Hey everyone, I hope you're all doing well. Sorry I haven't been too active lately. Real life has been keeping me occupied. Regarding the title, I'm also curious what ranges of experience or interests are in the community so far.
I've been learning for the past two years. The first year on my own, and then I took two courses at university. I found that learning on my own seems to be way more effective than the classes at university. I mainly focus on speaking and understanding the language, so I try to watch Japanese TV (recently I dropped the English subtitles), listen to simple podcasts, and watch videos on YouTube. I don't want to completely neglect reading and writing, so I'm also learning kanji using Heisig's method. Though it will probably take me until mid-next year to work through that book.
I've been out of practice for a while (darn that real life!), but I'm trying to get back in the swing by reading NHK's Easy News articles (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/) on a regular basis. Hopefully soon I can try to read more of the "regular" news (普通のにゅーす) linked at the bottom of the articles.