I recently received my JLPT certificate in the mail! Many of my friends also took the JLPT and passed their exams as well. This year I would like to take the JLPT N2. I heard it’s more difficult to pass than the N3, so even if I do not pass this year, I will not be discouraged.
Lately, I have been thinking about language learning a lot. I finished reading a book called ‘Fluent Forever,’ which is about concrete steps a language learner can take to learn a language. I really enjoyed reading the book and its appendixes. It helped motivate me to use Anki again. I like using Anki, but the deck building process can be a little convoluted at times.
‘Fluent Forever’ introduced and reminded me of many aspects of the language learning process. Specifically, it mentioned the developmental stages of a L2 (foreign language) learner, pronunciation, frequency lists and Anki. I want to explore the concept of developmental stages of language more. Basically, the developmental stages of language refers to the process of learning a language. For example, we learn present tense before past tense etc. Of course, this is not the best explanation of this concept, but I think if I understand these stages for L2 learners it will make me a better L2 learner and a better English teacher.
Pronunciation is something I struggle with, not so much with Japanese, but there are some sounds that I need more training in. The book talks about how to tackle pronunciation, so I am going to try to incorporate that advice into my studies.
Frequency list are something I keep hearing about in passing, but I have not used them very much. For Japanese, I mostly use JLPT vocabulary list or vocabulary list provided by my textbooks. I would like to try out learning vocabulary through frequency lists, because I have heard a lot of good things about it.
Anki is a free online SRS (spaced repetition system) flash card website and app (the iTunes app is not free and cost about $25, while the Android app is free). You can build your own flash cards with whatever features you want (audio, text, pictures etc.) or download and use flash card decks shared by other people. I do not use Anki regularly so, I had to look a lot of things up to figure out how to build a custom deck. Also, Anki uses HTML when you create fields or question cards, so that can be confusing. It helps to know HTML, but you can use Anki without knowing it. Anki is a great free resource that is customizable, so I am going to try using it again.
Learning Japanese for Life 
Hi there! I’m a Japanese language learner as well and I usually just read things online about language learning but have never really taken the time to read a book. I was wondering if you thought Fluent Forever was worth buying/reading or if you could get the information from online resources? Also, I tried using Anki for a while but found it wasn’t very user friendly so I made a web app that’s like Anki but specifically for Japanese called kanjisama.com . It’s in beta right now but I thought you might be interested and of course I would love to hear any feedback you might have on it.
Hi! That’s a good question. If you enjoy reading about how other people go about learning languages, I would say go ahead and read it. I think a lot of good information about how to go about learning Japanese is available for free online. Fluent Forever has a lot of good advice for how you should study on your own, but I think it relies highly on using Anki. I’ve used Anki off and on, but because of the nature of most SRS applications, I get burned out pretty quickly because the reviews never end and there’s usually no way to pause them or end them completely without deleting what you’re studying from your study deck. I don’t think I have implemented a lot of the advice I learned from the book, but I do think I am a more informed learner because I read it. Lately, I have been using StickyStudy Kanji (an app for iOS) to study Japanese, because it allows me to actually finish learning kanji or words and it doesn’t nag me to study. I’ll check out your web app.
I totally understand getting burned out on reviews using SRS. Unfortunately, I always find that they tend to be the most effective in terms of efficiently putting things into my long term memory. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get around the burnout though. I’ll definitely check out StickyStudy though, I’m kinda surprised I hadn’t heard of that one. Thanks for the quick response!
No problem! I agree. SRS are effective and efficient. Whenever I need to study vocabulary, I use some kind of SRS program. StickyStudy allows you the option of putting the items in your deck that you ‘know’ in a completed pile and does not force you to study everything from that completed pile every day. But it does still makes you review some of the items in that pile, while you study the other items you haven’t fully ‘learned’ yet. I find that system works well for me and I can still go back and study the material I’ve ‘mastered’ without being forced to study those in addition to the material I’m still learning. The StickyStudy Kanji app is specifically for Japanese, but there’s also StickyStudy Flash, which connects to Quizlet and you can download list from that website or your own Quizlet account to study. I usually use that method as well as playing video games in Japanese to combat the burnout from SRS. Studying can become tedious even when you enjoy the subject matter, so playing video games is how I give myself a break and randomly reinforce the material I’ve been studying. If you find another solution to getting burned out on reviews, let me know!