Total lifetime hours on CIJ: 85 hours
Joined: August 2024 (but really struggled with hitting my daily goal of watching 15 minutes/day as you can see from my lifetime hours). After hitting an intermediate level at around 48 hours, I stopped using this website on a daily basis.
History learning Japanese: Attended a speaking course at a language school in Japan for 2,5 months in early 2024 at a very beginner level but not as an absolute beginner. Before starting language school, I could barely say a few words and phrases but could understand a little bit; at the end, I could have very basic conversations with the locals and do basic stuff like buying groceries and ordering food, but that was probably the extent of my abilities.
How I studied Japanese after language school: Almost 100% CIJ. Just pure input since my output seemed hopeless.
After using CIJ/my experience in Japan right now (2025): I arrived in Japan last week and I’ve been very surprised at how easy it is to get around Japan as a tourist. I have no problems getting by and communicating with people. I don’t understand 100% of what they say, but it’s like my brain fills in the gaps and I can understand the general gist of what they’re saying most of the time. This, for some reason, also happens when I’m speaking; it’s like words just magically appear in my head! (Grammar, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be my strong point…which is funny to me because I used to have the opposite problem during language school; I was very strong with grammar but my vocabulary was very limited.)
It might be worth mentioning that I hadn’t used CIJ at all months prior to coming to Japan so I was very worried about not being able to understand anyone.
Things I’ve done so far:
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Somehow went through immigration in Japanese (I was panicking when they started speaking to me in Japanese since I didn’t want any legal problems, but it was fine).
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Managed to go to the community center to inquire about the possibility of getting a daily pass and attend a 30 minute training session in Japanese.
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Attended a free walking group tour today and the hosts were fully prepared to use English with me, but they were relieved that they could just use Japanese with me. We later went to a restaurant and chatted in mostly Japanese the entire time.
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Went to a language exchange and somehow ended up interpreting between a Cantonese speaker and a Japanese speaker who were having difficulty communicating.
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Managed to buy a ticket at the movie theater at the front counter (thanks to the limitless patience and kindness of the employee) and watch a movie in Japanese without needing subtitles.
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I am no longer completely dependent on Google Translate! (For speaking only; I still need it sometimes since I can’t read kanji. Although I will say that despite only using the “cold reading” method a few times, I can actually read a lot more kanji than before. So sometimes I can actually work out a menu or a sign if I take my time; I no longer instantly pull out my phone to translate it.)
TL;DR: CIJ works and has given me the confidence to go around Japan as a tourist!
