NO MUSIC VERSION:    • My Worst Mistakes Learning Japanese (...  

The way I WOULD learn Japanese, if I could start over, is to use NativShark 1-2 hours per day, then supplement with Japanese media and whatnot I enjoy:

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More details on mistakes mentioned:

1. No Flashcards.
I think you actually could learn Japanese with no flashcards, if you have a good pipeline of level-appropriate content to study. This is just very hard to find when you're an absolute beginner, especially way back in 2008.

2. Paper Flashcards.
Fun, but not very efficient. You can have a deck of 100 cards, and you have to go through all 100 just to find the 1 or 2 cards you actually need to review.

3. One-word Flashcards.
Even learning them in a collocation or short phrase is better than this. But ideally you want them in sentences in specific contexts (mistakes 6 and 7).

4. Learning w/out kanji.
Ultimately, you read to learn Japanese by developing a great sight vocabulary (i.e. being able to 'read' a word written with kanji as a whole the moment you see it). But studying words without kanji delays the acquisition of sight vocabulary. Also, you're not really learning to read natural Japanese but instead a dumbed-down version of it.

5. E→J Flashcards.
People often argue with me when I say this. Putting the target language on the back of a flashcard makes the flashcard more difficult. More difficult flashcards take longer to do. So you learn new words more slowly. Knowing 1000 words really well is not as useful as "sort of" knowing 2000 words. You need to "sort of" know A LOT of words if you want to interact with native materials (e.g. TV shows), and being able to do so speeds up your learning even more (so that you no longer just "sort of" know all those words). If you want to really "make a word stick", study it in multiple sentences/contexts, not an E→J flashcard. If you want to get better at writing or speaking, try to convert the thoughts in your brain specific to you into Japanese, then have a native speaker give you feedback on the attempt, if possible.

6. Words w/out Sentences.
Yeah, learning words in phrases or common collocations is better than learning them in isolation, but learning them in full sentences (which can be 1-word sentences, depending on the context) is better.

7. Sentences w/out Contexts.
It's so hard to learn natural Japanese if you don't know the exact context in which a sentence is being used. I should have been wary of learning materials (textbooks!) that pretend including the context for target sentences is optional.

8. Overemphasizing SRS.
Unless you are studying flashcards that have specific contexts for all the sentences you're studying, your flashcards are probably too light on context. Also, they weight repetition over variety of contexts, which is a less efficient way to learn. I think SRS can be good for when it's hard to get a steady pipeline of high-quality, level-appropriate, context-rich study content. But SRS shouldn't be prioritized over that if access to such a pipeline exists.

9. Focusing Primarily on Kanji.
It's easier to learn kanji in words in sentences in specific contexts. This can be done faster without ever setting aside separate "kanji studies".

10. Kanji by Rote.
This really did not work well for me. I'm astounded people say they learned (to read!) kanji this way — including native speakers.

11. Quitting Completely.
Man, if only I'd kept studying those 2 years (between 2010-2012)!

12. Constant Doubt.
This made learning Japanese so much more painful. And it's the main reason I quit for 2 years.

13. J→J Flashcards.
This isn't a terrible "mistake", as there are some benefits. But I could have learned more words faster by leaning on my native-level knowledge of English. Learning more words faster is always preferred because it raises comprehension, which in turn makes learning more things faster and easier. Also, I wanted to translate, and this made that very hard initially.

Other Notes:
I didn't address much related to speaking or writing (i.e. production). Not everyone is interested in this, and I don't want to give people who aren't the false impression that they need to be. In other words, if you just want to consume Japanese media and don't care about talking (just yet), that's totally fine. If you want to speak, though, that needs to be incorporated into your studies sooner than later (another mistake of mine).

Good luck with your studies! You can do it! Don't give up!

P.S. I put that shirt on the merch store: https://shop.niko.blog/

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