Yang and her friends’

Japanese Journey
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas by commenting.
Last updated Feb 2021
Dear friends,

Welcome to the Japanese self study journey.

Please feel free to share your ideas and resources by commenting, I thank you in advance for spreading
kindness and showing generosity.

If you have a JLPT N3~N4 level and aim to advance towards N2, this article is for you.
Boost your listening skill

Practice dictation with real news. So far this is the method that works the best for me. ☆☆☆☆☆

E.g. Asahi News provides short news (~1 min) with transcripts.
1) Play the news without looking at the transcript;
2) Write down what you’ve heard from the video;
3) Compare your script with the transcript, take notes.

Whole practice will take around 20-30 mins, really helpful to boost my listening skill.
Reading (test oriented)

Time control is vital in the JLPT exam. The amount of reading in the test was overwhelming! My actual
reading skill is probably below the notes I received but the below books helped me to

- Improve 50% of my reading score

- Be able to finish the test 30 minutes earlier

Get this series from your local bookstores or Amazon

新完全マスター読解, get it because It’s worth your invest!

You’ll have a bite of the feeling of the JLPT exam, they also analyse the

typical questions and skills that you have to tackle.

Grammar (test oriented)

Personally I used

- N２新完全マスター文法・語彙, grammar points are organized and comes with excellent practice
- N２総まとめ文法・語彙: I also enjoyed this book as it is fun to read although the difficulty is way
below the JLPT test

APP available at: https://www.getbunpo.com/ (Credits to my friend Miguel Macías Cabañas!)

Useful online free resources

YouTube:

- Search for Vocabulary cram

- Wonderful Channels: 三本塾、日本語の森、あかねの日本語教室 etc. They also have live streaming

Spotify:

- Podcasts such as “The Real Japanese Podcast日本語で話すだけのラジオです！” and “Let’s talk in

Japanese!” etc. If you think the textbooks are boring and movies are too challenging, these podcast are for
you.

Google:

- Search “Grammar + 文法”, be amazed by the excellent explanations

Online language exchanges: Meet locals and someone who’s passionate about your culture and language!
Online education platforms

Udemy:

- Online Japanese N2 Course ( Thank you Miguel Macías Cabañas for sharing :) )

iTalki:

- I tried different Japanese teachers, since they are 1-1 classes, you can ask the teacher to test your
ability, figure out your strength/weakness, then make them customized as per your needs!
APPs

Dictionary:

- 日本語 (IOS only), the same dictionary as Jisho.com (free)

Grammar:

- APP available at: https://www.getbunpo.com/ (Credits to my friend Miguel Macías Cabañas!)