Not sure about Spanish since it's similar to English (at least compared to Japanese), plus Spanish doesn't have the problem of having to learn 2000+ kanji to be able to read anything, so you could probably do it quite early.


I started the process today, as it were.. lol (just saw ur post)

So I know about 4000 words and 1200 kanji, probably around 400 hours of active immersion in Japanese + roughly 300 hours of passive immersion (actually over 1000 passive if you add the years I spent watching anime with English subs lol).
I started learning Japanese in October so I've been at it for around 9 months.

I actually started just appending Japanese-Japanese definitions alongside the Japanese-English definitions few months ago. I noticed that in around 10% of these I didn't need the Japanese-English definition I could just understand the word from the Japanese definition.
That was kind of my cue to start making the monolingual transition.

oh yeah and yesterday I made my 1000th sentence card in Anki so I decided to start the transition today. 1000 self-made cards + 2000 cards from pre-made decks so I have a total of ~3000.


Plan now is to complete the transition, then make 3000 monolingual cards.

ps. Making the monolingual transition doesnt' mean we completely stop using the English dictionary.. Understanding some words using an English dictionary just makes more sense even after you go monolingual.. Stuff like the word for bear (kuma) is just better off learnt just as "bear" (or just a picture of a bear) since the Japanese dictionary will probably contain some kind of taxonomic jargon.

That takes me back.. That was my real start in learning Japanese.

I randomly bought a audiobook by them on audible back in 2018 when I was in Thailand (I met some sloot on tinder over there who was also studying Thai and Japanese (no ladyboy srs)) , listened to it a bit but never got started. Last year I was bored and listened through it completely. (pretty good audio-book for a complete beginner just curious about Japanese)
Later I subbed to their website and subbed to their program.

But pretty quick it was clear that just taking lessons wasn't going to cut it. Thankfully they refunded my membership.

Do you follow Matt vs Japan?

Yes, particularly for a language like Japanese. For languages that utilize the latin alphabet, I think you can really get pretty far with just listening, but with something like Japanese, you can listen to the lessons and learn the words and pronunciation, but it will do absolutely nothing when trying to read. But their lesson notes are pretty solid if you can sit and read.

Lots of hours still even with the busy schedule, that's always the toughest.

I've seen lots of Pod101 ads online, haven't heard any feedback about it yet.Yeah I'm going to start using the monolingual dictionary, or at least add it in in part.

Wow Japanese sounds like a whole other level compared to germanic and romance languages.

das it mane.

I follow a bunch of youtubers focusing on Japanese and also language learning in general, but so far Matt has been the best, particularly for learning Japanese.
yeah but it's somewhat counteracted in a way by the fact there are a ton of nerdy programmer types who are into Japanese so there is a chit ton of tools available.
Plus it's fairly easy to get hold of Japanese media.. Almost limitless anime and manga, youtubers and podcasts. And getting access to netflix japan gives u a ton of Japanese TV shows and movies.

Back on the mandarin wagon again, just doing podcasts the last week but the book gets reopened today. Feels good.
I went for dim sum on Sunday and realized I had to think hard for many words and was struggling to hold a conversation with the push cart people. Made me feel like crap and all the work I put it was useless. I know I’m being hard on myself and with a week or 2 I’ll be back to almost where I was.

"Organic Japanese with Cure Dolly" is an amazing channel as well. Give it a go.

Time off does that to anything, but it only takes a refresher to get back into things. I find when I have been away from it for a while I try and talk and it seems like I know nothing. Within an hour I get back into the flow of things.


Anyone follow the "Easy Languages" channel on youtube. Found it super helpful transitioning from beginner stages. At first didn't understand anything, but now understand a lot of what they are saying.

I have a lot of free time on my hands right now, probably will for the next 6-10 months. I really want to learn a language that the Army considers a priorty like mandarin, farsi, pashto, arabic, russian etc... If a pretty motivated person put in about 7-10 hours a week using apps, audiobooks etc.. could they get a decent grasp on one of those languages after 6-10 months, like maybe high school level?? Thanks!!

You can learn a lot in 6-10 months. What I'd also recommend aside from spending the dedicated 7-10 hours per week is to try to integrate it into your lifestyle as much as you can. For example, listen to podcasts in the car, use duolingo while waiting for someone, etc.

Biggest piece of advice I could give is choose a language you have an interest in that culture or some connection with (i.e. you will use it with friends or a family member)...something to motivate you to get better. You really have to have fun with it over the long run otherwise you won't study.

Good luck! Lots of good info in this thread and I've received some great advice.

Das it mane..
Already found her channel around January.

Best explanation of Japanese grammatical structure I've found so far.

Recently been following Nihongo no Mori channel as well since they teach Japanese grammar in Japanese (zero English.. I get the feels that most of their audience comes from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thai etc. so they don't know much English either).

Also been meaning to do a run through of Japanese Ammo with Misa when i have free time.

Thank you! I was thinking of either Farsi or Russian. I used to work with quite a few people who spoke Farsi and had a few friends who spoke it but I recently moved states and where I am now everyone just speaks english lol. I was able to pick up quite a bit of German from a co worker back in the day just from listening to him speak it to his mom or little sister. I really wish duolingo had Farsi. Maybe French would be nice to learn, I know they have that language on there.

Weekly Update- June 29th- July 5th:

Completed/Goals:
Korean:3/3
• Korean Class 101
• Anki

Spanish:3/3
• Netflix

Russian: 3.25/3
• Russian Pod 101

Japanese:4/4
• Japanese Pod 101


Comments:Keepin on keepin on. Still holding the line. Had a DoorDash driver who spoke pretty much no English. Realized just how bad and out of practice my speaking is. Not surprising since I haven't practiced speaking since before my trip to Peru (10/2018). I think next year I am going to try and set some goals centered around speaking tasks/things (weekly vlog videos trying to speak, maybe do some tutoring, not sure yet).

I am about to finish the 2nd level in Spanish on Duolingo!!! COVID made me get it done!!

Nice! Definitely more difficult to get more speaking in than listening. Have been using Italki, speaking has improved a lot from couple sessions a week.Definitely most people have more free time these days, good opportunity to work on something!

I'm going to start learning French on duolingo. What are some other resources I can use, I know duolingo just kind teaches you the basics. I think some audio and text book would be good. Any suggestions are appreciated

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoU...qdC3-nRXKk-JUwI used the spanish version of this channel when I just started watching youtube content. Don't worry if you don't understand a single thing, within a month or two you will.

When I learned German, the first thing I did was go to a bookstore, bought a german picture book for kids, each page had the name beside the objects (for example it would be a drawing of a living room with 20 common objects labelled)....20 page book was easy way to memorize hundreds of words. I covered the labels and memorized the german name of the object - confirming by lifting off the sticker. Looking back I wish I did this for spanish...

Weekly Update- July 6th-12th:

Completed/Goals:
Korean:3.25/3
• Korean Class 101
• Word of the Day
• Anki

Spanish:5.5/3
• Word of the Day
• Netflix

Russian: 4/3
• Russian Pod 101
• Word of the Day

Japanese:4.5/3.25
• Japanese Pod 101

Comments:Managed to get a lot of time in this week. My weeks tend to be most well-rounded when it comes to Korean because it is the language I care most about improving, so when I do have dedicated sit-down time for reading/writing, I tend to allocate that time for Korean. I am noticing improvements, particularly with the WOD stuff because the words always come with a handful of sample sentences (with audio) of varying difficulty (some super simple 2-3 word phrases up to complex sentences). It is very rewarding to be able to correctly understand what is going on at a pretty high percentage,especiallywhen compared to the beginning of the year, which feels great and helps keep the motivation.

It's interesting because Spanish has definitely been in what I would call maintenance mode this whole year (I'm still reading books, watching NF, and doing WOD, so good, varied content at a decently-high level), but I can tell I am still improving. I guess because I'm consuming"real"material as well, it feels the easiest when I'm doing it because it's enjoyment and not just "work" in terms of doing lessons and such. My speaking is definitely big trash rn, because well, I'm not doing any speaking (LOL), but I have so much confidence that as soon as I need/want to start making that a focus for me, my speaking abilities are going to be significantly stronger than they were in late 2018.

Russian was probably the least effective studying this week. I noticed myself wandering a LOT mentally (because of all of the things going on in my "real"/personal life). Like I got 4 hours in, but it certainly wasn't all quality. But alas, sometimes it's just about trying to keep as much momentum plowing forward as you can, even if it's a bit bumpy and not close to perfect. That is something I am trying to be cognizant about and have been this entire year- even when things aren't great and it's hard to have 100% focus on the lesson, I think it's important to keep slogging and going through the motions and just doing your best to pay attention (even if those sessions are marred with times of wandering off mentally to other things). This was something I kind of failed on last year with Korean, so I wanted to correct that mistake.

I've ONLY been doing the podcast listening for Japanese the last few weeks, but strangely, I feel like it's been one of the (if not THE) most productive of the languages lately. Probably because I feel like Japanese pronunciation is so easy, especially when compared with Korean, but the writing is the most difficult of the languages I am doing. But when it comes to speaking, I feel a real understanding of the Japanese language (through the lens of a beginner, of course, I'm by no means an expert) and it's just simpler sounds.

Hope everybody is finding the motivation, sticking to their goals, and making progress!

I've had trouble the past few weeks, this is where I feel where I'm at. I've started to understand a lot more. So able to watch youtube videos (Vlogs) with much more comprehension. Trouble is because the videos are more fun than "studying", I don't spend nearly as much time as before doing more formal studying so reading and vocab learning has slowed down.

Weekly Update- July 13th-19th:

Completed/Goals:
Korean:6/4
• Korean Class 101
• Word of the Day
• Anki

Spanish:3.25/3
• Spanish Pod 101
• Netflix

Russian: 3/3
• Russian Pod 101
• Word of the Day

Japanese:4.5/3
• Japanese Pod 101

Comments:Happy with my Korean this week. It was a pretty strong week of solid studying. I had felt like Korean had taken a bit of a backseat these last couple of weeks, even though it's the one I care about most. I was focusing so much on trying to make sure I got the hours in for the other languages first, to get them out of the way, but then I found I wasn't able to really do the extra work I wanted in Korean due to everything going on at the moment. That just meant I needed to shift my strategy and it worked. I'm going back home in a couple of weeks and my step family is Russian, so I might make a strong push on Russian in the next couple of weeks, just to try and see how I do with them.

Spanish was a little SP101 and some Netflix. Nothing crazy, pretty good for what I did. I'm understanding more and more, getting faster at listening in real time.

Russian was better than last week, but still the weakest, IMO, as far as really having productive sessions lately.

Japanese felt solid again this week. There's just something about the language, maybe the ease in pronunciation, that seems to be resonating with me such that I feel good/engaged when listening, even though this is at the bottom of the priority list. Whenever I do make a push on Japanese (probably before a trip there), I know that feeling will change when I start emphasizing reading as well...

Weekly Update- July 20th-26th:

Completed/Goals:
Korean:3/3
• Korean Class 101
• Word of the Day
• Anki

Spanish:4.25/3
• Word of the Day
• Netflix

Russian: 4/4
• Russian Pod 101
• Word of the Day

Japanese:3/3
• Japanese Pod 101

Comments:

Well I finally got the 2nd Level of Dual Lingo finished. It took a bit longer than expected but it is done.

Taking a one week break and then heading back into it.

Do 30 mins a day as a break don’t go on a zero learning language for a week. Review some stuff you learned or listen to some podcasts.

Been killing it lately. Been doing online pre recoded class by Corsea really solid class room setting courses. Also been doing new practical Chinese reader, plus lots of YouTube and wrote down 50 new sentences yesterday which I will make into flash cards ( the new words) and just practice the sentences.

So it's been a month since I've started teh monolingual transitions (for Japanese).

It's been easier than expected. I started when I was around 3000 words.
However it's taking far more time than I expected.

By time I mean how much time per day I have to dedicate to it.

Making regular sentence cards in Anki, with the help of subs2srs or manually, usually only took me under 10mins a day to make 10 cards.
But to make 10 dictionary vocab cards it takes almost an hour.

This is because to make dictionary vocab, I have to first make regular sentence cards, then dig though the dictionary definitions of the word, then find words in the definition that I don't already know.
If the dictionary definition in contains no unknown words I just make the regular sentence card.

If the dictionary def. contians exactly 1 unknown word, then I can use the dictionary definiton itself as a sentence.

How ever if the definition contains multiple words that I don't know, I have to then go find sentences that I can use to learn those words.
This has been made easier due to the fact that I have a 10,000 voiced sentence deck that I can grab sentences from.. Worst case secnario is that the word isn't in that sentence deck either so I have to go online to find a sentence from somewhere!

So yeah it's pretty time consuming.

I've cut down my regular sentence mining to just 5 cards a day.
So im doing 10 dictionary vocab cards + 5 regular sentence cards per day.


But great thing is it's working quite well. For around 50% of new words I come across I can understand using a Japanese-Japanese dictionary.. So I'm getting there.

Hopefully this "transition phase" will only last another 2 months or so and I can get back to regular sentence mining and immersion.



edit: This is what my cards are starting to look like



no English at all (well apart from the "monolingual" tag lol). Pretty sweet.
oh yeah for anyone learning japanese just noticed the furigana for １日 is wrong there.. lol

Innn... 한국어 배우는 증 입나다. 한국어 배우는 다른 사람 여기 있어요?

How do you memorise vocab then? Just pick it up from listening?

I use anki to sentence mine (copy and paste sentences, new vocab into anki). The rest I just pick up from immersion.

When I get to Japanese, I will come to you for help lol.


Did using matt's dictionary deck make it easier to do the monolingual transition?

Weekly Update- July 27th- August 2nd:

Completed/Goals:
Korean:2/5
• Korean Class 101
• Anki

Spanish:3.5/5
• Netflix

Russian: 5/5
• Russian Pod 101

Japanese:1.25/1.25
• Japanese Pod 101

Comments:Really bad week, lol. I went back home on Wednesday (12-hour drive), so most of the actual productivity I got was on that drive last week. Once I got home, it was just nonstop hanging with the family and going/hanging out with friends, so I ended up with even less down time than I anticipated. To not let myself entirely off the hook, I could certainly have carved out 1/2-1 hour a day in the morning or when I got back at night to get a little more work in, but I pretty much gave in and let go of my discipline on everything on this trip back (I usually keep up my routines). Didn't work out, didn't train, didn't read, didn't study, didn't do much of anything productive, lol. I did finish all my house docs and closed on my house for my upcoming move at the end of this month (August), so wasn't entirely unproductive. But I'm ok with it, it was a much-needed break and I don't really give myself breaks, generally speaking, so whatever (yes rationalizing, but YOLO). Once I move, I'm going to have even more time to be productive, so it will ramp up to another level, more than likely, unless the new job is a much bigger pain in my ass.

Looking to get back on the horse this week since I got back tonight.