2016 went by in a breeze and was pretty exhausting both from a university and personal perspective. I finally went on to the clinical years of my dentistry studies which basically means that everything is now concentrated on topics that are really relevant for my work later on. You can probably imagine that this makes things much more interesting for me.
My Japanese studies were just dragging along with no realm aim to work towards to. Haven’t read any new manga in a while and apart from finally reading Steins; Gate on my Vita I haven’t been into gaming all that much either. But with a new year coming along all this has to change.
JLPT in 2017
I have never been interested in taking the JLPT because I never really wanted to work in Japan or saw any real benefit from having some sort of “official degree” in Japanese. Sort of at least. But when I wrote about the Nihongo-so-matome N3 reading comprehension book (which I just picked up to get a feel for the difficulty) reader Hannes mentioned that registering for the JLPT can be a huge motivational booster. And that’s exactly what I need right now.
After noticing that I really need some sort of goal, I remembered his comment and thought why not give it a shot. So I looked around a little bit and will probably tackle N4 summer. Just ordered all three Nihongo Challenge books and am really looking forward to preparing for the test. I wanted an easily manageable goal because I don’t really know how specific the grammar points covered in JLPT are and I’ll have very little free time next semester where I’ll finally have some patients of my own.
What did you guys use for JLPT preparations? How did you prepare exactly and where did you find the time for studying? Still remember the days went I got up 45 minutes early every days to have some time for Japanese. Worked my way through Genki I+II in winter 2012 like this. At first it was exhausting to get up a little more early but in the end it was well worth it.
What’s in store for Japanese Tease next year
It’s been a slow year for the site with lots of study books lying around which I still haven’t reviewed. Didn’t even bother to take some pictures of them which really means something. You all know the feeling when feel down generally and suddenly you lose interest in all different fields you used to enjoy before. But 2017 will be better with lots of fun posts on the site. I know, same thing every year but better this way than not trying at all. Even ordered some more books from Japan a couple of days ago (those who’re following me on twitter already know that of course). Even missed the thirteenth volume of よつばと！so it definitely wasn’t exactly a good year.
Wish you guys all the best for 2017, a nice New Years Eve and good luck with you resolutions. Please share your Japanese related ones (and of course all the other ones as well). Take care and let’s have a great 2017!
Just started to learn japanese a couple of weeks ago and your website has being my main guide, thanks a lot! I began with an iOS app that a friend recomended (Learn Japanese! by James Peeble), but as soon as I found your site I ordered “Learning Japanese the manga way” and am currently trying japanesepod101 (loving it) and WaniKani (really boring so far, and kinda redundant with the other app). I´ll definetely stick with japanesepod101 but will wait until a finish James Peeble app before subscribing to WaniKani. Thanks for sharing your experiences through this site!
So glad that my little site actually helped you. There will be a lot more content this year and even some stuff regarding JLPT (which I actually want to tackle in December). Never heard of the App you mentioned before but will definitely give it a look. Maybe something I could recommend to my readers as well :) One tip though: Stick with WaniKani – it will be more than worth it in the long run.
I´m keeping up with WaniKani, the main thing that botters me (in both WaniKani and JapanesePod101 PDFs) is that you have to deal with Romaji.
The best thing about James Peeble´s app is that you only get romaji in the introdutory lessons, specifically to learn both kana. After that you´re expected to know how to read hiragana and katakana. It´s a really cool app, with a clean interface, audio and grammar lessons. Hopefully we get to hear your thoughts!
Haven’t done the very beginner stages of Japanesepod but even in the more advanced beginner seasons you always have the choice between Kanji/Kana and Romaji. Not really sure what you’re referring to with WK because there are definitely no Romaji there.
Man in those last five days I just realised how hard learning japanese can be…
It´s the typing on the keyboard… But now I´m only doing WK on iPad, so I use the japanese keyboard for the readings, so it´s no longer an issue. Just got to level 2 and it´s also already really demanding! I´m hoping that by the time I finish level 3 I´ll be able to start tackling the level 0 Japanese graded readers, is that realistic?
The PDF in Japanesepod aren´t super consistent, but in the Absolute Beginner series it´s separated enough that I can simply ignore then, in the introduction was more “in your face”. I tried to move up to the newbie series, and even that was more demanding then I can handle, I already have my hands full between WaniKani and James Peeble´s Learn Japanese!, for now I´m using japanesepod as a more laid back thing.
Still waiting for the Learn Japanese the Manga Way… It seems that the book lacks Genki´s extensive practice exercises, so I´d like to supplement it with an app, is KanjiBox your recommendation for Grammar exercises?
Sorry for all the questions! You´re awesome!
PS: Non related anedote – My brother didn´t want to learn japanese so I incentivised him to learn German :D