I’ve seen many posts of people being frustrated with their progression of learning Japanese, frustrated with how WaniKani doesn’t really help them learn vocabs or other similar things. But here is my question: if your whole goal of learning Japanese is simply mindlessly grinding and being frustrated with the speed of your current language learning, why learn a language? Do yourself a favor and slow down… It’s much easier to learn a language when you make it fun to learn said language. This is why I don’t dismiss duolingo or wanikani. Sure they are not the most efficient ways of learning Japanese and SHOULD NOT be your only resources, but because of their game-like structure, it makes if fun to STICK with learning and studying Japanese.
I have been studying for 2 years, I am not at all good for a person who studied for 2 years, however I am 1) having far more fun and 2) I am the least likely to quit or to skip lessons… BY slowing down, you’re ensuring your success, even if it might take longer, you’re ensuring your mental health and happy learning and you’re ensuring that you will learn to love this language instead of being frustrated by it.
So please, SLOW DOWN. Life is short and it’s easier to learn if it’s fun.
このポストを読んでありがとう
People need to hear that more often! Not only makes fun learning less demotivating, it also helps the brain to learn faster and more efficient. SRS grinding should be done very carefully, as it often is not very fun in the long run and gives a false sense of improvement. Even if you finish the 20k most common words anki deck or the like, if you never actually read and listen, it won’t do much for you but gives you the impression, you know a lot of the language.
Languages are very complex so the improvement comes slow and steady, often without one realizing it.
Also, if you need a sense of accomplishment in short time spans, track your time and your success with a really hard text or audio file for your current “level” and try to come back at it after a month or 20h of japanese learning. After a few times you should realize you are getting decently comfortable all of a sudden. That kind of long term tracking is what helped me stay motivated in the beginning. It feels great to be able to read something which you were not able to at all just 1 or 2 months before!
If there is no progress at all, slowly start to adjust your learning methods and try again. There are a lot of missteps along the way but always keep in mind, that if you continue the journey, you can’t “fail” at language learning. Only stopping because you get demotivated will stop your learning process. So keep going and have fun!
I strongly agree!
I have heard said: we don’t learn languages, we acquire them.
That fits with slow and steady, and relaxed and fun learning.
“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”
And don’t get discouraged by the speed-runners - there is a strong survivor bias: people who stopped study are much less likely to post about their experience.
