Hello, I’m new to CIJ, have been using the website for a week following the default goal of 30 minutes a day. Obviously im not understanding very much but I get that its very early days. I have no prior experience with Japanese and am curious if anyone else has stuck to only 30 minutes a day and if so what were their results? Is 30 minutes a day just to little or is it fine for now/ the first year?
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Hello there and welcome to the site! You made a great decision!
In terms of acquisition theory there is no such thing as too little. Even a single video everyday makes a massive difference compared to nothing. I suggest you to do as much as you feel like. The more you do the better.
It is nice to have a daily goal as it helps with motivation and discipline. I needed one very badly and started out with daily 90 minutes. Now I try to do my best, but the minimum for me is 2 hours. I found that breaking your limits redefines them weirdly. In April I couldn’t imagine doing 2 hours. I even dropped to 75 minutes in May. I hated it. In June I managed 2 hours and since then I did 2 hours daily like it was the most normal thing. Few days ago I managed 4 hours, then even 5. Now 2 hours feel like a joke. I started to believe that a lot of our limits are self-imposed. Of course, it is important to have a rest and not burn out. (I don’t take rests. Wasted enough time with grammar in those 5 years)
Best thing to do in the early days is watch a looot of easy content. Rewatch the ones you loved as much as you can and just relax. For me it took about 2-2,5 months to notice a difference. Trust the process and enjoy yourself. That is the most important. Oh yeah, and start to read as soon as possible. It will make a massive difference in the long run.
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Welcome! 
I started learning with CIJ around this time last year, and I’ve found that averaging 30 to 45 minutes of study each day works well for me. Naturally everyone learns at different speeds but personally at this point I find comprehending the beginner videos quite comfortable, and I’m making progress through intermediate.
imo, 30 minutes is a good target. It’s really important that you can fit your study time into your daily routine and stick to it as much as possible without burning yourself out. I feel like the most important thing is to make sure you engage with the language every day, even if it’s just a little. Some days will be busier than others, and you might not be able to complete your full 30 minutes (or whatever your target ends up being). On those busier days I’d recommend watching at least one short video or doing a bit of reading to keep the momentum going.
Overall, just try to pace yourself and enjoy the learning process. Once you’ve made a habit of studying I think you’ll be surprised at how much progress you can make before you even realise it 
頑張って！
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Hey Hanna, really nice to hear you’ve been only doing 30~ mins and still making progress, very encouraging. As i wasn’t sure how many times I would have to repeat the early lessons to be able to move to intermediate. It looks like watching sb and b levels twice will take me around a year at 30 mins. So would be great if that is enough for me to start listening to intermediate and then be able to spend more time on cij and other resources. Have you tried to listen to anything harder to gauge your level, with content like anime?
Hi Thomas, cheers for the reply. Awesome to hear your making good progress. I will definitely be sticking this out. Will consider starting reading at some point.
Only reason im not doing more hours is because im already learning another language and cannot commit to anything more really than the 30 minutes for japanese. On the whole I don’t find listen for 30 minutes difficult really, it goes by quite quickly. I could easily watch an hour or two when i get the chance. Will ramp my time up probably some time next year when i’ve made more progress in my current language.
I’m liking that i have no knowledge of japanese. It makes this quite a nice experiment for me of a pure ci approach.
Yeah I definitely think you can make really good progress through those videos with that amount of time Unless you have some kind of deadline then I think taking things at your own pace is best!
I have tried some harder content yeah! I can follow along with some more basic anime like しろくまカフェ without subtitles, it’s difficult but doable. For more difficult anime that I just want to watch for fun (currently s2 of ダンダダン 
) I still watch with subs but there’s a lot of lines I can understand without them which is exciting 
I’m also working on my reading and have found that’s improved a lot from CIJ too. At the moment I’m reading よつば 
and playing 妖怪ウォッチ 
. Initially I found reading quite difficult, but there are a lot of sentences and structures that I’ve heard repeated over and over in CIJ videos that really help with understanding when I recognise them in text and really increase my reading speed.
I’m still very far from fluent, but I’m not in a rush ^^ I think as long as you take your time and make sure you enjoy yourself you’ll make a lot of gains and some great progress in your time here!