My partner and I began teaching ourselves Japanese in January of this year, with an approach based on Refold’s roadmap and u/SuikaCider’s wonderful A Year To Learn Japanese document, heavily adapted to fit our schedules (we don’t have as much time to dedicate to it as we’d like, but we show up every day and we’re in no rush).
We’ve been using the Genki textbooks to build our initial foundation, and Renshuu as a companion SRS app just because of the ease of using their pre-made Genki decks (which Renshuu calls ‘Schedules’). After each lesson we simply load the next batch of vocabulary and kanji into our schedules, so that when we sit down for the next lesson we’re primed and ready to go. We’ve also been immersing daily, and Renshuu’s dictionary function has allowed us to add words we noticed coming up a lot to our schedules quickly, without having to make cards for them.
Renshuu has worked well for us so far, and we now have a basic but sturdy, Genki-level foundation of grammar, vocabulary, and kanji to build off. However, now that we’re approaching the end of Genki II it’s time to think about moving over to Anki for our vocab practice.
The plan for now is to continue adding to that foundation by: making our way through a pre-made Anki deck for vocab; (slowly) making a start with WaniKani for kanji; all whilst ramping up our immersion.*
We’re undecided as to which deck to begin with – the plan was originally to use the Core 2.3k, but recently I see more and more people on here recommending Kaishi 1.5k. If there’s anyone who’s tried both, which did you prefer, and why?
Other recommendations are also welcome!
*[Additional context: I’m starting teacher training in September and for the next year will have less time to dedicate to active study, hence the need to slow things down a little. This is also the reason why I’m not jumping straight into mining my own decks just yet. I’m also aware that much of the vocabulary in these decks will have been covered in Genki, but I don’t mind repeating content if it helps it stick.]
by lunarscout