cards per word but it also means a shload of reviews. As well as 8000 cards to complete it. Oy vey.

I think if I could find a list of vocab words for Core2K as they're introduced that would help a lot as I do better if I've seen the word before seeing it in Anki.

I admit that I don't have as much time as you though as I work 8-10 hrs/day and I have some other activities, so at max during the week I have 1-2 hours to dedicate per day. I spend weekends doing practice and loading more RTK cards.

And I am also aiming for the N4 in December! It's definitely more than doable I think, and I plan to be done with Genki II around the beginning of September.

I just powered through you by adding hundreds of words whenever there was enough time by the end of the day. I remember one day I spent 7 hours reviewing/adding cards on Anki. But I only did that because I was on vacation and wanted to finish Core 2k literally asap.

But there's a huge difference in what we're doing, because you're doing all steps. I'm only doing recognition right now. I thought of adding listening cards first at one point, but that would be too much of a hassle in the long run. For now, I'm just working on my reading comprehension and allowing my listening to catch up as I internalize the vocabulary I've "learned" with Core along the way.

The fact I have review RTK daily means I'm not neglecting writing entirely though. Once I feel my reading and listening are good enough, I may start working on speaking and writing a little more. But for now, all that matters to me is input. Once I reach a good level of comprehension, production will come more easily anyway.

Actually, not a bad idea. I'm not really interested in production from the Core2K deck yet, just recognition and listening. The vocab I want to be able to produce is from my Genki deck right now.

I don't know if you've ever had a chance to see Tobira, but at the end of each unit there are 2 lists of words. You're expected to be able to read both of them, but only of the first list is for production as well. Of course, you can learn how to write everything, but that's not a priority.

Since I'm not working on production right now and I'll probably just write Japanese on my computer, I've decided to disregard that and instead just learn how to read everything. So it really depends on your goals, but at the end of the day you don't have to remember how to write every single word you learn. Although it's probably very useful to know how to write all Core 2k words if you have to write things by hand.