How to combine a textbook, SRS, reading, and listening
Four jobs, one week. The textbook sequences. SRS remembers. Reading and listening give the language somewhere to live. None of them should become a second course.
A textbook, a review app, a reading site, and a podcast look like four hobbies. They are four jobs in one study system. The system breaks when each product is allowed to behave like the whole course.
This page is the wiring. For which beginner tools to pick, use Japanese resources for beginners. For leaving app-only study, use How to move from beginner apps to intermediate Japanese.
Assign the jobs
| Job | Owner | Not the owner |
|---|---|---|
| What to study this week | One textbook or course | SRS, a reading library, a podcast catalog |
| Remembering chosen items | One SRS queue | A second SRS, a highlight dump |
| Meeting Japanese you did not schedule | Reading and listening | Extra textbooks |
| Looking up a blocker | A dictionary | A new app with a dictionary feature |
Genki or Irodori can own the sequence. Do not give that job to two books.
The weekday shape
Use an ordinary workday, not a Sunday burst.
- Due reviews. Ten to twenty minutes. Stop when the budget ends. See How to use SRS without burning out.
- One textbook chunk. A lesson section, a workbook spread, or one Irodori page with audio. Finish it. Do not start the next unit to feel ahead.
- A short input block. One NHK News Web Easy article, or a Nihongo con Teppei episode, or a graded page from the reading shortlist.
If the day only has twenty minutes, keep reviews and skip new textbook pages. If it only has ten, keep input and add no new cards. Protect the path back to the full shape.
What may enter SRS
Only items that already appeared in the course or in a page you finished.
That rule stops the imported 5,000-card deck from becoming a second school. Anki is the flexible engine for this. Inku is made and operated by our team. It can hold a prepared iPhone queue if you are not building cards yet. Do not run Inku, Anki, and a course SRS as three sources of new work.
Write the source on the card or in the deck name. If you cannot name the page, the item is not ready.
What not to combine
- Genki plus Irodori plus Minna as “coverage.”
- Anki plus WaniKani plus Bunpro, all adding lessons, in week one of the experiment.
- Three reading sites and no finished article.
Two resources can share a week when the jobs stay distinct: WaniKani for a kanji sequence, Anki for textbook words, NHK Easy for a daily page. The test is the queue. If combined new lessons blow the review budget, you are running four courses.
A weekly check
Once a week write four lines:
- Textbook: which lesson is actually in progress?
- SRS: did due reviews fit the weekday slot?
- Reading or listening: how many pieces did I finish, not open?
- What did I add that has no owner?
If the last line is crowded, delete that addition before buying a replacement.
The goal is a boring week: the same book, the same queue, the same short input. That is a combined system. A new app is not.