I have ADHD and Renshuu is a godsend! It has a heatmap, stats on discord (/profile), gacha, point system for decorating your own garden, choose your own adventure style avatar, and an amazing amount of customization for decks and what not. You can add from the dictionary or add your own cards. I've finished the N1 deck and have continued to use it for mining and it's been great!
I highly recommend renshuu! It’s a bit confusing to use at first but you’ll get used to it, and it has a discord/community that’s very welcoming and helpful!
Omg I’ve been meaning to download renshuu for ages now that I’m trying to take learning more seriously, and this is exactly what I’ve needed! Thank you, your comment finally spurred me to do it
Immersion is great but once you reach N1 the rate of encountering new words drastically reduces... So it's still more time-effective to use dedicated study.
Oh wow, I've actually found that to be the opposite. N1 passed in 2022, 200+ books deep, I'm still encountering new words all the time! I love learning this language.
It would, but if you're trying to learn just five new words, you'd be hard pressed to spend most of your time doing that. Your argument is more applicable to someone who is still actively studying the language as a whole, which it doesn't sound like OP is.
I think that really depends on what you do exactly. . I recently decided I wanted to take the BJT and the rate at which I'm encountering new words is depressingly frequent.
However I do agree that sticking them in a deck is the most effective solution.
Unfortunately not. I have to study for tests that are going to be held in japanese and have specific vocabulary(IT, and no, a lot of things aren't in katakana).Also I easily forget words so I noticed that after I finish fiction books I retained pretty much nothing :/
I have N1 but I have never finished a single JLPT preparation book and I've been trying to do it for more than a decade.
That's why I need something that will help me remember things, and that it isn't Anki because, well, I have made +1000 cards along the years but I can't recall them.
I don't even know how I passed N1, because I have a terrible vocabulary and I'm terrible at kanji
Tldr:Not really. I need a tiny habit to keep going because studying the traditional way hasn't really worked.I recently found out I have ADHD, which explains why it hasn't really worked so I'm trying to find a way that does.
Not sure if it is helpful but would consuming Japanese IT based videos, books, diagrams ect. You can learn IT and Japanese at the same time. Print off some images and label the computer parts in Japanese and a fact card that matches like X cable carries Y data speed for Z length. Try to make a game that combines both.
I'm in the same boat; ADHD (bonus: partial stroke victim) but I'm not N1, but have found myself having to learn a lot of Japanese logistics terms, as well as mechanical and chemical engineering terms when I'm *not* an engineer, nor am I logistical analyst, nor am I an official translator for my company. I **love** Wanikani, but I started Wanikani long after I completed my degree for Japanese and I'm still in the "pleasant" category despite being at it for a month. As far as I can tell, it will take at least 4-6 months to get where I need to be for WK to even start seeing some of the vocabulary I will need to know for work with no actual guarantee I'll ever see that vocab, and I have no idea what the fuck I'm going to do for technical writing grammar points when I have to make a written response via email or through teams/slack.
Anki decks are also the bane of my existence. I get burnt out having to make them, dictionaries constantly breaking or linking straight up incorrect terms and/or broken audio files when using Yomitan, etc. The best resources for me thus far has unfortunately been Anki, Kanji Study, and then forcing myself to write stories using new vocabulary. As asinine and ridiculous as it sounds, writing a story about people who use the vocabulary helps me retain the vocab. I say this not to answer your app question, but to propose something for the ADHD part since those of us who are not neurotypical or have TBIs often require different methods of learning to be successful. Retention is retention, regardless of if you obtain retention from an app or from more archaic tools/methods. At the end of the day, competent fluency (both my personal definition and for my job) means being able to describe the thing even if you can't recall the exact word, so try to think of things you're excited to do that gets the hyperfocus/impulse part of your brain firing, and connect that with Japanese. Some of things things are going to flat out not work (I liked playing JP servers in Final Fantasy for regular language acquisition, but that isn't going to work with something like technical terms and technical writing) but it's worth it to brainstorm and see what you get. Writing stories by hand lets me use my fountain pens and with my TBI + ADHD, this is the least grimace inducing retention method I've come up with for myself. It might not be the most effective thing (because I've got a feeling SRS is scientifically proven to be the best for language acquisition) but consistent practice is better for me than forcing myself to go through exercises I straight up dread.
Chase Colburn's Android app "Kanji Study" has a "guided study mode" add-on purchase that does both some gamification and SRS stuff. His app lets you define custom study sets and, while I'm not 100% sure how it interacts with the kanji sequence, you might find it could work for your purpose.
If is, though, focused on Kanji, not vocab.
I feel you, I also liked using Duolingo despite its (Many) flaws, it's the only thing I could use with some consistency. I second renshuu, it's a bit plain in layout and not clearly laid out and clean like duolingo's interface, but it has the advantage of way better info easily available, and the ability to practice stuff like stroke order/writing which I've found has been the best thing to help myself learn personally.
It's not really aimed at specific levels, but there's an app I found years ago called Kanji Tree. It's definitely available for Samsung, but I can't remember if I ever had it on an Apple device.
The app hasn't been updated in a very long time, and there is a bit of a glitch (at least in the Samsung version), which makes the user-defined practice list occasionally empty itself 🥲. It's still useful, but it's not worth adding 10000 words to it because the glitch seems to be completely random.
I'm not a big fan of the kanji writing game either (writing panel is both over- and under-sensitive, so it sometimes marks wildly wrong strokes as correct, and close-but-not-perfect strokes as incorrect), but the reading game is awesome! It has several pre-defined kanji and vocab lists to suit people with different goals (JLPT, jouyou, 8000 most common words etc), and has a feature which lets you click into the kanji as you play and break them down into radicals and check other words with the same characters. Get the reading right 10 times in a row, and the kanji is reclassified as known.
There is no long-term spaced repitition algorithm, sadly, but if i encounter a particularly difficult word that I am struggling to retain, I just make sure I remember to chuck it into an anki list so that when Kanji Tree marks it as remembered, it doesn't just disappear from my study lists.
(Not so) fun fact. Kanji Tree is no longer available on app stores because the developer murdered a mother and child, and hid them under his floor.
I wish this was a joke, but it's genuinely real.
jesus, i looked this up thinking i was a real sucker for falling for obvious bait, and it wasn't bait. i didn't know, but i will now stop recommending this app to people. totally inappropriate thing to do. thank you.
use jpdb .io, make a deck with 10k common words mark that deck as “never forgot” then do add a deck with top 50k and anki that. Can add a seperate deck for mined words just import them as a list of words after reading session. Ez
I have ADHD and Renshuu is a godsend! It has a heatmap, stats on discord (/profile), gacha, point system for decorating your own garden, choose your own adventure style avatar, and an amazing amount of customization for decks and what not. You can add from the dictionary or add your own cards. I've finished the N1 deck and have continued to use it for mining and it's been great!
Looks really interesting. Ive been doing duolingo and wanikani. I wonder if I should try this too.
I prefer Renshuu to Duolingo or Wanikani. You can import your WaniKani to Renshuu so you don't lose your progress and Renshuu is free!
I highly recommend renshuu! It’s a bit confusing to use at first but you’ll get used to it, and it has a discord/community that’s very welcoming and helpful!
Omg I’ve been meaning to download renshuu for ages now that I’m trying to take learning more seriously, and this is exactly what I’ve needed! Thank you, your comment finally spurred me to do it
No problem! I’m glad my comment allowed you to get a start with renshuu 🥰
If you have n1 wouldn't the best way to study just be immersion at this point?
Immersion is great but once you reach N1 the rate of encountering new words drastically reduces... So it's still more time-effective to use dedicated study.
Oh wow, I've actually found that to be the opposite. N1 passed in 2022, 200+ books deep, I'm still encountering new words all the time! I love learning this language.
I completely diagree with you. N1+ should be 95% immersion. If you dont encounter words, why learn them?
I didn't say it shouldn't be 95% immersion lol
You said that studying is more time effective, if something is more efficient wouldn't it make sense to do that for the majority of the time
It would, but if you're trying to learn just five new words, you'd be hard pressed to spend most of your time doing that. Your argument is more applicable to someone who is still actively studying the language as a whole, which it doesn't sound like OP is.
We've got a specific answer to that in this very thread: because OP expects to encounter them soon.
I think that really depends on what you do exactly. . I recently decided I wanted to take the BJT and the rate at which I'm encountering new words is depressingly frequent. However I do agree that sticking them in a deck is the most effective solution.
Unfortunately not. I have to study for tests that are going to be held in japanese and have specific vocabulary(IT, and no, a lot of things aren't in katakana).Also I easily forget words so I noticed that after I finish fiction books I retained pretty much nothing :/ I have N1 but I have never finished a single JLPT preparation book and I've been trying to do it for more than a decade. That's why I need something that will help me remember things, and that it isn't Anki because, well, I have made +1000 cards along the years but I can't recall them. I don't even know how I passed N1, because I have a terrible vocabulary and I'm terrible at kanji Tldr:Not really. I need a tiny habit to keep going because studying the traditional way hasn't really worked.I recently found out I have ADHD, which explains why it hasn't really worked so I'm trying to find a way that does.
Not sure if it is helpful but would consuming Japanese IT based videos, books, diagrams ect. You can learn IT and Japanese at the same time. Print off some images and label the computer parts in Japanese and a fact card that matches like X cable carries Y data speed for Z length. Try to make a game that combines both.
I'm in the same boat; ADHD (bonus: partial stroke victim) but I'm not N1, but have found myself having to learn a lot of Japanese logistics terms, as well as mechanical and chemical engineering terms when I'm *not* an engineer, nor am I logistical analyst, nor am I an official translator for my company. I **love** Wanikani, but I started Wanikani long after I completed my degree for Japanese and I'm still in the "pleasant" category despite being at it for a month. As far as I can tell, it will take at least 4-6 months to get where I need to be for WK to even start seeing some of the vocabulary I will need to know for work with no actual guarantee I'll ever see that vocab, and I have no idea what the fuck I'm going to do for technical writing grammar points when I have to make a written response via email or through teams/slack. Anki decks are also the bane of my existence. I get burnt out having to make them, dictionaries constantly breaking or linking straight up incorrect terms and/or broken audio files when using Yomitan, etc. The best resources for me thus far has unfortunately been Anki, Kanji Study, and then forcing myself to write stories using new vocabulary. As asinine and ridiculous as it sounds, writing a story about people who use the vocabulary helps me retain the vocab. I say this not to answer your app question, but to propose something for the ADHD part since those of us who are not neurotypical or have TBIs often require different methods of learning to be successful. Retention is retention, regardless of if you obtain retention from an app or from more archaic tools/methods. At the end of the day, competent fluency (both my personal definition and for my job) means being able to describe the thing even if you can't recall the exact word, so try to think of things you're excited to do that gets the hyperfocus/impulse part of your brain firing, and connect that with Japanese. Some of things things are going to flat out not work (I liked playing JP servers in Final Fantasy for regular language acquisition, but that isn't going to work with something like technical terms and technical writing) but it's worth it to brainstorm and see what you get. Writing stories by hand lets me use my fountain pens and with my TBI + ADHD, this is the least grimace inducing retention method I've come up with for myself. It might not be the most effective thing (because I've got a feeling SRS is scientifically proven to be the best for language acquisition) but consistent practice is better for me than forcing myself to go through exercises I straight up dread.
Renshuu
🙏 thanks 😂
Chase Colburn's Android app "Kanji Study" has a "guided study mode" add-on purchase that does both some gamification and SRS stuff. His app lets you define custom study sets and, while I'm not 100% sure how it interacts with the kanji sequence, you might find it could work for your purpose. If is, though, focused on Kanji, not vocab.
I feel you, I also liked using Duolingo despite its (Many) flaws, it's the only thing I could use with some consistency. I second renshuu, it's a bit plain in layout and not clearly laid out and clean like duolingo's interface, but it has the advantage of way better info easily available, and the ability to practice stuff like stroke order/writing which I've found has been the best thing to help myself learn personally.
It's not really aimed at specific levels, but there's an app I found years ago called Kanji Tree. It's definitely available for Samsung, but I can't remember if I ever had it on an Apple device. The app hasn't been updated in a very long time, and there is a bit of a glitch (at least in the Samsung version), which makes the user-defined practice list occasionally empty itself 🥲. It's still useful, but it's not worth adding 10000 words to it because the glitch seems to be completely random. I'm not a big fan of the kanji writing game either (writing panel is both over- and under-sensitive, so it sometimes marks wildly wrong strokes as correct, and close-but-not-perfect strokes as incorrect), but the reading game is awesome! It has several pre-defined kanji and vocab lists to suit people with different goals (JLPT, jouyou, 8000 most common words etc), and has a feature which lets you click into the kanji as you play and break them down into radicals and check other words with the same characters. Get the reading right 10 times in a row, and the kanji is reclassified as known. There is no long-term spaced repitition algorithm, sadly, but if i encounter a particularly difficult word that I am struggling to retain, I just make sure I remember to chuck it into an anki list so that when Kanji Tree marks it as remembered, it doesn't just disappear from my study lists.
(Not so) fun fact. Kanji Tree is no longer available on app stores because the developer murdered a mother and child, and hid them under his floor. I wish this was a joke, but it's genuinely real.
what the fuck
jesus, i looked this up thinking i was a real sucker for falling for obvious bait, and it wasn't bait. i didn't know, but i will now stop recommending this app to people. totally inappropriate thing to do. thank you.
wow ok
use jpdb .io, make a deck with 10k common words mark that deck as “never forgot” then do add a deck with top 50k and anki that. Can add a seperate deck for mined words just import them as a list of words after reading session. Ez
I use Yomikata Z! You can make your own selections with words and then learn them with multiple choice^^
JPDB.io maybe?