Hi, I have been trying to learn Japanese going on 6 years now. I can only seem to get as far as the basics. I am struggling to pick up more advanced sentence patterns... struggling to even understand the form let alone any others. What should I be doing? How do I get farther?
I definitely experienced this and still do to a large extent. I think reading helps a LOT, tadoku is a useful site which talks about immersive reading. There is also a reading contest which runs a few times a year here, I haven't joined the contest yet, nor do I know if it's connected to the other site, but it could be a good way to try and read in an immersive way.I'm finding learning new vocabulary and kanji in context through readthekanji really helpful too.I noticed a sharp increase in the breadth, if not the depth, of what I could say and understand through learning a lot of vocabulary in a targeted way for JLPT N4. I work better with goals and deadlines as I am a real procrastinator.Earlier I talked about tracking hours of study and I think this really helped me get real about how much I was studying as opposed to how much I felt like I was studying (it felt like much more than it really was). I recommend this if you too are prone to procrastination or being unrealistic like I am.Do any other followers have advice for dealing with bridging the beginner to intermeidate plateau?