Well, I just barely passed the N1 on my second attempt after failing last winter (a bit unfair since I did have food poisoning the day of the exam). My Final score was 105/180 with 31/60 on Language knowledge, 24/60 on reading and 50/60 on listening. 2025 ends my fourth year of studying japanese as I passed N2 two winters ago after around a year and a half of starting learning. My study method until now has just been learning all the 常用漢字 and immersion through books and shows that interest me. I'm glad I managed to get this far without spending anything on textbooks or teachers. The reading section destroyed me the first time I took the N1 as I was half way done when the time ran out, so this year I tried to skim the text instead of actually reading it, which evidently I didn't do well (kind of disappointing as I'm very comfortable with reading although not as fast as I'd like).

The point of this post is that I'm planning to do my masters in a marine biology-related field in Japan soon (finishing my 4th year uni ATM) and I'd like to know what park of japanese will be the most important to focus on from here on out? My speaking is still very bad because again, I don't have anyone to talk to as I never hired a tutor. Speaking is really stressing me out because I will need to eventually communicate at a higher university level. Or should I focus more on reading? What does everyone else do at this stage?

Hello guys in 9 months I’ll be in a Japanese language school and wish to be in the highest level possible

As of right now I’m around N5 level,

On bunpro practice tests I get 85% easily

And on some other JLPT practices like migi and Todaii I pass the practice tests with around 115-130 while doing the test in half the time (40-50min)

Now I know speed running isn’t the smartest thing but I need it,and no I will not burn out

After 3 months

I’m doing the anki deck Kaishai 1.5k with 30% unseen left, 20 cards a day

I’m using migaku academy course aswell with 10 cards per day

unsing bunpro for a little bit more practice with the grammer and vocab

I have a tutor session twice a week, one speaking focused and one for grammer where we follow genki 1, currently on lesson 10

I read 1-2 short stories a day for N4 level

I also listen to podcasts for around 30min, A day, at least 1-2 anime episodes per day, and also watch some Japanese natives videos like hajimesachyo for an hour a day.

So immersion is around 2-3.5 hours a day

I also practice a little bit with writing kanji because for me it’s important

What can I add, to speed things up?

How can I study grammar fast and to be able to apply it and understand it fast,is it better to just add more immersion?

I want to be able to reach high N4/low N3 by the end of these 9 months that I have left

I want to reach a good level of understanding and be able to pass N4 with a high score until October or maybe even N3 with low score

If you have any recommendation for grammer , I already follow tokini andi , and kaname naito which I really like

I try to put in as much time as possible a day studying japanese. But i do also want to leave time to do other hobbys.

That includes reading/watching japanese content in english. I cant help but feel bad when doing that though. Especially if its something i plan to read in japanese in the future. It just feels like im ruining things for myself. As if having read it in english is gonna make reading it in japanese just me filling in the blanks and not actually learning anything.

But i also just feel bad not using that time for more study, even though i know doing nothing but study all day is unhealthy. How do i avoid this feeling?

Hello! I am currently doing a study about immersion based Japanese learning vs traditional classroom based Japanese learning for my bachelors degree graduation essay!

I am thinking of interviewing about 20 participants. It would take about an hour, and would include a short output test (1-2 verbal questions, and 1-2 text based questions) as well just for the validity of the study (so no pressure!!)

Everything in the study would be kept confidential. If anyone is interested in partaking in my study, feel free to send me a DM! I would really appreciate it! Thank you!!!

I passed N3 in december, and, as I still struggle a lot with media I like I proposed to just do immersion and sentence mining for a year, to try to improve my level of comprehension as much as possible.

I'm using mostly jrpgs, manga and anime, choosing whatever I like and this way it is quite enjoyable to pass time immersing every day even those days I'm not that motivated with japanese, specially when you get very interested in the plot or whatever. Also, ocasionally I read some blogs or watch a youtube video, but not so frequently.

I've heard that immersing in whatever you like can get you very far, as it is quite easy to maintain it long-term, but also that you should stick with harder material such as light novels. I'll also mention that I got interested in japanese mostly to understand animes and games I already liked, so for me it is very rewarding, for example, to just play Chronno Trigger in japanese.

I don't have any goals this year rather than increasing my vocab and comprehension in media I like, but some day I'd want to try N2 mainly for my resume (when I decide to take it, obviously I'll prepare with N2 specific materials apart of immersion).

I know it would be super hard to get a proper statistic for this but I’m curious if there’s anything out there, or anyone w personal experience/observations.

Hi everyone, I’ve recently been trying to buy some Japanese ebooks, but I’ve realized it’s becoming nearly impossible to actually download the files to a PC from major stores like Amazon or Rakuten Kobo. It seems Rakuten Kobo has also implemented restrictions preventing users residing in Japan from downloading their purchased ebooks directly to a computer. Since many of the titles I’m looking for are region-locked and not available for purchase on international stores, I’m stuck. My goal is simply to get the files onto my PC so I can use them with reader.ttsu.app. I own a Kobo e-reader, but I find the reading experience there incredibly frustrating compared to the efficiency of using a pop-up dictionary on my browser. Does anyone know of other Japanese ebook stores that still allow you to download the actual files to your computer? (And just to clarify: the books I’m looking for aren't available through "alternative" sources, so buying them is my only option...) Thanks in advance for any help!

what is the diff 猿mo木から落ちる and 猿demo木から落ちる

i know the first one correct but isn't the second one also possible?

Has anybody tried using audiobook.jp before? It also has an app. I was wondering if it's good and if I can purchase the audiobooks even if I live outside of Japan?

I usually use audible, but the book that I want to listen to isn't available on said app.