Looking for encouragement

Hey everyone, I’ve been on wankikani on-off for about some years now, always had it slow paced, but for the past half year I’ve some condition that include daily headaches and more than usual memory problems.
I haven’t use wanikani in a long time because I’m somewhat afraid I forgot nearly all that I’d learned here, yet I suddenly felt the desire to visit here once more today, and I wanted to get some encouragement from you guys, maybe if I’ll hear some positive words I’ll return to work on my reviews…

15 Likes

You CAN do it! Some of us will take longer than others and that is perfectly fine. You should probably reset a few levels depending on how long you’ve been gone. No one is an expert instantly on anything and you just have to keep going and take your mistakes as a positive thing instead of negative, that helps me a lot when I am feeling discouraged with my language learning. Watching or listening to Japanese media helps me too, because it reminds me there is so much more to the language than the seemingly endless lessons of new kanji/grammar

3 Likes

I understand this fear and the associated frustration: when I started university after military service, I realised how much chemistry knowledge I had lost. As much as chemistry is only a minuscule part of my course, I deeply regretted the fact that I could no longer do things that were once about as natural as breathing for me.

What I’d like to say, however, is that everyone forgets – even those who study a language intensively and regularly – and we will each face our own difficulties. What’s important is to celebrate the things we achieve while accepting that setbacks will occur along the way. You should be proud of the fact that you’re considering undertaking something that could be challenging for you, and have faith in your ability to succeed. It may not be enjoyable to realise that you’ve forgotten something you once knew, but taking another look is the first step towards reacquiring and cementing that knowledge. Please don’t give up!

I’d like to end off with this quote (proverb?) posted by a Japanese calligrapher I follow:

Source:

Failure and difficulties are part of the process, but that doesn’t mean you won’t succeed! :slight_smile:

20 Likes

You can do iiiiiit.

Remember why you want to learn Japanese. You’ll know an entire new language to use for your hobbies, to impress your friends and family, etc. etc.
And you can be satisfied knowing that you did it all by yourself :smiley: :heart:

So study or I’ll send the Duolingo bird at you :gun:

11 Likes

You motivated me now too, because not only could I read that sentence without the Furigana, but I also did understand it :smiley:

4 Likes

9 Likes

GET BACK IN THERE AND STUDY! DO IT NOW!

Kidding. Mostly.

You made it to Level 21. It couldn’t have been a fluke or mistake. There had to be a reason you wanted to do it and another reason you pulled off the amount of time needed to get there.

I obviously don’t know what your learning issue is, but I think if you have the desire to learn and realize that you just won’t be as fast at it as you once were you can set a proper goal and stick to it. Be realistic with your goal, understanding what your concerns are.

Once you step back into the spotlight and start back up, if you realize you can go faster than your goal, readjust the goal accordingly. Don’t make it too easy to attain but just hard enough.

If you step back in and you feel like it’s too big of a goal, downgrade the goal. Do NOT stop studying. Every time you quit, you fall further behind in your ultimate goal (learning Japanese).

I can tell you all about 20 years of failed learning, just ask me how I accomplished it! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: You already have something I lacked many times though and that’s the desire to get back in there.

Ultimately if you decide to quit for good, that is up to you but to me it feels like a waste given how far you have come.

And if you have to reset down a few levels, there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of there.

Hopefully we can help get your confidence level back up and get you back to learning!

6 Likes

You can do it!

If you feel that you’ve forgotten stuff, put the reviews on random mode if you have scripts and do 50 - 100 then look at how long it took you to see your reviews per minute count and look at your accuracy.

If you’re doing 3 reviews per minute then you’re about the right speed for someone who does not have to work too hard/too long to recall. If it’s less than that, then you’re slower for probably the reasons you mentioned above. If it’s only 1 review per minute, you’re going to have to look at either self studying (item inspector and self study scripts and others to the rescue) or reset to a lower level.

If your accuracy is less that 65 - 70% you’re fighting an uphill battle that will leave you discouraged. Same advice as above for slow recall speed.

If you look at other posts in the forum, you’ll see some people have started thread that were swamped in reviews or apprentice items and made it to 0/0 lessons/reviews after a while.

I recommend you set yourself a goal of review speed (i think 3 pairs per minute is good enough), accuracy (90+ would be my aim) and down to 0 reviews (and maybe also 0 lessons) before you start learning new items. That’s just what i would do but i think it helps to have some criteria.

Come and post your progress here and enjoy the tons of encouragement you’ll get!

We really like screenshots!!!

2 Likes

Thats just what I needed, guys! you really brought tears to my eyes… it’s been a really hard time, the last couple of months, and now I need to pull it together I guess, I have to believe that I can do it.
I’m gonna withdraw some levels, maybe downgrade to 15 or 10, thats really good advice, thank you! And then return to Wanikani at full power!
I’m gonna do it!!

1 Like

Before you drop levels, see how much you really know. If you do terribly, drop a level, check your knowledge, if it’s not stuck in your head, drop one more until you get to a point where it is comfortable to start over again.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.