jimmy_d

I subscribed to the Hiragana Times magazine, all the content is bilingual and there are some additional audio recordings. https://www.hiraganatimes-magazine.com/blog

Here are my contact information if you'd like to stay in touch
Paul Grojean
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulgrojean/

I also write everyday some Kanji texts using pencil and paper, but I also use a digital pen on a computer using the program Nebo https://www.myscript.com/nebo/
You can try the demo version using you mice and setting the language to Japanese https://webdemo.myscript.com/views/text.html

No japanese blood. Been studying japanese for fun about 8 years. I love it. Been to Japan a few times to test it out. Good luck with your studies. Feel free to ping me with questions or want to chat. 頑張ってください。応援しています。

Once I had memorized a couple of thousand kanji I started reading light novels (because furigana). And from the start I have been watching japanese video (lots of anime) to practice my ear. I also spent a couple of years writing japanese sentences out for an hour a day or so (with pencil and paper).

Basically, it's pretty time consuming. But it's also been super, super fun so I haven't minded the time investment at all. In the beginning I thought it would take 2 or 3 years, but it took more like 5 or 6 years to become fluent. It's been 8 years now and I'm still improving every day.

I really recommend bookwalker for books. And you can get lots of japanese TV and movie video via youtube or other internet sources. Most anime streaming sites let you turn off subtitles now, so that can also be good.