I really appreciate your response. It’s reassuring to know that there’re others struggling too 
Give yourself some credit too. You’re already halfway through the pleasant section.
1 Like
Learning to slow down is definitely a skill but it is something I’m practicing. I really appreciate the response, and best of luck to you as well.
1 Like
I really appreciate the response. Good on you for jumping back to WK; it definitely takes some will to face 1500 reviews.
Working on slowing down does feel like part of the language learning process, I’m just now getting that.
Best of luck, and hope you keep at it.
1 Like
Honestly a really good reminder to remember just what you’re doing this for, so I appreciate that.
I haven’t tried any pomodoro apps, but I’m open to experimenting! Really appreciate the response.
It definitely is important to remember what you’re doing this for. For me, it’s to improve (establish) reading comprehension for things like light novels, manga, etc. Then, hopefully being able to speak at a conversational level.
I have been using Bunpro recently, though I also feel like I could/should be doing more admittedly.
But you are completely right in that I do need to pace myself and remember what this is for 
1 Like
My method thus far has mostly been to routinize my lessons, for the same reason you just explained; when motivation drops. That’s what’s kept me consistent, but I do need to work more on pacing myself when even that fails
I really appreciate that perspective. It is encouraging to at least see progress in those instances.
1 Like
Finding some material is a good idea! Do you have any recommendations?
I do struggle when it comes to trusting the process, but you are right, burnout isn’t sustainable
Also best of luck with your studying. 20 years takes some dedication!f I hope I have half the persistence you have.
2 Likes
i would say try going back and revisiting what got you into studying japanese. This is what i do whenever i feel a little tired of learning and it always works. I get super motivated again to keep on working and grinding towards my goal.
Sorry you had to write all that but nothing will change my mind -.-
Thank you for trying though!
1 Like
Alternatively, you could just do fewer lessons than usual. Say, half the number for a bit. See how it goes. If it’s less stressful, then hey, you’ve figured out a way to manage stress a bit better! If you find yourself getting bored with not enough new material, just increase the number of lessons again, but maybe somewhere in between, rather than at a ‘rushing’ level.
There’s plenty of material but, assuming you are a beginner in japanese like I still am, you need to accept the fact your genre may not be accessible (yet).
Firstly, lower your expectations: don’t aim too high right now, e.g. 村上, デースノート or medium-advanced podcasts (I’m looking at you, ひいきびいき).
Then, choose a media. I assume you’re interested in reading, right? Then let’s go for easy mangas with lots of easy kanji/plenty of furigana. You may have heard of よつばと！ but I personally found it boring, I’d prefer からかいマスター高木さん if I were you (romance + fun adventures). Other mangas that come to my mind are ドラえもん、名探偵コナン and the like, and all of those are addressed at kids in 小学校. Some people may recommend crystal hunter, a manga that assumes little to no japanese knowledge but becomes harder as you go.
Reading-wise, you can only start with graded readers - reading anything fancier, even legit child stories may be overwhelming (I got burnt when trying to read 魔女の宅急便 assuming it would have been “easy”). The stories on Satori are nice (Jam Maker, 壁の穴 etc.). Then, you can pick a children’s book (e.g. 魔女の宅急便 or maybe a more familiar story like a translation of Harry Potter) and try to read all of it from front to back. It won’t be easy, but it will give you motivation and teach you a lot. Then you can pick harder and harder books until you’re fluent, rinse and repeat. Once you finish a book you can also check its audiobook so that to improve your listening skills as well.
Listening-wise, you may start by looking at famous fairy tales told in Japanese, e.g. tortoise and the hare, then progress and watch some podcasts (Nihongo Con Teppei, YuYu and so many others…) . Then there’s anime: ghibli movies, easy slice of life (古見さんがコミュウ 症です、けいおん！)
Once you get “good enough” with these, you can taste the water with what you actually like, but I’d recommend you walk “gradually” that way. Say you like Ghost in The Shell - relatively heavy due to its jargon - then I’d go ハウルの動く城 → space dandy → 約束のネバーランド (big jump) → Parasyte → ??? → GITS ; obviously your mileage will vary, and there’s no point in consuming stuff if you don’t understand it, so you should do sentence mining via an SRS.
2 Likes
My strategy has been taking it slowly and not rushing so I always do all reviews, but I never do all lessons and just take them small chunks at a time. Ever since the review burned items feature came out that has certainly given me more motivation to continue as that was my fear as well was forgetting things. I have 100s of burned vocabulary, but I just do 50 a day. Outside of WaniKani I practice my reading comprehension skills by reading low level graded readers. I don’t look anything up I just keep reading and go back to certain stories and see that I am improving over time.
I do recommend checking out the manga Crystal Hunters as it’s super easy to read. Just read the guide first then the volume. Currently 5 volumes out with a 6th one coming out later this year. It’s a manga that teaches Japanese and any kanji I don’t know I just WaniKani them so I know vocabulary words beyond my current level thanks to material like Crystal Hunters.
There are also Japanese language learning videos in development so keep an eye out on Steam.
1 Like
I have grammar knowledge but not that great. Even so, I know I could probably understand a lot of grammar and what I don’t I’ll simply ask around 
But I’m hesitant on trying the natural Japanese version because it says it’s geared towards N4 and N3.
Also, it says that we can go here www.crystalhuntersmanga.com
for help with the kanji but I can’t find anything there related to it. Do you know where in the website they have explanations?
edit I just saw that it’s under “free stuff”
Yeah under free stuff there is the Japanese and Natural Japanese guides. The Japanese guides have full explanations while the Natural Japanese guides have zero grammar explanations and only show kanji readings.
With grammar being the weakest point for me I just stick to the Japanese guides and volumes. All the volumes are on kindle. 
I sent a free sample of the natural Japanese to my kindle and I got destroyed 
I’m using ichi.moe to see the translations but they don’t even have them for many of the grammar stuff (I assume it’s because it’s manga). Maybe I’m not ready for that yet but at the same time I don’t like that the easier version has furigana. Im past that point too Lol.
There’s my dilemma but I think I’ll read the explanation for the easier one but continue to read the natural Japanese
On my way to level 60, I would always try my best to do all lessons and all reviews in my queue. Eventually this led to burn-out every few months. When I was feeling that burn-out, I’d just set it to vacation mode and take a few days or a week away from WK. It was really benificial for me to take that time off.
1 Like
I currently am getting out of this place of frustration not sure if im going to be the only one saying this but this is my process for getting through humps:
-
Learn the moods in which you’ll most likely do poorly on reviews and when you’ll likely do fantastic. Learning this is the first step. There are moods and circumstances where the recall is easy peasy, and there are moods and circumstances where the recall will be abysmal. If you go to a lesson and you know you’re off to a bad start and it keeps getting worse especially with ones you “should know”, you’re probably not in a great place.
-
Decide if you just want to pass reviews. Just do WK when you know you’ll do well if you really need to see a win. There is no shame in waiting until youre in a good frame of mind to do reviews. It feels good to do well and we need this from time to time.
-
Consider entering hard mode. This means that you strive recall words even if youre in a bad state of mind or the circumstances suck. You will eventually have to learn how to recall words even if youre in a bad state, so trying to do reviews like this gives you some situational experience. It gives you a chance to learn under the hardest conditions. Its an opportunity. Know you’re not in a good headspace and go into reviews knowing it might not go well and get excited that you’re about to enter a secret mode of learning. Failing on this “mode” is half of the success because you did some real ground work for the ability to recall even under horrible circumstances.
Also just make a rule to clear the queue once per day. Only. Saves the burnout
Hope this helps
Do whatever works for you. I just ignore the furigana for most of the words.