I am currently on a 3 month Vacation in Korea, and I had planned to start reviews again on the 2 week mark, however today was that day and I just feel no motivation. I HATE reviews on my phone cause of my large fingers? But i think it’s mostly just not being in the headspace while exploring a new country with it’s own language (that I wish I knew haha)
Any tips on getting back to it? Exercises that might not feel so intrusive etc?
Maybe the answer is just do it!
Thanks guys as always!!
Also would learning some Korean compromise my japanese learning brain? Haha idk if that’s a thing
If this is an actual problem, I suggest trying an actual 12 key japanese keyboard (swiftkey has one). I have thick fingers as well and I struggled a lot with typos before using that.
A good advice usually for cases like this is to promise yourself that you’ll only do X reviews, like 10 or 15. Afterwards, when you did that, reevaluate. If you still don’t feel like it, don’t. That’s ok, come back in an hour and try again. If you do, great, continue.
Also make the experience as simple as you can make it. Like @anon87128043 said, anki mode is great, because it makes it faster to review. Back to back is also something that usually doesn’t cause big memory issues, but might mean, that you review waaay faster.
The app is flaming durtles btw, that’s the one I use
It won’t hurt your Japanese at all. But when you want to study Japanese again, you’ll probably have to pick between one. Not because you’ll get confused, you’ll probably just burn yourself out. The study hours necessary for reaching proficiency in a language is massive, you’d have to double them…
Keep in mind, WK is not Japanese study. It’s kanji study with bonus vocabulary. It’s awesome and super helpful, just not exactly called that I think. Well I mean, those are a part of Japanese language, so maybe it is. idk. In my eyes Japanese study is immersion. But maybe I’m just wrong.
Either find a way or find an excuse. We both know that the reviews aren’t as bad as we make them up to be, once you get started you’ll get carried away and just do them and before you know it they’re over.
Taking more than 2 weeks off is probably a terrible idea though.
All you can do is just get into it as soon as possible.
Regarding doing reviews on the phone, I press the little microphone icon on the keyboard and dictate the word into the app (I’m using the Tsurukame app to do WK reviews; are there others?). Obvs, it only works for dictating the English words, but that’s half the battle right there! Good luck getting back into it.
There are times when we need to ask, “in 20 years, what will I wish I had done?” You may find yourself saying, “I wish I had done less Wanikani and enjoyed everything that a 3 month vacation in Korea has to offer!” If you put Wanikani on vacation mode, yes you will forget a lot. But it will come back faster the next time you learn it.
“in 20 years, what will I wish I had done?” You may find yourself saying, “I wish I had done less Wanikani and enjoyed everything that a 3 month vacation in Korea has to offer!” Or the fact that he needs to do much of it all over because he didn’t stick with it and found it was sort of a waste of time. Messing about for months is terrible for retention, as much as the trip to Korea is important.
I have a rule to never do WK on a phone. So if there is no keyboard, there is no WK. Plus if I am on vacation, I am on vacation. I have done vacations with WK and I did a masterful job of ruining it with my lizardbrained need to do review. I also read books and manga, so I am never actually not using kanji.
TL;DR, enjoy your vacation and maybe read a book or something that wont intrude on your time.
Well, if doing japanese is something you’ve decided you want for yourself while on vacation, then I say go for it. I don’t think anyone is in a position to tell you how to spend your vacation. That’s your decision.
If you are gonna make that decision though, then just do it. Realistically if you’re not doing lessons, you don’t need to spend that much time to make your review pile slowly decrease. Decide what you want to do (e.g. amount of time/reviews, and at what times) and just do it.
The start is always the hardest part. Get over the first couple days and it’ll only get easier. Motivation comes and goes. I’ve seen it go more times in the past 7 years than I can even count. Motivation likely isn’t whats gonna get you to the finish line, wherever you choose that to be. Take this as an opportunity to prove to yourself to that you don’t need motivation and can push through without it, because it’s not always gonna be by your side.
I’d decide on a low number of reviews per day and stick to that, say 25, and just do those in one sitting each morning. If that means your review pile will grow too fast then you can just manage that by toggling vacation mode in between reviews.
when i go on vacation, i try to decide ahead of time whether i’m going to do reviews or not, depending on what kind of vacation i’m planning to have.
with a vacation this long, quitting reviews would probably put you back a bit. i’ve had a 3-month break from WK, and it took me about 2 months to get back to where i was before the break. on the other hand, if i were spending 3 months in korea, i’d probably be way too busy to spend all my time studying japanese.
so it really depends on your priorities. continue doing your reviews, or fully enjoy korea. either way, there shouldn’t be any guilt in it.
“Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” — G. K. Chesterton . One of my favorite quotes is from G. K. Chesterton, a Christian philosopher who argued that most of what must be done to make the world go 'round is done by the average Joe who does not do it perfectly — or sometimes even well.