Hi there, fellow Japanese learners! This is a very self-indulgent post, and my first one I’m brave enough to come out of lurking for: today I burned my first item and I felt such a massive sense of achievement.
I’ve been on WK since March, which means I’m pretty turtle paced (durtle paced, if you will…), but seeing that ‘Burned’ tag come up on my first radicals made me so happy. I’ve been taking local Japanese classes for two years now, but didn’t get stuck into kanji until my grammar and vocab was further along. I’m generally prone to beating myself up for not learning faster, and growing frustrated that Adult Life™ stops me from spending the hours a week I’d love to dedicate to Japanese. However, I’m making more of an effort to celebrate small milestones, so here I am: hurray, burned item number one! I’m coming for the rest of you!
And in the words of Bruce Lee, for me at least, “long term consistency trumps short term intensity”.
Nice to finally greet you all, and I hope you’re all having a great day! :]
I totally get this feeling. Though put it this way. Probably the reason that learning Japanese is enjoyable is because it’s a form of escapism from “Adult Life”? If I make Japanese learning to be my full-time gig, probably it’ll feel like a chore and less enjoyable
Congrats and yeah, every milestone counts. Cheers to many more!
It’s been fun, satisfying, and motivating to watch the gold bar creep slowly to the right each day (with little private victory dances for each round number threshold surpassed):
Congratulations. I remember my first enlightenment and felt it was a huge achievement, now have (3600 burns). Time passes really quickly and so does learning. Before you know it you’re close to 60 and wonder where everything went and how you got there and how you can read and understand pretty much everything. Keep it up, it all goes so quick, even though it was 6ish months ago I was level 25, it feels like yesterday honestly. It’s weird, keep up the good work and the routine and you’ll get there in no time at all.
Also check Wkstats from time to time and check both dashboard and JLPT level to get the extra motivation. It is really helpful. I checked both and found it fairly helpful, it felt as unreal every time I checked it (I know x kanji and words? I know x % of JLPT x? Unreal!).
