hey yall, I don’t know how yall do it. my mind keeps giving up. I made it to level 2 but even with just 21 new things to start with so I wasn’t to overwhelmed it’s overwhelming me… how do I handle this? what do I need to do so I stop giving up? I’ve never been much good at memorizing things and I can’t even remember half the language I learn for 2 years(french). what helps with this?
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It helps to take your time with it. Read the mnemonics and learn hiragana first. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right away. It takes time and the beginning of a level is always the hardest part
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thank you, i have been trying to take my time, just most of the stories they correlate with it make no sense to me and when I try to make my own to remember it doesn’t work either. i also have learned all of hiragana
I would set my batches to only 4 new items at a time. It helps to draw them a few times and write their pronunciations and definitions with the drawings. Use the extra practice feature a lot. Make sure you have decent nutrition and get enough sleep if possible. Spend less time on computer games and entertainment so that you can put your mental energy into learning. Hope this helps. Ganbatte kudasai!
So learning hiragana is out of the way. That’s good.
Reading the lessons over again when I get it wrong helps too.
Is it hard to visualize the mnemonics? I try to see it in my mind. If they seem absurd it is meant to be that way. The things that are weird tend to stand out.
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yeah its just hard to visualize it and I could do it fine with level 1 and knowing hiragana, but now it seems like my brain isn’t holding onto the new.
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I’ll try this and see how it helps.
what makes it overwhelming? break it down.
The Amount of workload? break it into smaller groups, do lessons one at a time if you even have to.
Not understanding the mnemonics/stories, make your own, the point is to help you recall the reading or meaning of a kanji with something that you can easily relate. Make your own characters and stories to go with them.
If kanji in general scares you, then maybe hold off on it. If you want to read, you’ll need it eventually, but if you just want to speak/understand speech, then maybe just focus on that. once you get a little better with how the language sounds and is said, it might click a little more.
Basically break down why it overwhelms you, and try to tackle the problems one at a time.
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thank you very much. ill try and break it down more to see how that works for me.
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Try minimizing your workload so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
For example, I am currently only focusing on learning 5 new WaniKani items per day. Sometimes I’ll do 10 if I found the first 5 particularly easy.
While it isn’t a lot, I am continuing my goal without overwhelming myself.
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What else do you do for studying Japanese outside of WK?
thats a good goal!
i was using Duolingo but that hasnt helping at all so I stopped and I’m just using random things I find right now
Okay, so I assume you don’t have prior knowledge of Japanese and you are not really familiar with the language yet.
It might help starting with a beginner textbook to have a more structured approach, to give you an overall feeling for the language and see the words you learn on WK in actual context. I know Genki is really popular, so you might want to look into that.
Might be worth trying to approach it with traditional methods first, Duolingo can be pretty hit or miss for some. You can also use Tae Kim’s guide for Grammar if you do not want to pay any money for a new textbook.
Many users here have already studied Japanese way before they started WK, or they know at least the basics of grammar and a useful amount of words. You are trying to learn random words here without knowing the context, which makes it harder to remember them.
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oh ok. ill see if i can.
Here are a couple of sentences I made up for しand しょうto use as an example to remember the kanji meanings:
し – she (し)stops (止) a child (子) who is four (四)
しょう – show me a few (少) small (小) things
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thank you for the help
Your thanks (礼) is like a れい of sunshine! 
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hehe i got that one re i (れい)
Maybe establishing a routine can help you? If you do lessons and reviews during the same time each day, maybe the familiar setting and time of day can help you retain more.
Best of luck!
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