There really is a need to know many words. Do you have any advice on how I should go about doing it?

The Core Decks, Ko.2001, and Kanji in Context plus the Workbook(s). All very good resources for mass vocab learning. Of course you can also cover vocabulary by browsing lists on the http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/skills/vocab/ and importing them to Anki.

And if you then start mining websites, blogs, and other sources with rikaisama, you will have another great source for gathering vocabulary. That is if you start reading with vocabulary mining in mind, and not caring about sentences and such that you don't understand.

In the end it shouldn't matter which sources you choose, because the JLPT lists and decks containing them are containing words that might, or might not, show up on the actual test. There is no guarantee, so whatever you learn, the more the better.

By reading a lot. And in specific, by reading the kind of stuff that's likely to show up on the JLPT, that is, nonfiction books and personal essays.

If you're reading a lot then the vocabulary shouldn't be that much of a problem for you. Throw in one of the Kanzen Master books, maybe. If you're not reading a lot then you're going to run out of time.

Exactly. Reading for vocabulary. Find stuff with translations, use mouse dictionaries and so on. Go for a high quantity of new words and a high volume of reading, instead of endless reviewing.

do fun immersion.........

i learned a lot of japanese from talk/variety shows just because talk/variety shows is mostly daily conversation so after a while i notice stuff repeating and i could understand almost everything... plus they sub a lot so it helps. By all means by talk/variety shows I mean talk/variety shows I enjoyed watching. there's many many of them so im sure you can find one you like.

@nadiatims

Ive debated at times retiring anki and just reading native material with mouse over dictionaries and so on. My only concern is are you actually retaining this vocab that you are learning on the fly?

i think it depends on how much new vocabulary is in the material you're reading. If there's not so many new words you retain it much more easily, but if you're looking up every other word or something, you're better off with anki...

Yes.

I mean, the principle in SRS is that you see a word, and then you see it four days later and ten days later and 25 days later (or whatever). So the only problem is that, the rarer the word, the more you have to read to be assured of seeing it often enough that it sticks. I learned most of my vocabulary from reading, and I reached a plateau at an early-advanced level where I knew a large portion of the vocabulary I needed, but I was reading slowly, so there were very few new words that I actually saw with sufficient frequency. The solution was to read more really easy stuff, and that helped to get my reading speed up.

I knew a guy once who was terrible at kanji because he always used the mouse-over dictionaries when he read, though. When you use those it's pretty easy to glance straight to get to the definition without looking at the reading.

dusmar84 Wrote:Ive debated at times retiring anki and just reading native material with mouse over dictionaries and so on. My only concern is are you actually retaining this vocab that you are learning on the fly?

Yes. Definitely. I didn't start to feel like I was making progress in Japanese until I completely quit SRSing and started reading large amounts. I'm not exagerating when I say the year I spent studying before that was basically wasted time. If you don't SRS you lose the sense of learning x words per day, but if you stick with you'll notice things gradually getting easier. It just starts to feel natural to understand them.

I eventually started experimenting with introducing SRSing back in to my study, but that's more because I like the feeling of easy quantifiable progress than because I'm convinced it's an efficient way to study. I think doing a little bit to support your reading probably is useful but it's important not to make the mistake of thinking a word has to be SRSed to be remembered, or that reading isn't really studying.

To be quite honest, the JLPT vocab list is simply a listing of ALL the words in the Japanese language that use the kanji tested in the exam.

So they literally list every possible kanji compound that can be made using kanji tested in N1-N5.

I wouldn't recommend doing rote memorization with that list.

You need to attach meaning to the words you learn. Reading native material
is very good. But make sure you read a variety of things.

For example, reading ONLY manga is a bad idea. But reading a combination of manga, light novels, news articles, magazines, essays, technical articles and movie subtitles might help.

An alternative is to keep using Anki, but as fast as possible. I think it's easy to become fixated on answering a card successfully, especially if it's mature or one that you've failed several times. Instead, just stop caring and rush through the cards as fast as you can. I review around 200-300 cards/10mins this way.

Another advantage is that this way of reviewing forces you to read quickly. It's ridiculous to spend 5 or 10 seconds reading a word or phrase and recalling its meaning. Who does that?

In sum, by reviewing quickly, you can:
- Quickly absorb vocab without having to worry about whether your immersion will give you enough reviews
- Dramatically reduce your overall review time
- Learn how to read at a pace similar to native speakers/advanced learners

Edit: you may be worried that your pass rate will drop. Yes, it will. However, you will never efficiently master the nuance of a word or phrase through Anki. Only exposure to the language can do that. Anki cannot teach you a whole language. Instead, I think Anki works best when used to keep vocab fresh in your memory. Specifically, only when it's used to remember the reading and vague meaning of a word or phrase. Exposure will take care of the rest.

I feel like SRS takes me like 30 min - 1 hour over the course a day. I don't think that's ever changed. Even though I may be adding more cards, my skill increases and the time invested is still the same because I can clear cards quicker.

With that said you need to spend a lot more time reading and listening to pass the JLPT1.
I think SRS works best as a supplement but not as THE language learner.
If you're not doing SRS and native material at the same time, then you should. I think SRS is extremely helpful though.