My first post, my progress by far and some questions

8 comments

1. 1. Definitely get a routine, either a set amount of hours a day or a set amount of work. The latter for me worked better in the long term. For example, I’d cover a certain number of decks for flashcards, then do a certain amount of reading and output (sentences or messaging others in Japanese, or talking in Japanese alongside my daily conversations at work).

   2. You might have not run into early problems that come with language learning, I think alot of people struggle to conceptualise that languages don’t have 1:1 conversions – for example different ways of thinking about the same thing or a word in one language may only be naturally expressed as a phrase in the other. I don’t think its a huge benefit but it might make some parts more streamlined?

   3. N5 can take more than a year, more likely I think most people cover it within a year pretty comfortably. In regards to passing the test that is. To fully internalise all the grammar and words and kanji to a comfortable degree maybe it can take more time.

   4. Honestly it depends on you. It could take you from a year to 2 or 3. At my pace (3 years or so) I can read most articles and listen to most speeches or conversations and get the gist of it – though often I need to supplement my vocabulary if its a specialised conversation that I am not used to. I think pretty comfortably from N3 you can start taking on more generic every day native content . For the foreseeable future though you will find yourself constantly looking up words and grammar , so don’t set an unclear goal like ‘be able to read natively by x time’ as it’ll kill your motivation i think lolol

2. Well, I speak Portuguese too and I think it helps a lot with pronunciation. It’s easier because a lot of sounds are almost the same in Portuguese. You can achieve n5 in 6 month or less. That depends on how effort you are willing to put in. N5 minimum kanji is 100, so it’s easy to memorize. Although I would say for you not to concentrate on N levels but just enjoy the learning. Just studying for JLPT will leave your with a lot of holes on your learning and immersion of the language

3. > I see people saying that reaching N5 level takes more than a year

   I don’t think this is true unless you spend a year on Duolingo. Most people I know finished N5 very quickly, like Minano All Books or Genki 1, like 2 months or so I guest?!

4. 400 words in 3 months is a good pace. If you maintain this pace, you’ll be on track for 1600 words in your first year, or 16k in one decade (though I suspect committed learners on average tend to increase the amount of vocabulary they acquire over time, as they become more familiar with the language, so I think 16k words after a decade is probably an underestimate). Keep up the good work!

   As far as your questions go:

   **(1)** Consistency is the big thing you want to be concerned about. I would recommend that you commit to learning a specific minimum of words per day, and to a specific minimum of study time per day outside of mere vocabulary acquisition.

   **(2)** Foreign language learners very often report that their third language is easier to learn than their second language. This is for a variety of reasons. They’ve learned more about *how* to learn. They are more familiar with which study strategies are effective and which ones are not. They are more accustomed to thinking outside of the constraints of their native language. They tend to have a stronger formal understanding of grammar than monolingual people.

   **(3)** Your intuition of N5 is broadly correct here, I think.

   **(4)** My impression from having talked to a bunch of other veteran learners is that ~10k words is sufficient to meaningfully consume and enjoy native media, assuming your listening comprehension and grammar are both well-developed. If you’re not aiming for a very high degree of comprehension, you can probably get by with several thousand less than that, depending on what media you’re watching and what your tolerance is for not understanding.

5. Thank you all for the comments!

6. Manito!!!

   It depends on **what** you want to understand and what tools you’re willing to use.

   Based on the short path I’ve been through… if you go hard at it you can kind of start reading some stuff with tools to help you out, which means looking up words on most sentences after a few months. If what you want is to read some complicated novel without any assistance then probably over 5k hours lol.

   You will want a routine because if you want to make progress at a good pace you will have to push yourself. What most people I’ve known who just kind of wing these things end up doing is… getting stuck and not ever improving because they just got comfortable.

7. 1. I immerse whenever I have time, and do my anki whenever I have time. Some days I dont immerse at all sometimes I go for 4 hour sessions. Just stack hours consistently and not too erratically.

   2. No, English is one of the best languages to learn Japanese with because of the sheer amount of resources. Chinese or Korean wouldve given you an advantage though.

   3. N5 is a month or 2

   4. After going through an N4 grammar guide is where most people start immersing, even if they don’t understand said guide perfectly. Note that I said going through a guide, not getting an N4, so in reality someone who could only pass N5 starts immersing already. What I did was get to 1500 words (in reality i probably only memorized 800-100) as fast as possible then started immersing. Also spent no more than 40 hours on genki 1-2. I started immersing after 2.5 months, some do a month.

   Also, Kaishi 1.5k is a better deck than core 2k

8. Welcome! Great progress for 3 months — here are my honest answers:

   **1. Routine:** Consistency matters more than structure. If studying whenever you want is working and you’re not missing days, don’t overthink it. A routine helps if you find yourself skipping too often.

   **2. Portuguese + English:** Yes, it genuinely helps. You’ve already proven to yourself that you can learn a foreign language to fluency — that’s a massive psychological advantage. Japanese grammar will still feel alien, but your brain knows how to do this.

   **3. N5 progress:** 3 months in with 400 words and grammar foundation is solid progress. N5 is very achievable for you. Don’t let people who took a year discourage you — learning speed varies hugely.

   **4. Understanding native content:** Realistic target is around N3-N4 level for manga/YouTube. That’s typically 1-2 years of consistent study. The good news is you’ll start catching words and phrases much earlier than that, just like you described with English.

   For grammar specifically, since that seems to be clicking for you — **Japanese Grammar for Speaking by Song Won** might be worth checking out. It matches Japanese grammar directly to how English speakers think, and every unit has free native speaker audio on Spotify. Good for building speaking patterns alongside your Anki work.

   Keep going — you’re on a good track!

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