John
Language Learning Resources
Tofugu
Tofugu is a great resource which is also a Japanese language and culture blog. The Japanese language roadmap linked is something I reference every so often when I am unsure what to do next.
Another article that really stands out was how to understand Ren'daku which was a really tricky topic until after I read this "Rendaku: Why hito-bito isn't hito-hito
Tofugu as you will want to come back to it and they also have a very good resources page. Resources All the articles on Tofugu are free and cover a wide variety of topics that you can come back to when you find yourself struggling on certain Japanese concepts.
Wanikani
Wanikani is a good app to learn Kanji for when you feel like your Kanji knowledge needs a boost. Wanikani was created by Tofugu.
How it works:
You learn Kanji by first memorizing radicals and unlocking kanji that use those radicals. When you have passed a certain level of mastery by recalling these kanji correctly often enough(spaced repitition) then you unlock vocabulary using these kanji as well as new levels and repeat the process.You can learn 2,000 kanji and 6,000 japanese words as well as many radicals, however, Wanikani does not use the standard radical system.
My experience:
The overall community is great and the app is high quality with good updates being pushed down to it. Joining the community is always free and you can get a lot more out of the community beyond the application.Learning Kanji on Wanikani takes a long time investment to stay on top of it. It can be a very good starting point for one unfamiliar with how radicals work but I would not join it trying just to get to level 60. Learn a little then do something else or sprinkle it in with your other studies.Things to watch for:There are people who speedrun wanikani and can get to level 60 in a short period of time but this is not a realistic outcome for many learners.
At the minimum it can take about 10 months. These people are making very few mistakes and are doing every exercise when it opens up. Most people will not have that kind of time or be able to stick to that schedule while also making nearly no mistakes. Making more than a few mistakes per level could set you back 2 days so this is why I doubt many people could complete that challenge. In addition you need to either spend a lot of time going through vocabulary(hours a day) and completing new kanji, or you sort kanji using a 3rd party addon so you can do it much quicker.That way of doing Wanikani is not the intended way to use it to actually learn the language. It is much better if you take your time with it and invest time into learning grammar in addition to reading and using Wanikani, which means it will take quite a bit longer than a year depending on how much time you have.There is not a huge benefit to spending a lot of time just learning Kanji on thier own unless you're already proficient with other aspects of the language and want to learn Kanji.What would really help:What I would like to see with Wanikani is a way to get rid of leeches. Some words I find myself being frustrated by because they come up every so often and I just can't seem to remember them.
One way to get around this is to create an Anki
deck with only leeches.
Another improvement would be breaking the level splits. Many levels are split into two sections and think it would be better to break that up even if it means having more levels. People who have gotten to the end say they enjoy the shorter levels. I think it would be better to make that the norm as the first few levels are like that and they are more enjoyable.Wanikani is $9 for a monthly plan, $89 for a yearly plan and $299 for life. Wanikani usually goes on sale at the end of the year so if you can wait a bit you can get a lifetime plan for a better deal. You can try the first 3 levels for free as well.You should have a minimum understanding of hiragana and katakana before trying Wanikani and these are easy to learn quickly.Key Points:- Use Wanikani if you want to learn Kanji- Get a discounted plan at the end of the year- Join the community even if you don't use Wanikani
Busuu
Busuu is a language learning app which I have found some success on. To start it is free with ads and has a hiragana and katakana lesson plan that will help you get started to learn reading and understanding the basic sounds of Japanese.The lessons are good at starting off from no knowledge and gradually adds more target langugage vocabulary. The questions are designed to help guide you to fill in the gaps, rather than trying to have you translate target language to native language which is a big complaint I have with Duolingo.There are some mistakes and problems with some of the content from time to time. My biggest complaint with Busuu is that I feel the content is too limited to really be fluent in Japanese by the end of B2(which is considered upper intermediate on Busuu. B2 feels unfinished as well. B1 is much more complete. The A1, A2, and B1 courses do a good job of showing how Japanese grammar works and at the end of it I feel confident that I can use what I have learned to continue self-learning.I made a lot more progress using Busuu for 5 months than Duolingo or Wanikani for over a year each.Busuu Premium is a little expensive per month at $13.95, a 6 month plan is $50.70($8.45 per month) and year plan is $83.40($6.95 a month)I was able to get it for half of the year cost by cancelling the free trial before it ended and I got an e-mail for 50% off so if you want to get the best deal that is the way to go. It was around $45 with tax.The main difference between premium and free is no ads and you have all the courses unlocked. Being able to access any course would be a huge plus for someone who knows a little of the language already and doesn't want to start from the beginning.
Anki
This is a free flash card app with spaced repitition(SRS)
Jisho
This is an extensive japanese dictionary where the search field allows text to be copied into it and it will return a text that is broken up by terms. These terms can be clicked and entries will come up and still remain on the page with the broken down text so that it is easier to read through.
Richard Webb 80/20 Japanese
https://8020japanese.com/japanese-sentence-structure/80/20 Japanese
Sign up for his e-mail list. It is free and has great articles sent to your inbox periodically. I have not tried the book but I would try it in the future as his articles have great recommendations and the lessons go quite in-depth.Richard's intentions are similar to why I started Owl and Sakura, which was to highlight parts of Japanese that are different from the English language.The articles I have read were informative and helped my understanding of Japanese grammar. The linked article was useful in helping visualize how sentences are formed relative to English.The articles on his site are free and I have not seen any paywall for them but the book costs $39 for the basic package and up to $119 for the book, audiobook, study guides and anki deck. Every once in a while I get a e-mail to recommend buying the book so that might be annoying if you don't want to buy it.I can't recommend the book as I have not tried it and the pricing structure is odd. I don't like the anki deck pricing and the pricing structure is confusing because you aren't getting more as the tiers go up, there are two different tiers.For the anki deck and the basic book package it is $99. The basic book package costs $39 meaning the anki deck is $60.For the self-study and anki deck the package is $119. The self study package costs $79 meaning the anki deck costs $40 in this case. It is not a $20 difference as it seems that is how the tiers go. The $20 difference is because the $99 package charges you more for the anki deck, but you aren't getting $20 more value because of the anki deck it is because the $99 set includes a $60 deck.The actual pricing of the $99 set should be $79 but the way it is set up makes it more gradual so it seems like you're getting a better deal, but the $99 set is the worst deal out of them all because you're paying $60 for an anki deck. Most anki decks out there are free.$20 for an anki deck feels more appropriate and if you don't look too closely that is how it seems to be sold.It could be worth it but it seems like a bait and switch pricing structure and that the anki should be sold separately rather than splitting the content between the book and guides, vs only the book and anki deck.
John
Owl and Sakura Creator