JJ Method for Japanese

TL;DR

Grade in Anki on readings not meanings

For N3+ learners who have already built up a good foundation in the language: Anki/Mining

• Anki is a tool to learn readings, not meanings.
  • Anki is fantastic at drilling binary (yes/no, true/false) situations where a card has a one to a few correct answers and the rest are incorrect. Meanings/usage, however, are much more nuanced (not binary) should be learned through immersion (addressed more below)
  • use pass/fail extension to speed up your reps (only pass/fail based on whether or not you got it correctly, not meaning. Exceptions include: rare words you like and/or if you mine <5 cards and do <5mins anki/day.)
  • add images to back of card to boost retention, may be time consuming so optional but recommended
• Anki doesn’t make you better at the language, it makes you better at learning the language.
• Vocab cards → sentence cards
  • Removing all potential hints from the front of the card that your brain might use to “shortcut/cheat” its way to the reading is ideal. Vocab cards ONLY have the target word on the front so as you rep anki cards, your brain is forced to recall the answer purely based on the word. With sentence cards, your brain can/probably will subconsciously start to use the length of the sentence, the position of the target word within the sentence, the beginning few words of the sentence, and other pieces of unique info to that card to help you get to the answer.
• Learn readings/kanji through words not individual kanji study/rtk
  • Since this is aimed at N3+ it might be too late for this warning, but while rtk/individual kanji study seems like a shortcut to learning how to read, it proves time and time again to just be a waste of time or less efficient than studying through vocabulary at best.
  • individual kanji study will not help you learn which readings are the most common for each kanji, nor will it help you know when to read a kanji like 木 as も / き, and at higher levels, words such as 大海 as たいかい vs 大地 will stump you (this isn’t a huge deal and you can learn Japanese just fine through immersion, but its something to keep in mind if you intend to read more difficult things)
  • If you encounter a word in immersion that you can’t read and its not a name, then mine if there’s: new kanji or new reading of a kanji you know. If you had trouble reading the word but you knew the kanji then you can choose whether or not to mine it
• By using anki to learn readings, you’re able to replace the 50+% of your cards that you would’ve learned through immersion anyways (wasted time) with cards that actually build reading skill and make immersion a smoother experience (smoother gains)
• Overall philosophy on actually acquiring the language:
  • the more you can rely on immersion as the main source of learning for any aspect of Japanese (besides kanji readings) the better. Immersion is the only requirement in language learning, even anki is optional (but highly recommended).
  • Enjoyment is the best tool you have for learning as fast as possible, and a little difficulty is optimal. Aim for 85-90% enjoyment and 10% challenge (adjust based on your own tolerances)
  • Acquisition of words (fully learning nuanced meaning) happens through immersion and seeing said word 100s of times in different contexts.
    • If you over-rely on anki to learn words (like try and make your anki database your entire vocabulary) you can run into traps like not being able to learn words without anki, drilling the same unnatural/rare use case of a word, etc.
    • If you encounter a word you can read but dont immediately know the meaning of in your immersion, make sure to give yourself a second or two to guess what the meaning might be based on the context then look it up. This second or two of struggle facilitates learning and you should be weary of falling into the habit of immediately shift hovering over words u dont know before allowing that struggle to happen.
    • If you can’t read the word either, the same “struggle a bit before you look up” philosophy applies but try guessing the reading as well, and make sure to mine the card afterwards based on the criteria mentioned earlier.
  • If you do enough immersion, what you do in anki doesn’t really matter, but it still means that youre potentially wasting many hours every month/year and possibly even creating friction in your learning since you might over-rely on anki to actually learn the language rather than just using it for your reading abilities
• JLPT, quizzes, and quiz grinding: If you are aiming to work or study abroad in Japan, then do what you need to do to pass JLPT and keep up your immersion. If your goal is to acquire the language, then there are a few important points to keep in mind:
  • JLPT tests, rank quizzes, and other things like it should be checkpoints in your language learning journey, not goals.
    • Try them once in a while if you’d like to get a feel for your improvement. If you find them fun, then feel free to do them a little more often, but don’t treat it as immersion or a source of learning.
    • Anyone can grind practice material for tests or quiz grind to get discord roles, but achieving these milestones through immersion will result in a far more balanced understanding of the language.
  • Aiming mainly for a specific test or rank can lead to an unhealthy relationship with the language and the language learning community. As mentioned earlier, learning Japanese should be fun, and the reward/fulfillment should come from enjoying content in Japanese.
  • Tests/ranks exist to compare you against other people, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing unless you start to crave the test/rank more than the knowledge and the experience someone else has. Ranks don’t mean anything other than the fact that we’re all on the same language learning journey and some people happen to be further up the trail for one reason or another. The only person you should compare yourself to is yourself from the past.
  • Quiz grinding is a very common thing in japanese learning communities (less so in town thanks to how the quiz system is designed/enforced) and generally people who do grind don’t end up achieving the credibility and status they hoped for because they lack knowledge outside of the quizzes they grinded (e.g. dijter who grinded to a rank natives would struggle to achieve, and ended up failing jlpt n1/r1).
• Outputting: outputting is a topic that I can’t have a fully formed opinion on because of my hafu upbringing, so take the following with more salt than the other sections, but I still believe what I’m saying here:
  • Input will always help grow your outputting abilities, even if you’re not explicitly practicing output (with diminishing returns).
    • If you can’t even realize when what you’re saying is gibberish then you’re not at a high enough comprehension level to progress in output.
    • Having a high comprehension level means improving your output will be much easier and more efficient.
    • There is a point where you start to become better at output through adding in output practice along with your immersion, but I’m not really sure when that is.
  • A popular strategy for developing output is to not do any output practice (silent period) for ~1 year and then start to incorporate it as you feel necessary. I think for most people that don’t have irl Japanese friends this is a good strategy, but many people will find that early output works well for them so experiment.
  • The main reason outputting is effective at improving output is because its the most concentrated and intensive form of input. Unlike immersion, there are real social consequences if you misunderstand what the other person is saying so you’re engaged in a very different way compared to reading or watching something. Additionally you have the opportunity to train recall while you’re outputting, and receive real time feedback.
• COMMON IMMERSION LEARNING PITFALLS: immersion learners often reach a point where their comprehension is very good and their output is relatively bad. As mentioned earlier, this is not a bad place to be but unlike immersion, improving output requires experiencing failure in front of a native and possibly other learners. Humans have an innate fear of failure and that combined with the disconnect they can feel between their speaking and comprehension levels, it’s easy to be scared and not touch output at all.
• One again, have fun / outputting doesn’t interest you and you don’t need it, you can always re-visit it later