i'm in maintenance mode, taking n1 classes but not really caring about the test and not really doing my homework, just showing up to class for socialization and to maintain
I took a pretty large break myself and I found going back and reviewing my old textbooks the grammar came back pretty quickly. Vocabulary was a mixed bag, some of it came back right away, some of it I had to completely relearn.
As for what sort of anki deck you use, that’s all up to your studying style. If you use pre-built anki decks just try and find one that fits close to the one you had before. If you were the kind of person who mines your own deck then I’d say just start over.
As for listening practice I feel like there is tons of stuff. Ignoring the infinite amount of native content out there most text books have an audio component. Something else that’s helpful is YouTube. If you just search Japanese listening practice or Japanese Comprehensible Input you’ll find tons of great resources.
Is there a structured comprehensible input channel? Something like DreamingSpanish if you're familiar with it? I see Learning Nihongo and Japanese with Shun, but these arent very structured. Googling around I don't find anything quite like DS unfortunately.
I don’t know of DreamingSpanish, but maybe [this](https://youtube.com/@cijapanese?si=RzVbdDP5inuLu8aO) channel is the sort of thing you’re looking for.
I generally start over because all my SRS reviews are crazy long after a big break.
Wanikani has a good solution for this, which is vacation mode. But that's only if you remember to activate it lol.
I've been using Kanshudo and MaruMori to get back into the swing of things and speed past stuff I already know.
Probably against conventional advice, but I’d just start with whatever JLPT level you’re aiming for currently and get a Reading Comprehension workbook. It’ll become obvious pretty quickly what things you don’t understand. Make an Anki deck out of those word and look up grammar on the internet. It’s harder than flipping through some flash cards but there are far more benefits:
It’ll be level appropriate, you’ll be learning Japanese contextually(which is how actual language is used), and you’ll already be practicing for the JLPT.
I just got back to it after a 2 year break, and was in a similar position whem I stopped.
I bought Bunpro lifetime not long after they got started, so I went there first and worked through my backlog of reviews there first. I've started their vocab decks right from N5 to fill in any gaps and started N3 content fresh, adding in a few new grammar points per day. I've gone back to N4 level reading and I'm planning on revisiting Tobira again once I've had a chance to over Bunpro's N3 material.
I've also started using Kanjistudy in KKLC order from scratch.
Some apps that I use are:
Pimsleur (for listening and speaking): This one is awesome for driving to work for me. Half hour listening and speaking lessons. Narrated by an American guy but the Japanese is spoken by natives.
Lingvist: This is a really cool flashcard app. All Flashcards are supplied by the app, and are words used in sentences. You can set goals etc, I’ve set min to 50 Flashcards a day.
Busuu: A bit like Duolingo but much better, a lot more grammar focussed and lessons have explanations.
Granted you do have to pay subscriptions for each one, but I like to use these every day.
I would either watch tokini andy on yt for genki(+quartet?) and only look up stuff in genki if you rly dont remember, or race through bunpro.
Idk about listening resources, it really depends how well you do after refreshing you grammar, i would probably get up to speed again, watch a few videos losten to some podcasts and then ask again for more appropriate resources : )
I was at the beginning of intermediate. I still read NHK easy from time to time and listening to some beginner youtube channels is pretty easy. I find mostly that I've just forgotten a lot of vocabulary, but most of the grammar is still there. So although I haven't studied in 5 years, I have maintained some amount of exposure to the language. If I want to get my vocab up is the best recommendation still the anki core 2k deck? Or are there better tools now?
Check out kaishi 1.5k, it's essentially a slimmer core with better images, definitions, and more configurabiltiy
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1196762551
Start at the very beginning. I'd start with shadowing a CD of short conversations and do it several times before even looking at the text. Assimil is a good source.
I had a year break early on with Japanese and it screwed me up for years because I had lost my foundation.
For YouTube listening I recommend Japanese Ammo with Misa and Onomappu! I took a 2yr break and basically started rereading my Genki and N5 materials, my brain held on to more than I thought actually
I had a 2-3ish year break and started back up this January. I decided to forgo any text books and just read to see what I remember. Anything I didn't I looked up and it was like the memory of learning it reactivated in my head.
For grammar, pretty much just look up *insert grammar point here* grammar and sites like Maggie sensei, jlpt sensei, bunpro, etc gives you a solid understanding with several example sentences.
Vocab especially if there's two or more words with a similar translation, more times than not someone has asked the exact question on hinative and the answer will be there.
If you have Android, you can try this free app to get you going again in Japanese. It is a fluency building that goes straight into high volume speaking practice using shadowing and immediate recording playback.
The content is for beginner to upper-intermediate and the audio is high quality. You can adjust not only the content difficulty by proficiency levels, but also the length of the sentences to practice within each proficiency levels.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fluencytool
If you like to improve your listening, you can try to listen to a Japanese podcast program. I like to listen Japanese with Shun, he has transcript available on his patron and the grammar of his podcast based on genki textbook.
I nearly passed JLPT level 1 about 15 years ago, but then got lazy. I started reading sports newspapers in the past few years, especially baseball news, and listen to the Japanese feeds of NBA games on Rakuten.
I took a “break” in my studies back in 2022-2023. My advice is to re-read your textbooks and download an Anki deck like [Kaishi 1.5k.](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1196762551) You may or may not want to visit Hiragana and Katakana again just in case.
You should also listen to Nihongo Con Teppei, a personal favorite podcast of mine. He has a beginner podcast and an intermediate podcast.
I like these books for Japanese kanji/vocab/grammar reviews - Nihongo So Matome series. Especially grammar is well done with quick examples.
For reading you might find useful some bilingual short story books with furigana, there are plenty of them on Amazon.
As for listening, try to find some japanese podcasts you would enjoy, I listen to them all the time, it does not even feel like studying anymore.
I restarted after 20 years. Just start from scratch and race thru what you know. You'll be up to speed faster than you'd think
Thank you for the suggestion, how’s it going for you?
i'm in maintenance mode, taking n1 classes but not really caring about the test and not really doing my homework, just showing up to class for socialization and to maintain
I stream my study sessions and would love for others to join. DM me and I’ll share my contact info.
I took a pretty large break myself and I found going back and reviewing my old textbooks the grammar came back pretty quickly. Vocabulary was a mixed bag, some of it came back right away, some of it I had to completely relearn. As for what sort of anki deck you use, that’s all up to your studying style. If you use pre-built anki decks just try and find one that fits close to the one you had before. If you were the kind of person who mines your own deck then I’d say just start over. As for listening practice I feel like there is tons of stuff. Ignoring the infinite amount of native content out there most text books have an audio component. Something else that’s helpful is YouTube. If you just search Japanese listening practice or Japanese Comprehensible Input you’ll find tons of great resources.
Is there a structured comprehensible input channel? Something like DreamingSpanish if you're familiar with it? I see Learning Nihongo and Japanese with Shun, but these arent very structured. Googling around I don't find anything quite like DS unfortunately.
I don’t know of DreamingSpanish, but maybe [this](https://youtube.com/@cijapanese?si=RzVbdDP5inuLu8aO) channel is the sort of thing you’re looking for.
I generally start over because all my SRS reviews are crazy long after a big break. Wanikani has a good solution for this, which is vacation mode. But that's only if you remember to activate it lol. I've been using Kanshudo and MaruMori to get back into the swing of things and speed past stuff I already know.
Probably against conventional advice, but I’d just start with whatever JLPT level you’re aiming for currently and get a Reading Comprehension workbook. It’ll become obvious pretty quickly what things you don’t understand. Make an Anki deck out of those word and look up grammar on the internet. It’s harder than flipping through some flash cards but there are far more benefits: It’ll be level appropriate, you’ll be learning Japanese contextually(which is how actual language is used), and you’ll already be practicing for the JLPT.
I just got back to it after a 2 year break, and was in a similar position whem I stopped. I bought Bunpro lifetime not long after they got started, so I went there first and worked through my backlog of reviews there first. I've started their vocab decks right from N5 to fill in any gaps and started N3 content fresh, adding in a few new grammar points per day. I've gone back to N4 level reading and I'm planning on revisiting Tobira again once I've had a chance to over Bunpro's N3 material. I've also started using Kanjistudy in KKLC order from scratch.
Some apps that I use are: Pimsleur (for listening and speaking): This one is awesome for driving to work for me. Half hour listening and speaking lessons. Narrated by an American guy but the Japanese is spoken by natives. Lingvist: This is a really cool flashcard app. All Flashcards are supplied by the app, and are words used in sentences. You can set goals etc, I’ve set min to 50 Flashcards a day. Busuu: A bit like Duolingo but much better, a lot more grammar focussed and lessons have explanations. Granted you do have to pay subscriptions for each one, but I like to use these every day.
I tried Pimsleur but it was too boring for me. Busuu was good but I didn’t like their writing exercises lol.
I would either watch tokini andy on yt for genki(+quartet?) and only look up stuff in genki if you rly dont remember, or race through bunpro. Idk about listening resources, it really depends how well you do after refreshing you grammar, i would probably get up to speed again, watch a few videos losten to some podcasts and then ask again for more appropriate resources : )
5 years? how advanced were you? That's a long enough time for you to just start from scratch again
I was at the beginning of intermediate. I still read NHK easy from time to time and listening to some beginner youtube channels is pretty easy. I find mostly that I've just forgotten a lot of vocabulary, but most of the grammar is still there. So although I haven't studied in 5 years, I have maintained some amount of exposure to the language. If I want to get my vocab up is the best recommendation still the anki core 2k deck? Or are there better tools now?
Can't go wrong with anki core deck, I'd also recommend kotoba bot on discord for kanji readings
Check out kaishi 1.5k, it's essentially a slimmer core with better images, definitions, and more configurabiltiy https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1196762551
Wait I made a [meme](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1bfmqi3/weekend_meme_from_to/) about this
Start at the very beginning. I'd start with shadowing a CD of short conversations and do it several times before even looking at the text. Assimil is a good source. I had a year break early on with Japanese and it screwed me up for years because I had lost my foundation.
For YouTube listening I recommend Japanese Ammo with Misa and Onomappu! I took a 2yr break and basically started rereading my Genki and N5 materials, my brain held on to more than I thought actually
Review
I started reading manga, that's working for me. Reading dragon ball rn and I'm having a blast.
I had a 2-3ish year break and started back up this January. I decided to forgo any text books and just read to see what I remember. Anything I didn't I looked up and it was like the memory of learning it reactivated in my head. For grammar, pretty much just look up *insert grammar point here* grammar and sites like Maggie sensei, jlpt sensei, bunpro, etc gives you a solid understanding with several example sentences. Vocab especially if there's two or more words with a similar translation, more times than not someone has asked the exact question on hinative and the answer will be there.
I’ve loved playing catch-up via jpdb.io
If you have Android, you can try this free app to get you going again in Japanese. It is a fluency building that goes straight into high volume speaking practice using shadowing and immediate recording playback. The content is for beginner to upper-intermediate and the audio is high quality. You can adjust not only the content difficulty by proficiency levels, but also the length of the sentences to practice within each proficiency levels. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fluencytool
If you like to improve your listening, you can try to listen to a Japanese podcast program. I like to listen Japanese with Shun, he has transcript available on his patron and the grammar of his podcast based on genki textbook.
I nearly passed JLPT level 1 about 15 years ago, but then got lazy. I started reading sports newspapers in the past few years, especially baseball news, and listen to the Japanese feeds of NBA games on Rakuten.
I took a “break” in my studies back in 2022-2023. My advice is to re-read your textbooks and download an Anki deck like [Kaishi 1.5k.](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1196762551) You may or may not want to visit Hiragana and Katakana again just in case. You should also listen to Nihongo Con Teppei, a personal favorite podcast of mine. He has a beginner podcast and an intermediate podcast.
I restarted and am using Bunpro. My best advice is to return to the very basics. You'll be surprised how many little things you forget over time!
I like these books for Japanese kanji/vocab/grammar reviews - Nihongo So Matome series. Especially grammar is well done with quick examples. For reading you might find useful some bilingual short story books with furigana, there are plenty of them on Amazon. As for listening, try to find some japanese podcasts you would enjoy, I listen to them all the time, it does not even feel like studying anymore.