Learning Japanese - Polyglot Custom Journal

Journals - Custom Subliminals
#1

This journal is going to be focused on learning Japanese to the maximum level in the next 2 years or so. If your interested in the overarching 2 year journey, you can check out my main journal here:

Main Journal

Here’s the custom build that I’ll be using at the start of this journal. As I update the custom, I’ll post new builds. Polyglot will be a constant module in any customs I build for the next couple years. So though the custom might change, I’ll keep the module in each new iteration I build out.

Code Name Him V2
  • Primal Seduction Core
  • Legacy of the Spartan Core
  • BDLM Core

Physical Shifting and Vibes

  • Synergy Apollon Unbound
  • Synergy Ambrosia
  • Synergy Glory Incarnate
  • ASP Hair
  • SPS Fat Burn
  • Emperor Fitness Height Inducer
  • Moment Immortalized
  • Elegance
  • Entranced
  • Ethereal Presence
  • Dance Mastery

Skills and Cognitive

  • Polyglot
  • Index Gate
  • Technological Prodigy
  • Virtuous di Mathematica
  • IQ and Cognitive Booster
  • Informaticon

Relevant modules to this journal are:

  • Polyglot
  • IQ and Cognative Booster
  • Informaticon

I’ll probably get synergistic effects from other modules and my whole stack.

Pimsleur + Duolingo + WaniKani is going to be the starting learning strategy. These three will be used daily.

After I get through all 5 levels of Pimsleur and learn all 2000+ kanji (while supplementing both with Duolingo for extra practice) I will figure out what I will need to do to continue moving forward with Japanese.

The first goal is just to use all three daily until I finish all 5 levels of Pimsleur, then with my new knowledge, I’ll determine what I need to do moving forward.

What else?

Oh yeah, I might do Pimsleur lessons twice in a day, or repeated them as needed to keep my progress moving forward. Though speed is relevant, learning a language is learning a language, so I’ll give myself grace.

I’m more concerned with daily practice and commitment, then time. Though ASAP is best. ASAP with grace and mastery.

Final note, I took 2 years of Japanese in college. So I’m pretty sure that the first couple weeks or months will be easy brush up for me.

Let’s get started!

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#2

Day 1 - 10/6/2025

Completed

  • Pimselur Japanese Level 1 - Lesson 1

Easy, familiar. Good for reps and a quick refresher on a couple words, but I understood everything. I think once I get to lesson 2 or three it will get fun again. This lesson was so easy because I’ve done it before a few times, a few years ago.

  • Duolingo Section 1, Unit 1

Fun, if a little repetitive, I think it will pay off later down the line. It’s great for good old fashioned brute force repetition and to get words to really stick in your mind.

I also like how they teach the kana. It’s pretty cool and I like that they make you trace the shapes by hand.

  • WaniKani

This is a new one. I don’t think this was around when I took Japanese (4 years ago now). It’s really slick, it’s like a better version of Remembering The Kanji I think I’m going to really like this one.

Similar to the note above, I feel like the faster I learn and really ingrain the Kanji, the better. I know from learning Japanese in college, that Kanji is what stops most learners. So I’m going to use what I learned in the past to break through that road block before it even appears.

Wani Kani says that I should be able to learn all 2000+ Kanji in a year, so that’s my goal. If I do my due diligence, then I should be able to read basic stuff in around a year. Far from fluent, but maybe hitting the goal of learning Japanese in Japanese.

Overall
Feeling good about this and I think I will progress pretty fast. :slight_smile:

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#3

Seducing japanese women so you can get more exposure speaking to natives is truly an advanced learning strategy, rofl.

Respect the grind.

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#4

I would just warn you to not use Duolingo.
I used it for the same reason and it was fun.
It felt like I was making pretty good progress.
Then my fiancee warned me, that it’s not good at all. After some hesitation, I did some research, and it was shocking.
No one was really able to learn Japanese with Duolingo. Those that stayed with it could solve all challenges in the app, but use it in real life?
No chance.

Research full immersion learning.
Some people got to native level in two years.
It’s basically learn the kana and kanji, learn basic Grammer and then immerse yourself.
Watch anime, films, series, play games etc, with today’s apps it’s rather easy to translate everything.

Sadly, die to my adhd, my passion burned down rather quickly.
But if you use subs to boost your progress, I think you can get pretty far in a year.

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#5

Appreciate this, you might be saving me a lot of time.

I think I’ll stick with it mostly for kana then, while I get through the first 5 levels of Pimsleur and get a decent way into WaniKani. Then I’ll keep moving forward.

I see your point. It’s fun and gamified, but I’ve rarely seen anyone make any massive progress on it. So I’ll tread cautiously.

Pimsleur and WaniKani feel like the real heavy lifters in this first phase anyway.

#6

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#7

Day 2 - 10/7/2025

Completed

  • Pimselur Japanese Level 1 - Lesson 2

Okay, so I guess they updated the course! 4 years ago, I did lesson 1, 2, and 3 and then got distracted and never finished the course. The updated course feels better and more modern already. It sparked some vocab memory and I ended up finishing a lot of the sentences before they were formally taught to me. I’m excited to see how the rest of the course is post update.

  • Duolingo Section 1, Unit 2

Still playing with this and will continue with it probably until I’m done with Pimsleur Japanese Level 5. This course has also been updated and it also feels more grounded. Back in the day, Duolingo used to give you batshit sentences that no human being would ever use. Though they were funny, it didn’t do much to actually teach you. The new interface feels pretty nice, it’s also jumping right into the kana and is already starting to remove the romaji which is great for developing kana reading skills.

The caveat to the above, is that if you don’t actually engage with it, then it’s pretty much worthless, but I do think it will be a good supplement for this first leg of the journey.

There are a lot of new AI based language learning apps out there right now–Duolingo has a paid version that uses AI spoken conversations. So I might shop around.

  • WaniKani

Just learned a few more radicals. Since I want to REALLY LEARN the Kanji, I’m not particularly rushing this part of the journey. All the radicals that I’ve covered in the last 2 days I already knew, so it was mostly a refresher for me. I feel pretty good about getting through all their 2000+ Kanji in a year. I think it’ll be pretty damn doable for me without a ton of stress, given that I will be encountering the kanji constantly with Duolingo and Speak…

Speak.Com

This is new. Found it today on an Instagram add. I can’t give a full review yet. I signed up for a free trial, and I’m going to try and absolutely bust through as much of the content as I reasonably can before the free trial is up so I know whether or not it’s worth the money.

Keep in mind, I took two years of Japanese in college. So though I haven’t spoken in 4 years, so far everything I’ve done in the last 2 days has just been review. I haven’t “learned” anything yet.

In terms of experience. I love the experience of using the app, it focuses on speaking which is the best way to learn.

I did the first 2 units of their beginner Japanese course today. I will probably do another unit. I’m kinda trying to get through the whole first course tonight.

My hesitance, is that I’m just not sure about if it’s worth the money. So, I’m trying to get through as much of it as I can quick to see if it’s worth the investment.

Overall day notes

Feeling good. I won’t be able to keep up today’s pace for the whole 2 years, but that’s exactly what I’ve planned for. Days like today where I can cram when I have the time, and then keep plucking along at about 1-2 hours a day for the rest of the week.

Also, the custom hasn’t arrived yet, I’ll update when I start running it. Should be here soon.

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#8

Okay, now I can give a partial review of Speak.Com’s Japanese course.

The course is broke into 4 sections

  • Beginner Survival Japanese Part 1
  • Beginner Survival Japanese Part 2
  • Intermediate Interactions
  • Upper Intermediate Conversations

In about…3-4 hours (with a break) I did about 50% of BSJ Part 1 and decided to skip to the first lesson of Upper Intermediate Conversations.

The course just simply isn’t worth the money. It’s about…Maybe a weeks worth of content for me. I expect to have finished the course completely by the end of the free trial. Which means that I would have paid 90 bucks for a years subscription to an app that I won’t have use for.

Now, to the credit of the APP, the app is great. It’s really fantastic and probably one of the best language learning apps that I’ve ever used. But as of right now, the Japanese course is just too damn limited to be of much use to me (I intend to finish it and will give a full review once I have).

I’ll be keeping my eye on this company. If they can MASSIVELY expand their Japanese course, then I will absolutely pay for it. But as of right now, it’s just not even close to enough content.

If you’re interested in Japanese and have a lot of free time, then I would highly recommend getting a free trial and trying to power through the course in a week. It will serve as an amazing primer to your Japanese journey.

However, it’s not even close to true “Intermediate”. The full 4 part course is very much, a beginners course.

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#9

A week actually might be stupid for a total beginner. My point stands. Use the free trial, but there is absolutely not a year’s worth of content so be wary before you sign for a year. I think an utter beginner, working slowly for mastery would have about… 1-2 months of content and review before the app is no longer useful in it’s current state.

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#10

Day 3 - 10/8/2025

Completed

  • Pimselur Japanese Level 1 - Lesson 3
    Much the same as yesterday. Very good lesson, no major mistakes made. Flowed effortlessly and naturally. Brough back several more vocab words that I’d forgotten I’d learned.
  • Duolingo Section 1, Unit 3 (1 Lesson to Keep the Streak)
    Forgettable and hardly worth talking about, just did it to keep the streak going and to get some reps in.
  • WaniKani
    Just some very light work to keep the streak going, same as Duolingo. It’s important, but not mission critical to focus too much energy here atm. Just learned a few more radicals and did my reviews. I really like the system, it reminds me so much of Remembering the Kanji, but it’s so much better because it’s digital and uses spaced repetition. It’s great.
  • Speak dot Com Japanese
    This was the bulk of my learning today. As I referenced yesterday, I’m trying to get through the whole course in a week, which is feeling very, very doable. Today, I finished 69% of Beginner Survival Japanese Part 1, frankly a great introductory course.

For me it was almost entirely refresh work, but I did actually learn to look at some things in a different way that helped vocab words I learned mechanically in college “stick” in my mind.

It’s really an excellent starters course and the method of teaching is awesome. Nothing feels wasted, and everything learned feels like it would be directly and immediately useful traveling in Japan and navigating.

Stand by what I said yesterday about it not being worth my financial investment because it’s not nearly enough content for me, however, it’s an excellent program and I’m prioritizing finishing it before the week trial runs out. It feels like the absolute PERFECT refresher course for me and it’s pretty much 100% speaking/listening, which is ideal.

Notes

Today I started falling into the mental trap of putting the cart before the horse and wondering how I’m going to find advanced materials. A pretty silly thing to stress about, no need to worry until AFTER I’ve finished Pimsleur Level 5. Besides, the more I learn, the more obvious the path forward will be.

Motivation high.

Dedication high.

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#11

Quick note about this, it’s not mission critical for me and my plans TODAY. However for anyone following along and wanting to learn either Chinese or Japanese, learn the kanji ASAP if you want to have any hope of reading the language.

Learning the characters times TIME. Back in college I knew about 200. It takes 2000+ to be literate in Japanese (Chinese, don’t know). So front load the effort. Yes, you CAN learn kanji prior to speaking, it’s ideographic and will help A LOT if you front load this.

It’s way easier to adjust once you know the ideograms then learning from scratch later. This is where many fail with Japanese.

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#13

日本語がわかりますか?

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#15

わかりました。

Fair. What’s your top priority?

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#16

English is my top priority.
Mine is passable, but it can always be better.

For the other languages, i can’t say them here, but i’m currently learning to be able to speak in 2 languages until i can hold a simple conversation in them.

I find that a good understanding of the language + rudimentary speaking skills are often enough for what i want. So once i’m satisfied with how much i can speak in them, i allocate my time away from speaking and put it fully into reading & listening.

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#17

As a native English speaker, given how annoying the language can be, I feel like that’s an ideal strategy. A lot of improving English is just reading a lot and exposing yourself to new vocab.

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#18

As someone with English as second language, I can agree on this. Being active in this forum improved my English a lot.
But reading the posts is one thing.
It improves your passive vocabulary.
But writing or speaking is just as important for improving the applicability of what you’ve learned. Before I actually started to use English actively, I often had difficulties finding the correct words despite knowing them.
Only when you’re using the vocab regularly, your brain finds the right words when you need them.
I don’t think it’s an absolute necessity to use all new vocab right away, but speaking generally is very important.

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#19

Reading aloud is also very, very helpful. Heck, I still practice reading aloud and I studied English in college as a native, lol.

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#20

Pimsleur really opens up and expands your language learning brain, instead of using your short term memory brain to memorize words.

It’s the highest ROI early activity u can take in a language

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#21

I agree 100% and it’s worth repeating. 2 years of Japanese, and the only Japanese in my working vocab (spontaneous) is stuff I learned from the first 3 lessons of Pimsleur.

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#22

Day 4 - 10/9/2025

Completed

  • Pimselur Japanese Level 1 - Lesson 4
    This lesson was a little tough, a few days without enough sleep and I was super distracted. Going to do it again tomorrow, because it just wasn’t it. But that’s part of the game, it’s a marathon, not a sprint!
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