Best way to avoid burnout

timebox.
do only wk, to recover. if you feel you can do more without being tired of it, add whatever you think is the best bang for your buck, but limit it to x minutes per day.

Interestingly, I’ve come back from a break of a similar length. I can say that I had forgotten most of my burned items, except for the ones that I already knew before Wanikani (sun, moon, mouth, etc.). I just reset from level 12 to level 1, and I thought it was a good decision. Before you do the same, though, look through your burns. If they all seem fairly familiar to you still, you’ll be fine. Powering through the reviews is not that difficult; just get the reorder script and do ~50 reviews each day, sorted by level or type (whichever works best).

For burnout, I recommend just doing less (resetting helps here). To get back in the swing of things, do like 30 minutes a day for Japanese. Maybe 15 minutes on Wanikani (if you reset, that won’t be difficult), 15 minutes for grammar (you’ll have half-remembered a lot of things if I’m anything to go by). Also don’t do all your Wanikani lessons immediately. If you get a batch of 20 or whatever, just do 5 a day. This’ll help keep your reviews down. Don’t bother with other things yet. For vocab, you could also use Kaniwani (which gives you the English vocab from your Wanikani account and then you have to answer the Japanese). Slowly ramp up your studies, but that will happen naturally anyway. E.g. when you get more reviews for Wanikani over time, or when you have to review yourself on more grammatical concepts, or when you start having enough knowledge to translate stuff.

For motivation, I recommend having some goals for Japanese and doing stuff with it constantly (the latter also helps with study). I, for example, am a big fan of the Earthbound games. I own all games with official English releases in English and own Japanese versions of all three games. Just having them and trying to translate the initial few text boxes before getting overwhelmed is a lot of motivation on its own. By doing stuff with Japanese constantly, I mean doing stuff like quizzing yourself on the names of household objects, or googling things in Japanese, or literally anything you can think of.

One last thing: try HumanJapanese for grammar. It’s about $15 on the app store I think, and it explains things very simply. Even more difficult concepts like verbs of giving and the difference between wa and ga are very easily understood. I haven’t used Textfugu personally, but I haven’t heard the best things about it. I feel like Kouichi’s wacky explanations are definitely better for mnemonics which help with vocab/kanji, not so much with grammar.

Anyway, this message was longer than I originally intended. I hope you’ll find it useful, regardless.

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  1. Give yourself a way to assess progress. This could be signing up for tests like the JLPT, or simply working regular reading and listening into your day as a way to appreciate progress. (As in, “Hey, I can read this now/read this faster!”) There’s no motivator like external forces making you want to get better.

  2. Go at a pace that’s comfortable for you. This might mean more as you improve, or it might mean less if your brain really needs some recovery time. If you’re feeling burnt out and really need a day off, take it. Try to do at least something Japanese-related even if it’s small, though. (It’s okay to do less, but probably best to not have a day where you do nothing.)

Really, just be attentive to your needs and give your learning some sort of outlet. You’ll know when you can handle more and when you need space, so just act on those feelings.

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Usually I give long, explanatory answers, but today:

-keep your Apprentice items under 100 at all times
-don’t spend more than an hour on WK a day, INCLUDING the forums :unamused:
-mix in plenty of native material/other resources/fun Japanese things

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