Self-study advice?

Hi everyone!

Im so glad to have found this forum *hugs google*

I recently started to learn japanese after years of telling myself I cant do it and its too hard blahbity blah, but then I got tired of making excuses so here I am

I learned both Hiragana and Katakana and have been practicing them every day.
I go over 1 lesson from youtube's Japan Society lesson's each day
work through Adventures in Japanese 1 that my friend lent me
and go over the phrases I learned through Anki.

I feel like im at a stalemate. I dont really know what else I can do now that I have the kana memorized except add vocabulary. I just feel like im not doing enough. I would really like to get down enough basics over the summer while im out of school because I have the most time to expend (ie; No job, no school, no vacation xD) I also would like to add Kanji to my list but im not really sure how. I took chinese in college so I can recognize some of the basic ones but thats about it.

Can you give me any advice on how else I can make the most out of my studies?
Thank you very much <3

hi Grawrt, welcome to JREF, we have some wonderful and experienced people here to help people learn Japanese.

You said you learnt Chinese before, can you tell me if you are planning to continue Chinese in the future? Because if you planning to study both languages, the strategy should be very different than just studying Japanese alone, so to save you significant amount of time and detour.

For example if you are planning to study Japanese only and no Chinese ever again in your life, I would recommend you "remember the Kanji" books, it is a series that help you to remember how to write all the kanjis based on the structures ONLY and does not take in pronunciation!

However I would NOT recommend this book if you are planning to learn Chinese or already know Chinese as 82 percent of Chinese characters are phono-semantic compound and only 4 percent are pictograms. His books then become virtually useless as most of the Kanji are simply a radical (meaning) with another Kanji (sound), but in RTK book you have to come up with a crazy story to remember the Kanji.

I believe you can learn both languages instead of just Japanese with a little modification to the approach to Kanji and a little more time.

Hi Grwart, I'm in the same boat as you - teaching myself Japanese from a book but not really getting much further. I'm learning from Japanese for Busy People. Though I've never taken any Chinese, so the Kanji is killing me.

Maybe we can practice with each other?

Hi financialwar & Thanks
I didn't know you could study both chinese/japanese at the same time. I thought it would be confusing, How would I go about this? I'd love to kill two birds with one stone. Always told myself i'd get back to chinese studies eventually .

&&Hi bewarethegeek! Yay! I'd love to practice with you sometime. How is that book you're using? I saw it at this discount japanese book store but I wasn't sure if I should get it or not 'cause I have a bad habit of buying things I dont use...x__x

I'm still a beginner myself, but I've found the White Rabbit Press' Japanese Kanji flashcards to be helpful for memorization. They are a bit pricey, but I find them worth it. I purchased all 3 sets from Amazon and am currently working through box 2. Though I still require a lot of review before I have them memorized by heart, I feel it helps a lot in recognition.

I also purchased a few light novels and I'm slowly translating those and memorizing each kanji as I come across it. I find it helps me remember them when I see them used in context. Even if I need the Internet and a good dictionary to read the book, I slowly make progress and enjoy it a lot.