I'm the opposite when it comes to reading VNs, i find that my VN speed improved after i started reading books more often. One of the best purchases i had made was a Windows tablet which served as an e-reader with the Yomichan extension. Much more convenient than kindle and much cheaper secondhand too.
That actually sounds super convenient! Could you recommend a specific model or are they all similar? I've recently just been reading on my phone using ImmersionKit's epub reader since it has a built in dictionary but would much rather use yomichan (sadly I have an iphone so I'm limited to this option)
@@Igirisu I used a Lenovo Tablet 10, but that was only because that was the cheapest 10in tablet I found on secondhand sites in my area. Not sure how many windows tablets still keep getting made these days, but Craigslist (or the equivalent) would probably have a lot of them. The other option is to search for 2-in-1 convertible PCs since those are essentially tablets with a keyboard. Just pick one with Windows (10, ideally 11 so that it doesn't get deprecated in 2025) but apart from that they're all the same.
@@kourtneyjohnson1557 I believe they have a group on meetup.com but also advertise on Facebook and mixb, I’ll look into the specific details for you but I just turned up at one of the meets and kept showing up, no need to formally join it’s a public event
It's pretty tough to estimate the hours I put in as I wasn't tracking my hours at that point, moreso something I started recently within the past month. And a lot of the content I was consuming was within the same genre, the more you kind of watch one genre, the more you get accustomed to how things are said/which words are spoken - not the most descriptive answer but I hope that helps! Japanese as a whole is extremely wide and there's always content you won't understand at first, sometimes I find myself barely able to read 20% of a sentence but it's just about building up that tolerance and learning as you go that really helps in the longrun. I'm overdue my 3 year update and was considering making that within the coming weeks so that's something I can go into there.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! Pretty funny timing as I’m prepping for the end of the year which will mark 3 years of learning Japanese but I’d also like to start making content to help learners as I’ve received a lot of questions along the way
Thanks for this, its really motivating to get back into immersion. How many hours of immersion did you do per day approximately? I think I did a little too much so I burnt out. Thanks again :)
Really glad it helped! thank you for watching, I personally had some days where I could do so many hours without issue (like 6-8) because I felt invested in the show I was watching or I had a lot of free time but other days I would do the bare minimum and listen during commutes with the occasional youtube video here and there (maybe 2 or so hours altogether). I feel like it's all about having the balance and recently I've been on a different longterm journey which has been fitness and that taught me SO MUCH about overall working towards a goal that can also be applied to language learning - Set a goal, and find a way to make working towards it sustainable for YOUR lifestyle in order to help with consistency. The sad reality is that everyone lives very different lives and it's not about what other people are doing but moreso about how you can apply what they're doing to fit your routine and build consistency. Sorry for the super long wall of text lol but hopefully you can take some value out of what I said, happy to assist with anything else if I can but otherwise take care and thank you for watching!
@@Igirisu Not at all, I appreciate the elaborate answer :D But I see what you mean. I think the hardest part is getting to the point where immersion becomes really enjoyable and where you can follow the plot so that you can do it recreationally so to speak. I think I am almost at that point but most shows are just beyond the point where I can follow the plot which gets really exhausting quickly. But seeing videos like these is always motivating cause they show that it pays off eventually :)
1:51 that's funny are there people that can't stand them? I am only learning japanese to be able to play untranslated ones (And to surprise my one japanese friend) . But watching anime without subtitles is probaby a nice sideffect.
This such a cool video! - as an aspiring architect, who plans to travel to Japan this year, He Who Can’t Marry is definitely a funny & somewhat relating show! I’ve been studying Japanese (on/off) for about a year now. So this definitely helped! Best of luck in your studies! がんばれよ！
Congratulations on graduating! I'm following you for about 2 years when I started this Japanese journey. I love your channel because you show realistic results. There are those crazy AJATTers who show unbelievable results and it is actually demotivating watching them. The average person doesn't has time to immerse 24/7 because of university, work, family, ... You are also making a good point on mental health. What really matters is to stay consistent and trust the process. Thank you! I am waiting for your 2,5 years update. Keep up the good work! 😊
Thank you so much that really means a lot to me, I do understand how seeing people who make incredible progress can be pretty demotivating especially due to how little time some people can make mind blowing progress but it's always nice to be reminded that we all learn in different ways and at different speeds and the most important part of the process is being able to enjoy it! Appreciate the kind words ♡
I think I'll actually work on some beginner guides, there are a ton of resources I feel that people could benefit from! I've been pretty MIA from youtube but I'm due a video soon as it's been 6 months since this post
I think starting with kids shows or RU-vid channels makes sense. Go from toddler content and gradually go up to kids, and then shows targeted to older people . That’s how kids learn. I started living in Japan when I was 8 and I started with Japanese picture books for toddlers and within a year, I wasn’t not only caught up to peers but also above my grade level. (I didn’t even know hiragana when I started.) But I was a kid and I’m someone who loves reading (I read at 4 th grade level when I was in 2nd grade in the US) and spoke super early. I was fully conversational at age 2.
Found your channel since I'm looking into going on this journey myself. It's extremely reassuring to see how far you've come with your learning. As an aside, I totally relate with how seriously I've had to take my own mental health as the responsibilities of adult life begin to present themselves. Definitely gonna stick around to witness your progress. I hope I can get there too. がんばって!
Amazing progress!! Just a quick question, but is there any video of oojiman actually speaking Japanese? I mean I know a bunch of people keep saying he has a great accent or whatever but I can't actually find any evidence of him speaking at all haha.
Thank you! And I believe there were a few before of him chatting with his Japanese friend along with Saito nitpicking his kansaiben specifically but they seem to be hidden/private now. I’m not sure why but it’s not for me to pry into, I can only speak from experience of taking his advice at face value as the “real ugly truth” about learning and how you really have to make the sacrifices and put the time in.
@@Igirisu Somehow missed your reply. Thanks! I've decided to go all in. Thanks for all your advice and for showing how the process really can work. Best of luck moving forward!
Hey there, I've wanted to learn Japanese for quite a bit, I've messed up my mindset into thinking I'm going to fail and how it reminds me of school and is boring sometimes, but I know it would be good for the long run. My past language learning attempts have failed and I live with miserable regret that I didn't continue with it, I want to start up again, easing my way into it instead of doing a ton of it right away, any tips to not just quit right away?
Hey Tyson 👋 let me just say that taking accountability and admitting what went wrong is difficult in itself so good job on that! But I understand exactly how you feel as I’ve been in that same boat, the constant mental weight of not believing you’ll make progress and fail along the way is something difficult to break. The good thing about immersion learning is that it’s aimed to be “fun learning” but getting to the enjoyment stage is a journey since the beginning was horrible and learning to tolerate ambiguity was difficult. But some advice I can share that helped me is this: Life’s too short to live with regret, every mistake can be looked at as a learning experience and is necessary for growth, you gotta trust the process and grind through because it’s SO difficult to see your own progress (it’s why I started doing progress videos so I can look back). At the end of the day, if it’s something you really wanna do I 100% recommend just sticking to it - it’s going to suck some days but others will be amazing, please don’t beat yourself up there is no such thing as a perfect human and we all make mistakes/have regrets but you got this! I like the idea of just focus on being better than the previous day, thinking ahead in the longrun will demotivate you heavily. The best time to start focusing would’ve been a long time ago but the second best time is now so make the most of that because there’s no success without sacrifice along the way~
@Igirisu sorry for the late response. I'm doing japanese and it's going great! Week 2 or 3 and I have 150 words learned on anki + kana ofc. I've been doing a bit of immersion and I love it. Thank you for everything
Nothing at all to apologise for! But that’s amazing to hear, I’m really glad you decided to stick with things. Wishing you all the best, keep giving it your all!!
No problem at all, I don’t have a personal server but I was thinking of setting one up eventually - I can only recommend TheMoeyWay and Oojiman’s Language Gainz server because those 2 communities are extremely supportive. But my personal discord is Amro #0001 feel free to add me I’m always happy to offer support
I would loveee an video where you could go through your best learning strategy an plan for a beginner Also congratulations on your progress!! (Your editing is so gods I’ve been binge watching your Chanel lmao)
Your words are too kind I really appreciate that! I can start planning a video for this since it’s a question I see quite often and not enough people acknowledge how frustrating and difficult the early stages are. I’ll make it but for now I can point you towards オージマン‘a masterclass which helped me a lot as it goes through every step of the process (linked in desc.)
Hell yeah you got this! And honestly I started with Google and searched for “language exchange events near me” and went from there, I tried to do the same on vacation when I visited the states recently but had no luck in the NJ/NYC area - an alternative could be meeting people through exchange apps but my experience with those hasn’t been ideal
Dang that really sucks :( hopefully you’re able to find something! And recently I’ve been trying out ExpressVPN, previously I was using SoftEther almost exclusively (Seven Stop has a decent guide on how to get it set up) until I got extremely frustrated and spent 40 minutes being locked out of Netflix and just bought the Express subscription; although it sometimes has faults, it has been a lot more consistent for me
Yep yep, ever since they started cracking down on them it has been a lot more difficult but I’d say try the free trial first so there’s no monetary commitment! There could be better alternatives but it’s just the one I went for to “try it out”. Give the subreddit /r/NetflixviaVPN a little look if it’s still active since I always checked there for advice in the past
YAY!! congrats on making it to 2 years!! it's really great to see how far you've progressed and learned (seriously feeling a lot more motivated to reach the output stage after seeing you speak a bit). yet again, another amazing video - keep up the great work!!! 😁
This is really amazing to see. I’ve been learning Japanese for a few months now, on and off. But only started the Refold method 5 days ago. Still going strong. I’ve had some bad days, but keeping faith in the method and myself. You’re proof that what we all want is possible and more importantly that the method works, really fucken hope I get to this point in the next two years as well. 🤲
Awesome stuff, glad you're pushing through the bad days because believe me they will happen every now and then but time spent in the language will pay off tremendously! I avoid comparison but I can confidently say immersion is a gamechanger; There are plenty of people who reach much higher levels in less time so that can speak for itself!
Thanks for sharing your techniques! I really appreciate that. I am trying to learn korean and fact that you did so much progress in 2 years makes my jaw drop.
Thank you for making this video I’ve been learning Japanese for 2 months now i know some grammar and a lot of kanji I really want to start ajatt but i found it so complicated for now especially anki giving me a headache as a beginner
Thank you for taking the time to watch! ❤ I think that's great, you'll have a much easier time with some prior knowledge but I wouldn't worry too much about anki - what I mean by this is, have a deck you are working on daily but keep in mind that anki is simply a supplement and the real learning happens when you are consuming content (immersion!) hopefully that advice can assist with the stress of anki being an ongoing burden but please let me know if you get stuck or I can help in any way, I'm more than happy to do so!
@@Igirisu of course immersion is important I’ve been watching anime and playing Japanese video games for long years but didn’t know Japanese was that hard but I’m really enjoining it , thank you for your help!
Thank you for the shout-out! I definitely didn't start off as an immersion learner, but from around the 4 year mark (I know, way too late) I began learning almost completely through immersion. Somehow, I just didn't really hear much about it until late 2019. Oh, and you got my name right, by the way :)
Better late than never! You've made incredible progress and I'm really glad that you kept pursuing Japanese alongside other hobbies, I really respected the rubik's cube grind and the programming you sunk a lot of time into - Has definitely helped me a LOT with adopting the right mentality for long-term goals 😁
@@deniwastaken Thank you very much! and haha frankly I didn't expect anyone I shouted out to see it but really wanted to mention those that made a difference for me - I'm super glad you and a few others actually did because it lets you know that you made a difference to at least 1 person
Quite a funny coincidence, I haven't seen much of them as a group other than their cover of YOASOBI - 夜に駆ける but I just recently started watching one of their members individual channel (シルクロード) who is quite big on smash bros. and it's been really good in terms of recommending youtubers on my immersion account!
@@Igirisu haha what a coincidence I found the group through the first take video and continued from there, they did a hide and seek video with lots of big Japanese youtubers a while back its a good video just to look at some other channels its just Japanese youtube isn't for every one as the way of editing is so alien within English youtube. Also what are you studying at uni?
@@jackh4832 Oh I heard about that video but haven't had a look yet, I'll definitely have a look soon! and yeah.... The pain was finding anything that resembled english youtube editing wise and interest wise it's been a journey haha and I've just finished up at Uni - I graduated with a Marketing and Media degree and just started working last week
