Am realizing I'm stressing myself too much about the Japanese and am not enjoying it too well. Any tips?

[EmmaJGray]

About quitting smoking: I’m just like you. Doing it slowly was excruciating and impossible for me. I had to white knuckle it until the cravings started to diminish and then there was no way I was going to return to it. But I don’t see how that relates to Japanese study!

[trunklayer]

I used to stress myself over Japanese a lot. Stress at my slow pace, stress whenever I couldn’t translate something even with the help of a dictionary or when my translation deviates too much from the actual meaning… But then I realized that the only way that works for me – is to go at my own pace. I’ve accepted the fact that for me it is just a hobby and that it’s quite possible that I might never be able to become truly good at it. But I can keep getting better and I can make the process fun enough to continue doing it.

I hope you’d find a way to find the peace of heart with regards to your studies as well!

[Olavorw]

Thank you all for the wonderful replies.

@EmmaJGray

Hmmm, why so fast? What’s the rush? You say it’s because you want to avoid burnout. Well, that doesn’t add up for me. Burnout happens when we force ourselves to keep achieving without let up, and then when we hit a bump in the road we become stressed and worried and and and… all those emotions just build up until we achieve… burn out.

For me, gluing myself to learning and doing more gets me to the mindset that I have to do this, which makes sure I don’t stop.

@Vanilla

I personally burned out when I went slow. It wasn’t until I went faster that I was able to enjoy my studies more and be more consistent. For some people, all in is a lot more manageable than half throttle. Just like how I preferred quitting smoking cold turkey but other people prefer an incremental approach. Maybe not your experience, but those people do exist.

This also really resonates.

@trunklayer

I used to stress myself over Japanese a lot. Stress at my slow pace, stress whenever I couldn’t translate something even with the help of a dictionary or when my translation deviates too much from the actual meaning… But then I realized that the only way that works for me – is to go at my own pace. I’ve accepted the fact that for me it is just a hobby and that it’s quite possible that I might never be able to become truly good at it. But I can keep getting better and I can make the process fun enough to continue doing it.

I hope you’d find a way to find the peace of heart with regards to your studies as well!

Yeah, thanks for sharing your experience. I’ll find my pace soon but for now I’m just trying new ways to study efficiently. I’ll see what works.

[Olavorw]

Yeah, I think I’ve found the resources I’ll be sticking with for now. They’ve been working pretty good for now with the three Genki grammar points from the book a day and 15 wanikani lessons every day. I’ll make sure this rhythm works then I’ll add a vocab deck. Never tried Anki but might in the future.

[Olavorw]

Will update if I ever have a dream in Japanese then!

[EmmaJGray]

@Olavorw

I’ll find my pace soon but for now I’m just trying new ways to study efficiently. I’ll see what works.

I think that’s so important to keep exploring to figure out what works for oneself. It keep things fun.

[Dunlewy]

@CherryApple

Do you know how Long it Takes to dream in another language?

It took me quite a while to dream in Navajo (when I was learning that)
and Japanese. I think it doesn’t happen until the sounds, etc. start sinking into your brain.

[JishoGrey]

I can definitely relate to this post. It is very important to me to learn Japanese well and I can be a serious perfectionist in things like this. So, when I first started I just went full bore at a breakneck speed hoping that by sheer effort I could avoid the inevitable pitfalls of a long term project like this (losing focus, losing motivation, losing my way). But, as many people here have pointed out, going more slowly is probably (and annoyingly) probably the right approach.

Learning Japanese, particularly for native English speakers, is a looooong term project and you simply cannot sustain super intense effort for a very long period of time. The brain just won’t allow it, no matter how much your heart wants it.

For me EVERYTHING changed when I started serious immersion. Listening to native speakers, watching shows, utilizing tools to help me parse the language while I engage with this content - all of this has absolutely saved me. I was feeling so burned out with SRS and feeling like no amount of grammar tips was enough and I really started to doubt that I even wanted to do it. And once I took the Refold course and reoriented myself around immersion, I got my mojo back. I’m still putting in tons of hours, but it feels easy and fun. I still get very annoyed when I get stuck on a WK word or something in my Anki deck, but ultimately it’s just so much more pleasurable now.

Anyway, I hope all the great advice you’ve gotten here has been helpful. Above all I want to celebrate you for your dedication to learn Japanese well. That’s what matters most of all.