Want to share my learning journey to compare notes with others who enjoy a more immersion based learning style, and I'd also love some advice on how best to proceed from here.
I took N3 in the Dec 2025 sitting after 17 months of learning. I must state I have the not insignificant advantage of being a native Chinese speaker which gave me 3 important advantages: 1) living close to Japan so I can visit and practice my Japanese often, 2) knowing almost all Kanji apart from the ones invented by the Japanese, 3) absorbing vocab that use onyomi very quickly. This saved me the need to drill flashcards, and though I first started off using textbooks, I quickly grew tired of them and moved on to a fully immersion based style of learning. Below is a summary of my study journey for each level:
N5 (took the Dec 2024 sitting, passed with 175 / 180 after 5 months of learning)
I started off in July 2024 knowing nothing but Hiragana and how to say the most basic of things. I got a workbook where I practiced writing and recognizing Katakana. Then I found the TokiniAndy Genki series, and got the Genki I textbook to watch the videos along with. I finished the Genki I textbook and workbook by month 3, and got introduced to Satori Reader. Here is where I started learning mostly through immersion. I managed to finish 2 stories on Satori Reader before my N5 (隣人 and 聞き耳ラジオ), as well as some dialogue chapters. N5 reading was extremely easy for me after that, and I got 120 / 120 in the vocab/grammar/reading section.
N4 (took the Jul 2025 sitting, passed with 166 / 180 after 12 months of learning)
At this point, I knew I hated textbooks, but realized I still needed a solid foundation for the more fundamental grammar points, so I got the Genki II textbook, and read them along with the TokiniAndy videos. I also finished the workbook, but this time I didn't finish the reading section of the textbook, because I knew I would get far better reading practice on Satori Reader instead. I had a routine where I would read 1 story chapter and 1 dialogue chapter each day, always going through something new and never stopping to reread chapters because I was always hungry for more. I also started watching the GameGengo videos on Final Fantasy 7 because I'm a huge fan of the game, and even memorized a lot of the dialogue because I rewatched those videos many times.
N3 (the Dec 2025, where I got 180 / 180 after 17 months of studying)
After N4, I started feeling a bit more confident consuming more native material. No textbooks anymore at this point. I started seeking out Final Fantasy 7 cutscenes in Japanese, without the GameGengo commentary. I also watched the easier Ghibli films in Japanese with Japanese subtitles (Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Arrietty). Also spent a lot of time watching cutscenes from Silent Hill F. All this time, I still maintained my daily Satori Reader routine. I started blasting through stories faster and faster, doing at least 3 chapters per day. By the time I took N3, I had finished all of the 'Intermediate' level readings, most of the 'Beginner' level readings, and a few of the 'Advanced' level readings.
Post-N3 studying
I'm definitely aiming for N2 now, but will probably not take the next sitting, as I'm aware the gap between N2 and 3 is pretty huge. I've slowed down my Satori Reading pace, as I've pretty much read all of the interesting stuff on that platform at this point, but I still reread 2 chapters from the more interesting stories everyday, to pick up the vocab and grammar I forgot from blasting through all those chapters at such a fast pace before. I've been trying to do some immersion with 推しの子 lately now that the new season is out, but the dialogue can get quite complex in that show sometimes, so I'm still looking for the next best thing to focus on. I've been hugely reliant on Satori Reader up to this point, but the readings there only reach a N3/early-N2 level, and I am aware I need to pivot to more advanced materials at some point. There seems to be a lot of interesting resources on the Nihongo-no-mori channel that's entirely in Japanese, so I may start focusing on that at some point as well. Now that my old Satori Reader routine is coming to an end, I'm acutely aware I'm in need of a good routine I can consistently follow through to get me to N2, and I'm still doing a bit of experimenting to see what works best.
In any case, huge thanks if you just read through all that, and I'd love to hear from you if you have any suggestions on N2 studying materials or routines 🙂
by nymeriafrost