Going to be posting a updated method soon. I feel a lot of things have changed, I hope it will be helpful for others. I plan to post it later today.

Almost done I'll be posting it within the next few minutes. Sorry for the long-wait

We we we so excited.

Anki (SRS):
3 Decks: Sentence, Vocabulary, Production
Sentence Deck: Review (finish all reviews first), then add 30-50 new cards every day.
Sentence card format:
Question: Contains a short, medium or long sentence. Contains kanji,kana.
Answer: Contains full readings (auto-generated)/look ups for unknown vocabulary. (Test my ability to read the sentence and understand the overall sentence. Also the each vocabulary word in the sentence)

Vocabulary Deck: Add between 40-50 cards on average but if I’m motivated, I go add 100 new cards.
Question: Contains the vocabulary word (ranges from kanji, katakana-based words, hiragana-based words)
Answer: Full readings (using rikiasama to automatically add cards into my vocabulary deck) and contains meanings (English translation and some cards are monolingual) (Testing my ability to read/distinguish meaning)

Production Deck: Contains RTK kanji and vocabulary cards (going from kana to kanji). Testing my ability activity write from memory certain kanji.

Immersion: I dive into anime,manga,books,news(online),music,talk-shows,dramas,movies,e-books,etc. So I can get the most out of it. Do I look up any words that I don’t get? Yes but only once in a while now, I just keep reading and immersing in native-material and let my srs do all the learning for me (long-term)

Reading: This I usual play games, read manga, news sites, books and anything that interests me. I’ve really gotten far because there isn’t much vocab I need to search up (only 1-5 at times).

Listening: Now I’m kind of surprised about this one (since I remember back 2 years ago I couldn’t understand anything and now I can understand to a near prefect level) but there is really only a few ways to get good at this skill. The way I did it and still doing it is: associate it with its written form (if possible). So scripts, dialogue boxes (in games) and such, really help in the long-term. Plus, if you srs them, you’ll instantly recognize it and understand it.

Speaking: Now for this one immersion is key, as you need to be able to understand what’s coming your way and become used to how the language sounds like. Some people start faster than others, while others just dive in. From experience, wait until you can understand a majority of what you listen to and be able to distinguish Japanese sounds when you hear them. Then start diving into speaking.

Writing: I did Remembering the kanji Volume 1+3 and still do them today (I delete non-useful kanji I see and rare ones). I also add vocabulary cards and sentence cards in here(small ones). I plan to add close deletion on grammar points and certain sentences.

Tips/Advice: Now my plan isn’t really much different from how I did things a year ago, expect now I know what really works and what doesn’t. First, do do RTK, it helps later down the road (you won’t need to worry about stroke order, meanings and you will have the skill to write kanji).

Second (maybe this should be first), is to kana (hiragana and katakana), using anki (for the long-term). If you put in the time, I’d say in 1 month you’ll have it completely mastered.


Third: Immerse as much as possible, even if you don’t understand/can’t read. You will if you keep going

Fourth: Associate audio with text (it helps make that instant connection when listening)

Fifth: Read with audio available (so you lessen the chance of making errors and carrying them with you)

Sixth: Believe you can do it, no matter what others say

Seventh: Maintain, keep learning, keep immersing, keep using an srs, keep practicing and in no time, you’ll be at your goal




One last thing I should tell you is: I've failed a lot before I really started to succeed in Japanese. It isn't anything special, most people can do it (if they put in the time). Fluency isn't hard, Japanese isn't hard, it all comes down to the mindset. If you know you will succeed, then you will.

What's rikiasama and how does it work to automatically add? It looks like a typo, but I'm not sure what you mean.

Kyoshi88 Wrote:What's rikiasama and how does it work to automatically add? It looks like a typo, but I'm not sure what you mean.

Here is rikiasama http://subs2srs.sourceforge.net/rikaisama/

It's an extension of rikiachan. I save vocabulary from native-material I find on the net and I save it to a text file. Then I import into my vocabulary deck (it has 3 fields, expression, reading and meaning). That's how I get instant addition of cards and it's fast/effective.

I decided today to merge my sentence deck+production deck together(so it's called Sentence+Production Deck now). I figure that 2 decks is easier to maintain, then 3 decks. So this will definitely speed up my reviews(I can easily just review the production side and then the sentence side by using anki's selective mode)

how do you merge decks? I want to merge my chinese deck with a deck containing HSK vocab. thanks.

import one into the other.

CarolinaCG Wrote:how do you merge decks? I want to merge my chinese deck with a deck containing HSK vocab. thanks.

If your importing different models into one another. Be careful you do sync it with your online copy of it(anki online backs up your decks). You just select the tags (so for mine there was hesisg,kana,sentences). I would choose kana and then select all, then go to change model and select the one I wish to import it into and I'm set(p.s. check out your cards to see if it's in the format you want it in before merging and after merging)

caivano Wrote:import one into the other.

Finally have only two decks now, feels too easy haha. But maybe that's the whole point of using an srs like anki. Making the job easier, so you keep coming back to learn more and more.

This is the path I've taken, whether intentional or not.

-High School, junior/senior year: I started watching English-subtitled anime.

-College, 1st quarter: I took an introductory course. Learned all my kana. Got lazy midway through, squeaked by with a C+.

-Rest of college: Maintained a passing interest in anime and anime culture

-Year after graduation: Started going karaoke, picked up an interest in Japanese music. Used karaoke to try reading kana at a decent pace and a few kanji compounds, pick up a few words here and there. Also picked up an interest in Japanese TV shows.

-3 years after graduation, Summer 2009 : Took intensive summer Japanese 1 course at community college, 3 hours a day M-Th for 7 weeks.

-I discovered RTK and AJATT. Began and finished RTK using Anki in about 4 months. Also simultaneously took Japanese 2 at community college, thus finishing Genki 1.
Midway through, I took my first trip to Japan. It gave a lot of perspective towards language and using it in daily life. I even made a wish at Tsuutenkaku. http://i.imgur.com/6aDEJ.jpg
I attempted immersion but it failed to hold my interest.
I also made a Lang-8 account at this time. I post an entry every week or so, and have done so up until today.
I got a subscription to Hiragana Times, but it proved to be too difficult for me.

-After finishing RTK I began KO2001. I attemped to add 5 kanji (15 sentences) a day.
In February 2010 I quit RTK reps.
I would also come to acquire the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series, and I would reference that or Tae Kim along with the KO2001 sentences. I purchased a few random books (Japanese Core Words and Phrases, 13 Secrets of Speaking Fluent Japanese, Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar, Making Sense of Japanese). I did not use Core Words and Phrases or UBJG at all, skimmed through 13 Secrets, and read through all of Making Sense of Japanese.　
Progress in KO2001 came slowly. Burnout during weekends, etc. 15 sentences a day was too much for me at times.

-August 2010 I discovered AKB48 and AKB48 variety shows, which was important because I was starting to become bored with Japanese; this increased my motivation. Prior to this I had no more Japanese hobbies (no more drama or anime), so I would simply do KO2001 reps and Lang-8. My KO2001 sentences were also devoid of audio; variety shows were a reminder of how poor my listening skills were.
I picked up the Kanzen Master JLPT 2級 grammar book in the summer, and started doing reps beginning in November.

-I took another trip to Japan, this time to the far West but in the end I would go to Tokyo. I improved a lot but still not to a satisfactory level. I was able to do silly things like order a pizza but still struggled with basic conversation. I felt like if I stayed there I could've learned a ton and I started to see the value of immersion at the level I was at. Also met some Lang-8 friends. I could not understand more than half of what they were saying, which meant that I had to level up my learning a lot more.
At this time I had 3 decks: KO2001, KM 2級文法、and a deck where I put random stuff in.

-In March I took Japanese 4 at community college in case I needed a letter of recommendation from a Japanese professor for JET this year. It was pretty easy but there were a few things I should've known that I didn't: basic 敬語, －させる、－られる、など。I also SRSed all the vocab from the second half of the book.
I also picked up the Sou Matome N2 and N1 vocab books and began doing SRS reps of that.
I also posted language exchange ads on japan-guide.com. I now have friends that I email regularly in dual language, which helps with my writing. Unfortunately, my writing has outpaced my speaking; when people talk to me they're surprised at how bad I am compared to how I write.

-I finished the N2 vocab book a few weeks ago, and am just about to finish the grammar book. I started a listening book; ripping the tracks in Audacity and making Anki cards out of them. I will take the N2 in December.

------------
My current study program:
-Anki Review: 6 decks
KO2001/Random Japanese/Grammar/Vocabulary/Genki 2(second half)/JLPT N1 Listening. 30 minute review session during lunch time, and then a session at home that wraps it all up before I sleep.
Cards are added at this session at the end of the day, but reviewed the next day. Two sections from KM, a page from the vocab book, one listening question from JLPT N1.
-Output: penpals from japan-guide + Skype at my own pace, Lang-8 once a week
-Input: penpals from japan-guide + Skype at my own pace, AKB48-related variety shows and podcasts, random reading (manga/magazine articles/websites/blogs)

Reading : novels, BBS, manga, news, blog, online stuff. BBS being my favorite, they are seriously addicting.

Listening: 90% youtube, 10% anime/drama/movies. Thank god for Youtube, it's really my saving grace for listening to Japanese. It's beyond convenient. And the millions and millions of Japanese videos on there are staggering (there are actually UP-TO-DATE Japanese shows on youtube for those who don't know).

Sentences: Sentences that I find hard to understand are becoming less and less, but I still save random sentences everyday.


That's about it.

where do you guys get online manga and novels (in japanese, obviously)?

Realism, could you name a few up to date japanese shows please?

@CarolinaCG -- I had never watched London Hearts, and my torrent was going too slow, so I don't know the actual show...but they have a net movie that they put on youtube. The 3rd 'episode' came out today
http://www.youtube.com/user/londonhearts
I have yet to see it, but the next one comes out 10/4.

@Realism -- What BBS's do you frequent? I have a short attention span, and unless I'm drawn into something right away, I'll get bored and wander away. This is the main reason I've never ventured into Japanese BBS's (or any, other than here, for that matter)

CarolinaCG Wrote:where do you guys get online manga and novels (in japanese, obviously)?

Realism, could you name a few up to date japanese shows please?

1. I order Japanese novels from http://www.yesasia.com. They are not expensive, usually 10-15 bucks a book. I would first go to http://www.amazon.co.jp and read random reviews of books, and I find one that interest me, and order it from yesasia. Also, there are online novels you can read for free (fanfiction type of stuff), for example here http://masarao.web.fc2.com/story.htm. This is pretty much an entire novel. You can just google オンライン小説 if you don't want to pay for books. Bunch of results will pop up. Manga I download and buy them. Just google "manga raw Japanese" and tons of manga will show up, you can download for free.


2. Go to youtube. Set the region to 日本 (small button at the very bottom), and then go to rankings. They have all up-to-date variety shows, drama shows, anime, sports, news, political conferences....you get the deal.

Asriel Wrote:@Realism -- What BBS's do you frequent? I have a short attention span, and unless I'm drawn into something right away, I'll get bored and wander away. This is the main reason I've never ventured into Japanese BBS's (or any, other than here, for that matter)

I thought BBS was made for people with short attention spans....

Here are the ones I go to

read2ch.com (has every topic you can imagine, fishing, bowling, basketball, football...you'd definitely find your interest here)
http://blog.livedoor.jp/news23vip/
http://unkar.org/r (has every topic imaginable, NFL, Ninja Turtles, Jay-Z.....yeah)
http://neetetsu.com/
http://blog.esuteru.com/　（Mostly video games)

I can read this stuff for days.

Thanks a bunch, realism! I mean it!

ta12121 Wrote:One last thing I should tell you is: I've failed a lot before I really started to succeed in Japanese. It isn't anything special, most people can do it (if they put in the time). Fluency isn't hard, Japanese isn't hard, it all comes down to the mindset. If you know you will succeed, then you will.

This sums up all that I've gathered about "study methods" of really advanced learners and polyglots. There is no "Win" button, just combination of motivation and tons of hours put into learning. Whats interesting most advice can be summed by: "after initial stage, read like crazy"

thurd Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:One last thing I should tell you is: I've failed a lot before I really started to succeed in Japanese. It isn't anything special, most people can do it (if they put in the time). Fluency isn't hard, Japanese isn't hard, it all comes down to the mindset. If you know you will succeed, then you will.

This sums up all that I've gathered about "study methods" of really advanced learners and polyglots. There is no "Win" button, just combination of motivation and tons of hours put into learning. Whats interesting most advice can be summed by: "after initial stage, read like crazy"

yea and read like crazy. One thing that stands up to me the most is: people should only think 10-20% for researching/methods but take 80-90% action(get something done, try something everyday). Don't wait until something appears to be getting better, make it improve.

Thought I would share my method.

Ive been working thru the kanji kanken tests using a DS game for the last month or so.
Currently on 7kyu and hopefully will be on 6kyu soon. I use this and reading for my main source of vocab. On my rough seat of the pants estimates (~6 words per kanji) seems like after 5kyu you would have about ~6000 words that you can read/write.

Funny, I've noticed that on some kanji my hand knows how to write it but not my mind. I just start moving my hand and somehow write the correct kanji, but some I know thru a mental picture and some a combination.

For listening I practice with a language partner where they read (either a book or drama) and I try to translate on the fly. I try to record the session so I can review it later.
Usually I do it without looking at the text but sometimes I glance at it.
Here's one session in case your interested.
There are a lot of pauses which I should probably edit from the video...

ta12121 Wrote:yea and read like crazy.

I'm struggling with reading in Japanese. Technically, I do know the most common words, but I do not read anything in particular unless I must, because I'm afraid not understanding something. I just.. want to read it and understand it. I know, without practicing I cannot become fluent in reading but demotivation is always dragging me down as much as endless seemingly sentences in Japanese, where I have to plain-stupidly pick out subject, object, predicate one by one in order to decipher the meaning of the sentence. I know the more you read and the more you listen the more you will gain fluency. That happened to me with English, but I can't think of how to do in Japanese, hm. Endless words~

@socrates: I like first of all Conan very much and I find this video really inspiring and motivating!! Wooow, I wish I'd do that like this, listening and understanding what I hear lol Seems too utopic right now, though.

Tori-kun Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:yea and read like crazy.

I'm struggling with reading in Japanese. Technically, I do know the most common words, but I do not read anything in particular unless I must, because I'm afraid not understanding something. I just.. want to read it and understand it. I know, without practicing I cannot become fluent in reading but demotivation is always dragging me down as much as endless seemingly sentences in Japanese, where I have to plain-stupidly pick out subject, object, predicate one by one in order to decipher the meaning of the sentence. I know the more you read and the more you listen the more you will gain fluency. That happened to me with English, but I can't think of how to do in Japanese, hm. Endless words~

@socrates: I like first of all Conan very much and I find this video really inspiring and motivating!! Wooow, I wish I'd do that like this, listening and understanding what I hear lol Seems too utopic right now, though.

hmm wonder what's the problem. I can relate with you, I was at that stage as well but it's kinda strange all in the same time. I kept going, even if I didn't understand anything. There is still a good amount of times where I don't understand a vocab word or context but I can easily learn it now, thanks to anki. Remember aim for 95% not 100%. Even if you can understand 40% of what you read/listen that's something. Everyone starts from 0% and builds there way to 95%

Tori-kun Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:yea and read like crazy.

I'm struggling with reading in Japanese. Technically, I do know the most common words, but I do not read anything in particular unless I must, because I'm afraid not understanding something. I just.. want to read it and understand it. I know, without practicing I cannot become fluent in reading but demotivation is always dragging me down as much as endless seemingly sentences in Japanese, where I have to plain-stupidly pick out subject, object, predicate one by one in order to decipher the meaning of the sentence. I know the more you read and the more you listen the more you will gain fluency. That happened to me with English, but I can't think of how to do in Japanese, hm. Endless words~

So, have you given up on giving up? I really don't know what is wrong with you. It can't be the demotivating experience resulting in the realization that you can't understand everything you read, listen to, or watch. Yes, you want to understand everything. And because you were learning the 7000 most common words, you think that you have to be able to do so. You were also working on grammar, and other aspects of the language, and you were struggling with them as well.

What's worse than your constant thinking that you have gotten nowhere is, that you don't seem to be able to recognize your own accomplishments. And it is not the problems that are causing you now to abandon the language for a long time. It is your high expectations. There are some other reasons for it, that you had better find out by yourself. Because if I told you what it is, it wouldn't have the same effect, and it would only be a waste of words. Because soon you will be in the same place again, where it starts frustrating you so much, that you quit again.

Tori-kun Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:yea and read like crazy.

I'm struggling with reading in Japanese. Technically, I do know the most common words, but I do not read anything in particular unless I must, because I'm afraid not understanding something. I just.. want to read it and understand it. I know, without practicing I cannot become fluent in reading but demotivation is always dragging me down as much as endless seemingly sentences in Japanese, where I have to plain-stupidly pick out subject, object, predicate one by one in order to decipher the meaning of the sentence. I know the more you read and the more you listen the more you will gain fluency. That happened to me with English, but I can't think of how to do in Japanese, hm. Endless words~

@socrates: I like first of all Conan very much and I find this video really inspiring and motivating!! Wooow, I wish I'd do that like this, listening and understanding what I hear lol Seems too utopic right now, though.

Tori-kun, yea I definitely understand the up/down feelings we all get, but you probably know a lot more than you think. Just try to switch your routine till you find something fun and keep plugging away. Every little improvement and every new word you know is a step in the right direction. Instead of trying to go to not understanding to total understanding, I try to get satisfaction if I can understand just a few words and guess the rest. And over time the amount you don't understand slowly gets less and less. also, think it helps to try to fail and have fun failing. today i'm going to fail at 100 sentences. tomorrow 99, etc..