study plan (as of now)
I've compiled a new study plan, and wanted to write about it here:
Old plan: pure AJATT method
- study RTK I (http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about/overview-page) 2000 kanji
- learn kana
- learn 10,000 sentences and the other 1000 kanji
- Do all of the above while immersion in watching TV, listening to radio, podcasts, music, as much as possible.
New Plan, focused on JLPT levels:
* based on helpful posts on RevTK forum by user Nukemarine
- Remembering the Kana: hiragana and katakana (240 total)
- Kanji learning thru RTK 1&3 deck: RTK Lite/1 (500+500+900) + RTK3 (1000) = 3000 total
- Vocab thru Nukemarine's Core2k/6k deck (400 total)
- Grammar thru Tae Kim's Grammar deck (Basic 150, Essential 300, Special 225) = 775 total
- Listening/Reading of parallel books, scripts, Japanese graded reading.
- immersion through music, TV, movies, blogs, magazines, etc.
1. Study kana first, then kanji.
2. Begin Vocab and Grammar study.
3. Do L/R, immersion all throughout.
Benefits of the new study plan:
- Quicker results: the AJATT plan favors mass quantities of immersion as its modus operandi. I am not dedicated enough to study enough kanji to finish it off in 3 mo, and didn't want to spend 9 mo to a year learning kanji that I have no idea what their actual Japanese meaning is or how to say them. The new plan adds learning the kana first so I can at least learn pronunciation and feel like I'm learning something tangible when I look at JP blogs for example.
- More structure: Learning from vocab and grammar decks just makes less work for me. AJATT has you mine sentences to learn both grammar and vocab somewhat intuitively, and I simply don't have the time to devote to the method.
- Additional learning methods: I read about the Listening/Reading method which apparently has amazing results in helping people achieve fluency listening, even on its own w/o study.
- Measuring results and the JLPT: the Japanese Graded Readers (level 0-4) are supposed to be awesome, good stories and also a good way to see what level of proficiency you are at. In addition, if I ever want to do anything serious in Japanese I will have to pass the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). So why not plan my study around the JLPT levels?
in summary
Can I do this? That is the question. My next goal is to study for the JLPT 4 level (which I think now is called N5).
To do that I need to do the following:
120 Kana + 384 Kanji + 400 Vocab + 150 Basic Grammar = 1054
If I study about 20/day I can finish in about two months, not too bad! And the best part is I feel that even tho my Japanese will probably be sucky, at least it will be at a level that you can say is sucky. Right now it is nonexistent for all practical purposes.
I'm attempting to teach myself Japanese using only free resources. So far I have used $0!
This plan is designed to go along the JLPT path.
Will add Levels as I reach them.
* based on helpful posts on RevTK forum by user Nukemarine
JLPT4/N5
to be completed in 20 Weeks, studying 10 cards/day, 6 days/wkAnki Decks (# of cards)
- Kana: Remembering the Kana (243)
- Kanji: Remembering the Kanji 1&3 (1-555)
- Vocab: Nukemarine's Core2k/6k (400)
- Grammar: Tae Kim's Basic Grammar (150)
Immersion
- JapanesePod101.com Lessons
- Japanese children's stories, reading parallel scripts
- Watching TV/movie, listening to podcasts
Order of Study
1. Study kana first, then kanji.
2. Begin Vocab and Grammar study.
3. Do immersion all throughout.
