LLearn Japanese

I passed N5 after 37 days of studying

  • March 3, 2025

As the title says, I've been learning since 24 January 2025, tried the N5 (simulation) test on a whim on 1st March because my friend told me to, and passed (I couldn't post this then because I didn't have enough karma yet). I got a 116/180, honestly not as good as I thought I would be, but considering I've only really been studying for a month, I'll take it.

I'll add that I studied hiragana + katakana for a couple weeks way back in 2021 using Human Japanese and Tofugu's mnemonics, but then stopped because when I continued with Human Japanese past learning the kana, it was just so… dry. I dropped Japanese completely.

At the start of this year, I confirmed plans to visit Japan in May, and decided on a whim to actually try Japanese again. I learnt the kana all over again, tried Human Japanese again, and dropped it again immediately. By complete chance, and I am super grateful I learnt this at the very start of my learning journey, I came across a few videos on YouTube around immersion learning, and from there I came across the Refold method.

I immediately downloaded Anki and the Kaishi 1.5k deck, created a new YouTube account just to follow Japanese comprehensible input and podcasts, got on HelloTalk, got the game Wagotabi, then got stuck on it.

The only thing I paid for the past month for learning was for a Comprehensible Japanese subscription (genuinely one of the best resources I could ever recommend an absolute beginner) and Wagotabi (which I recommend less because it's incomplete, but it is fun). None of these are necessary, but I wanted to support CIJ for their amazing content and Wagotabi was fun and I could see potential. In total, I spent $15.

And that's it. That's literally all I did. New cards + reviews of Anki a day (30 minutes total), watched CIJ for an hour or two, switching it up with beginner podcasts or other comprehensible input channels on YouTube (with JP subtitles on), played Wagotabi until I finished it, and posted Moments/chat on HelloTalk.

No Genki (I opened one page then immediately dropped it), no classes (I very nearly spent $200 to join an 8 week group class that only met 2 hours a week, so glad I didn't), no RTK, nothing like that.

The most important thing is that I've been having a tonne of fun learning Japanese. I've started reading NHK Easy News and listening to podcasts while commuting (a bit harder with no visual context) and I can feel myself improving already. Seeing where I've come from understanding nothing a month ago to now is unbelievable.

TL;DR immersion learning works. Please look into this if you haven't already, it's been a blast learning this way and I can't recommend it enough.

by AggravatingCandy9922

43 comments

  4. Great stuff.

    Personally, I am of the mind that a certain amount of dedicated grammar stuff can really help at this stage. The jump from n5 to n4 is hard without that and 116 points leaves a lot to improve even at n5 level.

    You seem like a quick study. Maybe tae Kim’s grammar guide will be all you need to really up your game.

    I personally loved going through genki and started quartet recently but different strokes for different folks tho.

  6. Great job OP!
    (Unrelated but that’s the name of the tool used in the second pic with all the stats?)

  11. Awesome progress! Just one thing to be aware about for your continued study, but remember to temper your expectations for progress from here on out. I also was able to get through the elementary stages relatively quick, however the progress REALLY slowed down when I started getting into the N3 and up range.

    Not trying to discourage you. You clearly have a great system that’s working out for you! Just wanted to drop this info regardless. Keep up the great work and you’ll make twice my progress in half the time haha.

  16. It’s not a race. It’s a much more rewarding feeling when you pass with high marks.

    Side note: I know people here in Japan who’ve passed N1 (not sure the score) who can’t really hold a simple conversation. Particularly Chinese students who already have a foundation in Kanji.

  17. You talked about immersion, how did you add this as part of your studying? Did you just watch the videos? Did you add them to an Anki deck and started reviewing them and going back to re-watch? Do you just dictionary your way through?

    The Anki 2.5k deck I think makes sense, but I’m interested in what the immersion study process is. Cheers!

  18. That is amazing! I’m planning to study for at least a year to achieve this result.

  20. I tried Anki, digital flash cards are totally not my thing. Congratulations !! 👌🌟

  21. After 4 years i got n5 with 81 point
    Every japanese learner seems ultra good.
    I struggle with n4, therefore i take japanese class

  23. Well done !

    Do you have any links / infos on youtube channels or podcasts to listen to when getting started?

    Just learned Hiragana / Katakana and am doing an anki deck but kinda stuck here.

  29. Warning to anyone who wants to do the test at the address shown in the picture!

    I just did the N4 test on the website shown in the picture. After about 90 minutes, when I was done, I tried to get the results (they send them to your email, you don’t see them on the site). But the sending function is not working, so all you get is a 404 error code. So don’t waste your time on that site, you will never know how you did on your simulation test.

    I did find some solutions (going to the dev tools and working some magic there etc.), but doesn’t seem to be a 100% surely working fix. And if you happen to refresh the page, it’s game over.

  31. I’m not sure I understand. Are you claiming you learned 1100 vocab + kanji and grammar only committing 30 min for hard studying a day, for 37 days?

    That’s saying you only studied for like 18.5 hours with flashcards. So like, (1100/18.5) 60 new words per hour, not including the reviews.
    That’s just for the vocab. No grammar or Kanji.

    And you would have to be fluent enough to use them in sentences. You can’t just do a card, and pick up on Japanese listening to podcasts right after starting from zero (with maybe Hiragana and Katakana).

    I’m probably retarded, but that still doesn’t seem possible to me.

    Maybe you got lucky that the test didn’t include most of the 760 “new” cards.

  32. That’s awesome, OP! I can’t help but get dizzy with all this statistic tracking and such… I just pay for a couple of private classes every week and progress much slowly, makes me feel bad now

  33. Ugh. This is so disheartening. I’ve been dabbling in Japanese for over a year. 72k points in Duolingo, been watching comprehensible Japanese on YouTube and TikTok, about a month ago I’ve been doing Jlab’s Anki deck which helped a lot (an hour a day). I did 10 questions of the JLPT N5 course and was 90% wrong.

    I thought I would have done better, but alas there is a long way to go yet.

  35. Great job, Do your best ! the hill gets steeper and steeper each level

  36. Congratulations.

    The Progress App looks cool, I might check it.

    I can also recommend NHK easy News for daily learning.
    Writing down the news, listening to the articles.

    Even though I don’t know the meaning of most of the words, but I definitely recognise them quite soon.

    I have also started writing while listening to the Article.

    From April, I will start at a Language School in Okinawa for 2 years and currently I feel quite prepared for the start.

  39. Congratulations !! Which app is the second image please? It seems very useful in tracking your progress

  40. If you like a bit of structure but dont like Genki, you could try the public broadcasting series Irasshai from the 1990s, there’s around 130 videos of 20-30 minutes each freely available on their site and on youtube.

    There’s also the more well known lets learn japanese series from the 1980s and 1990s also on youtube.

    Both courses have textbooks if you fancy it.

    A bit of grammar structure might be beneficial to boost that 116 result up a notch.

    Out of curiosity, how many new cards do you do per day in Kaishi 1.5? And how much of the deck had you completed by the time of your mock test?

    Do you not use Kaishi in conjunction with Tae Kim, Imabi, Sakubi, or Cure Dolly? That’s how many people use Kaish 1.5 or the equivalent deck JLAB anime deck.

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