18 months and 1600 hours progress update (1320hrs on the NIJ platform)

Japanese Language
1

I recently hit this milestone and wanted to share a realistic update about my progress. 18 months/1600 hours

Previous updates:

my-6-months-with-comprehensible-japanese

one-year-anniversary-update

History:

None, I have been watching anime and playing JRPGs with English subtitles for a long time but did not really catch even the basic words. I started from zero 18 months ago.

Pace:

I realized recently that there are probably only diminishing returns from low focus time, so I have actually slowed down a bit and been doing only as much as I can really focus on.

Overall, it averages out to 90 mins a day of NIJ, plus podcasts, plus some random stuff manga/VNs/anime.

Together somewhere between 3 and 4 hours a day.

Additionally, I have simplified the way I count it and just settled for rounding it to 3 hrs.

Content:

So, I returned back to beginner level videos after I hit a wall with intermediate level halfway through them. That is now my baseline. I watch it split into several time windows, 30 mins before work, 30 mins after work, and the rest before bed. Currently at around level 50.

As always, I listen to podcasts while doing some stuff that allows me to focus on them, like my walks, exercising, cooking, gardening, ironing… that is a bit over an hour a day. Mostly Teppei. I finished the Beginner series twice, also finished the original archives and now listen to “Z”. I also listen to Bite size Japanese with Layla which feels a bit easier for me and I would say is now close to perfect listening content in terms of difficulty.

And if I have time, I usually attempt to read or watch anime in the evenings.

Listening Comprehension:

As you can see from aforementioned, my comprehension is not at the level typical user reports at this number of hours. I cannot really understand even the easiest of anime, I have them ordered by LN and jpdb.io difficulty but it does not make much difference. I watch it just because I have some time in my day and cannot really watch more learner content. Also my reading is not really a reading, I am deciphering the words and do not really understand the sentences and story that well. I have not finished a single manga volume: I typically just start something, then read at a pace of 2-3 pages an hour, and burnout after a week.

I do believe that I am improving, but I do not really feel any difference compared to 6 months ago. There are no videos either on YT or CIJ or anime that would show a clear difference in comprehension.

Speaking:

None.

Reading:

I mixed this to section above. My reading is not really focused on learning to read, I want to spend some time with the language in some entertaining content. Reading gives me time to think and digest stuff I cannot while doing pure listening.
I want to add that Wanikani really failed me, I went to such a low accuracy/infinite review spiral that I basically could not finish level 6. I was at that level for 6 weeks until I finally gave up. (22000+ reviews in first 5 and half short levels)

Future Plans:

I bought the KKLC book and some related graded readers. I would like to add a small portion of kanji study to my routine. Without the pressure SRS brings.
I have only around 120 hrs of Beginner and Intermediate videos left on NIJ so that will be gone in around two months. After that, I will probably be just doing some YT content for learners every day for an hour or so. I like some NIJ teacher´s private channel, so that will probably be my main source. Plus anything new releasing on NIJ.
I hope I will get a bit better with Visual novels.. There is so much interesting VNs out there so I would like to have it as a big part of my routine

Conclusion:

I really appreciate NIJ as a platform, that is what brought me here, but I am near a crossroad and need to find some way forward. The biggest win here is probably the fact that I have not given up and I keep going. Well, that and ability to understand podcasts.

TLDR:

1600 hours in 18 months. Slow progress but there is no turning back now. Very little reading, but I do it every day. No speaking or crosstalk. My plan going forward is a combination of audio and video content for learners, Visual Novels and a bit of anime if something interesting pops up.

And that´s it for now.

18months
18months1288×678 36 KB

2 Likes
2

Thank you soo much for the update, a very interesting read!!

Do you by any chance have a breakdown of active immersion hours vs passive?? We seem to be roughly at a similar point in terms of hours, but it seems like we have gotten very different results and took very different approaches (I haven’t been reading at all, and have only done audio SRS and active input).

I think the worth of passive hours has sort of always been debated in the AJATT community so I think this post is a very interesting insight into that!!

1 Like
3

I try to not do any passive input. But those podcasts and previously done re-listeninig of NIJ videos were more like semi-active. I try to listen actively, but it is not always possible.

4

Thank you for sharing.

I am far from your 1600 hours (120 tracked hours on NIJ and maybe 50 outside) but my experience is very different in terms of how I feel about progress. A big part is certainly my comfort with ambiguity.

I am a legacy watcher of subbed anime (don’t know how many hours but well in excess of 5000 episodes over 20 years) and I feel that that background has made a MASSIVE difference in how readily I am learning Japanese.

For this reason, I decided to not go the “purist” route as I am doing with Spanish. After reading japaneseguy67’s recent review mentioning SRS, I decided to do the Kaishi 1.5K on Anki and it has been a game-changer, which I recommend you try if you feel that you are progressing too slowly.

Kaishi 1.5K covers the 1500 most common words in Japanese. The biggest pitfall with Japanese is that we don’t have the cognate knowledge for even the most basic words, which makes understanding context significantly more difficult. Kaishi 1.5K made a big difference in understanding a lot of the connecting words and has made acquisition much more efficient than it was before.

What that means is that even with the anime you are watching now, if you do Kaishi 1.5K or a similar ‘most common words’ deck, content that is beyond your level will start providing some acquisition much sooner than it otherwise would have, which is what I am experiencing.

I watched subbed anime and just the other day, I turned on an episode of Bleach and I was following what they were saying but it was hazy. It took me about a minute to realise that it was because the subs weren’t turned on.

Grinding the common words SRS is a pain but very much worth the grind if you are looking to enhance your acquisition.

5

Hey quick notice, if you are liking the Kaishi 1.5k deck, try MvJ Kaishi 1.5k add on. It’s the same words but it has explanations of words rather than 1 to 1 dictionary translations, and it’s just a bit cleaner over all. Also has pitch accent for every word if you are into that, it’s free still I’m pretty sure!!

6

It is really my pleasure to share my experience. I really look forward to next milestones and the process of digesting it and preparing next report.

To your points, I am also a fellow Anime enjoyer, I am now almost 50 so I too have been at it for a long time. But… I do not fell any boost from it. I literally did not know what “Nanni?” or “Matte!” or other common words mean. Basically the same as some people around that have been watching English content for decades but with Czech or Slovak subtitles. My wife understand close to zero if there are no subtitles.

About anki, I will never use anki again in my life. Or any other SRS application. I used Kaishi deck, JLAB deck and one other but I was just not remembering any. Like I was literaly coming across the scenes from the flashcards in my immersion and it did not trigger any reaction.
Later I tried Wanikani as an alternative, I was grinding for about 4 months, I got stuck at level 6 for around 6 months, took a break, came back to my reviews after a month long break from Wanikani and was recognizing maybe 1 in 20 words. After 22000 reviews? Could you believe it? I quit on that day and will never came back. It just does not work for me at all.

7

Thank you for the heads up. I will definitely try this this. So far I have just been focusing on just the characters and listening to the audio, avoiding reading the English translation of the whole sentence so this will be perfect.

8

You know what… I get it.

I know objectively that Minecraft is one of the best games ever created, but you couldn’t pay me to play it. Some things just aren’t for you. Respect for being able to stick it out despite the challenges - that is truly admirable.

Good luck with a journey. The great thing about learning is that even if it takes you longer, you know that you will get there eventually.

9

It’s refreshing to read a progress report that sounds realistic and more inline with my own progress, compared to all the “I’ve been studying 50 hours and am already translating ancient Japanese poetry” crowd.

I’m at almost a 1000 hours, please do share what resources and YouTube channels you found most accessible at this time. I watch plenty of the standard (Shun, Ken, Seika, etc), but I’m always on the lookout for more.

Also, I tried a few early episodes of Bite size Japanese, but dropped it because she was using a lot of English translations. Does she stop doing that at some point?

10

Hi, Bite Size Japanese is also my go-to podcast right now, and I definitely recommend starting with the most recent episodes! Layla先生 (the host) also recommends it, I listened to her trailer for her podcast recently and she said herself that she didn’t think we should listen to her early episodes. I’m also really enjoying ことのは at the moment, it’s such a great conversation podcast and the hosts laugh a lot together! I’ve finished all their N5 and N4 episodes and while the N3 and N2 ones can be hit or miss for me still, I really like them. Their youtube channel is here, but I personally listen to them on a podcast app: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKHlXLs2B32Bv3qgVnQm8tNrAyqSqO1Mk