I am not a pro. I failed N3. But I believe I am in the good position to tell this story, since I am still struggling very hard. Plus my study is an engineer and I came from Thailand, so I don’t have any head start at all. [Update 17/4/2016 : added light novel experience.]

1. Japanese Language
Self-study Experience
Sirawat Pitaksarit

2. I am not a pro
• I failed N3.
• I believe I am in the good position to tell this story, since I am still struggling very
hard. Plus my study is an engineer and I came from Thailand, so I don’t have any
head start at all.
• Ok about the head start thats not true, because I already can read hiragana/
katakana 100% from 10 years ago playing untranslated pirated Final Fantasy 5 and
Kunio. The guidebook I bought usually came with table comparing Japanese items/
spells to Thai reading so we can play Japanese version comfortably. So eventually I
can read every character especially save, load and phoenix down.
• After that time (10 years old?) to 23 years old I never start learning Japanese. I
stuck with hiragana and katakana, in addition of some random kanji like fire, earth,
wind, thunder, warrior, forest, god (yu-gi-oh) and 人 maybe?
• It might be more useful than a pro’s reciting the process of becoming one because
the pain is still fresh.

3. I did many unconventional
choices
• I did not tell anyone if possible, because it will be offending to the
person who believe in other ways. (Many of my Thai friend asked
me why I disappeared from class but I lied to them that I have no
time and a bit lazy)
• I am here to share what’s working and what’s not, for me. I don’t
know about you, but my case is not quite what everyone likes to do
so I thought it worths sharing. You might realize that something is
not working for you too?
• The takeaway is how will you feel when learning another language
by yourself. (without school forcing you to, like English, that you can
just get on the rail and keep going) For secondary language,
Japanese is quite unusual for people that is not coming from china.

4. Tools of trade
• I tried many tools and after 2 years of not so active self
learning, optimized down to these tools to beat everything.
• Midori (Offline best dictionary), Tae Kim app for iOS/
Android (Best grammar reference), Weblio web or app
(Require online, best example sentence search), Hi-Native
+ Japanese Stack Overflow (Ask custom question that you
could not search for), Twitter (Soak yourself in Japanese
world constantly, comfortably, automatically)
• What’s not working and I stopped using it : Flash cards,
Anki deck, Lang-8, Google Translate, writing a kanji note to
look it up later.

5. New experience of
remembering
• The first time in your life that you can see it, but you
can’t read it!
• In English no matter how difficult the word is, you can
remember it and maybe search for it later or recall it
quite easily once you know all the characters.
• So consequentially you cannot remember it or refer
to it. I struggled with method like “The ruler character
with arrow pointing up from stone” (I was referring to
“throw” 捨)

6. Writing kanji note is useless
• At first in games, manga, etc. when I encountered new words I would
write it down with readings and meaning.
• Later I realized that there is no point for doing that because I never
revisit them. I tried re-reading them, but the context is already gone.
I can’t remember the scene in the game or chapter in the manga that
the word is taking place anymore. (Took me 3 months to realize this.)
• I found better way of learning : Just Midori everything and throw it
away immediately after. If you encounter it again and you could not
remember it, just Midori it. You will feel the pain, and you will
remember quick.
• Usually, you just searched for something 5 min ago and now you
cannot get it right again. Use Midori’s history function to tackle this.

7. Example search is critically
essential
• Weblio is the top tool. Midori, Tatoeba, Tangorin cannot do it as
good as Weblio becuase those require very strict keyword input.
• It is required when you want to make your own sentence.
(Maybe tweeting?) The usual question is how to say something
in Japanese. You can then use it with Tae Kim and tweak to your
own situation.
• Even if you got all the words required, you want to make sure
that the word you chosen is actually what people is using. (e.g.
to not using the “chirp” for human’s cry)
• Searching example search has difficulties. You usually found the
same English word with different meaning/intention.

8. Flash card is useless
• Because no context
• It is not interesting, and feels like you are just a
computer, remembering things. More precisely you
are just a neural network which takes “well-formatted”
examples repeatedly! You are more flexible than that.
• Boring
• It makes you feels good on purpose. (not a good
purpose) Because you “get it right” only in its system.

9. My experience with Japanese class
is bad so I quitted (with reasons)
• I take Japanese class for 1 year and now I stopped going to the class. Not because I am
already a pro (I failed N3 still) but I realized it is not efficient for me.
• We used Minna no Nihongo
• Many aspect is questionable. On the reading part the teacher read in tone that is supposed to
be read, but for 5+ students to be on sync, we kind of have to “hold back” and read
annoyingly slow that it defeats the purpose of reading practice.
• When learning kanji which is like 10 per class, the teacher started throwing random words that
contains the kanji. It has weakness of no context, so I did not remember anything at all. (not
memorable)
• I don’t believe in learning polite form of verb first then go to dictionary form. Maybe I am an
engineer and liked to build things from fundamental up.
• It makes me lazy. The class is on Tuesday and Saturday. And the result is I “waited” for the
class. After I quit I have been trying really hard to catch up to those in the class everyday. It
fits more with my style. And also it prevent me to be flexible about my time. I can’t enjoy late
night game on Friday because of class.

10. My experience with Japanese class
is bad so I quitted (with reasons)
• It breaks my flow. 70% of the time I am doing something and then I “have to” go to the class. Most
things I do require 1 hours+ of build up time to keep the thing going and if not possible I would like to
go on for 6 hours+
• I can’t ask question because I must ask in Japanese. Only N3+ level student is capable to construct
proper question sentence, which ironically we who need it cannot do. What we learned is to ask for
place, to show menu, etc. but to ask simple question like “Why the previous question’s answer is not X
?” it seems impossible. It is possible with time (3-5 minutes) but the lesson will already go on and you
will miss the opportunity.
• After I quitted the class, when this kind of question arise I can take my time using Weblio to see what
kind of sentence that people are using. If some question came up about the example sentence, use
Tae Kim to figure out the reason. It is better than in the class, where 80% of the time I think “oh well…”
and ditched the question.
• In class you cannot secretly take your time to figure out your question because it is gonna be your
turn to answer the next question soon. (the questions is limited, so they will be distributed in round-
robin style) This happens so often when you are wondering WHY the answer that the person before
you just spoken is correct. (and when it is correct, teacher won’t give you explanation)
• There is always someone who spoil the answer of someone else’s question being asked by teacher. If
you are trying to answer it in your mind, then you will also be spoiled. (no learning occurred)

11. Private Japanese class is
also bad so I quitted
• I thought things might be better with private class. Everyone keeps praising it.
• The place is VERY far. Took me 30-45 minutes to go there and again for coming back.
• If I say this, many will tell me that the time “worth it”. Not quite, because there are more hidden time cost I
discovered. Since it breaks flow, before you go to class you cannot start doing something in 1 hour barrier
before you travel. After coming back you will probably be tired and tempted to eat mcdonalds or rest a bit,
then spend like 1 hour again to build up the flow. But coming back is already 8PM so after you got your flow
up its already midnight.
• Total time cost not counting the lesson is about 4 hours. Lesson is 1.5 hours. I don’t think this is a good
investment.
• At the class whats better is I got all the question to myself. But the big problem remains since you cannot ask
in English.
• Additional unexpected problem arises, now you can’t even use Midori/Tae Kim mid-class like in public class!
Because you are sitting besides the teacher, it feels very rude to tell her to wait and I start mashing my iPod
for answer instead of her.
• When I tried asking her the meaning of X, the answer is not as clear as Midori which also gives me example
sentences. I also having hard time asking grammar question, when it will took much less time to Tae Kim it.
With Tae Kim, usually one grammar question leads to another, and I can take my time reading it again and
again.

12. I hate exam drills
• Like if you are going to take N3 exam then you will practice using previous year’s exam.
• The same happen in every class from high school actually. You practice because you want to pass.
• I considered it cheating. I might pass, but having actual skill lower than the rank I passed because the question in the
test is very limited, but the purpose of ranking is so much broader. (For example N1 = can read newspaper and use
words that belongs to your specialized field of study, N3 = can do daily conversation fluidly)
• In the class we actually has N3 exam drills. We just printed old exams, and I have all the problem mentioned before. In
addition I feel like nothing improved in me even if I get the answer correctly.
• I hate it when someone say this kanji is “over N3” level and you don’t need to remember it yet/ it is ok to get it wrong
now because it is not going to happen in daily conversation. Everyone’s context is different. When I am using Twitter to
read my music making friend’s life, I get the kanji right and wrong in all levels of N3-N1. I considered this my “daily
conversation”.
• I believe in learning without the test in mind, but with test rank’s ability threshold in mind. I will take N3 once I can do
daily conversation, for example. But I won’t check which Kanji I am missing.
• This is based on my English study. I can use English in both writing and speaking because of playing web boards and
GameFaqs. I can say that almost nothing I am using today came from the class. I forgot what is the tenses and I keep
messing things up. I even don’t know what is adjective but I am already using it I guess. So I want to try using this with
Japanese too, just soak yourself in the situation, and struggle.
• So I give away my Minna no Nihongo and get some mangas (that I already illegally read it online, so this is the
payback) and light novels. The progress is painful, 5 min per page of manga, 15 min per page of light novel, but I know
the story, context is helping me remember things easily. I don’t care if it will “appear in exam” or not, but I know when I
reached conversational level then I will revenge N3 again without check with older exams.

13. Learn the “other” reading of Kanji that is
not related to the word you are looking for
• You Midori something, you found it!
• But in my first year, I did not look at all other readings of that kanji at all before I close the founded entry. (It is
too much)
• The result is maybe 2 months later, I encountered the same letter but this time in compound. I could not get
the reading right until I searched and realized, that it is actually the same word as that one… (this feeling of
“kanji converging”)
• If you take few seconds to scan the other readings (not necessary all, but if you are searching verb 食べる
you should look at the other しょく reading for example) it will help increasing the chance of getting the
reading of new word right by about 50%
• Getting the reading right has big benefit, because you can Midori it without using kanji handwriting function.
Typing with swipe keyboard is 300% faster.
• Another benefit is you can say it. You can almost immediately use it on-site. For example, I saw 食堂 for the
first time. I know the しょく so I can guess what it will be read. Inside the cafeteria, I already use that to talk
with friend. Without readings, I would have to Midori it. And not to mention that the word (and that event) has
been inscribed really well in my brain. (That’s why I can type the story now)
• I used “other” because even now I am confused which one is kun-yomi or on-yomi.

14. How to Tae Kim
• The best grammar reference.
• Looks short, but it isn’t. I read it everyday on the bus back from work. (1 hour traffic jam) Took
me 3 months to finish. (skipped 1 chapter because unable to understand)
• First, go through it once. Next, refer to it like million times throughout your Japanese journey.
• The catch is you must remember the chapter’s name.
• To begin searching for something for example “What’s with these verbs that ends with -te? How
many ways can it be used?” if you did not remember that the chapter name is “Compound
Sentence” (which does not related to your question at all) then it is quite difficult to search for it.
• Or “What’s that の ! Why is it at the end of the sentence? It’s not -of- ?” you must remember that
it is in the “Noun-related particles” lesson. You cannot recall this, because currently you have no
information at all that this の will be related to noun but actually it is. Searching function is
included in the mobile app. Searching の is probably useless, but you can search 「の」with
the square quote to get the chapter’s name. The next time you want to look it up you should be
able to remember chapter’s name.

15. Midori is god
• Best dictionary app, unfortunately only on iOS.
• Super intelligence conjugation search. Usually you are not encountering its normal form. And Midori can get you the
normal form from almost any form. Even Google Translate, OSX Translate (3-finger touchpad tap) cannot do this!! This is
also the reason I like to Midori in-class when I was taking Japanese class, what is the normal form so I can make all forms
from it!
• Contains unbelievably many unexpected words. It even teach you grammar on the fly, like searching って properly return
good explanation of it. Try this on OSX dictionary.. no matches! Save me 100 hours of time instead of googling or Tae Kim
something up.
• “Usually in kana” indicator is super useful for reassure you that you should remember as-is when you encountered
“unknown hiragana combination”.
• Writing recognition is essential because this language you have no way to search for new things that you can only see it.
• Writing recognition is great, wrong stroke order will not show the kanji but it enables this feature : with correct stroke order
even with horrible one hand writing on shaking train you will be able to find the kanji. This is very important, as you will be
walking around while Midori-ing. (If you are in Japan) You should feel like Midori is your sword and the signs are monsters.
• History function is essential. The ever occurring question of “… what the hell was that again!?” can be easily answered.
• Name search useful for reading city names or person’s name.
• Infinite drill down of definition.
• Example search can be enabled in options, but not as good as Weblio.
• Use * for wildcard search like RegEx.
• Change color of app’s theme in option. This is unexpectedly very useful because learning language is a long process.
Believe me you will have to use it. Have you ever change the wallpaper of phone or computer? Does it matter?

16. Learn the language of
dictionary
• I mean learn literally what was written in the dictionary. Because sometimes it is hard
to search for it again if you forgot the shape to search and also forgot the readings
too.
• For example 対 might mean “opposite, anti” but you forgot the shape and also
meaning. In some moment you just want to recall that, what to do? The dictionary
say “vis-a-vis” as the first meaning. Despite not so commonly used word it can be
useful.
• 鳴く this means cry, but not literally human’s crying but things like floor making
noise when you step on or dog barking. If you searched “cry” you will get the other
thing. But if you remembered that the first one is “chirp” it will act as an anchor for
you to remember. (The character also contains “bird” character, so “chirp” goes well
with it)
• The lesson is every time you Midori things, take some time (5-10 seconds) to scroll
your eye through every meaning written.

17. Twitter changed my life
• Sign up for Japanese Twitter and start following what you cared about.
• In Thailand no one makes music at all. In here, there are much rivalries going on between us followers. And it’s so much fun.
Off-topic asides, you will be able to learn Japanese from the context that you truly care about. You remember things really
fast when it came to the specific things you love like your favorite composers or anime, not smith-san in certain book.
• If you follow normal people instead of celebrity/commercial account, you will experience life. It seems quite different from
Thailand. In here, every wake ups, every bath tub entering, every ramen, every part time work, get on the train, arrived at
somewhere, going to bed will be tweeted. In Thai Twitter, it looks focused on making high-impact joke, reviews of things (esp.
political, the country and food) and self-contained “wise word” tweets. (so if someone retweet it, his follower can understand
everything from that one tweet) Not so much personal happenings like in Japan.
• Get the feel of colloquial words.
• Feel the difference of person through choice of words. In real conversation you could not catch it in time, but in Twitter you
can clearly see that each person has different style of talking and word choice. You will start building word frequency
dictionary in your head and eventually you will like some of the choice and start developing your own style. This will translate
to real life as well.
• Better than being social in the real world, because if you stay still in Twitter nothing will happen to you while you still can hear
the conversation lively going on. (comfortable and safe) Take your time to Tae Kim the tweet, or take your time to construct
your tweet with Weblio. In real life, you would be the weirdo for sitting still all the time and occasionally typing the phone. You
will also fear that someone will think you are playing Facebook in the middle of conversation while it is actually Midori.
• If your tweet got liked by at least 1 follower, it means that your sentence is well-formed. It is rewarding like “like” system of
Facebook that will make you try creating more contents. This time not useless like in Facebook, because you are doing it to
gain language skill not e-attention.
• Twitter is automatic. You just come in, and you will get new things out.

18. This is the end for now but I might add more if I found
something useful..
I don’t even know if all this is “working” in tems of JLPT
or not but definitely I am getting better judging from the
frequency of Midori-ing and Tae Kim-ing becoming less
often now after I quitted those classes.
That means something in here must be “working” and
thus worth sharing.