Lately I’ve been thinking about the whole arc of learning Japanese, my own experience and also more broadly: how certain resources fit specific phases, when they’re genuinely helpful, and when you naturally outgrow them, etc.
Like many folks out there, my early days were spent with Duolingo combined with classroom work in like Genki or Japanese for Busy People. Genki in particular gave me a foundation for basic sentence patterns, even if I moved through it pretty slowly. Later on I found myself cramming Tae Kim, JLPT-focused websites like JLPT-Sensei, apps like Bunpo for regular grammar input. Each tool filled a different role and worked like stepping stones, but there was absolutely no larger plan behind it…
Looking back, structured textbooks helped me build proper sentences, and writing things by hand slowed me down in a good way, and JLPT-oriented tools were most useful once I already had a base—things like N3–N2 grammar sequencing plus old JLPT listening playlists (actually this is where I learned a lot of vocab, too). I don't even remember some websites or playlists, but I can still imagine pulling info from them while cooking, doing chores, etc. Ghosts of a language learner's past. Now I’m studying around the upper-N2 "and beyond" level and have been living in Japan a while. Mixing N1 resources with selective immersion has become its own kind of experiment (native content is the gift that keeps on giving, but there's still a lot in textbooks that I'm shaky on//just haven't ever seen). Looking back, it's cool to think about how I wove in and out of so many different resources, and how I continue to do so.
Anyway, was thinking about all this today and got curious to know what others have learned from their own progression: which tools carried you the longest and why? which ones you eventually move away from, and was it deliberate or it kinda just happened? And is there anything you know now that'd you'd tell your younger Japanese-頑張っていた self?
PS: Sorry in advance if I reply late. I hope to read all about your experiences soon.
by millenniumpuzzle000