My partner is originally from Japan, and in June we went there to spend time with his family. I had been self-studying Japanese for a year and half back then. When I got back I was really happy to keep studying, even though I knew I still had so far to go. I studied as much as I could every day for most of the last five months - kanji, grammar, listening, reading, conversation practice. A couple of weeks ago we got back from another trip to Japan to spend time with family again. I could read/speak/understand more than last time, but I came back feeling so discouraged about study. I thought my thinking was realistic before, but now I’m more aware of how long the road to fluency is and how much dedication it will take.
Does anyone have any tips for how to keep going through this long long journey?
Keep in mind why you want to learn the language, for motivation. Keep a log of your studies, so you can look back and see you’ve made progress even if it doesn’t feel like it. Take a break when you’re reaching points of giving up, to avoid burnout. Give yourself an end date for the break, to avoid it lasting indefinitely.
I hear you. Whenever I go to Japan, I have fun in Japan, I’m able to understand things and make myself understood, but for some reason, when I get back, I suddenly cannot face the idea of studying any more Japanese. Take a break, have a rest. Put WaniKani on vacation mode. Then come back when you’re ready.
I’ve spent lots of time studying Japanese and then even longer times not studying it, and it’s okay and each time I return, I get better. But make sure that when you’re in study mode that you’re enjoying it - if it feels like a chore, you’re definitely going to lose your motivation. Don’t forget that watching films, TV series and anime in Japanese still count as study so on the days when you can’t face the books or SRS programs, sit back & relax & let the sound of Japanese flow by you.
Well done!
I think we’re (almost) all in the same boat: for an English or non-Kanji language speaker, Japanese is probably 4 times more difficult than learning a closer European language. It’s a long term project and easy to get disheartened or burnt out.
Depending on your level, irodori can be good. I started recently with a subscription to Satori Reader: it’s great so far for my level. The JLPT can often be a good motivator.
The earlier advice looks good - find motivations you enjoy, set doable short and medium term goals, take breaks and don’t be hard on yourself.
Fluency is a long process. But I think one way to get motivation is to consider your goals and then re-evaluate if your current study methods match those goals. Having a new plan can be fairly motivating because then you know you’re doing something to address the pace.
Well, for myself I’ve decided that it’s a hobby, so I don’t have to be at haste. With one thing and another, it took me 8 years to finally reach level 60… It might take as much, if not more, to reach fluency…
But I just doing a bit what I can every day (though I skipped yesterday – not good).
Now that I’ve reached level 60, I’m mostly reading – mostly,
and
In other words, once I realized that the road ahead of me is long – I stopped worrying about speed and just started walking and enjoying the view
Maybe find something you like to do in your daily life that you can do in Japanese as motivation?
I mean, I chose to learn Japanese, so the process itself is a ton of fun. But you didn’t chose the country of origin of your partner (or did you lol), so it might feel more for you like something you “have” to do and thus less fun.
So maybe one key is to make it your own, and find a hobby you can do in Japanese (do you like watching movies or read books? Or manga or video games? Infinite resources in Japanese! Or find a YouTube channel of someone hiking / sailing / climbing whatever your hobby is)
One of the difficulties with studying something like a language is that if you’re doing it right you’re constantly aware of how much further you have to go.
Whenever I get to a point where I feel like, say, I’ve had to look up every other word on a page, or I just didn’t understand anything on the last 3 podcasts, I change what I’m doing for a bit. Take a break from the specific thing that is discouraging me and do something else.
Sometimes I’ll just go back and read something I read ages ago and marvel at how much easier it is, and how much more I understand, and the nuances that I missed earlier.
Sometimes I’ll change the direction of study for a while - currently I’m focusing on ensuring I know all the grammar and vocab for the JLPT N3 next July, because it’s a solid achievable goal, and I might even get a certificate out of it.
I’d personally never take a complete break from all Japanese study because there’s a fair chance that my innate laziness would take over and I’d find myself scrolling through pointless 30 second videos online and never go back. YMMV.
Studying is always easier when you have a specific goal to look forward for, but it still takes a lot of energy to do so, and raw motivation can only take you so far.
I imagine after studying hard for two years, including going to Japan twice, a lot of that initial motivation has dwindled and what you have left is the exhaustion of having studied for two years and still having so much more you could study.
As others have said, I think after studying hard for two years, it would be totally reasonable to take a break (or at least, slowing down your pace). But also, take some time to celebrate your achievements!
You quickly summarize your ability after the second trip as “I could read/speak/understand more than last time,” but most non-Japanese people can’t read OR speak OR understand ANY Japanese! Every one of those things is an accomplishment in itself that happened because you made it happen!
You don’t have to be “fluent” for your studies so far to mean something. I’m sure you’ve been able to connect to your partner, his family, and the other people you’ve met in Japan in ways that would have been impossible without your hard work.
Do you and your partner’s family share any interests? Or are there fun things your partner does that you’d like to share with them?
My brother-in-law is Japanese, and sometimes I like to message him in Japanese about things we both like. Maybe you’d like to do something similar! (I suggest not thinking about it as “a way to study Japanese” – rather, it’s a way to enjoy the Japanese that you already know by getting to talk to people you otherwise wouldn’t be able to.)
Now that you know how much effort and time it will take to be able to achieve what you want to achieve, do you still think it’s worth it?
If not, then quit.
If so, then honestly I personally am highly opposed to “taking breaks” or “coming back when you’re ready”. That’s just leaving your actions to your emotional states at the time and sitting by waiting for motivation to come to you. I personally prefer to not rely on motivation as much and just discipline myself into doing the things I have decided I want for myself. There’s a lot of books out there and advice on that and I think things apply across subjects. But just focusing on your next steps, the things that you just barely can’t do, and the things that just learned is important. If you’re constantly thinking about how far you are from perfection you’re just going to get in your own head. With any skill I learn I usually try to not think about something that isn’t actually realistic for me to handle in the next month. Don’t worry about the 2136 joyo Kanji. Think about how you’re going to learn the next 100.
In addition, I find that not just looking at doing task A, but also the things that you do when you aren’t doing task A to be important. When I have a hard time getting myself to sit down and study something, I take a look at what are the things drawing my attention away that I would rather be doing. Youtube? Games? My phone? And then I limit those things and remove them from my environment as much as possible. You might still not feel like studying, but in those situations, I just sit there or meditate. Teach your brain that when it’s study time you will either study or do nothing and meditate. You might end up choosing nothing for a bit, but once the boredom sets in you’ll be surprised at how enjoyable studying suddenly becomes
We live in a world where our attention is directly tied to the biggest companies top lines, so they have gotten very good at keeping us engaged. Once you free yourself from that (or even use it to your advantage) things become a lot easier.
Yeah I text my partners mother quite a lot, I’m really grateful to be able to, her texting in English is pretty confusing (for sure my Japanese texting is too sometimes!). It feels cool being able to connect like that. When we were together I heard her telling her friends that we text in Japanese and they were like うわー、 I was proud haha
Thank you all for your replies! I feel better and I’m getting back into study thanks to all the tips and encouragement. Just being reminded there are other people out there also living this sometimes weird lifestyle of learning Japanese is helping me get over how I was feeling
Focusing on the next little step instead of seeing it as a giant step of infinite studying haha （＾_＾）
You’re currently on Level 24 like I am, and your frustration is so very relatable! Others have said a lot of good things, but I guess I’ll just say what I’ve had to remind myself sometimes: You’ve come so far at this point. Even if it feels like fluency is ever distant, you’re making your way there. I wish I had some more constructive tips, but all I can say is to keep at it, be easy on yourself, and don’t burn yourself out. You’ll get there.
i think you can do both. i have a ‘bare minimum’ level of japanese study (SRS + reading a bit of something) i do every day, then everything after that is a bonus (adding cards, reading loads, listening w/transcript and trying to follow along, answer quizzes etc) that is more dependent on the whims of life. sometimes you get busy
I guess it’s a matter of your definition of a “break” , but yeah. You set expectations for yourself. You do it. And then if you feel like doing more and you can, then you do. It’s just best to be wise about the nature of the “more”. I would personally just read a VN. Doing things like adding cards where your future workload will increase as well might be best avoided
On the topic of motivation and discipline, I prefer to think – hold tight when the motivation is low, don’t restrain yourself when the motivation is high. Both ways of studying use different kinds of thought process.
I think life is full of ups and downs, but in good days or bad days, there are also small fluctuations.
On good weeks, set the minimal bar higher, and on not-so-good weeks, set the minimal lower.
Keeping up with the plan for like 1-3 months is also good idea, I think.
In a way, weekly streaks may be more meaningful than daily streaks. But daily habit is easily to build than otherwise.
Small and steady steps continously will take you to the distance. Whether you want to reach 5k, 10k, 21k, marathon, or 100 miles and more, it’s all back to those small steps.
A very long road and too far destination won’t be visible, but vending machines and some restaurants along the way will keep us going.
tried it again last night after 3 weeks off and it was still cool, thanks for your suggestion