Getting words in context is everything. Plenty of times I’ve “learned” a word, only to encounter it in reading, and it was totally not what I thought! Even when it is, I feel like I don’t truly understand it, until I’ve read or heard it in the wild.
Sounds like you’ve developed a pretty healthy approach with WK at least
Btw I’m impressed by your willingness to record yourself shadowing! I’m not brave enough… (tho I also hate the sound of my own voice, for reasons)
Very true. I do feel like I get more from reading than I have from any sort of rote memorization techniques. It’s also helped me deal with ambiguity even in speech, and to figure out the gist of what I’m reading/ hearing even if I don’t know all the words.
I wouldn’t say I have a strong vocabulary even in my native tongue, I do use basic language and simpler words a lot of the time, but can usually understand the meaning of things from context. This may also be part of why I struggle to get more complex structures and vocab in Japanese.
Very true, everyone learns in their own way and there’s no use trying to cram something in that doesn’t fit. As long as I’m interested in the language and interact with it, I’m likely to learn it even if it’s a bit slower than I would like.
Nuances! That’s something that bugged me about words when I did manage to learn them in context and 9 times out of 10 it doesn’t quite mean what textbooks or such advised it means. The number of times I’ve thought one thing and then been told that’s wrong and it should be different.
Yeah, only after essentially giving up on it several times. I did pay for a life time subscription when it was on offer back in 2018 so making sure I’m getting my money’s worth 
Oh, I hate my own voice with a passion. I cringe every time I hear it because I sound weird but it’s just me that’s listening to it so, the worst is I laugh at my own stupidity and how weird I sound. It has helped me to gauge where I’m wrong though so it is helping me correct myself. It will be deleted as soon as I’m done with these books , unless there is any reason for me to keep it for future reference.
Wow you are really just going for it! I keep saying I need to record myself too and haven’t gotten around to it yet. 
Look forward to your updates!
こそあど words have a predictable pitch pattern so I’m sure you’ll get them down quickly. ここ、そこ、あそこ are all ↑ LH, LHH and どこ is HL ↓ (likewise for other words like この、こちら、どこ、どちら…). If you say them along to audio I’m sure you’ll notice the pattern right away! 
I actually find getting the consonants right to be the hardest part, especially ここ. English speakers tend to aspirate the k sound and use way too much air, so its almost like just making the gentlest of contact with the soft palette in the back of your mouth without much air…and then you have to do it twice in quick succession. 
Feels weird the more you mess around with it.
I get really motivated from checking stuff off a list or accomplishing tiny goals, because it makes me feel like I’m making progress. You could try setting up a list of things you want to do like a certain shadowing exercise from your book or a tutoring session and then just keep crossing stuff off? When I do that and then look back at my list I always feel so accomplished and motivated to do more. We all need some kind of carrot if we are studying on our own. 
I did a bit of pre studying with my last novel and feel the same way for many more abstract words like verb combinations and adverbs. Nouns are usually easier to remember I think. For me it was easier to have the context connection reading and progressing with the SRS side by side so the context is always fresh in my mind. I still need to lookup sometimes but it’s more like additional reinforcement.
Thanks, both for the encouragement and for the hints and tips on こそあど words. That makes sense. I was trying to so そこ as HL , どこ as LH and ここ as all the same 
I wish the shadowing book would show the pitch accents so it would be easier to follow.
Thanks, I could try that out and see how I get on with it. I’m never good at setting small goals (never really know what to set tbf) but yeah, we all need that carrot
I did like the lists that I was finding on google sheets for vocab for certain books as it was helpful to have a list of vocab broken down by chapter, but the decks just didn’t seem to gel for me at all. I was still using them while reading, I just started a month before to try o give myself a head start on them.
I have found that there are words I see once in a book and actually remember without review but ones that I have seen multiple times in SRS just don’t stick and those are usually either verbs or adjectives. Nouns are always a struggle for me to remember but I struggle with nouns in English as well.
That’s fascinating. I both never noticed, and definitely do it!
I know right, it seems like a no brainer to include some diagrams or something showing the pitch in a resource like that. Not sure why they don’t. 
Right?? Once you notice it, you can’t not notice it anymore. To practice カ行 words, I sometimes hold my hand in front of my mouth to feel for the puff of air. You can say English words starting with a similar consonant to compare, like key キ、cooperation コ, coop ク, cape ケ and you can really feel the aspiration on the English words in comparison (for a standard American accent at least, I’m not sure about Scottish 
).
This video is also helpful
Yeah. They actually have a diagram in the starting pages so I’ve no idea why they didn’t just complete it for all of the entries.
Maybe… I’m somewhere between “this is fascinating, and something I can improve”, “I’m not sure I care”, and “I’m not sure it’s a bad thing” (foreign accents have their charm). But it does make it easier to speak faster if you don’t aspirate - and that is something I care about. Anyway if I end up paying attention to it much, it will probably make its way into my learning log
The hand thing is brilliant, but it only seems to work with こ for me. The other カ行 ones I sometimes aspirate slightly, but not enough that it reaches my hand. Anyway, great safeguard if you’re trying to work on this! Thx for mentioning
I think that is the only reason I care too, it is faster and speech feels more comfortable and comes more naturally when I get closer to a “standard” pronunciation…and it’s fun to learn and try new stuff
Kkkk 
If you’re using the shadowing book that I’m familiar with, the phrases are short enough that it might be worth it to type them into one of the online pitch accent generators. If you can find one that does sentence level pitch even better, but even if not I can actually vouch to how helpful seeing the pitch is. I’m not at a point where I want to full on study pitch accent but I’ve been generating it for all of the anki cards I make now and it’s so much easier to hear when you have the diagram to read along to.
First 2 books in this series, this one and another book that’s more like a mini textbook with shadowing in parts but it’s not on natively.
I didn’t think of doing that though, thanks. I’ll try it out 
Thoughts for 2025:
(2024/11/30 -This is a bit early at the moment, but I may add to this as I think more on it over the next month)
Although during 2024 I have suffered from long bouts of burnout, low mood/ depression and frustration, either due to life in general, illness, work or my learning not going in the direction I want it to, I do feel that this year has given me a lot to think about with regards to my study habits, goals (I always struggle to express what my specific short term goals are) and general language capabilities. I have come to rely on Japanese being a stable, predictable part of my life that becomes more familiar each time I engage with it. It’s become a safe space, something that is familiar, yet challenging and gives a sense of accomplishment with each new thing learned or understood.
Overall, this year has shown me what can work, what makes learning/ studying harder and that I still have a long way to go to get to where I want to be though I am moving in the right direction, albeit sometimes at a slower pace than I would like. It’s all progress, even the frustrating parts because it shows me where my weaknesses lie and what I need to put more effort into in order to get to where I want to be.
My biggest gains, both using the language as well as understanding it, I feel came from the extensive number of hours I listened to Japanese during September and October, focusing mostly on Anime and films. November then saw a rapid decline in my engagement (lack of listening and extensive reading though I did manage to still engage with the textbooks for part of it) which also became reflected in my drop in ability to use Japanese effectively in my lessons and language exchanges (I’m only just getting back to reading the Zenitendo series now).
There’s always room for improvement so I think for 2025 my goals will be to try to engage more with the language in general, both intensively and extensively. I have found the textbooks and guided readers (like Read Real Japanese) to be better for intensive reading sessions, whereas graded readers and children’s books better for me to read extensively (I can always re-read them later or look at intensively reading them further down the line, which was the original plan anyway).
2022 doesn’t give me my full stats individually, but the majority of the books I read were the Tadoku free graded readers, was the year I started with Natively, and begun reading non textbook content.
In 2025, I would like to try to re-read Zoo book 1 and also キノの旅 book 1 to see if my understanding has improved (I certainly hope it has). In addition to this I would like to gain a better grasp on the N4 and N3 grammar as well as increasing my vocabulary recognition both in reading and listening.
If I really feel the urge to take the test then I can always work through the N5-N3 JLPT practice tests in my “Japanese with Hikari” courses. The videos actually have the full time frame of the test with spoken prompts at the correct intervals, as you would expect in an exam. What really got me was the background audio that continues throughout, with sound effects that remind me of the exams from High School with pencils being dropped, people coughing etc 
I thought it was subtle but brilliantly effective for me and if I focussed on the paper, treating it like a proper exam, it did give an immersive experience which I really liked.
My aim for 2025 would be for a minimum of 30 hours of engagement with Japanese per work week (this includes both study time and leisure time, passive/ active listening, intensive/ extensive reading) as well as an additional 30 hours per holiday weeks. It works out to around 10 hours per day (non work days) with a bit of leeway for any deviations or recovery if needed. Most months this should give me 120+ hours, over all around 1860 hours minimum engagement total for the year. No idea how I would keep track of this, especially for the short times here and there if reading between calls, reading shorts online or even listening to snippets of things, so it may only be the majority of the time that I keep tabs on and not the small times which still all add up.
I would need to work out a suitable reward if I manage to complete that year goal, though buying more books may not be the way to go At least I have a year to consider my options.
(Edit: added clarification of non work days for number of hours per day)
2024/12/03:
TL:DR - I ramble. A lot I find fix for my procrastination and hopeful prevention of another burnout as well as new studying process (if taking life as it comes, and focusing on what you want to do rather than what it feels you need to do, can be called that ).
Been thinking a lot about my process the last few weeks/ months and trying to find the best way to study or most efficient way to do X etc then I listened to a vlog on motivation and study the other night that stated if you waste enough time trying to find the most efficient way to do something you end up wasting potential time that could have helped you get to where you want to be. Very obvious when you think about it but it is sometimes difficult to see the wood for the trees The author explained he had been in a similar situation and found that what worked best was just the act of doing the thing and then tweaking things to make them more enjoyable without worrying about how to improve faster or work more efficiently if he was enjoying the process and still getting results.
I think a lot of my time this year has been wasted in that way, messing around trying to find better ways of doing X rather than just doing the thing and getting it done
So 2025 I plan to follow the timeframes I set above (30 hrs Japanese engagement per week with 60 hrs engagement on non work weeks), will try to do a mix of study, reading, listening, speaking and shadowing alongside my lessons, language exchanges and meet ups.
I give myself a year to follow what those time frames and make it into a routine without punishing myself or feeling guilty about doing one thing over another, or days missed studying that are spent listening, watching, gaming or reading, and just see where it gets me. At the end of the day, the main thing is that if I want to improve, I need to engage in the language in ways that I enjoy the process or it’s like trying to get blood from a stone. I think that’s part of what has contributed to my burn out this year, trying to find the perfect routine and try to be perfectly focused when studying to the point it’s made me not want to engage, but if I do easier things on days I’m feeling I need something that’s less of a challenge (eg reading, gaming or watching something) rather than forcing myself to study if I’m not up for it, then hopefully I will engage more with the language and less with doom scrolling or procrastination.
I’m on holiday from work this week, the calm before the storm that is the run up to Xmas time. Work always gets super busy this time of year then dies around Xmas eve and doesn’t really pick up again until about mid to late January, just in time for a few weeks more hard work before my February holidays .
I’ve got a lesson later that I’m hoping goes a bit better than last weeks though I do hope my shadowing will be good again too. I’m starting to get into the swing of it. Managed to pick up a small mic for my phone so it can record me while the iPad plays the audio through noise cancelling headphones then play back the audio and my voice to see if I match up or need more practice. As much as I hate the sound of my own voice, I have to listen to it for calls at work when we get feedback so it’s less cringe than it could have been. I have however lost the mic of my headset so having to use camera audio on my lessons and language exchanges which isn’t great, so just waiting on a new headset turning up for those and making do atm.
I need more vocabulary, but I don’t do well with flashcards or SRS like Anki, so my alternative is read, re-read, pick up what I can and roll with it to the best of my abilities. I have some essential Vocabulary books with audio so thinking I may start doing short sessions of those as additional shadowing alongside the actual shadowing book. Each chapter has about 100 entries with words/ grammar or set phrases split into several sections and for each entry it also has a sentence or two which has audio on a separate track. Wondering if doing a section a day might help me gain more vocabulary and confidence with my speaking at the same time. I know most of the N5 and N4 book already but shadowing it can only help further.
I’ve picked up Tobira advanced gateway to Japanese (arriving Wednesday) to see where that takes me. Planning on following a similar set up to what I borrowed from Taiyousea and see how it works for me. I also still have みんなの日本語中級, all 4 Quartet and also an integrated approach to Japanese still to do as well but working on Tobira might actually help when studying alongside others (there’s a few people who were speaking about getting a study group together so it may help me work through it). I think I have until January to get into the swing of things and catch up which I may be able to do.
I also think that by the time Tobira arrives I will be wholly unprepared for it and will be like a rabbit caught in headlights but we will see
Well you don’t have to @ me
Nothing like calling yourself out and accidentally catching others in the net
I’ve been wasting time since day one, I’m a pro at it
No, you don’t. One intermediate book is enough.
And when you are through it and read some book and encounter a grammar point from that text book, but don’t remember what it was about, then this is totally normal and above all no need to panik that you maybe didn’t study the text book well enough.
On the contrary, you remembered that you already read about the grammar in that text book, well done! And then you can just repeat the forgotten grammar then and there. To say it clearly, the forgotten grammar alone, not the whole text book 
.
As with vocab there will always be grammar that clicks immediately and other that you might need to see several times. Sorry for my rant!
Edit: And what helped me against procrastination is I made a schedule. Of course you’ll want to find your own schedule.
For me it was three weeks per lesson, as I was working and didn’t have that much time. And I did five lessons in a row, so 15 weeks, then a pause of about nine weeks where I did other things, like reading books, watching series or movies, and above all getting back into the mood to continue with the schedule of another 5x3 weeks for the next five lessons. So all in all incl. pauses it took me one and a half years to get through the 15 lessons of intermediate Tobira.
And the final trick, I did this together with tutor, so as I am stingy I actually worked on the stuff to not waste my money or the tutor‘s time.
Feel free to rant 
I’ve been using the different textbooks as ways to help me understand the grammar and get more closed examples of it to practice (as well as answers to show whether I’m correct or not). It also keeps me studying so I actually practice and don’t just stagnate since looking stuff while reading is fine but I rarely remember it without multiple examples in a short space of time to try to get my brain to work it our and the extra examples do help me a lot. So it’s mostly practice and an alternative way of looking at the grammar. It kinda helped between MNN and Genki although there was a lot in MNN blue book that wasn’t in Genki (thinking that’s possibly in an integrated approach to intermediate Japanese but not sure yet).
Schedule is the thing that seems to cause me the most issues and why I procrastinate unless I get sucked in when studying. I have the same 3 days off my day job every week because I work longer hours. So most of those days can be used for studying, but I usually end up having to do different errands or such (I am a part time carer for someone who stays with me) part way through at least 2 of those days and I struggle with doing things before an errand unless I separate the day into time blocks and am also in the right place mentally, but sometimes even that is disrupted if I’m needed during those times of if I am close to burn out.
This is the part that gets me, if I could work out why this sticks and why other grammar and vocab doesn’t then I could actually study better. Like there are words/ grammar I rarely come across that I’ve remembered since the first time I saw them, and then there are words and grammar I’ve seen a hundred times and still pull a blank each time
I think my biggest issue is that I don’t know what to study during lessons or how to make clear that how I am studying is not the best and need guidance without knowing what guidance I need which is why I keep circling back to the “how best to do X” again. Either that or I’m just not with the right tutor. But even that I struggle to find one that does what I need when I don’t know what to look for
2024/12/07:
Slightly early update
TL:DR -
I feel like this week has been a lot of setting stuff up and chasing my tail, both in life and language learning.
My lesson got cancelled last minute on Tuesday so I had all good intentions of spending the rest of the day reading and ended up doing very little, none of which was in Japanese Wednesday and Thursday were a bit better til my CD player stopped working properly - みんなの日本語中級 has online audio for the question parts but not the reading parts which are included on the CDs and was part of what I wanted to use as listening content due to them being several minutes long, natural speed and including all the grammar from that lesson - so instead I ended up having to wait for a CD drive arriving yesterday to listen to the rest of it. Most of yesterday was wasted trying to set up Anki again trying to get certain things to work on it (pitch accent graphs, furigana etc) as if I’m going to use this, then I want to be getting the most from it for all the words and phrases I’m inputting. Eventually got it working and then started my studying. Hopefully today and tomorrow I’ll make up for lost time and be able to get more done. Hoping that using the laptop now for study work might actually get me studying more efficiently as it’s more difficult to get on social media (none of it is set up) and I’m not usually using the web browser so it’s more of a hassle to connect to it and go down a rabbit hole.
I got a lot of great advice regarding how to be reading more efficiently and things to try to make it easier to pick things up from what I’m reading (partly why Anki is now set up, though it will take me a bit of getting used to adding stuff now). I’m going to use it differently from before. I’ve added one deck that is a mix of individual words and grammar phrases with audio added in as well as pitch accent graphs. I’ve then set up a second deck for words I’m coming across in everything else that I think will be useful for me to learn. Once I get used to adding stuff again and see what is actually helping, I’ll tweak things.
Reading-wise, I still want to start and hopefully finish 銭天堂 book 6 in December (I could get it read in a few days if I stop procrastinating ), and I think I’ve decided on 2 possible shorter books to try doing intensive reading with; 世界の真ん中の木 and ゆっくりあやすみ、樹の下で. One is pretty short with lots of images throughout but has no furigana, the other is short chapters but includes furigana for all Kanji except those on the cover and contents pages. Both are around the level I’ve been reading at even though that level is about 4-5 levels higher than my comfort zone.
I’ll review this again at the end of December and see then how I’m getting on with things, how efficient/ sustainable it is and if there are any improvements that can be made.
Other than that, I’m just continuing with the previous plan (lessons/ langauge exchanges etc), will continue with みんなの日本語中級 for the moment (I’ll be looking at Tobira in January) and try to do more listening than I have been.
2024/12/08:
My language exchange partner sent this to me as out talk today was about Kotatsu.
