I am very lazy and sometimes give up very quickly. As you can see I am at level 2 and I have been doing wanikani for almost a year which is pretty disappointing but I was wondering if any body had any ideas for motivation. Thanks>
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What motivated me a lot in the past is reading level 60 posts. Also encountering a kanji or a radical i have seen or learned. Also listening/watching what got you into japanese
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I was thinking about doing that because I have seen a lot of level 60 speed run posts and stuff like that but I have never clicked on any so I will try. Thanks.
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i personally don’t recommend trying to copy what most speed runner do since most of them got in wanikani with prior knowledge.
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True. The speed runners already have a lot of prior knowledge from other apps and what not.
Focus on you WHY. Why do you want to learn Japanese? Your motivation will come and go, but your WHY is what will keep bringing you back to Japanese.
Remember also that WaniKani is for kanji, and kanji is just one piece of the puzzle of Japanese. Listen to Japanese videos, participate in the bookclubs here and read stuff that interests you, just find something in Japanese that will motivate you, outside of the kanji grind.
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Do you suggest using other forms of learning other then wanikani as a supplement?
Yes, absolutely! Do you know any Japanese at all? If not then pick up a beginner’s resource (Genki books, YouTube videos, whatever) and learn Japanese from that too. If you see the kanji you’re learning here “in the wild” in other resources then that will be a great motivation too.
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I have been on a holiday in Japan when I was in level 5, and even with this level, I recognized a lot of kanji - for example the stop signs drawn on the streets (止). That motivated me for learning more. WK does not strictly follow the usage frequencies of kanji, however you will learn many of the most used kanji in the first few levels. Take a look on the wkstats site, there are tables where you can see your progress from level to level.
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Ok thanks,
how do you get to wanikani stats btw because I have seen a lot of other forums talk about it.
You have to enter your WK API Token which you will find in the settings of the WK site.
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Thanks for the link.
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Another motivation: once you know some kanji you can often guess the meaning and sometimes the pronunciation of vocabulary you have never seen before. For example at level 2: 火山, the fire mountain - so that should be a volcano.
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I will keep that in mind thanks.
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Motivation is an enemy disguised as a friend. Motivation gets you excited to the point you dedicate yourself to taking on a long-term activity, then it runs out on you.
Discipline is a friend disguised as an enemy. Discipline forces you to do things you don’t want to do, when you don’t want to do them, and it’s always there to nag you when you don’t do what you’re supposed to.
As others have mentioned, consider “why” you want to learn Japanese. Then determine your goals. Then throw away the goals[1] (because they exist only to temporarily motivate you), and develop the systems that will actually get you there.
Here are some examples of systems:
- Use WaniKani daily. Complete your reviews, and do lessons when your Apprentice count is below 100.
- Read a chapter from Tae Kim’s guide each day. The guide isn’t perfect, but it helps ease you into learning grammar.
- Watch a CureDolly video each day. Even if you don’t understand all the content, you’re becoming more familiar with Japanese grammar.
- Read a random Maggie Sensei grammar post each day.
- Read a little bit of native Japanese material, and look up the vocabulary you don’t know and the grammar you don’t understand.
- Do shadowing, which may improve not only your pronunciation, but also your ability to hear how Japanese sounds are spoken.
Those are just examples, and you don’t want to necessarily implement all of them.
“How can I do any of those if I’m lazy?”
Only you can resolve that, no matter what anyone says. I’d say anytime you’re being lazy, ask yourself what you’re doing.
Are you turning on the television and watching whatever’s on, whether you’ve seen that episode or not, whether you’re interested in the show or not? Stop turning on the TV when you’re bored.
Are you reading through posts on Facebook or another social media service that don’t actually impact you in any way? Install a program to limit your daily time spent on certain web sites (such as the StayFocused extension for Chrome). That way you can wean yourself off.
[1] You can still have goals. Just don’t depend on them to keep you going.
TLazy;DR: See this post.
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Whenever I here these words, this comes to my mind:
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WOW the famous trunklayer just posted on my forum
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Great, now I have to go and learn Japanese so I can know what they’re singing.
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