Hmm, tough period right now. I feel like I am just trying to stay afloat, with my grammar and vocab studies really suffering and WK basically hanging on by a thread. But I am unsure of what choice I have, now is not the time to be working hard on my Japanese studies even if I want to, my final year of University is sooo demanding, and trying to do an essay a night plus WK plus grammar plus Tango N5 plus free time??? something has to be sacrificed and god knows i have no free time XD
Even though I know that waiting till next year to properly grind my japanese through sole focus is a good idea, I canât help but feel sad that I am not doing enough, that my grammar is still not even N5 and my Vocab too despite knowing basically all the N4 kanji, maybe I should cool it on the Kanji to help the others catch up??? any tips my friends?
I totally can empathize, even though Iâm a few years removed from my graduate studies! I only feel it appropriate that I reply with my thoughts since weâre around the same level
University should always come first. Itâs your focus. However, WK is flexible and is not holding the financial knife to your throat (so to speak). What Iâve realized recently, is that as much as I want to cruise quickly through the WK SRS system, itâs just not going to work for me. My whole life, grammar, undergraduate, graduate alike, I have had a terrible memory and flunk tests because of it. However my degrees have been primarily paper writing, so thatâs how I survived. WK is a testing system, and I need to give myself some slack with how quickly I can actually learn. Your strengths are there too, but your life balance will always be changing. Prioritize what is most important to your future, and enjoy WK as you can, because it can be paced out in many ways! For me, I just learned to slow down a lot, and Iâm so relieved I did so
I agree with Shenmue that uni needs to be your priority.
It sounds like youâre approaching burn-out, and there are real consequences (both financial and academic) to doing poorly, failing, or not completing your work at uni.
You have a WK lifetime subscription, so there are no substantive consequences for stopping for a while.
Bringing your whole focus back to uni instead of being so mentally spread thin may also be re-energising for you.
Totally with Shenmue on this,
Unless your major is Japanese then it shouldnât be your focus. Itâs much easier to come back to Japanese than to come back to University.
Maybe you can dedicate even 10 minutes a day to Japanese, just so your brain keeps some of the connections and so you donât feel like youâve given it up; but otherwise I say totally focus your energy on school.
(Truth is I should be focusing more on my job, Iâm just having a hard time caring right now, burnout I guess)
The important part in learning a language is to use it every day, not to race through it or do lots and lots of it. So Iâd cut it down to maybe 15 minutes a day if youâre struggling, hell even 5 minutes a day is infinitely better than zero and is still manageable. Uniâs probably your priority but if you wanna keep up your Japanese just make sure to do more than zero every day and you should be fine.
A recent graduate and current masterâs student here: cut the japanese out for the moment. At least to a degree that will allow you to fit some free time into your schedule. The final year can be an absolute pain in the ass, can go from 0 to 100 very fast, so itâs important to make sure youâre not overloading yourself. Trust me, itâs not worth your mental health or your sanity.
Take it easy. Youâve made it this far - the very final stretch of your degree. You got into uni, you survived as far as Y4, youâre about to graduate very soon - all in the middle of a damn godforsaken global pandemic. And youâve even managed to fit a solid chunk of japanese studies in! Youâve come far and you achieved a lot. Just remember that if you feel like you arenât doing enough. So just hold on for now, focus on completing your degree and on your wellbeing. Your Japanese studies will wait - youâll be able to continue just as well in a few months time, but this time youâll have a shiny new diploma on the wall in the background while grinding away at WK reviews! :333
Balancing work and studying is a challenge for me. Must be much nore difficult for you because you are studying more than just Japanese.
I think finishing school should be a priority. Do as much Japanese as you can without interfering with your school studies. If thatâs only 10 minutes of wanikani a day or a Japanese song in the morning that is fine.
I also like to do study binges when I have the time on my days off.
Iâd recommend stopping with WK lessons, but keep doing your reviews. Your WK workload will gradually reduce over time, and you wonât come back to a terrifying review pile when you have time to resume studying kanji again. If you still have energy for Japanese in the meantime, even just 15 minutes a day, you can study grammar and other things instead of kanji! It would probably be a good idea to avoid adding new SRS items if you arenât able to study Japanese regularly, but there is plenty of study you can do outside of SRS thatâll allow you to keep brushing up with the language so that things stay in your memory until youâre able to get back to it again
As people have said before and as someone who has been in your exact position, focus on uni. Pause Japanese if you have to in fact. You can come back to your Japanese studies later, but you canât do the same with uni.
