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Acquiring Japanese Efficiently

Breaking out of the Gaijin Ghetto

Dylan Robertson
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Table of Contents

Part 1: Learning Japanese

​ Language Learning Principles Cheat Sheet

​ Japanese Quickstart Summary

​ Resources for Immersion

​ ​ Netflix
​ ​ Youtube
​ ​ Audiobooks
​ ​ Resources for Passive Immersion
​ ​ Beginner Reading Material
​ ​ News
​ ​ Novels
​ ​ Using an Ipad and Kindle for Reading
​ ​ Visual Novels

​ Building a Base Level of Ability

Kana
Basic Pronunciation
Kanji
Vocabulary
Grammar

Technology for Learning Japanese

Anki (Settings, Add-Ons, Types of Anki Cards, Tips)
Yomichan
Online Dictionaries
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Making the Monolingual Transition
Mining Anki Cards

​ Output
​ ​ Writing
​ ​ Speaking
​ ​ Critiquing High Level Japanese Learners’ Speaking Ability
​ ​ Mui-Mui, the ultimate Japanese learner

​ Dedicated Practice Areas for Advanced Learners

​ 敬語
​ 関西弁
​ 日本語能力試験
​ 漢字能力検定

​ Pronunciation
​ ​ Pitch Focused Reading
​ ​ Chorusing and Shadowing
​ ​ Resources for Studying Pitch Accent
Using Pronunciation Cards in Anki
Repetitive Listening

​ Resources for Academic subjects in Japanese

​ 国語・現代文
​ 古文・漢文
​ 日本史
世界史
​ 数学
​ 物理学
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​ 化学
​ 生物学
​ 翻訳・英語
​ 経済学
​ 哲学
​ 法学

Example Language Learning Routines

​ Absolute Beginner Routine (your first ~2-3 weeks)
Beginner Routine
​ Advanced Beginner Routine
​ Intermediate Routine
​ Upper Intermediate Routine

Part 2: Language Learning Theory

​ Core Principles of Language Acquisition
The Input Hypothesis
Language and Consciousness
Theory vs Practice
On Language Learning in General

Improving Comprehension
​ Active vs Passive Immersion
​ Thousands of Hours
​ Various levels of comprehension
​ Comprehensible vs Incomprehensible Input
​ Domains
​ Comprehension Factors
​ Reading Immersion
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​ On Frequency Lists

Improving Performance
Output Theory
​ What does Output actually entail?
Is Early Output Bad?
​ Language Learning Parent
​ Improving your Speaking Ability
​ Output Troubleshooting

Part 3: Miscellaneous
Other Guides for Language Learning
Youtube Channels
Interviews
Progress Reports
Useful links
Fatigue Management
FAQ
Experimental Ideas
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Learning Japanese
Becoming the ultimate weeb
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Language Learning Principles Cheat Sheet

Let's quickly summarize the core methodology behind language learning.

1.​ Input is KING.

a.​ Since language is largely acquired through comprehensible input, prioritize
listening to and reading real Japanese media.
b.​ Compelling input: make language learning fun by immersing in content that you
are interested in. Learn about your hobbies in Japanese or find new ones.

2.​ Consistency
a.​ Build an Immersion Environment: make it as easy as possible to interact with
Japanese media by utilizing the internet.
b.​ Hit your minimum daily goals for language learning every day.
i.​ Most days you should strive to surpass this daily minimum.

3.​ Volume
a.​ More time spent with the language each day leads to more progress.
b.​ Break out of the English bubble and try to live your life fully in Japanese: replace
English content with Japanese content.

4.​ Intensity
a.​ Immerse in a mix of content slightly below, at, and above your current level.
i.​ Easier material helps to build automaticity of understanding.
ii.​ Harder material challenges you to push your cutting edge level of
comprehension even higher.
b.​ Gradually use harder content as you improve.
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5.​ Frequency
a.​ For the busy people, break up your total daily volume into 2~3 mini-sessions
throughout the day (morning/afternoon/night) instead of doing one giant session
to boost efficiency and lower fatigue.

6.​ Concentration
a.​ Be actively engaged when immersing: the more you pay attention and try to
understand your immersion the more benefit you will obtain from it.
i.​ Look up words that you don’t know/don’t understand.
b.​ Get rid of distractions: no social media/discord in the background.

7.​ Variety
a.​ Variety helps to keep things fresh and interesting, mitigating fatigue.
i.​ Branch out into new and different domains and mediums every so often.
ii.​ Once you pick a new domain/medium/genre you should stick with it for a
couple of weeks/months to get better at that certain area.
b.​ Example Domains: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy, Crime/Mystery, History,
Politics, Economics, Law, Medicine, Philosophy, etc.
c.​ Listening Mediums: Anime, Drama, Movies, YouTube, Podcasts, Audiobooks
d.​ Reading Mediums: Graded Readers, Manga, Blogs, News, Wikipedia, Light
Novels, Visual Novels, Non-Fiction Books, Modern/Literary Novels

8.​ Active Study

a.​ Learn vocabulary and grammar in context as it comes up in native materials.
i.​ Use Yomichan to make looking words up and creating flashcards quick
and efficient.
ii.​ Utilize a spaced repetition system (Anki) to review these new
words/grammar in context.
b.​ 1T Principle: have only 1 new word/grammar point being tested on each card.
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9.​ Learn your target language in your target language

a.​ Use monolingual (Japanese-Japanese) dictionaries.
i.​ This helps you describe words/concepts in Japanese.
ii.​ J-J definitions are also more precise than bilingual translations.
b.​ Pay attention to the example sentences to see how the word is actually used in
context and what other words it is commonly used with.

10.​Theory on Output
a.​ Your comprehension limits your performance: increasing your comprehension
increases your potential ability for performance as well as giving you some ability
to output naturally.
b.​ Maximizing your output ability requires dedicated practice and feedback:
i.​ Speaking with Natives
ii.​ Chorusing and Shadowing
iii.​ Pitch Focused Reading

11.​The Attitude of a Linguist

a.​ Tolerate some amount of ambiguity: find a balance between looking up words in
the dictionary and actually engaging with Japanese content.
b.​ Be Self-Sufficient
i.​ Only you are accountable for your progress: own it and stop making
excuses.
c.​ Understand that the language learning process takes thousands of hours: show up
every day and enjoy the process.
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Japanese Quickstart Summary

1.​ Start listening to and watching native Japanese content (from day 1)
a.​ Split your time evenly between using Japanese subtitles and watching raw.
b.​ Don’t use English subs.

2.​ Learn the basics of Japanese (~2-3 weeks)

a.​ Hiragana + Katakana
b.​ Basic pronunciation and Pitch Accent
c.​ Learn to recognize the most common Kanji using Recognition RTK450

3.​ Learn the most frequent 2000 words and basic grammar (~3 months)
a.​ Recommended Anki decks: Tango N5 and N4.
i.​ ~20 new sentence cards per day.

b.​ Sentence mine the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.

i.​ ~5-10 new sentence cards per day (in addition to Tango deck).

4.​ Start Reading Immersion (like halfway through step 3)

a.​ Start with beginner content: NHK Easy News, Graded Readers, Children’s stories.
b.​ Progress to harder content over time (blogs, real news, LNs, VNs, real novels)

--------------------------------------------------------100 Day mark-----------------------------------------------

5.​ Continue increasing comprehension through input + mining native media

a.​ At this point I recommend learning ~10-15 new cards/words per day.
b.​ Increase difficulty and variety of immersion content
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6.​ Monolingual Transition: start using J-J Dictionaries.

7.​ Pronunciation Work and Speaking

a.​ Pitch Focused Reading
b.​ Chorusing and Shadowing
c.​ Dedicated Pitch Accent/Pronunciation Study
d.​ Speaking with Natives

8.​ Loop the Loop (Expand your Ability)

a.​ Immerse in new/more complex domains.
b.​ Mine native material in order to increase your comprehension.
c.​ Output on that topic to increase your performance.
d.​ Native feedback → Go back to immersion and notice the correct version.
e.​ Repeat indefinitely.

9.​ Dedicated Areas of Practice

a.​ Handwriting Kanji
b.​ Proper use of honorific language （敬語）
c.​ Japanese Dialects
d.​ Learning various academic/professional subjects in Japanese

10.​Have Fun!
a.​ Learning a language is a lifelong commitment and becomes something that you
do everyday.
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Immersion Resources

This is where I am going to link a bunch of resources so that you have material to watch, listen
to, and read.

Here are some other useful resource lists:

The Moe Way Resource List
Stevijs3 resource spreadsheet
Jpdb.io (Difficulty rating of Japanese media)
Nyaa (Site for torrenting just about anything)
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Netflix

Netflix is the best way to watch anime, drama, and movies in your target language.

You will want to change your account’s language in Netflix to your target language in order to
access more content and shows with JPN subtitles.

You will also want to use a VPN in order to access region locked content.
​ Nord VPN
Private VPN (this is what I use)
​ Windscribe
​ Proton VPN
SoftEther VPN tutorial (free)

Using Audio description

Increases density of input by having descriptions of scenes where there would otherwise
be no dialogue.

Language Reactor download (for Netflix and Youtube)

​ Language Reactor allows you to use Yomichan to look up words instantly as you watch.
​ Settings
​ ​ Vocabulary highlighting: disable
​ ​ Force original tracks: off
​ ​ Show transliterations: no transliterations
​ ​ Translation language: your TL
​ ​ Show human translation: off
​ ​ Hide subtitles: Hide translations
​ ​ Playback speed: normal
​ ​ Highlight saved words: off
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​ ​ On mouse hover/left click/right click: do nothing
​ ​ Show subtitles list view: on
​ ​ Show subtitles below video: on or off (depends on preference)
​ ​ Override arrow keys: on
Auto Pause: off

Language Reactor + Yomichan for dictionary look-ups

Animelon (stream anime + Japanese subs)

​ Has same setup as Netflix + Language Reactor
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Youtube

Youtube and Podcasts are the best way to listen to a lot of unscripted, natural Japanese.

Creating a Target Language YouTube

Create a separate account for TL videos only
Change location and language to TL to access more/trending content
​ Gets rid of temptation to click on English videos as they won’t show up

Beginner Content
Comprehensible Japanese
ペッパピッグ ー Peppa Pig
あかね的日本語教室
日本語の聴解のためのPodcast

Video Games/Let's Plays

日常組 (Minecraft)
主役は我々だ! (Minecraft)
牛沢
キヨ (various games w/ friends)
らっだぁ (Minecraft)
花江夏樹 (Voice actor plays games with friends)
兄者弟者 (Lets Plays, cool voice)
心霊バスターズ (Lets Plays)
芦屋岳 (Retro RPGs)
フジ工房
レトルト
ザクレイ (Super Smash Bros)
ふうはや (Minecraft)
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トラゾースタジオ (Minecraft)
のらえもんKの考えるゲーム実況（推理系、謎解き系）

Podcasts & Audiobooks

​ 4989 Utaco (female Japanese living in America)
​ Blog w/ transcripts
のがラジオ (female podcast)
FMななももこ (female, relaxing)
スーツ背広チャンネル (Suits going on epic rants about random topics)
ひろゆき (Q&A livestreams)
​ ひろゆきの部屋【ひろゆき】切り抜き
メンタリストDaiGo (Q&A livestreams)
大愚和尚の一問一答 (Buddhism and Life Advice. Non-standard accent)
ゆる言語ラジオ (linguisitics)
山里亮太の不毛な議論 (panel member from Terrace House)
新ニッポンの話芸 ポッドキャスト
深夜ラジオ
上原浩治の雑談魂 (Baseball)
アバタロー (Audiobook excerpts)
窪田等の世界 (Audiobooks)
西村俊彦の朗読ノオト (Audiobooks)
​ 朗読ノオト・第二版
フリーアナウンサーしまえりこの朗読読み聞かせ (Audiobooks, female)

News
FNN ニュース
DHC テレビ
飯田浩司のOK!Cozy up! (podcast)
24 Hour News Livestream
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ウェザーニュース
Weathernews Variety (Edited Clips)

Educational Content
中田敦彦のYouTube大学 (energetic lectures)
フェルミ漫画大学 (self-help/business books summarized in voiced manga form)
大人の教養TV (educational videos on history, religion, etc.)
旅人の世界史 (History)
Sengoku Story (Japanese History)
セゴリータ三世 (Technology/product reviews)
ワタナベカズマサ (Technology/product reviews)
TEDx Talks in Japanese
Japan in Motion
トライイット (Middle/High School lectures)
とある男が授業をしてみた (Middle school lectures)
岡崎健太のOK塾 (Explains modern/classic literature, poems, etc.)
元局アナ流話し方スクール (Accent, Intonation, Pronunciation)
三橋TV (Economics)
伊藤塾 (Law School)
ことラボ (Linguistics)

Comedy
​ エガちゃんねる (comedian does extreme videos/challenges)
エガちゃんねる 〜替えのパンツ〜 (2nd channel)
​ オードリーさん、ぜひ会ってほしい人がいるんです。
私立パラの丸高校 (Animated comedic skits)
マリマリマリー (Animated comedic skits)
グレープカンパニーチャンネル (Sandwich man comedy skits & podcast)
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Travel
​ かほの登山日記 (Mountain Climbing, Hiking)
やまくっく・やぎちゃん (Mountain Climbing, Hiking)
スーツ旅行 (Suits traveling Japan and abroad)
スーツ交通 (Suits traveling on trains)
東京限定雑学 (Places in Tokyo, History)

College/University
Wakatte.tv (street interviews with college/high school students)
いだちゃんねる (Students from Kyoto University)
CASTDICE TV (Introduces and compares various 参考書）
武田塾チャンネル (Introduces and compares various 参考書）
ベテランち (Tokyo University Medical School)
受験生版Tiger Funding (Students try to obtain loans/scholarships. Shark Tank)
河野玄斗の神授業 （司法試験、医師国家試験、公認会計士試験に合格した者）

Normal YouTubers/Vloggers
​ きまぐれクック (cutting and cooking fish)
​ 科学はすべてを解決する!
令和の虎CHANNEL (Adults try to kick start businesses/ideas. Shark Tank feel)
​ 李姉妹ch (Japanese/Chinese bilinguals)
東海オンエア
Genki.jp (ナンパ + sightseeing in various cities)
たかしの部屋 (Vlogs, games)
ぷろたん日記 (Bodybuilding, Eating)
OTAKING / Toshio Okada (Otaku, anime)
​ 岡田斗司夫のサブチャンネル【岡田斗司夫】切り抜き
しもふりチューブ
エスポワール・トライブ
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フェルミ研究所 (Original manga with voice acting)
JURIのモテ男くん養成ch (Relationship advice)
深田えいみ (AV star does vlogs and gives sex advice)
あいちゃんねる (Another AV star)
みことね (cute girls vlog in 博多弁)
佐賀よかでしょう。(Construction/building things)
千原ジュニアYouTube
ジュキヤ (Street interviews)
文学YouTuberベル (Book Recommendations)
ほんタメ (Book Recommendations)
suiyoudoudesou-TV (Directors of famous series 水曜どうでしょう series)
Kevin's English Room (Comparisons between Japan and America, food)
ホリエモン

Horror/Mystery
​ Naokiman Show (horror stories & mysteries)
Naokiman 2nd Channel
Zozozo - JapaneseHorror
​ たっくーTV (Mytery Stories)
キリン (Mytery Stories)
世界のフシギ探検ch (Mytery Stories)

Aussieman's Youtube Recommendations for Kansai-ben

​ ともーみチャンネル (Vlogs, Makeup, Kansai-ben)
​ 大阪太郎 (Live streams)
だげな時間 (Podcast in Kansai dialect about random topics)
​ 朝倉未来 (MMA, Vlogs)
​ ヒカル
ラファエル
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わいわいのゲーム実況チャンネル
かわにしみき
エミリンチャンネル
チャンネル がーどまん
タケヤキ翔
古川優香
ふくれな
てんちむCH
PROWRESTLING SHIBATAR ZZ
BUNZIN TV
本田健
YouTube関西弁講座-大阪おっちゃんねる (lessons on Kansai ben)

​
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Audiobooks

Itazuraneko Audiobooks

青空朗読 (audiobooks for works on Aozora Bunko)

The main 3 audiobook streaming services (comparison 1, comparison 2)

Audiobook.jp
Amazon/Audible
Kikubon

How to immerse with Audiobooks

1.​ Listen to the book as you read alongside it
a.​ This is more like “having the book read to you” and you pause when you see an
unknown word in order to look it up.

2.​ Listen after you read the book

a.​ Good for reading at your own pace, creating flashcards as you read, and then
using the audiobook to reinforce learned vocab/grammar

3.​ Repeatedly listen to the audiobook separately

a.​ Get in additional listening hours as you go about your day while walking, driving,
cooking, stretching, cleaning, etc.
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Passive Immersion Resources

Listen/relisten to content as you cook, clean, walk, commute to work, etc.

​ Turn the “dead-space” in your day into productive language learning.
​ Repetition of material helps you internalize the language.

Content to use: podcasts, audiobooks, anime/youtube videos you have already watched.
I mainly use Youtube premium or Audible and just download podcasts/audiobooks to my
phone since it's so easy to do.

Condensed Audio Catalog

Condensed Audio Mega Folder

まりもえお！ (Podcast)

Creating your own Passive Immersion Playlist

Extracting audio
Condensing audio
Two Tips for Condensing Immersion Audio

Still pay attention to the audio when listening! Having it on in the background and zoning out
doesn’t help your language ability!
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Beginner Reading Material

These are materials that you can start reading while still learning basic vocabulary and grammar.

Use Japanese subtitles while watching Netflix.

NHK Easy News

Has links to the real news article if you want to challenge yourself (this is good for when
you are trying to get to an intermediate level)

福娘童話集
Thousands of various folk tales, ghost stories, and children stories
Will often have accompanying audio of natives reading the story out loud

Free Graded Readers from Tadoku

日本語多読道場
​ Free graded readers from N5-N1+
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News and Web Articles

News (Visit the 特集 or スペシャルコンテンツ section if you want to see more unique stories)
NHK News Web
FNN プライムオンライン
文春オンライン
朝日新聞ディジタル (Some articles are behind a subscription paywall)
読売新聞オンライン
日本経済新聞 (Economics)
Japanese Newspapers (various regional newspapers)
ウェザーニューズ

Websites
The Players Tribune JP (Sports Articles/Interviews with athletes)
ログミーTech (Tech articles)
仏教ウェブ入門講座 (Introduction to Buddhism, Self-Help)
ウィキペディア (Wikipedia)
Yahoo!知恵袋 (Japanese Yahoo Answers)

Educational
​ 日本史辞典 (Japanese history articles)
トライイット (Classroom instruction on various schools subjects)
高校講座 (NHK resource for Japanese High School subjects)

Politics
​ 自由民主党

Twitter is good for casual reading (create a Japanese only account)

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Beware of the TOEIC/TOEFL learners- they are a poison and they are everywhere.
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Novels

Download Epubs
Itazuraneko library (contains literally every book you could want)
Boroboro (thousands of e-books)
​ Trophies' collection of books (Various epubs of light novels).

Read Online
Aozora Bunko website (Actual literature, pre-war novels)
​ All books on Aozora Bunko are free for Kindle btw.
小説家になろう (Web/Light Novels from upcoming authors/amateur writers)

ッツ’s Epub Reader

​ Obtain an epub of the book you want to read and insert it into this page.
​ Supports vertical and horizontal text.

Buying Physical and Digital Books (mainly from Japanese Amazon)

​ If you can’t find a book from one of the above sites then you probably need to buy it.
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E-Readers

Useful Ipad/Iphone Apps

​ Amazon Kindle App
​ ​ Read books that you purchase on your Japanese Amazon Account
​ ​ Buy books individually or use Kindle Unlimited

Dictionaries (by 物書道)

Contains a plethora of different types of dictionaries that you can use.
Buying the dictionaries was a bit expensive, but it has been one of my best
investments for learning Japanese.

Ipad’s Split Screen Functionality

Sentence Mining with an Ipad (Ghetto version)

​ Save a list of sentences/words + definitions in an email draft & email yourself the list.
Access on your computer and make cards.

Using a Kindle
Just watch the video, it’s complicated.
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Visual Novels

The Moe Way Visual Novel Guide + VN Setup

Anacreon Text Hooker Page (look stuff up + see how many characters you have read)
Clipboard Inserter Extension
Download Textractor
Download qBittorrent (download torrents of games)

Obtaining VNs
​ Buy legally on Steam
The Moe Way Discord Server​(easy way to get free VNs/LNs/books)
​ Itazuraneko VN Library
​ Nyaa
​ Sukebei
​ 東京図書館
​ Nostalgic visual novels online
Ryuu games
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Learning the Basics

So now that you have a bunch of content to read/watch/listen to, let's actually get started learning
Japanese so that you can understand and enjoy that content.

This section of the guide should take approximately 3 months (~300-500 hours) to finish and at
the end of it you will know the most common 2000 words of the language, the basics of
grammar, and will be able to start understanding actual Japanese content.

Make sure to read through the technology section as well and download Anki and Yomichan.
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Kana

Learn Hiragana (Tofugu)

Primarily used for particles, conjugations, and furigana.

Learn Katakana (Tofugu)

Primarily used for loan words from foreign languages, and emphasis/italics

Practice Kana Recognition

Learn how to recognize and type all of the kana by going one row at a time.
I recommend using all of the various fonts as some characters can look different.

Typing in Japanese
Download the Google IME
I suggest using the Google IME, I think it’s better than Windows IME.
Guide for installing Windows IME
Typing Hiragana (Tofugu)
Typing Katakana (Tofugu)
Useful IME shortcuts

Ensure that your computer is using a Japanese font (sometimes it will default to a Chinese one).
Change your System locale and Region to Japanese in language settings.
You can still have your Windows display language in English.
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Basic Pronunciation

Basic Japanese pronunciation guide (Tofugu)

Read through this guide as you learn kana so that you know proper pronunciation.
Uses IPA notation to help explain.
If you want a more in-depth explanation + mouth/tongue diagrams then see videos 35-57
of Dogen’s phonetic series (linked below).
​
For an introduction into Pitch Accent, watch the following videos:
Dogen 10 Minute Intro to Pitch Accent
Word level Pitch Accent
Sentence Level Pitch Accent
Darius on Strategies to Acquire Pitch Accent

Work on your Pitch Accent Perception

Do ~10 min/day until you can get 100% effortlessly w/o replaying the audio on the
following quizzes: 2 mora words, 3 mora words, minimal pairs, all words, word +
particle.
NALA-J (a more difficult pitch accent perception test)

Dogen’s Phonetics Series

This is the best collection of videos available in English on Japanese pronunciation
covering pitch accent, phonemes, devoicing, vocal placement and various resources.
​ Just a video or two a day is fine.
​ Introduction: videos 1-5
​ Pronunciation: videos 33-57
​ Basic Pitch Accent Concepts: videos 6-32
​ Advanced Pitch Accent Concepts: videos 58-80
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More Useful Resources for Pronunciation and Accent

Forvo (look up a word and listen to native speakers pronounce it in isolation)

Youglish (look up a word and hear a native speaker pronounce it in a YouTube video)

​ For those who use iPhone or Android, the NHK Accent Dictionary App is amazing.
Buy it from the App Store or Google Play, it’s well worth the money and is
cheaper than the physical dictionary.

Here is an free, online version of NHK Accent Dictionary

This only has audio of the base word + particle.

More resources and exercises on pronunciation and accent can be found later on in this document
for when you reach an intermediate level (can actually read Japanese content) and want to
improve your speaking ability. The above resources are all you need for now and will start you
off on a strong foot in your Japanese pronunciation.
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Learning Kanji?

Interesting videos about Kanji (not much practical use though)

Origin of Kanji
What they never told you about Kanji
Why Japanese Kanji suck

Let’s take a quick detour into how the philosophy of learning Kanji has evolved over time.
1.​ Rote Memorization.
a.​ Write out the same kanji over and over again on a piece of paper.
b.​ For some reason, this is still what they do in the Japanese education system,
despite the obvious inefficiency and lack of a systemic approach.

2.​ Remember the Kanji

a.​ James Heisig brilliantly combines the SRS, mnemonics, and a logical system of
increasing complexity to teach you how to write 3000 kanji by hand.
b.​ This is what the old AJATT method recommended doing before even learning
vocabulary and grammar! Many people never made it past this step… Old form
elitism saw this as a rite of passage- in reality, it was just overkill.

3.​ Lazy Kanji

a.​ Khatz, the founder of AJATT, eventually realized that as a beginner you do not
need to be able to handwrite thousands of kanji before you actually start learning
the language (seems a bit obvious in hindsight really).
b.​ Instead, let’s just learn to recognize the characters and then get on with learning
vocabulary and reading Japanese content!

4.​ Recognition RTK

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a.​ Furthering the above approach, and renaming it (how else do you market new
things?), Lazy Kanji was reduced from 3000 characters to the most frequent 1000
characters (and then even further to the most frequent 450 characters).

Common beginner traps to avoid when it comes to learning Kanji

1.​ Learning to write kanji at the beginning.
a.​ Focus on recognition first: this is the fastest and easiest way to get comfortable
with reading native content.
b.​ Typing only requires recognition of the correct kanji.
c.​ Once you reach an advanced level you may want to develop handwriting ability
(covered later in this guide).

2.​ Trying to memorize a bunch of “readings” of kanji out of the context of vocabulary.
a.​ Almost all characters have multiple “readings” (pronunciations) and even if you
learn them you won’t know how to pronounce words: just learn vocabulary and
you get the readings for free.

3.​ Using Wanikani

a.​ It’s expensive, slow-paced, and free alternatives exist.
b.​ It tests you on random readings and vocabulary out of context

4.​ Doing all of RTK 1 + 3 at the beginning before learning any vocabulary
a.​ Learning 3000 kanji before you learn any vocabulary or grammar is a giant waste
of time and doesn’t give you any actual Japanese ability: this is nothing more than
a party trick.

The genius of the Heisig method

1.​ Learn to deconstruct characters into primitive elements
a.​ Characters are made up of components, not just random squiggles.
 35

2.​ Learn kanji in a logical order of increasing complexity

a.​ This is the most important part of RTK. Some very common kanji are incredibly
“complex” (have a lot of components/strokes): it’s much easier to learn simple
Kanji first, and progress over time to the more complex ones, despite the
difference in frequency.
b.​ Combining frequency + complexity is the best of both worlds.

3.​ Create a “mental dictionary entry” for each kanji in your brain
a.​ Overcoming the “Kanji Hurdle” builds a foundation, priming your brain to make
learning vocabulary easier.

Recognition RTK 450

This deck takes the strengths of the RTK method above, avoids common beginner traps,
and uses a frequency list so that you learn to recognize the most common 450 Kanji in
order of increasing complexity.
The deck is short enough that it should only take ~3 weeks to finish if you do 25 new
kanji per day.

Kanji frequency data

450 Kanji covers ~70% of all Kanji that appear in most Japanese content. That’s
efficiency!
 36

Vocabulary

While you could just start mining native content from the get-go, using a pre-made deck is going
to save you a lot of pain, frustration, and time.

I recommend using the Tango N5 Deck & Tango N4 Deck

Learn the most frequent ~2000 words in Japanese using sentences (learning in context)
that are largely ordered in an i+1 format.
Every card includes audio from native speakers and pitch accent information.
​ You can finish in ~3 months if you do 20 new cards/day.

Core 2.3k VN Deck (alternative to above)

I’m not a big fan of this deck for beginners for a couple of reasons, but some people find
that it suits them better than the Tango Decks.
It uses vocab cards instead of sentence cards; this makes active recall harder due to the
lack of context on the front of the card. Sentence cards are good for beginners so that they
can practice reading and get used to various grammar patterns.
The example sentences used in this deck are not logically ordered in an i+1 format,
making them quite difficult for beginners and not particularly enlightening for seeing
how a word is actually used in context.
It doesn’t include pitch accent information for the words you learn.

After you finish one of the above decks, start mining new words from native media.
At this point you should find that you are starting to understand actual Japanese content.
When you start mining your own cards I recommend learning ~10-15 new cards/day in
order to keep your daily Anki time at a reasonable amount.

You should also be reading through a basic grammar guide while going through these decks.
 37

Grammar

Another nebulous and often misunderstood area of language learning: grammar.

Here are two interesting videos on the subject:

​ How to (not) think in your target language
Why You SUCK At Japanese Grammar

Stephen Krashen or Steve Kaufmann state that grammar study is absolutely useless and you
shouldn’t do any of it. Traditional classroom learning has you doing hours of grammar drills,
fill-in-the-blank exercises, and contrived speeches/dialogues with other foreigners. Surely, there
is a balance between these two extremes?

Even Khatzumoto, who is probably the most often misquoted person on the internet, studied
grammar by sentence mining the following book: All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese
Function Words.

Why study Grammar?

1.​ Studying grammar allows you to improve your comprehension of native media.

2.​ The more you understand your immersion the more enjoyable it becomes and the more
language ability you acquire from it.

How to study Grammar?

1.​ Khatzumoto hit it right on the head. Mine a basic grammar guide like Tae Kim or Sakubi
for new words, particles, conjugations, phrases, etc.
a.​ Front: Japanese sentence with 1 new thing to learn.
b.​ Back: explanation of that new word/grammar point.
 38

Example Bilingual Sentence Card from the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

2.​ Study Japanese → English.

a.​ You should only study to increase your comprehension of native media, not to
learn how to formulate sentences and translate thoughts from English to Japanese
b.​ Just become aware of various patterns and what they mean; natural use of the
language is obtained through understanding (thousands of) hours of immersion
and gaining a correct intuition for the language.
c.​ Eventually you will even be learning new words and grammar Japanese once you
go monolingual.

3.​ You will continue to learn new grammar as you mine native media.

Example Monolingual Sentence Card mined from native media

 39
The Dictionary of Japanese Grammar is the best resource for mining new grammar. I highly
recommend that you mine the Basic version after reading/skimming through Tae Kim.
 40

Technology for Language Learning

This section will focus on setting up software that is going to make learning Japanese more
efficient.
​
Yomichan and Anki are going to be your best friends while you learn Japanese.
 41

Anki

Loved, hated, and feared, Anki remains one of the best ways to reinforce vocabulary and
grammar that you learn from native media.
The currently recommend version is Anki 2.1.55 qt5

What is the Role of the SRS?

1.​ Create a ‘mental dictionary’ for new vocabulary/grammar that you mine from native
media.
a.​ Learn pronunciation + meaning of a new word in context.
b.​ This will prime your brain to notice this word and its usage in immersion.
c.​ The full usage/meaning of a word/grammar point is acquired through immersion
and seeing it used in multiple different situations.

2.​ Repeated and increased exposure to words

a.​ Using the SRS will let you see words more often than they naturally appear.
b.​ At an intermediate level, you will be learning words that only naturally appear
once every couple of months during immersion (they are still frequent enough that
every native still knows them). Using Anki to remember these words can greatly
speed up the language learning process.

Overall, Anki supplements immersion learning through effective studying of vocabulary and
grammar, acting as a catalyst to speed up your acquisition of the language.

Pro Anki Tips

1.​ Try to spend only 20-40 minutes per day in Anki; at the very most don’t exceed 1 hour of
Anki time per day.
 42
a.​ Beginners benefit from being on the higher end of this spectrum as they need to
learn the most common words and grammar patterns relatively quickly in order to
jumpstart their comprehension in the language.
b.​ Advanced learners are usually on the lower end of this spectrum as they start
knowing more and more words and stop seeing new words appear in native media
as often.

2.​ Download the Anki app for your iPhone.

a.​ This lets you do reviews anytime you have a few spare minutes during the day.
b.​ This is the best $25 you will spend on language learning.

3.​ Aim for a retention rate of 85-90%.

a.​ If you are above 90% that means you are reviewing cards too frequently and
wasting time in Anki that you could spend immersing in your target language.
b.​ If you are below 80% then you aren’t remembering enough, and need to adjust
your settings, or review cards more frequently.
c.​ I generally like remembering more than I like forgetting, so that’s why I aim for
the upper half of the 80-90% spectrum.
 43

Optimizing Anki

Anki’s default settings can quickly lead to you spending unnecessary amounts of time studying
with a reduced retention rate (which we obviously want to avoid).

While reading the user manual takes a while, it is the best way to learn about Anki and how each
setting affects the algorithm.

Anki Tutorial | Deck Options and Algorithm

If you don’t want to read the manual, then this video will give you a basic understanding
of how Anki works.

Various articles about optimizing Anki settings

Anime Cards

Optimizing Anki for Language Learning by Eminent

Anki Settings for Med School

 44

Recommended Anki Settings

Preferences → Scheduling
​ Enable review time above answer buttons
​ Enable remaining card count during reviews
Enable v3 scheduler
Learn ahead limit: 400 minutes (some number bigger than 60 and less than 1440)

Options
​ Daily Limits
​ ​ New cards/day = 10-20 is good.
​ ​ Maximum reviews/day = 9999
​ ​ ​ ​
New Cards
​ ​ Learning Steps and Graduating Interval
Vocab Cards: 1m 5m 1h 1d → 3 day graduating interval
Sentence Cards: 1m 1h 1d → 3 day graduating interval
I simply don’t feel that I need the extra learning step with sentence cards
due to the added context they have.
​ ​ Easy Interval: 4 days
​ ​ Insertion Order: sequential show new cards in order added)

Lapses
​ Relearning steps: 5m 1h
​ Minimum interval: 1 day
Leech threshold: 6-8
It’s better to not waste your time on cards that are hard to learn and instead
go for the low-hanging fruit.
 45
Leech action: suspend card
This allows you to go in and edit the card (to make it better for learning)
or delete it.

​ Display Order
​ ​ New card gather order: Deck
​ ​ New card sort order: Order gathered
​ ​ New/review order: show after or before reviews (up to your preference)
​ ​ Review sort order: due date, then random​

​ Just leave the timer/burying/audio sections as is, they aren’t important.

​ Advanced
​ ​ Max interval:
​ ​ Starting ease: 2.50
​ ​ Easy bonus: 1.30
​ ​ Interval modifier: adjust based upon your retention rate
​ ​ ​ If >= 90% then increase
​ ​ ​ If <= 80% then decrease
​ ​ Hard interval: 1.20
​ ​ New interval: something between 0.30 and 0.70
​ Min interval: 1 day

Notes on Settings
1.​ Learning new cards after reviews is the most flexible option
a.​ Allows you to choose how many cards to learn each day.
b.​ Ensures that you do all of your reviews every day.
 46
2.​ Learning new cards before reviews forces you to wait the proper amount of time between
learning steps and leads to (slightly) better retention.

3.​ Ease factor is not affected when cards are in the learning queue.
a.​ No negative penalty for failing cards that you haven't finished learning.
b.​ This is why some people like longer learning steps: when a card finally
“graduates”, you will actually know it w/o the card being in ease hell.
c.​ However, failing a card in the learning queue forces it to go back to the beginning
and you have to repeat all learning steps- don’t make too many learning steps.
 47

Anki Add-ons

Straight Reward
This add on will allow you to avoid ease hell by recovering ease on cards that you
repeatedly pass.

Review Heatmap
Visualize your progress and stay consistent.

True Retention
​ More accurate retention stats

Pass/Fail (JP Version)

Copy the PassFail folder to %APPDATA%\Anki2\addons21 (paste this in your file
explorer address bar).
Gets rid of the hard/easy buttons and the ease problems associated w/ them + reduces
mental fatigue from decision making.

Kanji Grid
​ See how many unique kanji you have in your Anki collection
​ ​ You have to put all of your decks as subdecks (under a parent deck)
​ ​ ​ Just drag and drop the decks onto parent
​ ​ ​ You can take them back out when you are done
​ ​ Make sure to select the parent deck when generating the grid
Enter in the fields that you want it to check (this depends upon your card types)
48
 49

Sentence cards

Sentence Card Format (*=essential)

Front of the Card: Sentence in Target Language
Back of the Card
Definition of the target word*
Native audio of the target word*
Native audio of the sentence
Furigana
Pitch Accent Information
Image of the show/scene

Example Monolingual Sentence Card made from The Great Pretender

How to review Sentence Cards:

1.​ Read the sentence on the front of the card (either in your head or out loud)
2.​ Read the definition of the target word on the back of the card.
3.​ Pass the card if you correctly understood the meaning of the sentence + pronunciation of
the target word.
 50
4.​ Fail the card if you forgot the pronunciation of the target word and/or didn’t understand
the sentence.

Benefits of Sentence Cards

1.​ See the word being used in context
a.​ What words are commonly used together
b.​ What particles are commonly used with that word (important for
transitive/intransitive verbs).
2.​ Essential for set phrases and idioms.
3.​ Allows you to differentiate multiple meanings of one word.

Disadvantages of Sentence Cards

1.​ Longer review time, especially if you include sentence audio.

“Pick low-hanging fruit” and make cards in an i+1 format. Ie. the sentence becomes
understandable once you look up the target word. Do not include multiple unknown
words/grammar points in your sentence cards: the only thing that you shouldn’t know on the
front of a card is that one new thing you are learning.
 51

Vocabulary Cards

Vocab Card Format (*=essential)

​ Front of the card: Word in Target language
​ Back of the card
​ ​ Definition of the word*
​ ​ Example sentence*
​ ​ Native audio for the word*​ ​
Native audio for the sentence
​ ​ Image

Example Monolingual Vocab Card made from Bakemonogatari

How to review Vocab Cards

1.​ Read the word on the front of the card. Recall the pronunciation and a rough idea of the
meaning of the word.
2.​ Read the definition and example sentence on the back of the card.
3.​ Pass the card if you correctly recalled the pronunciation and your idea of the rough
meaning of the word matched what was on the back on the card.
 52
4.​ Fail the card if you incorrectly recalled the pronunciation and/or completely forgot the
meaning of the word.

Benefits of Vocab Cards

1.​ Faster repping time.

Disadvantages of Vocab Cards

1.​ Lack of context on the front of the card = harder to remember.
2.​ If the word has multiple meanings or is set phrase/idiom then reviewing only the word
will not test you on the particular meaning.
a.​ I would use a sentence card in this case.
b.​ Generally vocab cards are best for (concrete) nouns.

I would create a separate deck for vocabulary cards as they have a different intrinsic difficulty
than sentence cards and thus you will want to mess with the interval and lapse modifier in order
to adjust your retention rate (without affecting your sentence deck).
 53

Hybrid Anki Cards

Format
Front: example sentence w/ target word bolded (can color code for pitch if desired)
Back
Definition of the target word*
Native Audio for the word*
​ ​ Native audio for the sentence
​ ​ Image

Hybrid cards allow you flexibility in your style of reviewing. You can either read the full
sentence, or just test yourself on the pronunciation of the target word if you want to save time
and are confident in its meaning.

Example Hybrid Card

 54

Audio Cards

Format
Front: Native audio for the sentence
Back
​ The sentence*
Definition of the target word*
Native Audio for the word
​ ​ Image

Example Audio Card made from Doctor Stone

How to review Audio Cards

1.​ Listen to the audio (of the sentence) on the front of the card
2.​ Read the example sentence + definition of the target word on the back of the card to
check your understanding.
3.​ Pass the card if you correctly understood the sentence when listening to the audio.
 55
4.​ Fail the card if you did not understand the sentence/”missed a word” when listening to
the audio.

Advantages of Audio Cards

1.​ Train your listening comprehension and stop depending on JP subtitles.
2.​ Learn alternative readings of words (like above)

Disadvantages of Audio Cards

1.​ Longer review time since you are listening to the sentence audio twice.
 56

More Anki Tips

Stay consistent: do all of your reps everyday

Use the heatmap add-on and keep your “streak”.
​ “Catching up” on multiple days of reps is not a fun experience.

Don’t use the hard/easy button (Download the pass/fail add-on)

​ Removes decision fatigue- you either know the card or you don't.
Improper use of the hard/easy button can easily cause you to have to spend way more
time reviewing Anki cards (ease hell) or lead to failing cards due to aggressive jumps in
intervals.

Timebox your reps

If you can't do all of your reps in one morning session, then just do them when you have
freetime throughout the day.

Dealing with Leeches

​ Option 1: Delete them
If a card isn’t sticking then forget about it and focus on the cards that are easy.

​ Option 2: Move all your leeches to a separate deck and relearn them
​ ​ Go into the browser and right click “forget”.
 57

Tips to save time in Anki

1.​ Keep sentence cards on the shorter side so you don’t have to read as much.
a.​ No one wants to read a whole paragraph for one card: 3-7 words is usually plenty.

2.​ Only include one example sentence for vocabulary cards.

a.​ You don’t need to include every usage case on your cards- you will learn them
through immersion.
b.​ If a word has multiple, different meanings, and it isn’t obvious what the others
mean if you already know one of them, then make a sentence card for each
meaning.

3.​ Only include the relevant definition of the target word.

a.​ Pick the one definition of the target word for the meaning that is used in the
example sentence.

4.​ If you really want to save time, then consider using bilingual definitions.
a.​ They are much faster to read than monolingual definitions due to the decreased
length of the definition and the increased reading speed in your native language.
b.​ However, the shorter definitions are also less precise.
c.​ Make sure to still use monolingual definitions when immersing though!

5.​ Don’t include sentence audio because they add a lot of time to each card.
 58
a.​ It is fine if you only have native audio for the target word.
 59

Yomichan

The ultimate technology for learning Japanese is Yomichan.

Easily look up the definition and pronunciation of words simply by hovering over them,
and create high quality vocab or sentence cards with just one button click (go to
“Sentence Mining”).

Yomichan supports bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, frequency lists, pitch accent
dictionaries, and audio from Forvo (native speakers).

Yomichan Setup Tutorial

Yomiception! Using Yomichan on unknown words within Yomichan definitions

​ Select “Allow scanning search page content” and “Allow scanning popup content”
Set the max number of child popups to 2 or 3.
I find that if I’m having to do more than 2 or 3 recursive lookups in order to understand a
monolingual definition then the word just wasn’t meant to be learned- just move on.

Turning Yomichan into an online dictionary page: the Yomichan Search Page
Click on the “magnifying glass” and a separate page will pop up.
 60
You can then use this page as a normal online dictionary. This is useful for things you
can’t Yomichan (eg. PDFs) and have to copy and paste in order to look up.

“Magnifying Glass”
​

Using the Yomichan search page while reading 三四郎

 61

Yomichan Dictionaries

Shoui’s Dictionary Collection

​
Installing Dictionaries/Frequency Lists for Yomichan
​ Download the contents as a .zip file (don’t extract)
I put all of the dictionary zip files into one folder for organization
Open Chrome and click on the icon for Yomichan Settings.
Select “Configure installed and Enabled Dictionaries”.
Click Import and select the dictionary files that you want to import.

Recommended Dictionaries
​ 大辞林 第三版 (my favorite dictionary, includes pitch accent information)
​ 新明解国語辞典 第五版 (unique definitions, includes pitch accent information)
​ ディジタル大辞泉 (includes pictures, similar to 大辞林)
​ 実用日本語表現辞典 (covers phrases/slang that don’t appear in other dictionaries)
​ JMDict (quick bilingual reference for when you just want a rough idea)
​ 漢字遣い参考 (gives you alternative forms of the word to search if it isn’t popping up)
​ Kanjium Pitch Accents (pitch accent graph and number)
​ 大辞泉 Pitch Accent (lists more modern accents that young people are starting to use)
​ Innocent Corpus Ranked Frequency List (frequency list for novels)
​ Anime and J-Drama Frequency List (frequency list for Netflix)

Matt vs Japan's In-Depth J-J Dictionary Walkthrough

 62

Online Dictionaries

If for whatever reason Yomichan doesn’t work, then the following websites are good alternative
options to look up the meaning of a Japanese word or phrase.

広辞苑無料検索 (literally has every dictionary)

Weblio (大辞林 第三版, 実用日本語表現辞典)
goo辞書 (デジタル大辞泉)
コトバンク (デジタル大辞泉、大辞林 第三版 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典)
Jisho (Standard Japanese-English dictionary)

You can usually google things and find an answer

〇〇 意味 (will usually give you top results from Weblio, kotobank, or goo辞書)
〇〇とは (same as above)
〇〇と〇〇の違い (difference between two things)
〇〇の尊敬語・謙譲語 (for when you need to write business letters/emails)
 63

Monolingual transition

Using J-J dictionaries for target word definitions

Suggested that you have at least ~3000 bilingual cards
You can always try to go monolingual earlier if you feel like it.
If you have not gone monolingual after ~1000 hours (~6-12 months) then focus on it.

I do not recommend going “cold turkey” one day (the advice from the old days), but instead
recommend a gradual transition.

How to make the monolingual transition

1.​ Start looking up words in a monolingual dictionary when immersing
a.​ If you understand the definition then create a monolingual card.

2.​ If there is an unknown word in the definition then create a bilingual card for it and then
create the original monolingual card.
a.​ If you can make this secondary card monolingual then do so, otherwise just create
a bilingual card.

Tips for the Monolingual Transition

1.​ Look up the definition of words that you already know
a.​ This will let you get a feel for how dictionaries tend to phrase ideas since you will
already know the concept that is being described.

2.​ Cross reference multiple monolingual dictionaries

a.​ They often provide different perspectives and will give different definitions (some
are short and concise while others will give you a lot of additional information)
 64
3.​ Learn “dictionary vocabulary” by mining unknown words in definitions.
a.​ You can create cards where the front is the dictionary entry of a word and the back
is the definition of the unknown word in the original definition.

Example Monolingual “Dictionary Card”

The more you use a monolingual dictionary the more you will get comfortable with it.

Ultimately the monolingual transition will take multiple months before you are comfortable with
the vast majority of definitions that you come across; it is okay to reference the bilingual
dictionary.
 65

Sentence Mining

Mining with Yomichan (This guide is based off of Animecards)

​ Create high quality vocab/sentence cards with one click.
Make a second Yomichan profile and set hotkey to be ctrl + shift
​ ​ Shift → make vocab cards
​ ​ Ctrl + shift → make sentence cards
​ Include image and sentence audio w/ 2 hotkeys using ShareX.
​ Anki Connect
Yomichan Forvo Server (listen to native speakers pronounce words)
Improved Anime Card template (Register an account before downloading)
An's handlebars for pitch accent (use if you have more than one pitch accent dictionary
installed so that it only takes the first entry)
My Yomichan CSS Code

Manual Mining (Old School)

Learning with Netflix + Anki
MIA Japanese Deluxe Note Card (this is my favorite note type)

Making monolingual sentence cards in real time

Making sentence cards

Example Sentence Sources

用例.jp (taken from books)
Youglish (natives in Youtube videos)
 66

Card format for Vocab Cards​ ​ ​ Card format for Sentence Cards

Example Vocab Card w/ audio and image​ ​ Example Sentence Card w/ audio and image
 67

Output

Let’s actually start using Japanese now to communicate with native speakers.

Here are some other good guides on starting to speak/write:

Matt vs Japan's Guide to Starting Output

Chronopolize's Guide to Outputting in Japanese

Aussieman on why you suck at speaking Japanese

Useful websites for native feedback & interaction

​ Hello Talk
​ Using a tutor with Italki
​ Tandem
​ Language Learning/Exchange Discord Servers
​ LangCorrect
 68

Writing

Writing (or typing) allows you to focus on producing thoughts/ideas correctly without having to
worry about pronunciation or staying up to speed in a real time conversation.
Being able to take your time can help you avoid making mistakes.

Remember that language isn’t math: don’t try to translate from English, instead focus on going
from pure thought/meaning into Japanese and mimicking phrases you have heard natives say.

To be a good writer you need to be an avid reader as well as learn the standard “form” of what
you are trying to write.
If you want/need to write business emails then you should read a bunch of examples from
native speakers as well as learn about the proper formatting and writing style (read
articles on the topic).
The same goes for essays, speeches, academic papers, etc.

You also need to practice writing a lot: aim to write 100-500 characters every day at a minimum.
Have a native correct your daily writings.
 69

Speaking

Speaking consists of a couple components:

1.​ Understanding what your conversation partner is saying (listening ability)
2.​ Phrasing thoughts naturally in the target language
3.​ Pronunciation

Errors are subconscious; you aren’t aware that you are wrong.
Use native corrections to become aware of errors.
Look out for the correct version in your immersion.

Mistakes are things that you can notice yourself.

Slip of the tongue, fumbling with words, stuttering, freezing, etc.
Record your speaking and listen back to it in order to identify areas to improve.
You can also have natives point out what areas need improvement.

Practice Ideas
1.​ Talk to natives (make friends and just converse w/ them)

2.​ Monologue on a random topic (a good exercise for overcoming output anxiety)
a.​ Use a random topic generator
b.​ Book/Movie review
c.​ Rants
d.​ Summarize a news/wiki article in your own words
 70

Critiquing High Level Japanese Learners’ Output

Let’s see what even some high level people struggle with and what gives them away as
foreigners.

Brutally Honest Nitpicking of Eric (KoreKara Podcast)'s Japanese

​ Prone to skip small ッ and shorten long vowels when pronouncing loan words
Lack of variety in sentence ending particles （語尾）
​ Incorrect pitch accent occasionally
​ Sometimes phrases ideas in a weird way

Brutally Honest Nitpicking of Dogen's Japanese

How good is Dogen's Japanese? Dogen NitPicked by a Japanese guy

Nitpicking Matt vs Japan's Japanese (2017 ver.)

Kaz mainly picks on Matt sometimes messing up pitch accent

Nitpicking オージマン Aussieman

​ Native level accent (verified by multiple Japanese people from Kansai).
This is largely because Aussieman mixes standard and kansai dialect. Is he
making a mistake, or is he just speaking with a hint of a dialect?
It’s hard for natives to tell.
Either way he sounds like a Japanese person who grew up in Osaka and
then moved to Tokyo.
Aussieman doesn’t really care about reading ability; others may/may not feel the same
depending upon their goals.

Nitpicking Mr. Katsumoto's Japanese, the AJATT founder

 71
​ The famous Blue Shirt Video
​ Mainly correcting Pitch Accent

5 Years of Japanese Immersion - TheImmersionGuy

Random guy who has done AJATT for 5 years posts a video speaking about his
experience. He speaks Japanese at the beginning and end of the video.
​ In depth critique in Japanese by the user ああ in the comments.
 72

Mui-Mui Appreciation Page

I consider とある中国人のむいむい to be the best foreigner at Japanese.

この中国人の日本語勉強法は異次元すぎる…【学習歴15年】
​ Mui-Mui talks about improving pronunciation and accent.

【努力】中国人が人生をかけて編み出した”日本語の勉強法”を大公開！
Mui-Mui talks about AJATTing, using monolingual dictionaries, and improving
pronunciation with reading aloud.

外国人にはどう足掻いても超えられない日本語の壁がある
Mui-Mui talks about how pronunciation/accent is the determining factor between high
level learners and those indistinguishable from native speakers. She specifically mentions
pitch accent, how emotions affect intonation, rhythm, and words containing 長音・促音・
撥音

The Mui-Mui Method

1.​ Lots of listening to Japanese (anime, variety shows and podcasts)
2.​ Everytime she read, she read aloud and did Pitch Focused Reading（音読）
3.​ Utilized monolingual dictionaries when she didn’t know a word.
4.​ Specifically learned about and studied pronunication/pitch accent at 東京アナウンス学院
and received professional training from announcers and radio hosts for two years.
5.​ Lots of speaking to Japanese people

Conclusion: Mui-Mui is super based and figured out how to get really good at Japanese through
AJATT all on her own.

Goal: be more like Mui-Mui.

 73

Other Topics for Advanced Learners

How far you learn Japanese is entirely up to you: some people are content with just being able to
read their favorite LN/VNs, others want to achieve a native-like accent, dedicated individuals
may want to go to university/graduate school in Japan or work professionally with their new
found language abilities.

Take your ability as far as you want: this section will help provide you resources to do so.

I gave Pronunciation and Academic Resources their own sections because they are such big
topics.
 74

敬語

Learning to understand honorific language is quite simple, and can be acquired through normal
immersion + sentence mining, but learning to use it correctly is a different matter. Even natives
have to specifically study this when they first get a job, so you should do the same: get a book on
the subject in Japanese and study it.

敬語の指針 (Itazuraneko)

A comment from reddit suggests the following books:

敬語の教科書1年生
敬語の使い方が面白いほど身につく本
入社1年目ビジネスマナーの教科書・入社1年目 ビジネス文書の教科書

Often you can just google 〇〇の尊敬語・謙譲語 and find a good business article/blog
explaining the proper usage of some conjugation/phrase, etc.
 75

関西弁

There are really only two main dialects: standard Japanese, which you already know, and 関西
弁. Other dialects simply don’t appear frequently enough in Japanese media for them to be worth
explicitly learning unless you plan on moving to that specific region, in which case you can pick
up the dialect naturally through lots of interactions with native speakers.

Aussieman’s advice for learning Dialects

1.​ Listen to a lot of content from that region (mainly Youtube and podcasts).
2.​ Speak to people from that region in that dialect.

As always, doing some active study and learning about the kansai dialect can help you.
京言葉 (In depth blog covering grammar and accent)
YouTube関西弁講座 大阪おっちゃんねる (has 5 playlists covering 大阪弁)
京阪式アクセント（基礎）
大阪弁講座

Books from Amazon

聞いておぼえる関西(大阪)弁入門
大阪ことば辞典
大阪ことば学
かんさい絵ことば辞典
 76

日本語能力試験

Take the N1 and get your certification so that you can work/go to college in Japan.

JLPT文法解説まとめ
Sentence mine the website for new grammar patterns
or use the already pre-made Anki Deck

新完全マスター読解 日本語能力試験N2 and 新完全マスター読解 日本語能力試験N1

Good reading comprehension books to get used to the types of questions and texts that
the JLPT uses.

Past JLPT N1 Tests (2010-2019)

​ Take an official test or two as practice to get used to the formatting + timing.
​ ​
Kotoba quiz bot codes (via Discord, good for extra practice)
​ N2 Vocab: k!quiz n2 nd 20 font=5
​ N1 Vocab: k!quiz n1 nd 20 font=5
​ N2 Grammar: k!quiz gn2 nd 20 mmq=2
​ N1 Grammar : k!quiz gn1 nd 20 mmq=2
N1 Listening: k!q ln1 10 nd font=5 mmq=2 atl=20

Note: if you are actually good at Japanese and can understand native media (novels, podcasts,
news, etc.) with minimal use of a dictionary then taking and passing the JLPT N1 should be very
easy for you to do with minimal specific preparation for it.

More Language Tests after JLPT N1

​ 日本語検定 (Japanese language test for Natives)
ビジネス日本語能力テスト (BJT)
 77

漢字能力検定

We’ve come full circle back to learning Kanji (remember how that was like 40 pages ago?), but
this time we are going to learn how to write them from memory. Now that we are fluent in
Japanese and have a high level of reading ability this will be a much easier process to do and we
can do it entirely in Japanese without having to resort to using made-up english keywords from
Heisig.

Use this Kanken Deck to learn how to write Kanji.

It will prompt you with a Japanese sentence and you will write the target word.
You should be able to pass the 漢字検定２級 with a little bit of practice once you finish.

Official Resources
漢検DSシリーズ (practice problems on the DS)
漢検 過去問題集 (books that the DS version utilizes)
漢検 分野別問題集 (practice problems by problem type)
漢検 実物大過去問 本番チャレンジ! (practice tests)

Useful Online dictionaries

四字熟語辞典オンライン・四字熟語の説明 （四字熟語の読み方・意味）
漢字辞典オンライン・漢字ペディア （漢字の部首・書き順・読み方など）
対義語辞典 （反対の意味の言葉）
ことわざ辞典オンライン （ことわざや慣用句などの意味）

Additional Online Resources/Websites

漢字検定WEB問題集 (Free practice questions for each level)
漢検の過去問題 (free example test with answers)
漢検１級模擬試験倉庫 (some dude’s blog that is very in depth + features advice from
people who have passed the highest level)
Doth passes Kanken ２級 in 653 days
 78

Pronunciation

For those who are interested in having a native like pronunciation, here are the resources,
exercises, and advice for you. ​
 79

Pitch Focused Reading

Welcome to what is perhaps one of the most brutal, and brutally effective, exercises for fixing
your pronunciation/pitch accent: reading out loud.

Either use the tools listed in ‘Basic Pronunciation’ to look up the accent of unknown
words/phrases or have a native speaker correct you.
You can use Yomichan and the NHK accent dictionary to look up the correct pitch accent
for words, verb and adjective conjugations, compound nouns, suffixes, particles, and
counters.

Using the native speaker is going to be the more sure-fire method, but it might be
expensive if you have to hire a tutor all the time if you don’t have any Japanese friends
willing to help you.

This exercise is highly touted by Darius, Matt vs Japan, and Mui-Mui for working on your
pronunciation; it forces you to actively recall the pitch accent of everything you read (and not
just passively recognize it like you do when listening) and to actually produce the correct sounds
with your mouth.

This is an absolutely brutal exercise if you are just starting out on your pitch accent journey but
already have strong reading skills. Expect your reading speed to drop as you get corrected or
spend time looking up the correct accent of words/phrases.

Start out by doing this for ~20 minutes per day, adding time gradually. As you get better (and fix
your pronunciation), you will find that you naturally start to read with the correct pronunciation
and pitch accent (which is ideally what you should have been doing all along).
 80

Chorusing and Shadowing

Chorusing: mimicking the same sentence repeatedly.

Shadowing: mimicking long form content w/o pausing or rewinding.

Laoma Chris's video and Olle Kjellan's Original Paper on Chorusing

​ Repeatedly listen to and mimic one sentence for a couple minutes.
Easy: just use the replay/loop button.
Advanced: use a program like Audacity to loop a sentence multiple times into one
audio file.
​ Switch to the next sentence and repeat.

Matt vs Japan's Ideal Shadowing Setup

The ideal content for this would be podcasts, audiobooks, or YouTube videos from your
language parent.

Recording yourself allows you to listen back to the clip and notice any discrepancies that you or
a native can correct.

Chorusing can be used by beginner/intermediate learners, and is best for working on nailing
down or fixing your pronunciation and accent. Shadowing is best for advanced learners to work
on their fluidity and intonation due to the freeflow nature of the exercise.

Audiobooks are easier to shadow than natural speech (podcasts/YouTube) due to the clearer
pronunciation and slower rate of speech. Try starting off with them and then transition over to
shadowing your Language Parent once you get the hang of the exercise.
 81

Pitch Accent

Revisit the ‘Basic Pronunciation’ section if you can’t yet differentiate between the various pitch
accent patterns of isolated words and/or haven’t watched Dogen’s series on Japanese phonetics.

Can pitch accent be acquired naturally?

Most people will need to put active work into improving their pronunciation and accent if
they want to sound like a native speaker (this may or may not align with your goals).​

How to improve accent and pronunciation:

1.​ Train your ability to perceive pitch accent
a.​ If you can’t perceive pitch accent in real time as you listen to Japanese then you
won’t be able to accurately imitate it. Improving your perception will improve
your ability to mimic and produce the language.
b.​ You should have done this in “Basic Pronunciation” using kotu.io

2.​ Maintain “Phonetic Awareness” when listening to Japanese.

a.​ Try to hear the pitch accent drops and rises in intonation as you listen.
b.​ Pay attention to various phonetic phenomena such as devoicing and nasalization.
c.​ If you need to confirm the pronunciation of a word, use the NHK Accent
Dictionary or Yomichan.
d.​ Dogen recommends watching the same Japanese movie 100 times in order to
really develop your listening abilities.

3.​ Learn the correct accent of individual words

a.​ Maintain “phonetic awareness” when listening.
b.​ Pay attention to the pitch accent of words that you look up when reading.
i.​ Yomichan has multiple Pitch Accent Dictionaries.
1.​ I like using Kanjium 2, NHK 2016, and 大辞泉
ii.​ Monolingual Dictionaries list the pitch accent of words.
 82
1.​ I like using 大辞林、新明解、and ディジタル大辞泉
c.​ Include pitch accent information and native audio on your Anki cards.
d.​ Use Pronunciation Cards (covered below).

4.​ Learn the rules of Pitch accent by reading through the NHK Accent Dictionary.
a.​ All of the rules regarding pitch accent are incredibly simple (most things are a
simple “this is the way it is” or a binary choice), there are just a lot of them that
you need to know. Take it slow and focus on one at a time.
i.​ Pronunciation Cards really help to memorize the patterns.
b.​ I recommend buying the app version from 物書堂
i.​ Has audio files from trained native speakers.
ii.​ Has a search function for ease of use.
c.​ This online version also exists, but it doesn’t have nearly the same level of
intricacy and audio files as the app does.

5.​ Pronunciation Exercises (Check out ‘Pronunciation Routine’ for how to implement)
a.​ Pitch Focused Reading (PFR)
b.​ Chorusing and Shadowing

6.​ Go to Announcer School in Japan

a.​ Not yet confirmed to be necessary, but also not yet disproven. Definitely helpful
either way as you get native feedback from professionals.
b.​ Official part of the むいむい method.

Supplementary Resources for Pitch Accent

​ 東京式アクセント (wiki page overview)
新明解 Accent Dictionary PDF (in-depth pitch accent rules)
日本語標準アクセントの概要 + 詳細
助詞・助動詞のアクセントについての覚え書き
 83
Pitch Accent of Verb Conjugations and Pitch Accent of Adjective Conjugations
​ This is just summarizing info from the NHK Accent dictionary in English.
Not Orange's list of Pitch Accent for Suffixes/Counters
​ This is a good list to systematically make Pronunciation Cards for.
​ 日本語教育用アクセント辞典

Supplementary Resources for Pronunciation

東京外国語大学言語モジュール (basic Japanese pronunciation and accent)
日本語の発音を知る (blog covering pronunciation of phonemes)
​ Uses IPA notation + has mouth/tongue diagrams

Dogen’s Recommended List of Books for Japanese Pronunciation/Accent/Linguistics

日本語アクセント入門 (introduction to standard Japanese and various dialects)
アクセントの法則 (compares standard and kagoshima dialect)
美しい日本語の発音:アクセントと表現
音声を教える
日本語のイントネーション しくみと音読・朗読への応用
 84

Pronunciation Cards

The hardest part about pitch accent is being able to recall the correct accent of all of the
individual words you know: you either know it or you don’t. “Pronunciation Cards” force you to
remember the correct pronunciation/pitch accent of words, phrases, verb/adjective conjugations,
counters, suffixes, compound nouns, particles, etc.

Format
​ Front: word or phrase.
Back:
Pitch accent of word/phrase
Native audio for the word/phrase
Any corresponding rules for learning pitch accent patterns.

Example Pronunciation Card for remembering counters/suffices

How to Review Pronunciation Cards

1.​ Read aloud the word/phrase on the front of the card.
2.​ Check your pronunciation on the back of the card.
3.​ Pass the card if you correctly said the pronunciation.
4.​ Fail the card if you didn’t.
 85

Example Pronunciation Card for a sentence taken from 温泉だより

Audio is from the corresponding audiobook on Youtube

Example Pronunciation Card to remember conjugations

Advantages of Pronunciation Cards

1.​ Systematically learn Pitch Accent
2.​ Incredibly fast to rep (~3-4s)

Disadvantages of Pronunciation Cards

1.​ Niche purpose (only for people who care about sounding like a native).
 86

Pronunciation Routine

Here’s one method that combines all of the concepts and techniques that we have discussed in
this section into a holistic pitch accent training routine using stories and native material to keep
things interesting.

The routine
1.​ Find a short story on Aozora Bunko and read it aloud.
a.​ Have a native listen to you and correct you (best option)
b.​ Or use Yomichan/NHK Accent Dictionary to diligently look up the pronunciation
of words/phrases you are not 100% confident in.

2.​ Create Pronunciation Cards in Anki for words/phrases/sentences that you were corrected
on or had to look up.
a.​ You can also just add this list of words to a notepad++ file and then review them
the next day or two and only make Pronunciation Cards for words/phrases that
you still don’t remember (this helps to reduce the amount of cards you make).

3.​ Find and listen to the corresponding audiobook.

a.​ Try to hear the pitch accent drops and rises in intonation as you listen.

4.​ Shadow the audiobook.

a.​ Record yourself.
b.​ Listen back to the recording to find out where you can improve. You can also
send this to a native for feedback.

5.​ Repeat with more stories.

You might want to repeat steps 1-4 multiple times for a single story (really getting in that
repetition like Dogen recommends) , or you could simply do it once or twice and then move onto
a different story to keep your interest up.

I picked Aozora Bunko because a lot of the works are relatively short (~10-60 minutes), and
almost all of them have audiobooks available on Youtube or 青空朗読. You could also do this
with novels + audiobook (going a page or chapter at a time) or a podcast + transcript.
 87

Academic Subjects

This section is going to provide resources for learning middle, high school and college level
subjects.

This is really just immersing in educational content and can be done at any time you want.

CASTDICE TV and 武田塾チャンネル introduce various books to help you self study.

とある男が授業をしてみた (Middle/High School lectures)

【中１数学・理科】・【中２数学・理科】・【中３数学・理科】
【数学I・A】・【数学II・B・III】
​ 【国語】
​ 【歴史】
​ 【地理】
​ 【公民】
【中１英語】・【中２英語】・【中３英語】

トライイット (Middle/High School lectures)

​ 【中学数学】・【高校数学】
​ 【中学理科】・【物理】・【生物】・【化学】
​ 【中学歴史】・【日本史】・【世界史】
​ 【中学地理】・【高校地理】
​ 【中学公民】
​ 【中学英語】・【英文法】・【英語構文】
​ 【古文】・【漢文】
 88

Japanese Universities

大学受験パスナビ (find information on specific unis)

大学偏差値ランキング (search by 国公立・私立、地域、学部)

Wakatte.tv rules: +5 to listed value if 国公立 or 理系 (+10 if both).

東京一工
​ 東京大学
京都大学
一橋大学 (only Law, Business, and Economics)
東京工業大学 (known for STEM)

早慶上智
​ 早稲田大学
​ 慶應義塾大学 (IMO the number one private university in Japan)
​ 上智大学 (mainly known for being an “international” school)
​
The remaining 旧帝大
大阪大学
東北大学
名古屋大学
九州大学
北海道大学

TOCKY
筑波大学 (known for STEM and research)
 89
お茶の水女子大学 (Women’s only university)
​ 千葉大学
神戸大学
​ 横浜国立大学

MARCH (generally seen as the “borderline” for good universities)

​ 明治大学 (by far the best university in this group)
​ 青山学院大学 (known for partying)
​ 立教大学
​ 中央大学 (has a prestigious Law program)
法政大学 (bottom tier of this group)

関関同立 (for those who want ~mid tier universities in Kansai region)
​ 関西学院大学
​ 関西大学
​ 同志社大学
​ 立命館大学
 90

Entrance Exam Format

Most programs you apply to will generally have entrance exams that you have to take. These will
differ upon the school, program, and course that you are wanting to take: do your research and
prepare thoroughly.

Below is what Japanese high schoolers have to do for entrance into University.

大学入試センター (official website for national entrance exam)

共通テストの方針 (learn about structure + formatting of exam)
What subjects you will have to take on this exam are pretty much pre-decided by the
uni/program you are applying to so check official university websites.

大学入試の仕組みを理解しよう！
​ Series of articles that outline the structure of university admissions pretty well.
​ The rest of the website has lots of other information about entrance exam prep as well.

東大対策・京大対策 (wiki articles on the entrance exam structure for each subject)
 91

国語・現代文

Middle School Level (Introductory)

国語の文法 (Modern Japanese grammar explained at a middle school level)
中学校国語文法 (supplementary Wiki article)

岡崎健太のOK塾
​ Videos that explain/summarize old/modern literature in a very easy to understand way.

The following section is largely focused on reading/analyzing old literature (1868~1950) and
writing essays.
If you are still struggling to read LNs/VNs and modern books, then focus on that first.
Aozora Bunko will be your friend here for reading these older literary works.

Entrance Exam Prep Books

​ 入試 漢字マスター1800+ (Kanji book)
​ 現代文キーワード読解 (Vocab Book)
​
船口のゼロから読み解く最強の現代文・記述トレーニング

入試現代文へのアクセス 基本編・発展編・完成編

​ 現代文読解力の開発講座
​ 現代文と格闘する

得点奪取 現代文 記述・論述対策

記述編 現代文のトレーニング
 92
早稲田の国語（赤本）
東大の現代文27カ年（赤本）

Supplementary Links: 中央大学 現代文 出題傾向と対策・過去問題解説

 93

古文

Learning Classical Japanese has no real practical benefit for your ability in modern Japanese, but
it does allow you to enjoy a wider range of literary works and can be a fun endeavor. Some
classical Japanese structures still exist in modern Japanese, and so this could give you a deeper
insight into why some structures are the way that they are.

For the gaijin,

​ Matt vs Japan's Introduction to Classical Japanese
​ Haruo Shirane Classical Japanese Grammar
​ Haruo Shirane Classical Japanese Reader

High School Level (Introductory)

歴史的仮名遣い教室
古典文法 (same guy who made the 「国語の文法」website)
森山の必ずできる古典文法 (Youtube videos)
The playlist is in reverse order (start at the bottom).

The following books are commonly used to prepare for college entrance exams:
​ 読んで見て覚える 重要古文単語315
​ GROUP30で覚える古文単語600

​ 望月光 古典文法講義の実況中継(1)・(2)・［センター国語］
​
​ 古文上達 基礎編 読解と演習45・読解と演習56

読んで見て覚える 古文攻略マストアイテム76

​ 得点奪取 古文 記述対策
 94

鉄緑会 東大古典問題集 資料・問題篇/解答篇 2013-2022

東大の古典 25カ年

Supplementary Links
中央大学 古文 出題傾向と対策・過去問題解説
百人一首で始める構文講座
 95

漢文

Learning to read Classical Chinese in Japanese (instead of just doing it in Chinese) is so useless
but high school kids have to learn it, so here you go.
​ 漢文道場 基礎編
​ 文脈で学ぶ 漢文 句形とキーワード

​ 漢文 早覚え速答法 共通テスト対応版
​ 共通テスト漢文 満点のコツ
​ ステップアップノート10 漢文 句形ドリルと演習

漢文道場 入門から実戦まで

得点奪取 漢文 記述対策

​ 早稲田の国語
東大の古典
 96

日本史

History is probably one of the most practical subjects to learn in this list because it simply
involves reading a lot about politics, economics, war, and religion, which are the domains of
language that are generally considered more difficult immersion material. You could read the
news for this type of content, but I think that this is just a more fun way to do it.

中学生のための、よくわかる歴史 (History articles at a middle school level)

一度読んだら絶対に忘れない日本史の教科書
金谷の日本史なぜと流れがわかる本 原始～・中世～・近現代史・文化史

石川昌康 日本史B講義の実況中継 原子～・中世～・近世～・近現代

HISTORIA 日本史精選問題集
実力をつける日本史100題

一問一答 日本史 ターゲット 4000

日本史B一問一答

“考える”日本史論述
段階式 日本史論述のトレーニング

東大の日本史27カ年（赤本）
 97

世界史

一度読んだら絶対に忘れない世界史の教科書

青木裕司 世界史B講義の実況中継(1)・(2)・(3)・(4)

HISTORIA 世界史精選問題集
実力をつける世界史100題

一問一答 世界史 ターゲット 4000

斎藤の世界史Ｂ一問一答

判る!解ける!書ける!世界史論述
世界史論述練習帳new

東大の世界史27カ年（赤本）
 98

数学

STEM subjects feel like they are more about learning the actual subject (and doing the
corresponding math) rather than real language learning (unless you already know the subject, in
which case this will be mostly review). Anyway, let’s do it in Japanese…

College entrance exam prep books

基礎問題精講 数学I・A ・数学II・B・数学III

標準問題精講 数学I・A・数学II・B・数学III

１対１対応の演習 数学I・数学A・数学II・数学B・数学3 微積分編・数学3 曲線・複素数

編

上級問題精講 数学I+A+II+B ・数学III

鉄緑会 東大数学問題集 資料・問題篇/解答篇 1981-2020

鉄緑会 東大数学問題集 資料・問題篇/解答篇 2013-2022

College Level Texts

​ 大学基礎数学 微分積分キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Introductory Calculus)
​ 微分積分キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Calculus)
ベクトル解析キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Vector Calculus)

​ 大学基礎数学 線形代数キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Introductory Linear Algebra)

線形代数キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Linear Algebra)
線形代数学概説 (Linear Algebra)

​ 大学基礎数学 確率統計キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Introductory Statistics/Probability)

 99
​ 確率統計キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Statistics/Probability)

​ 常微分方程式キャンパス・ゼミ ・演習 (ODEs)

ラプラス変換キャンパス・ゼミ (Laplace Transforms)
偏微分方程式キャンパス・ゼミ (PDEs)

​ 複素関数キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Complex Analysis)

​ フーリエ解析キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Fourier Analysis)

​ 数値解析キャンパス・ゼミ・演習 (Numerical Analysis)

​ 代数学 群論入門・環と体とガロア理論・代数学のひろがり (Abstract Algebra)

整数論 初等整数論からp進数へ・代数的整数論の基礎・解析的整数論への誘い
(Number Theory)

集合論キャンパス・ゼミ (Set Theory)

有限要素法キャンパス・ゼミ (Finite Element Method)

 100

物理

Entrance Exam Prep (High School Level Physics)

​ 宇宙一わかりやすい高校物理 力学・波動・電磁気・熱・原子

物理のエッセンス 力学・波動・熱・電磁気・原子

名問の森 物理 力学・熱・波動1・波動2・電磁気・原子

難問題の系統とその解き方 新装第3版 物理 力学・熱・波動・電磁気・原子

鉄緑会 物理攻略のヒント よくある質問と間違い例

鉄緑会 東大物理問題集 資料・問題篇/解答篇 2013-2022

Introductory College Physics

​ 大学基礎物理 力学キャンパス・ゼミ
​ 大学基礎物理 電磁気学キャンパス・ゼミ
​ 大学基礎物理 熱力学キャンパス・ゼミ

Classical Mechanics
力学キャンパス・ゼミ・演習
​ 解析力学キャンパス・ゼミ

Electrodynamics
​ 電磁気学キャンパス・ゼミ・演習
​
Wave Mechanics
​ 振動・波動キャンパス・ゼミ・演習
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Thermodynamics/Statistical Mechanics
​ 熱力学キャンパス・ゼミ・演習
統計力学キャンパス・ゼミ

Quantum Mechanics
​ 量子力学キャンパス・ゼミ
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化学

Entrance Exam Prep

​ 橋爪のゼロから劇的!にわかる 理論化学・無機・有機化学
​
​ 大学受験Doシリーズ 鎌田の理論化学・無機化学・有機化学

2022 実戦化学重要問題集 化学基礎・化学

理系大学受験 化学の新研究・新演習

鉄緑会 東大化学問題集 資料・問題篇/解答篇 2013-2022

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生物

Usually only med school students pick this subject.

Entrance Exam Prep

​ リードLightノート生物基礎・生物

​ 生物合格77講
​ 大森徹の最強講義117講 生物

​ 生物問題集 合格177問

​ 大森徹の生物 実験・考察問題・記述・論述問題・遺伝問題・計算・グラフ問題

大森徹の最強問題集159問 生物
​
​ 東大の生物27カ年（赤本）
​ ​

​
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翻訳・英語

The way that Japanese schools teach English is laughable at best, but I’ve included it for
completeness.

All the links below are probably going to be useless for native English speakers (besides the
JP-ENG translation books, which are well renowned) but I’ve included them anyway.

Translation (books used in graduate programs in the US)

The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation
Japanese–English Translation An Advanced Guide

You might need to take TOEIC/TOEFL to get into a Japanese university depending on how you
are applying.

Vocab Books
システム英単語・システム英熟語

鉄緑会東大英単語熟語 鉄壁

Grammar Books
関正生の英文法ポラリス[1 標準レベル]・[2 応用レベル]・[3 発展レベル]

英文法レベル別問題集 1超基礎編・2基礎編・3標準編・4中級編・5上級編・6難関編

真・英文法大全

​ 入門英文解釈の技術70・基礎英文解釈の技術100・英文解釈の技術100
Reading Comprehension Books
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関正生の英語長文ポラリス(1 標準レベル)・(2 応用レベル)・(3 発展レベル)

英語長文レベル別問題集 1超基礎編・2基礎編・3標準編・4中級編・5上級編・6難関編

ポレポレ英文読解プロセス50

Books on writing essays

大学入試問題集 関正生の英作文ポラリス[1 和文英訳編]・[2 自由英作文編]

大学入試 すぐ書ける自由英作文

ハイパートレーニング 和文英訳編・自由英作文編・最難関大への英作文

東大英作の徹底研究

Listening Comprehension
キムタツの東大英語リスニング Basic・キムタツの東大英語リスニング・ Super

CD2枚付 改訂版 鉄緑会 東大英語リスニング

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経済学

Introductory Economics
​ はじめよう経済学 (Youtube Series with HWs, quizzes, and answers)

​ 試験攻略入門塾 速習! ミクロ経済学・マクロ経済学

​ マンキュー入門経済学・ミクロ編・マクロ編

Microeconomics
​ ミクロ経済学の力・技

Macroeconomics
​ マンキュー マクロ経済学 入門篇・応用篇

… Add more if/when I finish above

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哲学

Introductory Philosophy
​ 素人が哲学をわかりやすく解説してみた (series of short introductory articles)
14歳からの哲学入門 「今」を生きるためのテキスト
史上最強の哲学入門 (introduction to western philosophy)
史上最強の哲学入門 東洋の哲人たち (introduction to eastern philosophy)

… Add more if/when I finish eastern philosophy book above

​ Actual textbooks??? (need to look/ask around)
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法学

伊藤塾・伊藤塾 YouTube
​ Buy various law books for studying/passing various exams.
​ Lots of articles about law school, bar exam, etc.

Introductory Law Textbooks

条文の読み方 (highly recommended to read before starting undergrad law program)

伊藤真の法学入門
伊藤真の憲法入門
伊藤真の民法入門
伊藤真の刑法入門
伊藤真の刑事訴訟法入門
伊藤真の民事訴訟法入門
伊藤真の行政法入門
伊藤真の会社法入門

LEGAL QUEST series (reported as being “very dense reading”)

​ 民法I 総則
​ 民法II 物権
​ 民法III 債権総論
​ 民法IV 契約
​ 民法Ⅴ 事務管理・不当利得・不法行為
​ 民法VI 親族・相続
憲法I 総論・統治
​ 憲法II 人権
​ 経済法
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​ 国際私法
​ 民事執行・民事保全法
会社法
労働法
行政法
民事訴訟法
知的財産法
刑事訴訟法
​ 刑法各論

Recommended Links
​ 有斐閣 (Buy various law texts/dictionaries)
​ 基本書まとめWiki＠司法試験板 (Wiki w/ book recommendations from law students)
​ 法科大学院協会 「共通的な到達目標モデル」について
Good website to read about what you should learn in Law School.

Law School Entrance Exam Practice Problems

​ 慶応義塾大学 過去の入試問題 (free PDFs)
​ 京都大学 過去の入試問題 (free PDFs)
​ 東京大学 過去の入試問題 (have to purchase)

Look into 基本行政法 第3版 series …

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Example Routines

The above section gave quite a bit of resources that should keep you busy for many years…

If you’re just beginning it might have been a bit confusing/overkill, so here are some example
language learning routines to help structure your learning.

These routines are largely broad guidelines for what you should be focusing on during each
phase of your learning and are just general suggestions.
If you want to output earlier, then do it!
If you want to prioritize reading more in the beginning, then do it!
If you wanna skim grammar in the beginning and learn as you sentence mine, then do it!
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Absolute Beginner Routine

Kana: ~10 min/day of Kana Recognition Practice for ~2-3 weeks

​ Read through Learn Hiragana and Learn Katakana to help you learn before practicing
Read through Basic Japanese Pronunciation as you learn the kana.
Learning just to recognize the characters is all you need for now: you don’t have to learn
how to write.

Pronunciation: ~5-10 min/day of Pitch Accent Perception

​ Watch this 10 minute Introduction to Pitch Accent first.

Kanji: Recognition RTK 450 (~25 new cards per day)

Finish this while learning kana and basic pronunciation.

Listening: 60-180 min/day

​ Split equally between listening with Japanese subtitles and listening raw.

Passive Listening as you can throughout the day

This will help accustom you to the sounds of the language, but it's okay if you don’t do
passive listening during this phase.
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Beginner Routine

Anki
Tango N5 and Tango N4 (~20 new cards per day)
Skim/read through Tae Kim to get a feel for/understand the basics.
Then, sentence mine the DoBJG (~5-10 new cards per day on top of Tango cards)

Pronunciation: watch 1 Dogen Pronunciation/Accent Lesson per day

Continue doing ~5-10 min/day of Pitch Accent Perception until you get 100% accuracy
with ease..

Listening: 60-180 min/day

​ Split equally between listening with Japanese subtitles and listening raw.

Reading: 30-60 min/day of easy, graded material

​ Add this in after you finish Tango N5.
​ See the Beginner Reading Section for resources

Passive Listening as you can throughout the day

​ Start listening to easy beginner podcasts or relistening to anime you have watched.

This entire routine should take ~3 months to work through if you follow the suggested pace.
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Advanced Beginner Routine

Anki
​ Mine your immersion content for ~10-15 new cards per day.
​ ​ This is how you are going to continue to learn new vocabulary/grammar.
​ Start trying to use monolingual definitions.

Pronunciation: 10-30 minutes/day of Chorusing or Pitch Focused Reading

Listening: 60-180 min/day

​ Split evenly between listening w/ JP subs and listening raw

Reading: 30-60 min/day

​ Start trying to read manga, news articles, LNs/VNs
​
Passive Listening as you can throughout the day
​ Aim for at least an hour a day while you walk, cook, clean, drive, etc.
Relisten to YouTube videos/anime that you have watched and mined.

This routine might last ~6-9 months and is mainly meant to bridge the gap between the beginner
and intermediate levels.
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Intermediate Routine

Anki
​ Mine your immersion content for ~10-15 new cards per day.
​ You should primarily be using monolingual definitions by now.

Grammar
​ Read through 国語の文法 and 中学校国語文法
Sentence mine the entirety of JLPT文法解説まとめ or the intermediate/advanced
versions of the DoJG (~5 new cards/day)

Pronunciation
​ Read through the NHK Accent Dictionary
​ 10-30 minutes/day of Chorusing or Pitch Focused Reading

Listening: ~60-180 minutes/day

​ Split evenly between listening w/ JP subs and listening raw

Reading: ~60-180 min/day

​ Focus on reading LNs/VNs for at least 60 min/day.
​ The rest of the time can be LNs/VNs, manga, news, non-fiction books, wiki, etc.
​
Passive Listening as you can throughout the day
​ Aim for at least an hour a day while you walk, cook, clean, drive, etc.
Anime, YouTube, podcasts and audiobooks are all okay to use.
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Upper Intermediate Routine

Anki
​ Mine your immersion content for ~10-15 new cards per day
​ You should primarily be using monolingual definitions.

Reading: ~60-180 min/day

Focus on reading modern fiction novels for at least 60 min/day.
When this starts getting easy then start reading literary works on Aozora Bunko.
​ The rest of the time can be LNs/VNs, manga, news, non-fiction books, wiki, etc.

Listening: ~60-180 min/day

You should mainly be doing raw listening by this point, and only using JP subtitles if you
are going to be mining a show that is difficult.

Passive Listening: aim for 60 min/day.

​ Focus on listening to podcasts and audiobooks.

Pronunciation: 10-30 min/day of Chorusing, Pitch Focused Reading, or Shadowing.

​ Use pronunciation cards if you need to.

Speaking: aim for 2-5 hours/week

​ Start talking with a native speaker using Italki or Discord

Writing: do a small amount of writing (~100-500 characters) every day .

​ Twitter is good and so is texting natives.
r/WriteStreakJP is okay.
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At some point during this you will become “conversationally fluent” and how you go about
continuing to improve is up to you: follow your interests and look at the ‘Advanced Section’ for
ideas and resources.
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Language Learning Theory

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.
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Core Language Learning Theory

The first section provided you with all of the resources that you need to learn Japanese; this
section provides all of the juicy details on the fundamental theories underpinning language
acquisition necessary for beginners to understand.
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Input Hypothesis

Stephen Krashen: A Forty Years' War

Learning vs Acquisition
Acquisition: subconscious knowledge of the language (Intuition)
Largely unaware when acquisition is happening
Leads to fluent and accurate use of the language

Learning: conscious knowledge about the language

Acts as a conscious monitor
Hard to use when speaking in real time due to time constraints
Useful for when writing though (even natives do proof-reading)

Conditions for using a conscious monitor

Have to know the rule that needs to be applied
Have to be thinking about applying the rule
Need to have time to apply the rule

Knowing the rule consciously doesn’t mean that you can use it fluently:
Conscious knowledge =/= acquisition

The ability to acquire a language never goes away

There is a gradual decline in ability as you get older but it is still possible to reach a very
high proficiency in a foreign language.

Adults have a more developed cognitive brain and a larger ability to think abstractly and
logically.
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Language learning metaskills

Using the right method and refining areas to work for you
Consistency and dedication and hours spent trump all.

Natural Order Hypothesis

Language is acquired in a certain order, which does not depend upon
simplicity/complexity.

Input Hypothesis
People all acquire language in the same way- through comprehensible, compelling input.
Comprehensible: when the message is understood.

Compelling: the story is so interesting that you forget that it is in another

language.

Output is the result of comprehensible input (acquisition) and not the cause of it.
Recommends going through a “Silent period” in the beginning where one does
not speak and instead only focuses on listening and reading in order to build
comprehension.

Affective Filter Hypothesis

Having negative emotions, external pressures, etc. act as a barrier to language acquisition.
The ideal is to reach a “flow” state when immersing in the content.

“Motivation doesn’t matter. I am pronouncing the death of the concept of motivation…

Tell them a good story and they will acquire the language.”
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This is the importance of input that is compelling; if you are interested in the story then
you will want to interact with the language more frequently and for longer durations of
time.

If language is acquired in a certain, natural order then how do we move from point A to point B?
Consume comprehensible input that contains the next rule that you are ready for.
Your current level is denoted by i.

Input that is just above your level and can be understood through context, visuals,
etc. (things that make the language more comprehensible) is denoted as i+1.

​ i+1 is the most natural and easiest way to acquire a language

Language acquisition is a gradual process that occurs a little bit at a time.

It won’t feel like you are progressing everyday but keep being consistent and you will see
progress as you look back on weeks, months, and years.

Consistency and building a habit of interacting with your target language everyday is the
number one thing to do.

Many people severely overestimate what they can do in a day, but severely underestimate
what they can accomplish in a year.

Optimal Input (Stephen Krashen)

Comprehensible: you can understand the story and follow along with the plot
Compelling: the story is intrinsically interesting
Dense: little to no amount of blank space
Massive Volume: immerse for multiple hours per day
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Consciousness and Language acquisition

Consciousness and the Unconscious Mind

​ Language is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain (barring extreme cases).

Your sensory organs collect data from the environment which gets sent to your
unconscious mind for filtering; important information is then sent up to your conscious
mind.
It is believed that some portion of this filtering is due to innate ability and another
portion is due to accumulated experiences.

​ For language learning, we want our brain to turn this raw auditory data into meaning.
When you are fluent, there is no time delay between hearing the sounds and
understanding the meaning of what is being said- it’s impossible to not understand.
​
Levels of Pattern Recognition (Noticing)
1.​ Spontaneous (Random)
a.​ The more you are exposed to something the higher chance you have of randomly
noticing it.

2.​ Intentionality: actively paying attention to something (being on the “look out” for it)
a.​ After learning something your brain will start to become aware of it and notice it
more (Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon).

3.​ Deliberate Practice

a.​ The main mechanism for getting good at a skill.
b.​ Requires a clear goal for success and failure and immediate feedback on
performance: without feedback you can’t improve.
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c.​ Failure is the mechanism for improvement; you need to practice things that you
can’t yet do in order to get to the next level (don’t get stuck in your comfort
zone).

Linguistic Competence vs Performance

​ Competence: your understanding of what is correct or not within the language.
​ Performance: what you actually produce within the language.
​ ​ Your level of performance can never exceed your competence level.

The main task of the language learner is to develop near native competence (to install an
unconscious model of the language in their brain).
Trying to boost your performance level while still at a low level of competence is largely
a waste of time since you are bottlenecked by it.

Boosting your performance level is relatively easy once you have the intuition of what is
right and wrong.
​
Language vs General Skill Acquisition
​ Certain parts of the brain are innately dedicated to language acquisition.

Just through getting input you will develop a high potential for linguistic performance
and will be able to naturally output to some degree.
​ ​ Explicit practice is needed to refine and actualize your latent output ability.
​
1st vs 2nd Language Acquisition
​ Adults have largely the same capacity to learn a language as a child does.

Children seem to not need deliberate practice in order to improve in their first language,
while an adult language learner does.
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​ Adults need to be actively engaged with the language in order for acquisition.
Only doing passive immersion is not enough: this is not an osmosis method.

Deliberate Practice and Language Acquisition

In the beginning we participate in deliberate practice by actively trying to understand the
language during immersion with dictionary lookups and conscious study.

After a long while, you will understand all of your input, but won’t be able to output at
the same level.

If you want to continue improving, then you need explicit output practice and native
corrections in order to figure out what aspect of the language you are missing/lacking.

You can then focus on those weak areas and refine your output abilities to even higher
levels.

If creating a deliberate practice loop is not possible, then you at least want to maintain
attention when immersing and try to notice the correct pattern.
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Theory vs Practice

If you want to get better at a language then you actively have to use that language.
​ Regularly engage with target language content meant for native speakers.

Don’t fool yourself by using dumbed down content for language learners: graded readers,
textbooks, dubbed shows. These are a good stepping stone, but they aren’t the real thing.

If you want to get better at speaking then you need to actually practice speaking Japanese.

Balance efficiency and enjoyment

If you don’t enjoy the process then you will end up quitting- and that’s the least efficient
method.

It is easiest to start out with building habits (doing something everyday, even if for a
small amount of time), and then increase the time you invest with the language as you
keep going.

Language isn't math (Matt vs Japan)

“Human language is highly specific in unpredictable ways”

Thinking in your target language and using rules to translate your thoughts into your
target language leads to unnatural speech, and possibly not being understood.

Each language expresses different, unique ideas and will even express the same idea in
different ways (set phrases, idioms, etc.).
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If you want to express an idea in a way that sounds natural to native speakers then you
need to know the specific way that a native speaker would express that idea, and the type
of ideas that a native speaker would express in the first place. The only way that this is
possible is to obtain a lot of input in the language.

Getting better and being able to engage with content and people in a meaningful way is the most
fun part of the process.
Being good is much better than being mediocre, which is much better than being a
beginner. Sucking is a necessary part of the process, but it isn’t necessarily fun.

Studying helps speed up the language acquisition process by giving you (repeated) exposure to
different aspects of the language.
Studying is not a replacement for immersion, but rather acts as a catalyst for it. ​
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On Language Learning in General

There are two main components to learning a language: improving your comprehension, and
improving your output performance.
​ You need to utilize Input, Active Study, and Output in order to reach an advanced level.
Input is the most important aspect of language learning acquisition.

Active Study is used to boost your comprehension of native media by repeatedly

exposing you to new information.

Output is necessary to refine and polish your performance to the highest level
possible through practice and identification of weak areas.

The optimal approach will focus on Input and Active Study from an early stage, and will
introduce Output once an intermediate level has been reached.
​
Improving your comprehension is the large bulk of language learning and is the most important
aspect.
Improving your comprehension also gives you an intuition for “correctness” in the
language which influences your ability to output naturally.

Many people can reach conversational fluency solely through comprehensible input,
Anki, and minimal speaking practice (~5-20 hours).

Improving your output performance is another important part of language learning and it allows
you to express yourself in a more natural and eloquent manner.
Refining your performance ability requires dedicated practice on top of already having a
high comprehension level.
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Deliberate Practice (Specificity) is the driving mechanism behind improvement in any area.
Input: trying to understand native media by using dictionary lookups.
The optimal difficulty is to have media just slightly at or above your level (i+1).

This optimal level is often hard to achieve in practice unless you utilize graded
material, thus maintaining interest in content is emphasized as all input is
comprehensible to some degree.

Most native content is not at this magical i+1 level when you are a
beginner/intermediate and thus you need to use a dictionary to look up unknowns
in order to make it more comprehensible. Using a dictionary allows you to work
your way through harder content and learn from it, making it more accessible.

You have to look up the reading/pronunciation of unknown words in Japanese

when reading since you can not guess them accurately with consistency.

Active Study: learning new vocabulary and grammar in context

Increases comprehensibility of immersion content by providing repeated exposure
to new vocabulary, grammar, and sentence patterns.

Mining from your immersion material makes your studying relevant to what you
are doing in the language and decreases the difficulty of native content.

Use frequency lists to help you learn the words that are going to benefit your
comprehension the most.

Output: practice speaking/writing and get corrective feedback

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This spotlights your weaknesses (areas you have not acquired) and shows you
what to focus your immersion, studying, and output practice on in order to
improve.

Try to write/speak about a topic you already understand well (don’t wing it on
something you’ve never heard about before).

Downfalls of utilizing only one approach

​ Only using Comprehensible Input
1.​ You never pressure test your actual language ability with native speakers. You
don’t get to see what you actually have acquired (and what hasn’t been).

2.​ Output skills will be at an overall lower level due to lack of practice.

3.​ Slower rate of progress than if you were to use dictionaries and active study to
increase the comprehensibility of your immersion material.

4.​ Limited material: there is only a finite amount of graded material meant for
beginners. Making the jump to material meant for native speakers will prove a
difficult challenge w/o active study of new words that appear.

​ Only Active Study

1.​ Won't develop an intuition for how the language is actually used by natives
through mass exposure.

2.​ Same deficiencies in output as listed above.

​ Only Output
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1.​ The lack of input means that you won’t be hearing how natives phrase their
thoughts naturally: you will be creating your own version of the language.

2.​ Largely focused on translating thoughts from English to Japanese.

3.​ Inefficient use of time if you have low comprehension.

Immersion isn't quite all you need. Here's why

This is possibly one of the best series of reddit posts of all time on language learning and
is the main reason why I made this section of the guide.

Guy learns Spanish by immersing for 900 hours w/o Active Study
Interesting case study showing the power of pure input.
He does note that he would’ve made faster progress if he were to look up unknown
words/grammar and use an SRS.

Linguist teaches himself french with 1300 hours of TV (No reading, no subtitles, no output, no
grammar) + corresponding reddit post
​ What was good
1.​ Invested lots of hours
2.​ Passed B2 after spending 6 months abroad in France

​ What was bad

1.​ Initial test results were poor (lack of study and preparation)
2.​ Output skills were significantly worse than comprehension skills

Conclusion: Input works if you do enough hours, but we can make the method much
more efficient by looking at other people’s success and failures.
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Improving your Comprehension

Your main focus as a beginner is becoming able to understand your target language; let’s take a
look at what factors affect your comprehension, and how to go about improving it.
 132

Active and Passive Immersion

Active immersion: focusing all of your effort on your immersion (listening or reading).
​ Stay engaged with the content.
​
​ Try to understand as much as possible.

Turn off and get rid of any distractions (Social media, Discord, cell phone, etc.).

Passive immersion: listening to audio while doing some other task

​ The more attention you can pay to your passive immersion the more beneficial it will be
Your level of attention will naturally vary over time, however you should aim to
focus on the material as much as you possibly can.

“Osmosis” isn’t real: having audio on in the background and not paying attention to it has
no benefits. You need to be actively engaged with the content.

Active/Passive immersion ratio (Matt vs Japan)

Active immersion is the most important component of language acquisition.

Passive immersion is used when you aren’t able to actively immerse because you have
things to do.

How often should you look words up? (Matt vs Japan)

​ Try to avoid looking up every unknown word: tolerate ambiguity

​ Focus on learning higher frequency words

​
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Mindset and staying engaged when you don’t understand anything
Instead of focusing on what you don’t understand, focus on what you can.
“Small victories” keep you in the game: focus on picking out new words that you
have recently learned.

​ See unknown words/grammar points as opportunities to grow and become better.

​ Focus on the sounds of the language.

Having fun in a Language you suck at (Matt vs Japan)

Use Compelling input: something you want to watch
A lot of motivation issues are due to a lack of interest in current immersion
material: find something new to watch/read.

Tricks to increase comprehension in the beginning

Watch something you have seen before.
This could be a show you have watched before with English subtitles or a dubbed
TV show from your Native Language.

Read a short summary of the show/episode before watching it.

Use Target Language subtitles and read alongside the audio.

Audio immersion should be started from day 1

​ Use Youtube and Netflix.

​ Build up a habit of immersing and then increase time once you are consistent.

​ “Grow some balls and listen to anime all day”

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Brutal Force

Why you still can't understand your TL

Not enough time spent with your target language

This is the number one reason why you’re not as good as you want to be.

We are talking about thousands of hours that are necessary to reach a native level
understanding and use of the language here- this isn’t a semester long course in Japanese
101 that has you participating 5 days a week for only an hour a day. Show up everyday
and be ready to put in some work.

Fear of ambiguity
Change your mindset into thinking about “small victories”.
Everyone sucks at the beginning.

Balance your reading and listening ability in order to avoid a big discrepancy level between
them.

Knowledge vs Ability
​ Conscious knowledge can be gained through studying.

Having some knowledge of the theory can help make your practice more effective but
don’t get caught up in only learning theory: ability is only gained through hours of
actually practicing the skill.

Focus on the sounds of the language

Try to identify words that you recognize
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Listen to how words blend together

Listening is harder because you need to be able to understand native speech at full speed
​ Parsing the phonemes: ability to differentiate between similar sounds

​ Connected speech: how words are combined/slurred during natural speech.

​ Phonetic Ambiguity: have to rely on context to fill in the blanks

​ ​ Homophones: same pronunciation, different spelling & meaning
​ ​ ​ ex. meat, meet

​ ​ Homonyms: same pronunciation & spelling, different meaning

​ ​ ​ ex. bat (the animal), (baseball) bat

Compressing your Language Immersion

More time immersing each day leads to compounding gains.
​ I recommend a minimum of actively immersing for 2 hours a day.

​ ​ Most people making solid gains are doing 4-6 hours/day.

I know a few hardcore people who are doing as much as humanly possible (12+
hours per day) and they are making amazing progress. However, this is probably
not realistically achievable for most people.

​ It is better to be consistent than intense for a couple of days and burn out.
​ ​ Once you are consistent then start increasing your time listening and reading.

Language Density
​ Match difficulty of TL media w/ energy level.
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Use a mix of harder and easier content each day.

​ Balance efficiency and enjoyment

There are some times you have to grind but for the most part the journey is just
about having fun in your target language every day.

Novels are the best form of content for reading

​ Large vocabulary
​ Complex sentence patterns
​ Mix of descriptive language and dialogue

Podcasts are the best form of listening content

​ Unscripted, natural speech on a wide variety of topics
​
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Levels of comprehension

Let’s analyze our favorite graph in some more detail and give benchmarks for comprehension
levels (for reading):

Assume ~650 characters/page and ~2 characters/word

~325 words per page

Assume ~20 characters/sentence (~10 words/sentence)

~32 sentences/page

Looking at the graph, we can see that 85% comprehension of native material requires you
to know around 2000 words.
85% of 325 words is around ~50 unknown words per page.

This is about ~1.5 unknown words per sentence.

You would be better served using easier/graded material. This would be quite
painful to look everything up.
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90% comprehension requires around 3000 known words.
This is ~32 unknown words per page, or 1 unknown word per sentence.

Most people would still want to use easier material here; the extremely motivated
might be able to start pursuing intensive reading.

95% comprehension requires a vocabulary of around 6000 known words.

Despite doubling your vocabulary compared to the 90% level, you only gained a
5% increase in comprehension. However, you did half the amount of unknown
words per page.

95% known vocabulary is about ~16 unknown words per page or ~1 unknown
word every 2 sentences.

This is a challenging, intensive read, but should be doable for most people.

98% comprehension requires around ~12,000 known words.

Again we doubled our vocabulary, but this time we only got a 3% increase in
comprehension: don’t you love diminishing returns?

This is about ~1 unknown word per paragraph (~7 lookups per page).

This is usually “just the right spot” for intensive reading.

​ 99% comprehension requires around ~18,000 known words

This is about ~3 lookups per page.

At this point, you start to feel like you can read smoothly but you’re probably still
annoyed that you need to use a dictionary on every page.
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​ 99.9% comprehension requires around ~24,000 known words

This is about ~1 unknown word every 3 pages.

I would call this “extensive” reading: you can enjoy the story and only need to
pull out the dictionary (Yomichan) occasionally.

Native level comprehension (99.99%) requires ~30,000 words.

Conclusion: increasing your vocabulary is always a good idea for improving your reading
ability.

Note: use the “xx lookups every xx often” as a benchmark for gauging whether or not you feel a
material is level appropiate or not. You might start out with a high number of lookups per page at
the beginning of a book, but they will usually decrease as you continue reading since authors
tend to reuse the same vocab throughout a book/series.

Keep immersing and mining and your understanding will improve.

Khatz used to say that 100% of the battle is showing up everyday and being consistent. If
you interact with the language every day you will get fluent- it’s only a matter of getting
used to the language (time + effort invested).
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Incomprehensible Input

Does Input have to be "Comprehensible"?

Context & Comprehensible Input

Why you should immerse with native content even at an early stage:
1.​ Build the skill of “Tolerating Ambiguity”
a.​ Become comfortable with not understanding everything.
b.​ Avoid looking up every unknown word.

2.​ Build the habit of immersing

a.​ Most people never break into using native content because it is “too hard”.
b.​ This barrier will always exist and the only way to get past it is brutal force via
massive volume of immersion content and mining.

3.​ Forces you to have the proper attitude during immersion.

a.​ Focus on small victories: turn immersion into a game of how many words you can
pick out, how many sentences did you understand, etc.

4.​ Natural rate of speech

a.​ The brain has to learn to parse the sounds in real time.
b.​ The language isn’t dumbed down for you (no crutches). Masochistic?

5.​ Denser content

a.​ More exposure to the language in a shorter period of time means that you have
more potential opportunities to come across i + 1 language to easily acquire.

On Graded/Learner Material
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You should try to use as much level appropiate material as you can stomach for the easy
gains. Then, as interest wanes, prioritize using something that is compelling even if it is
not as comprehensible.
​ You will need to do more dictionary lookups due to the harder content.

Use graded material as a stepping stone into native content during the beginner phase.
​ Eventually you should be using content made by natives for natives.

Focusing on visual content in the beginning can help enjoyment while you still have low
comprehension.
​ Listening: anime, drama, or movies w/ JP subs (audio + visual + reading)
Reading: manga (visual + reading)

Content should be engaging

Engaging with TL media should be fun; if it is boring then you should throw it out and go
immerse with something that grabs your attention.

Having fun with the language will make you more likely to do that activity more
frequently and for longer periods each time.

Enjoyment also comes from a sense of improvement/accomplishment.

​
Overall: you will never be “ready” to start interacting with native materials. The only way to
become really good is by doing the real thing. You should mainly focus on using compelling
content as this is what is going to keep you engaged with the language. Ideally, something is both
comprehensible and compelling.

5 tips to improve your Immersion

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Domains

Increase your rate of progress by narrowing your focus onto one area at a time.
​ Broad scale: same genre of tv shows, books from the same author

​ Small scale: a specific tv show, youtuber, book series

​ ​
When you finish that specific content, move onto something that is similar in style.

The downside is that you might get bored of only immersing in one type of content.
Solution: have one main show/book that you are mining and have variety for the rest of
your content to keep you engaged and mitigate fatigue.

Don’t feel limited to stick to a single domain if you aren’t enjoying it: as long as you
keep immersing and mining you will make progress

Immerse in a mix of easier and harder content

Easy content allows you to internalize patterns as well as reduce the level of effort
required for automatic comprehension.

Harder content exposes you to new vocabulary to learn.

Prioritize using harder content first as it is more fatiguing; switch to using easier content
later in the day.

Building up your first domain will be the hardest part as you are starting from nothing.
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Comprehensibility Factors

Visual Context
Listening and reading without visual context adds a layer of complexity because
everything needs to be described entirely with words.
This is why reading novels is the best thing that you can do to grow your
vocabulary. The same is true for audiobooks and podcasts for improving your
listening ability.

Narrative Predictability
​ Authors tend to repeat vocabulary within a series.

​ Familiarity with characters, tropes/cliches (the genre) increase comprehension.

Unscripted content (podcasts, variety shows, etc.) tends to be more difficult because they
don’t follow a set storyline and often jump between multiple topics quickly.

Domain Familiarity
Most domains will have specific vocabulary that isn’t really used anywhere else; this will
be an initial barrier when first getting into that field.
​
Regional Dialects
Differences in vocabulary, grammar, accent, and intonation makes content harder to
understand if you aren’t used to them.

Intended Audience
​ Infants: exaggerated visual context and extremely simple language, low language density.
 144
Children: simple and repetitive story lines. Good for beginner learners if you can
maintain interest.

Adolescents: stories are complex enough that they can hold an adult’s interest, and the
language is dense and complex enough to stretch an intermediate learner’s abilities
(Middle/High School level content).

Adults: wide use of vocabulary, complex themes and storylines. This is most normal
material that natives would watch/read/listen to.

Technical: college lectures, conference talks, and textbooks on technical subjects

(physics, chemistry, business, etc). Comprehensibility depends on your prior knowledge
of the subject as well as your language ability.

Inherent Difficulty of Various Domains

Slice of Life content tends to use everyday vocabulary and revolve around a number of
typical life experiences such as romance or school. This can be a good first choice for a
domain if you can maintain interest.

Other domains, such as Politics, Sci-Fi, Crime, Business, Medicine, Linguistics, etc., tend
to have specialized vocabulary that is only used within that domain and is more difficult.

Dubbed vs Native Content

​ Dubbed versions of shows tend to be simplified compared to the original.
​ ​ Jokes and puns don’t translate.
​ ​ Lack of cultural relevance to your target language.

Dubbed content is good for getting into your target language, but ideally you will use
native content (part of language learning is learning a culture).
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Input Channels (Visual, Reading, Listening)

​ Combining multiple forms of input makes the content easier to understand
​ ​ 3-channel input (easiest)
TV shows w/ target language subtitles

​ ​ 2-channel input
Manga (visual + reading)
Visual Novels (visual + reading, also usually have some voiced lines)
TV shows w/o subtitles (visual + listening)
Reading + Listening simultaneously
​ Novel + Audiobook
Podcast + Transcript

​ ​ 1-channel input (hardest)

​ ​ ​ Pure reading: novels, non-fiction books, news/wiki articles
​ ​ ​ Pure listening: podcasts, audiobooks
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Reading immersion

Why you should read Novels

Novels use a wider variety of vocabulary and grammar in order to describe everything
through a written medium instead of relying on visual elements.

Reading your first novel is going to be tough no matter what and at some level you just have to
brute force it.
The more you read the easier it will get: more volume = more gains.

Try to use books in an electronic format (compared to physical books) as you will be able
to use electronic/online dictionaries to easily look up unknown words.
Physical books are better suited towards when you are at a high level of
comprehension and aren’t going to need to use a dictionary in order to understand
the story.

Fiction vs Nonfiction Books

​ Fiction
Tend to focus on world building: describing scenery, actions, etc.
Larger use of vocabulary, idioms, and phrases.
Mix of dialogue and descriptions

​ Non-fiction
Information presented in a straightforward way.
​ Actually learn something in your target language.
​ Will use domain specific vocabulary relevant to the topic of the book.

Conclusion: Read both!

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Balancing listening and reading ability
I, and many others, have found that reading ability is much easier to develop than
listening comprehension. This is because listening forces you to parse raw audio and turn
it into meaning in real time (with little delay). In reading, you can take your time, reread
passages, and use Yomichan to look up unknown words as you go.

Usually you need to invest more hours into listening if you want to maintain a balance
between your reading and listening abilities.

Why you can’t understand a sentence even if you know all of the words
1.​ Vocabulary: words can have multiple meanings
a.​ Not aware of the different meanings
b.​ Unable to determine which meaning is relevant
c.​ Set phrases and idioms

2.​ Grammar
a.​ Unknown grammar pattern/rule.
b.​ Parsing relative clauses.

3.​ Context
a.​ In what situation is the sentence being said?
b.​ Words are often omitted if they are obvious from context.

Mistakes will compound and will lead to a lack of understanding.

8 Ways to Read More in a Foreign Language

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Frequency of Words

Beginners, if you haven’t finished learning core vocab such as Tango N5/N4 or Core 2k then
don’t even bother with mining: just go through the premade deck.
The words that you would be mining are probably already in this deck.

There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to mining words for Anki:
1.​ Add everything you can find.
2.​ Limit your mining to words that are below a certain frequency threshold.

Here’s my thought process:

1.​ Is this word relevant?
a.​ You don’t need to learn useless words such as plant, fish, bird, and tree names that
you see on quizbot (this is the “rare card collector” trap).
b.​ This is where having frequency lists can help influence your decision: more
frequent words are more important to learn.

2.​ Does this word appear familiar?

a.​ If you’ve seen the word before and can’t remember it then you probably want to
add a card for it.

3.​ Do I need to use Anki to learn this word or can I just learn it through immersion?
a.​ If a word appears often enough, you may just be better off looking up the
definition a couple of times instead of making an Anki card.

4.​ Do I want to add a card for this word?

a.​ Some things you come across just really pop out and are intrinsically interesting.
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There are plenty of 1T sentences out there; grab the easy and juicy looking sentences!

Please avoid mining every unknown word you come across. Having a giant backlog of unlearned
cards in Anki is inefficient: you won’t learn that new word in Anki for months if you have 1000
new cards in front of it. When the time finally comes around for you to learn that card, you
probably forgot the context of where you mined it from or may have already learned the word
just through immersion. You only need to mine as many words as you will learn the next day
(which is usually like 10-20 cards).
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Improving Performance

Once you reach an intermediate level and have a base level of comprehension, you will probably
want to begin conversing with native speakers and start actually using your target language for
something other than being a media junkie.
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Basic Output Theory

Competence: one’s unconscious model of how the language works.

Consciously, we use intuition and learned knowledge to determine what sounds correct or
not.

Performance: one’s ability to convert their competence into correct and coherent output.
Performance will always be limited by one’s competence. Increasing your competence in
the language increases your potential for a high performance level.

Through input your brain constructs a subconscious model of how the language works: your
brain automatically converts listening and reading into pure meaning.
In order to build a strong intuition for what sounds correct or not you need to build up
your competence in comprehending the language first.

Language Activation: your brain runs your subconscious model of the language in reverse
(meaning → language) in order to express thoughts.
Practicing output helps you to turn your latent potential into actual ability.

Ultimately, when you output it should happen naturally: you should not be translating thoughts,
but rather going straight from meaning (“mentalese”) to your target language.

Comprehensible Output Hypothesis

The learner encounters gaps between their comprehension and performance through
self-correction or native feedback.
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Areas of Output

1.​ Having natural thoughts in the language

a.​ Choice of vocabulary
b.​ Syntax
i.​ Using correct grammar
ii.​ Natural phrasing for ideas
c.​ Register
i.​ Degree of politeness (Honorifics)
ii.​ Spoken vs Literary language (formality)
d.​ Typical thoughts that native speakers have
e.​ Natural mannerisms and body language of native speakers

2.​ Physically producing the language

a.​ Speaking with natural pronunciation
i.​ Correct phonemes
ii.​ Stress Accent/Pitch Accent
iii.​ Intonation patterns
iv.​ Rhythm
1.​ Speaking at a natural pace
2.​ Naturally using pauses and filler words
b.​ Writing characters by hand (Chinese/Japanese)
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Is Early Output a Sin?

Output Anxiety and The Biggest Mistake People Make Learning Japanese
Don’t avoid speaking forever; interacting with others is necessary to improve your
speaking ability.

My opinion: it’s honestly fine to start speaking/writing whenever you want.

It is going to be more efficient to focus on comprehension first, but even if you start
outputting as a beginner, it’s fine as long as input is still the majority of your language
learning routine.
​
Why is it useful to focus on comprehension first and go through a silent period?
1.​ Outputting at the very beginning is largely a waste of time since you’re mainly translating
thoughts from your NL into your TL when trying to speak

2.​ Focusing exclusively on building comprehension of the language with immersion and
Anki leads to faster results than trying to get better at everything all at the same time.

Why should you output?

1.​ Output is good motivation as you get to interact with Natives.

2.​ You need to practice speaking if you want to improve your speaking ability to its
maximum potential.

3.​ Receive corrections on mistakes that you make.

a.​ These deficiencies indicate that there is a gap between your comprehension and
your performance; you haven’t fully acquired that aspect of the language.
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Adopting a Language Learning Parent

Using a parent narrows your target from sounding “native-like” to sounding like a specific
person. A smaller target means that you have a much better basis to compare yourself too.

Picking a Language Parent

You should choose someone that you want to sound like.
This person should be the same gender as you.
This person should be close to you in age.
They should speak the dialect that you want to speak.
They should have an abundance of unscripted content available for listening.

YouTube Challenge!
An easy way to find a language parent is to pick one YouTuber you like and to watch
every video they have made. This should be anywhere from hundreds to thousands of
hours of content.
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Improving Speaking Ability

Once you are able to have normal conversations with native speakers, you have enough mental
bandwidth available to start paying attention to the more subtle aspects of native speech.

Phonetic Awareness
​ Are you saying the correct phonemes?
​ Are you using devoicing and nasalization properly?
​ Are you saying words with the correct pitch accent?
Are you speaking at a natural pace?
Are you using filler words and pauses naturally?

What ideas do natives express commonly?

In order to sound natural you need to express ideas that Japanese people are likely to say.
What are the standard behaviors and reactions that natives usually have in various
specific social contexts?
​ Body language and 相槌

How do they phrase those ideas?

Similar ideas may exist but be expressed differently; pay attention to the specific wording
that is used.
​ What register of politeness is being used?（尊敬語・謙譲語・丁寧語・タメ口）
​ What style/format is being used? (letters, E-mails, texts, essays, etc.)
​ Literary vs Spoken language
​ 役割語
​ How do native speakers tend to connect ideas together? （接続詞）
 156

Output Troubleshooting

Are you consistently immersing (listening/reading) for at least 20 hours per week?

Are you consistently learning at least 5 new cards per day in Anki?​

Are you consistently speaking with native speakers for at least ~5 hours per week?

Are you consistently writing something everyday and having it corrected by a native speaker?

Are you consistently doing both chorusing/shadowing and pitch focused reading for at least
~20-30 minutes every day?

If your answer is no to any of the above, then I found your problem…

A lot of things can be boiled down to consistency; if you aren’t constantly listening to
and speaking Japanese, then how do you expect to be able to speak in a natural manner?

A lot of errors/mistakes that you might encounter when critiquing your output performance can
be fixed by simply having them pointed out by a native speaker (or by noticing them yourself)
and then paying attention to the correct way to say things when listening.

Partially Available Language

Incomplete Idea: a portion of an idea pops into your head, but you can’t express the entire
idea.

Feeling of Uncertainty: you are able to express an idea but are not confident in the
delivery.
 157
Conflicting Ideas: multiple ideas pop into your head and you don’t know which one is
correct.

Solution: look for confirmation from a native speaker and pay attention to the correct
version during immersion.

Cross Linguistic Influence

You word something in a way that is technically correct, but native speakers wouldn’t say
it like that. This generally happens when translating thoughts.
​
Solution: focus on mimicking a native speaker.
What type of thoughts/ideas do native speakers tend to have?
What would a native speaker typically say in this situation?

On Native Corrections
Native speakers won’t always correct you; sometimes they just want to keep the
conversation flowing.
Getting a tutor can be a good option since you are literally paying them to correct
you.

The average native speaker can usually tell you when you’re wrong, and tell you how to
make it right, but they can almost never explain why you’re wrong.
Just notice the type of mistake that they point out and look out for the correct
version in your immersion.
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Miscellaneous
Trinkets, odds and ends, that sort of thing.
 159

Other Guides on Language Learning

The Moe Way (Shoui’s guide to Japanese)

​ A straightforward guide to learning Japanese
Their discord server is good if you want free books.

Animecards
​ Great Technology for making learning Japanese fun and efficient

Refold (Matt vs Japan’s language learning paradigm)

Good framework on language learning theory

All Japanese All The Time (Khatzumoto’s ramblings)

​ Great motivational pieces given in a quirky writing style.
AJATT Notes and Quotes (My document teaching you the true essence of AJATT)

Tatsumoto (A modern approach to AJATT)

Antimoon (the original website that popularized immersion learning)

​ My notes from Antimoon

A year to learn Japanese (an extremely long google doc by u/SuikaCider)

r/languagelearning eBook

The Linguist (an inspirational book from Steve Kaufmann)

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Instructive Youtube channels

Matt vs Japan (Language learning, Refold, Japanese)

Dogen (Japanese Comedy, Pitch Accent/Pronunciation)

Brit. vs Japan (AJATT)

Stevijs 3 (Stat tracking, Migaku)

Aussieman (AJATTer who speaks Kansai ben at a native level)

Steve Kaufmann (polyglot)

Luca Lampariello (polyglot)

KoreKara Podcast (interviews famous AJATTers)

 161

Interviews

Matt's AJATT Journey (the greatest 3 hour rant video ever created)
One Year Later

Matt interviewing Stephen Krashen

Phantom Madman 3 Year AJATT Update

Matt vs Japan & Luca Lampariello・II・III

Matt vs Japan & Dogen・II・III

What I’ve Learned interviews Matt vs Japan

KoreKara interviews Stevi

Korekara interviews Justin Sung

Matt vs Japan Interview Nick (professional comedian in Japan)

Korekara interviews Nick

Deep Weeb Podcast interviews Doth

Deep Weeb Podcast interviews HMSLC

Deep Weeb Podcast w/ HMSLC and Doth

 162
Steve Kaufmann interviews Stephen Krashen
 163

Progress Reports

My Progress Reports
My first year of learning Japanese (semi-monthly updates)
1 Year Update Post
2 Year Update Post
I pass the JLPT N1 161/180 after 2.5 years
Kanken report coming …… (but probably not for a while).

Stevi passes the JLPT N1 137/180 after 18 months

​ Stevi reflecting on 3 years of Learning Japanese

Doth passes the JLPT N1 160/180 after 438 days

Jazzy gets a perfect score on the N1 in only 9 months (and then subsequently disappeared from
the universe)
 164

Other links of interest

Copy of Japanese Tracking Spreadsheet v2.0 (track your stats with this spreadsheet I made)

Miscellaneous Online Dictionaries

数え方辞典オンライン (ものの数え方）
人物名鑑（芸能人・スポーツ選手・アイドルなどの情報）
名字辞典（名字・名前の読み方）
地名辞典 （市町村の読み方と郵便番号）

地理ゲーム (Learn Geography)

Langpractice Japanese (Practice recognition of large numbers)

A lot of time your brain just goes “big number” and doesn’t actually register the exact
number- this site helps fix that.

資格の門・資格の取り方 (Websites that introduces various certification test)​

歴史能力検定 (History Test)
The Big 3: 司法試験・医師国家試験・公認会計士試験
河野玄斗 has passed all three of them

建築技術教育普及センター (Architecture)
​ Info on 一級建築士試験 + Courses and other stuff

Here are some places to get JP subtitles

​ Kitsunekko Subtitles
Itazuraneko Subtitles
Resynching Subtitles
 165

Fatigue Management

Language learning is an intense process that requires a hefty time commitment and consistency
over many days, months, and years. Sometimes life gets in the way and you either don’t have the
time or mental capacity to intensely learn a language. Let’s see how to maintain our ability while
dealing with burn out.

Aussieman’s videos on motivation

Why You Should Quit Learning Japanese
Don't Feel Motivated to Study Japanese?

Read through AJATT (Sections 0.1 and 0.2) and you’ll find some inspiration.

Are we actually burned out or are we just bored?

Try switching out your current immersion material for something new and exciting.
Oftentimes “pushing through” a book or TV series isn’t worth it and can make language
learning feel like a chore; instead, find something new. This can solve the problem a lot
of the time.

Are we just being lazy?

​ Log off of social media (stop scrolling TikTok/Instagram reels): it’s a massive time suck.
Create a daily routine and stick to it.
It’s a lot easier to do things in “chunks” or “sessions” (~30-120 min in length) instead of
doing one giant 6 hour power session. Try to split up your daily volume into 2-3 sessions
spread out throughout the day.

How is your overall sleep, nutrition, and fitness?

Staying healthy is an important part of mental health.
 166
Make sure you’re getting your ~8 hours of sleep, eating enough calories + protein, and
working out multiple days per week.
You can listen to podcasts/audiobooks while going on walks, runs, or doing yoga!

Are you doing too much Anki?

Overdoing new cards per day and being swamped with reviews is a major reason for
losing motivation and discipline with your routine.
Lower your new card count for a week or two and wait for reviews to die down.

If we are actually burned out and need a break then here is what we can do to maintain our
language ability.
1.​ Stop learning new cards in Anki.
a.​ Just focus on your reviews and let your review time die down to 10-15 minutes
per day and keep it there for a week or two.

2.​ Decrease immersion volume.

a.​ Cut down your listening and reading volume to ~20-30 minutes per day.
b.​ Try to stay in contact with the language each day but don't do too much.

3.​ Spend time with other hobbies.

a.​ Go focus on something else that you enjoy: martial arts, skating, working out,
spending time with family, etc.

4.​ Khatz’ L3 Trick

a.​ Go try to learn a different language for a bit and after a week or two you will
realize how good you are at Japanese compared to this new language.

5.​ Rest Day

 167
a.​ Build a day into your weekly language learning schedule where you just take the
entire day off.

6.​ Deload Week

a.​ Sometimes you just need to take a “language learning vacation” and take an entire
week off. Smart people would plan this around actual vacations/holidays if they
needed it.

You don’t have to implement all of the above strategies at once (in fact I wouldn’t), but try them
out in phases (they are pretty much listed in the recommended order of implementation) and see
if that fixes your motivation problem.
 168

FAQ

What’s the difference between i+1 and 1T?

i+1 means that there is one unknown piece of information whose meaning can be inferred
through context.

1T means that there is one unknown piece of information that once looked up makes the
entire sentence comprehensible.

​ However, they are often used interchangeably.

How long should I actively immerse per day?

Most dedicated people in the community usually average 4-6 hours per day. I know some
hardcore people who have consistently done up to 10-12 hours per day.

While there is a time and place to go extremely hardcore on language learning, I would
recommend that you balance it with the rest of your life (work/school, family, hobbies,
exercise) and aim for at least 2 hours per day split evenly between listening/reading.

How much should I passively immerse per day?

​ Ideally, whenever you are not actively immersing.

​ However, if you aren’t focusing on the audio then it has essentially no benefits.
​ ​ Do it when walking, driving, cleaning, cooking, etc. and can focus on the content.

Don’t do it when you are already doing some mentally strenuous task such as
homework, studying, Anki reps, reading, etc.
 169
Any tips for passive immersion?
​ If you can, actively watch the material first.

Repeatedly listen to the same material multiple times before switching it out.

​ Use dense material such as Podcasts, Audiobooks, and YouTube videos of people talking.
​ ​ A lot of content is available on Youtube and can be downloaded with Premium.

Should I immerse while sleeping?

No: focus on having a consistent sleep schedule. Poor quality and quantity of sleep will
heavily impact your learning and recovery abilities.

How do I make time to immerse?

​ Focus on building habits.
​ ​ Interact with your target language everyday.
Then start increasing the time that you spend with the language.

​ Reduce distractions.
​ ​ Get off of facebook, instagram, tiktok, discord, reddit, etc.

​ Stop watching/reading stuff in English.

​ ​ Convert this time into watching and reading things in your Target Language.

​ Wake up earlier and get in a morning session before you go to work/school.

Do passive immersion throughout the day.

Download youtube/netflix videos, audiobooks, podcasts, etc. and listen to them.

Should I focus on reading or listening more?

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Do whatever interests you more.

I would personally try to maintain a balance between the two, but having a preference for
one or the other is normal (60/40 or 70/30 split).

I do not recommend solely focusing on only one skill and ignoring the other; this is a
horrible idea and will leave you unbalanced in language ability and will have you missing
out on possible gains.

What are the benefits/disadvantages of focusing on reading?

​ Benefits:
Can take your time going through the material and can look up unknown
vocabulary and grammar easier.

Reading is a denser medium than listening so you will come across more ‘units’
of language per hour than if you were listening.

Written sources often use a wider variety of vocabulary and grammatical

structures.

​ Disadvantage: not hearing natives actually pronounce the language.

What are the benefits/disadvantages of focusing on listening?

​ Benefit: Improved perception of sounds in real time
​ ​ This translates into better ability to mimic/produce the language (better accent)

​ Disadvantage: slower progress

​ ​ Listening inherently takes longer to get good at compared to reading.
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​ ​ Can’t easily look up new words/grammar if there aren’t TL subtitles.

You are forced to understand material at native level speed and can’t slow down
like you can with reading.

Is music a good source of immersion?

​ Music is a great source of motivation and you should definitely listen to it.

However, the density of the language in music makes it a poor choice when compared to
other listening mediums for immersion.

Learning songs is fun though, so sing along with the lyrics and keep listening to your
favorite songs.
​ ​
How and when should I start reading?
​ I recommend that beginners start trying to read as early as they want.
Watch TV shows with target language subtitles.
Start with graded readers, easy news articles, children’s stories, and manga.

Gradually progress to harder content as you get better (light novels, visual novels,
non-fiction books, novels, college level textbooks, etc.)
I didn’t start reading novels until I had about ~5000 sentence cards in Anki
(~1000 hours/6 months); I simply watched JP subtitled anime and read
News/History/Religion articles up until that point.
​ ​
Should I listen with TL subs or raw?
I’m a big fan of using TL subtitles because they increase comprehensibility, allow you to
look up unknown words in a dictionary, and make it easy to create Anki cards.
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However, raw listening is also important so try to balance the two listening modalities.

Another thing you could do is listen with the subs blurred out by using a tool like
Language Reactor. This is essentially raw listening but gives you the ability to look up
words when you need to in order to check comprehension.

I do not recommend listening/watching with English subs at all: this has essentially 0
benefit for language learning.

I hate Anki and don’t want to use the SRS. Can I still learn a language?
I highly advise against doing this because of the much slower progress- sentence mining
is a core component of the method and is the main way that active study is incorporated
into the routine.

Language learning isn’t all fun and games and involves a bit of work if you want to
improve and make serious results in a timely manner.

If necessary, timebox your reps throughout the day and do less new cards per day.

How should I use textbooks (aimed at beginners)?

​ Don’t. Throw it in the fire and keep yourself warm while you read a book.
Most textbooks are bad and focus too much on doing drills.

Comparison of Monolingual/Bilingual Dictionaries

​ Monolingual
​ ​ More complete understanding of the word’s nuance and usage.
​ ​ Ability to circumlocute (talk your way around something when you forget a word)
​ ​ Takes longer to read the definition.
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​ Bilingual
​ ​ Super fast to glance at and get an approximate meaning.
​ ​ Doesn’t give a complete picture of the word’s usage.

When should I start outputting?

​ Whenever you want.
I didn’t start outputting until after ~3000 hours of learning Japanese, but I think that I
could have started much earlier without any downsides (besides frustration at lack of
ability).
Generally, I would recommend that you wait until you have a decent level of
comprehension before you start outputting, but if you want to start earlier then feel free to
do so.

How do I increase my reading speed?

​ Read more: doing lots of reading will naturally improve your speed.

If you are still having to look up words often then focusing on reading speed is a waste of
time- focus on improving your comprehension.

If you are an advanced learner and are still limited by your speed then check this out:
Chronopolize Speed Reading Guide

How fast do Native Japanese speakers read?

​ Most natives read approximately at ~30,000 characters/hour.
Most audiobooks are at ~15,000 characters/hour.

Note: ‘speed reading’ is largely a myth and most of it is ‘skimming’, which results in a
large drop in comprehension (which is exactly what we don’t want).
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Do I need to track my Immersion and Anki stats?
​ Try it out and see if you like it and if it benefits your routine.

Benefits
​ ​ Set goals and make sure that you are hitting daily minimums.
​ ​ Compare weekly/monthly averages.

​ Disadvantages
Tracking adds an additional step to immersing and some things are not nicely
tracked
​ How do you track watching shows with TL subtitles?
Reading, Listening, some combination of the two?

​ Quality of immersion wavers with your level of attention.

​ What about the density of the medium?

Reading manga isn’t the same as reading LNs.

You won’t feel like immersing if it is not easy to keep track of.
​
Can I learn multiple languages at the same time?
​ No one is stopping you, but I do not think that it is a good idea.
Slower progress due to time constraints- are you able to dedicate 2+ hours to each
language everyday?

​ So what should you do?

​ ​ Focus on one language at a time for the fastest gains.
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After a couple of years (2-4), learn another language when you have a level of
ability in the first language that you are satisfied with.

Dedicate most of your time to learning your L3 now and simply keep your L2 on
maintenance (~couple hours per week).

Polyglottery and Language Learning Lust (what is also known as “L3”)

Nice pun huh? (-_-)

On your journey of learning Japanese you will probably be tempted to learn other
languages as well. At some point you will have to make a decision on whether or not you
are happy with your ability in Japanese in order to pursue this interest or if you still want
more language gains in Japanese.

Multilingualism Benefits
​ Experience different cultures and talk to a wider variety of people.
​ Interact with various media.
​ (possible) Monetary gain.
​ Travel.
​ Interest in learning other languages.

Multilingualism Downsides
​ Maintenance time required for learned languages.
​ Attrition of language ability.
​ “Half-baked” language ability if you never got good in the first place.

Why did you make this guide?

I just took notes on various language learning websites/videos that I thought were
interesting and saved resources for myself.
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What are your thoughts on Language Classes?

​ I am not a fan of them for several reasons.
1.​ Pacing
a.​ I find that traditional classes go very slow. Classes cater to the slowest person in
the class, which is a horrible learning modality for the majority of people.
b.​ Immersion and Self-Study allows you to go as fast as you want, study whenever
you want, and lets you learn directly from native materials that are interesting.

2.​ Forced Output

a.​ Listening to other foreigners speak Japanese is not good listening practice nor is it
beneficial to your Japanese ability.
b.​ Being forced to speak from an early stage is just not productive as you have no
basis in understanding actual Japanese: start speaking when you are at an
intermediate level and wanting to do so.

3.​ Too much English.

a.​ Translating Japanese ⇔ English is completely different from actually just
understanding Japanese automatically when you listen to/read it.
b.​ Explaining Japanese words/grammar in English just doesn’t work that well.
i.​ This is why you should use monolingual resources as soon as you can.

How should a good language class be structured?

The class structure that I am going to recommend is going to be best for Japanese learners
who are at least at an intermediate level.

1.​ Classes should be one on one with a native speaker.

a.​ The teacher is there to be a conversation partner who can provide feedback to help
you improve your speaking and writing ability.
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b.​ Having individual attention means that you are getting direct help on what you
need to improve the most.
c.​ You don’t have to listen to other foreigners attempt to speak Japanese.

2.​ Entirely in Japanese.

a.​ All conversations, explanations, corrections,, etc. should be done entirely in
Japanese so that you get used to understanding and discussing more complex
topics in the language.

3.​ If you want, you can also do book reports, essays, presentations, etc. and have your
teacher be the “grader”.
a.​ Pick a research topic/book/movie/etc. that you are interested in.
b.​ Do your own preparation outside of class:
i.​ You read/watch/listen to the content on your own time.
ii.​ You learn the relevant vocabulary/grammar as it appears via mining and
making Anki flashcards.
iii.​ You write an essay/make a presentation/prepare to discuss the topic with
your teacher.
c.​ During class you should discuss the content you researched and receive feedback
and corrections on your writing/speaking ability.

Why should I not study Kanji readings?

Because it’s useless information; readings are only ever used for pronouncing words.
Even if you know the readings of a kanji you won’t be able to tell how a word is read
because there could be multiple possibilities, but there is only one correct answer.
Look at the following words that 生 is in (each one uses a different reading), you are
better off just studying words.
生い茂る （おいしげる）
先生 （せんせい）
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生き物 （いきもの）
生クリーム（なまクリーム）
生涯（しょうがい）
芝生 （しばふ）
生憎 （あいにく）
生まれる （うまれる）
生え変わる （はえかわる）
瓜生 （うりゅう）
弥生時代 （やよいじだい）
柳生 （やぎゅう）
生す（むす）
生る（なる）
壬生（みぶ）
生地（きじ）
平生（へいぜい）

Is X Textbook good?
​ No; don’t waste your money.
Avoid using Genki, Japanese from Zero, みんなの日本語, Nakama, Tobira, Quartet, etc.
​ The free alternatives I link for vocab and grammar are all you need.

Favorite Monolingual Dictionaries?

These dictionaries are the ones that I use literally 99% of the time. They are all you need.
​ 大辞林 第三版 or 第四版
​ 新明解国語辞典 第五版 or 第八版 (don’t use the 7th version, it sucks)
​ ディジタル大辞泉

Thoughts on Pitch Accent (and Pronunciation in general)?

1.​ I think that everyone should at least learn the basics of pronunciation and accent.
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2.​ It’s not that hard to improve if you follow a solid approach and have a genuine desire to
improve it.

3.​ Don’t worry about it when speaking in the moment: just focus on having a natural
conversation. However, when doing pronunciation exercises, be very critical.

Should I learn Japanese Dialects?

​ You should at least learn to understand 関西弁。
I would focus on speaking standard (Tokyo dialect) Japanese. Kansai-ben is so common
that I would consider it a viable alternative; good luck finding Pitch Accent resources for
it however.

Do I need to study Classical Japanese?

If you want to then go ahead but don’t feel like you have to; there isn’t much practical
benefit unless you like reading classical works.

Should I study Japanese names?

If you want to do it, then do it once you are at an advanced level.

Make cards with the name of the person/celebrity/historical figure on the front and a brief
summary of their life/importance on the back. It helps if you include an image.
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Example card for learning names

Bouncing back from a break?

After two years of intensive learning, I took an entire month off from learning or doing
anything in Japanese. I did some sporadic immersion or Anki here or there but it was not
structured, organized, or in any way consistent.

Here are my findings:

1.​ Listening ability didn’t drop off at all.
a.​ I had zero problems throwing back on my favorite podcasts or YouTube
channels and understanding them.
b.​ I speculate that this is because listening ability is 100% acquired and what
you comprehend is so deeply ingrained in your brain’s ability to
understand language that you just don’t really ever lose that ability (or it
drops off very slowly).

2.​ Reading speed slowed down.

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a.​ This fixed itself relatively quickly and I was back up to normal speed after
a couple hours of reading.

3.​ Forgetting the readings of words that “I know” seemed to be the largest issue that
I faced.
a.​ I had to look up the reading/pronunciation of words more frequently for
about a week or two.

4.​ Speaking and thinking in Japanese became less automatic.

a.​ Becomes much easier once you get back into immersion mode and get the
“Japanese juices” flowing.

5.​ Getting rid of Anki debt is mentally strenuous and regaining consistency is tough.
a.​ You should probably maintain Anki streaks even during breaks, just limit
new cards to 0.

Overall, my ability didn’t drop off that much and it quickly came back after a week or so
of immersion. Regaining control of Anki was the hardest and least fun part.

Note: I already had around ~5000 hours of learning and studying Japanese before doing
this. Taking a break near the beginning levels may have more of an impact on ability.
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Experimental Ideas

Listening to Sped Up Audio

Obviously you should be at a high enough level to where you already understand the vast
majority of the content so that you aren’t just whitenoising.

​ Benefits
​ ​ Exposes you to more language per hour
​ ​ Trains your brain to understand language at an even faster pace

​ Disadvantage: lowers comprehension

How to implement?
Speed up the audio of passive immersion content that you have already listened to
a couple times. You should already know the material quite well since you’ve
listened to it multiple times and so speeding up the material will train you to
understand at a faster pace without having you white noise new material.

Mental Shadowing
​ While listening, repeat back (in your mind) what you heard.

I’ve found that this increases your focus while listening and can be a good way to prevent
“zoning out”. It seems to make listening a more active and engaging process.
I’ve talked to many people who do this and they all say it is beneficial.

FSRS4Anki
A new, supposedly better algorithm for Anki that gives you less reviews without
sacrificing retention.
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FSRS4Anki Github (obtain code to paste into “Custom Scheduling”)
​ FSRS4Anki Usage Guide
FSRS4Anki Helper
FSRS4Anki Optimizer (obtain parameters for code)
FSRS4Anki Compatibility
​ FSRS4Anki FAQ

Initial: after optimizing parameters for each individual deck and using the suggested
retention (85%) from the optimizer I got about ~800 new reviews to do. The reviews
would have been ~2000 if I used 90% as my retention goal (no thanks).

Pure pain

1 week update: reviews seem to be much less and I think my retention is about the same.
2 week update: retention dropped ~10% (85-90% → 75-80%)
​ I think learning intervals are too aggressive (especially for kanken cards).
​ ​ FSRS: 1 10 60 → 4/5/6 days.
Normal Anki 1 10 60 1 day → 3 days
Can always press “easy” for cards that I think I will remember
well.
Reviews after reoptimization (like the above) dumps you w/ >1000 reviews.
Horrible experience.
​ Going to try it out for another week, but will most likely be transitioning
1 month update:

??? more things to come as I attempt dumb stuff to see if it works or not.
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To Add/To Do List

Japanese Support for Anki

Furigana for your Anki cards if you want/need it (I don’t use furigana anymore).

Using a Kindle for Language Learning (I use an Ipad + Kindle app)

Kanji Eater Smart Japanese Kindle Highlights
Create Anki Cards with Kindle Vocabulary Builder
Alternatives
Highlights2SRS
Clippings.io
Converting Aozora Bunko into Mobi
Convert Mobi into AZW3

Add books for 経済学、哲学、司法試験、公認会計士試験、医師国家試験

Future Reddit Posts?

​ When I pass 漢検２級
​ Grad school in Japan (MBA or Law? Not for 6 years….)
​ Work/Life in Japan (If I do so)
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Current Routine

1.​ 漢字検定 Anki Deck: ~20-40 new cards/day (really grinding this one)
a.​ Currently on ６級
​
2.​ Finish mining the DAJG: ~pg. 200/750

3.​ Pitch Accent

a.​ Pronunciation cards for Counters and Suffixes
b.​ Testing out PFR + Shadowing + Pronunciation Card Routine.

4.​ Immersion + Anki for Japanese