I need motivation to keep up

267 lessons? You should be getting that number down to 0 before every levelup in my opinion. Anything else is an indicator that you are going too fast (except for a few special cases). Seeing that, I’m not surprised you are having this issue.

And I disagree with polv. The first step is 100% getting reviews down to 0, and then making sure they are coming at a rate that you can deal with from day to day. After that, THEN do your lessons. Make sure to do vocab first so you dont level up. Lastly do radicals and kanji.

Source: I’ve come back from 200 lessons and 700 reviews. Been there done that.

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I feel your pain. Not just with WaniKani but sometimes everything. I have gotten some helpful tips from lurking this forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/

Good luck. We can do this.

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Thank you guys. Another day of leeching/ I mean lazy. I guess at least talking to you guys at least maintain my willing to complete it. Arg I must do some wani in 2 hour.

ps: I just played games through the afternoon. The game is fun but after that I feel bad lol. Any psychology behind this :?

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I suggest you read this article (it’s a quick read), I found it enlightening : https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/opinion/sunday/the-only-way-to-keep-your-resolutions.html

tl;dr : It’s impossible to keep up your self-discipline with sheer willpower. We’re just not made that way.

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Thank you, I really appreciate it. Currently after taking a bath and doing reviews after a while I start to feel sleepy (maybe my mind is bored with doing reviews), also the reviews sessions is not really good cause I forget more than 30 percent of the words. I will comeback for an update (and also try to reignite the discipline and motivation to learn Japanese)

oh another thank for your article, I just finish reading it. So, I should be grateful to be self-control instead of using will-power to achieve it. I dont’ know, how it works? I mean what practical thing I can do in my situation to apply what the article talks about?

sure. it is [Unsupported] Leech training script

Thank you, the first time -ever- somebody told me I’m handsome hahah

This drawing has changed my life, I tell you.

Source (if you happen not to know Sarah’s Scribbles)

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You’re making too many expectations about what you should or not do on WK. That’s why it’s not going as well as you intended to. This is also why we shouldn’t talk about speeding levels to beginners. It will disrupt their focus.

Forget about leveling up every 7 days or doing WK reviews every single hour. That won’t matter in 5 years time when you’re able to speak Japanese. So, why worry about it now?

Focus on your purpose in learning Japanese. Think about what you’ll be able to give to others when you master the language. That’s your focus. In terms of reviews, you’re thinking too much of it. It doesn’t matter what numbers you’re getting from them. Just start. Start and don’t think. The more you think about it, the more it consumes and stresses you.

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My personal motivation/discipline builder (for anything really, not just Japanese) is a quote turned mantra:

Do a little bit every day. The first day that you don’t is the first day that your progress is set back.

Don’t take breaks. But, if you do, chip away at it. Even 5-10 minutes a day of review is still moving forward.

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Like most other people have said, keep at the reviews. You can slow lessons down to nothing, but try to make progress in your reviews each day (or several times per day) until the number is less-scary and something you can stay on top of with a single session when waking up or before bed.

At level 24, if your retention of what you’ve learned thus far is good, you know enough to stumble through some native material with only occasional lookups (or the ability to just gloss over details and run with context). If you’ve got any easy manga, like よつばと!, or an arcade-style game handy, preferably something voiced, give it a try. You’ll probably recognise enough to make real progress in understanding it, validating the time and effort you’ve put in thus far, and there’s nothing wrong with taking a break to explore that space and work on grammar and non-kanji vocab, or even just having fun while being immersed in the language.

For reference, by 20, almost all of the dialogue in Atelier Rorona is accessible if you’ve been into anime for a while and have picked up a bunch of common phrases. You’re basically able to read a light fantasy VN at this point. (But, like, be aware that story-heavy things targeted at adults may also be less-simplistic with their writing, so try games that are CERO A/B)

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@Anhle Just keep at it. Also, is there a particular reason that you’re learning Japanese? What is your end goal? You need some sort of purpose in mind, or you wont get far at all.

I’m studying Japanese to move to Tokyo, and that’s what keeps me studying. Find your goal, find your purpose if you haven’t already, and keep that in mind as you move forward.

Also, pace yourself. Try to just do a bit at a time, but keep coming back. You got dis!!

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Thank you. Talking about learning goal, I actually look back and realize that I dont’ really have an end goal. I just start my learning japanese because I think the japanese culture is attractive and the language looks cool (at least the hiragana to me), and because I don’t have other “goal” so I just learn Japanese to at least keep myself busy and at least I have achieved something. Well, that’s it. Yeah I will try to do it bit by bit everyday and will report back!

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Hi jprspereira, thank you for your advice. Yeah I think I have pushed myself too hard and just cared to level up rather than actually learned the language. I think I would spend some time working on my reviews and vocabs lession before I can continue the great racing with you guys haha. At least I think I can keep going now.

In that case, try finding a goal. Maybe a trip to Japan, if money doesn’t matter?

You can still plan your leveling up though, by starting doing Kanji lessons 7 days before planned lv-up date. (or 4 days before some latter levels.)

You just need to slow down. I hate stopping. IMO, the only level worth stopping is around 40-50, because lv51 is N2, and anything below N2-N3 is not fluent and equals none. And the specified level came from me reading manga, without a dictionary.

I’m so glad you said this. I started learning without a goal. I hope no one asks me why I am learning Japanese, because I’d have to say “I don’t know”. I feel like people would find it weird that I took such a huge undertaking for no real “payout” other than “Knowing another language, and liking a big challenge”. I mean, I think the real answer is I just graduated, and now that I’m no longer studying engineering full-time, my brain wanted something to do… I like the culture, I like the language now that I’m learning it, but I started because, I guess because Duolingo opened a Japanese course.

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Very similar situation here. I also have an engineering degree (though I graduated a few years back) and while I have my outside hobbies, I’ve struggled to fill the mental gap of truly having to study. I’ve been, as I’ve taken to calling it, missing the mental masochism.

I’d helped drill a friend with Japanese flashcards back in HS and I remembered how much different the language was. There is such little base I could fall back on.

Could I learn a more useful language? Sure. But I picked Japanese because it’s something my mind finds stimulating and because I’ve encountered it passively enough through friends/family that maybe it will open a fun door or two some day.

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Goals are super-important, but they don’t need to be epic or even interesting to others to be motivating.

Mine’s to play and enjoy a Vita VN that has been confirmed to never be getting a localisation.

I’m enjoying the process of learning the language a lot, and all the other media avenues that have opened along the way are exciting, but my purpose is to make sense of like fifty hours of voiced text. Which have already been fan-translated.