Too busy celebrating Level 2... did not notice the 45 lessons ahead

Basically what the title says. I don’t know if this is the appropriate place to post or not, still trying to figure out how the layout of the community works.

Anyway, was feeling really happy and accomplished by reaching level 2… then I refreshed and saw the FORTY FIVE lessons waiting for me next :cold_sweat:

Ok, taking deep breaths, I can do this! Between Level 2 and working on my Genki lessons, I’ll have a busy week ahead of me :exploding_head:

19 Likes

Quick trick: you don’t need to do them all in 1 row :wink: You can split them into different days.

25 Likes

Like JP said, break them down into smaller chunks. Remember, there’s never a need to rush. Go at a pace that’s right for you :slight_smile:

5 Likes

Yeah keep your honest limitations in mind. I got 80 lessons on this last level all at once, for example, and while going through those 80 lessons in one sitting isn’t really thay bad, the problem is when the same 80 reviews keep dropping at the same time. Forever.

7 Likes

Thank you everyone for the kind replies!

I enjoy doing my reviews a lot tbh (am always on the lookout during the day whenever I have reviews pending, as to not miss one) but once I got to some more complex stuff on lvl 1, like 下げる 入れる 入る etc. I started getting scared I was gonna get stuck there for a while…

I was failing more than usual and it seemed like I wasn’t able to tell the difference between any of the vocab, then I found a way to make them connect in my head and voila! My last review was 100% flawless :blush:

I’m gonna start by trying a couple of lessons per day, see if I can handle it or not :grimacing:

9 Likes

That’s some great input on the lesson workload, I’ll add some thoughts about tough spots because there will always be tough spots as long as we are learning. I can relate to that fear about getting stuck, especially early on. At it’s worst I would start to tell my self all sorts of irrational things like “See you waited too long to study a new language,” or “you are failing more than you do with other disciplines, maybe you aren’t cut out for this”. So if it may help assure you that you’ll persevere, I’ll share some specifics of the challenges I had with that vocab not too long ago. Those four raise/lower verbs are a common challenge for a newcomer. I 入れる was another that tricks me up, in fact I recently borked my opportunity to bring it to enlightened status, no biggie.

Below are my 下げる stats, you can infer from the high number of combined answers that I’ve bombed it several times. Eventually I’d see it and say ok that’s the transitive verb for lowering things, but whether or not I’d be able to word the meaning right was the trick. A clear case where I’m being too stubborn about not setting up a proper synonym.

You are absolutely right to celebrate. Keep celebrating victories big and small. Take the bruises in stride and keep moving forward. :metal:t3:

1 Like

I’ve been on the language learning path for quite a few years… My BA is in Asian Studies, and while I only took one year of Japanese, I believe that my experiences learning other asian languages can now help me better understand language learning than say, when I first started learning Japanese before going to college (hint: I did not last very long or go very far)

I am reminding myself to keep it slow but steady, even keeping a blog where I update my weekly progress.

It might not seem much but in a week I’ve already learned some things that I never previously learned on my former Japanese studies. And that’s already progress to me!

Thank you for sharing your struggles with me, it really helps to know I wasn’t the only one struggling to remember meanings and readings :hugs:

3 Likes

Very cool! Yeah my girlfriend speaks Mandarin, Japanese, and Vietnamese, and based on my understanding I’d be willing to bet you will find all sorts of things, unexpected ones even, that will help along your path. :smiley:

1 Like

Yea, my knowledge of Mandarin really has helped recognizing some of the Kanji already, which feels great…

I wonder what I will find in common between Persian and Japanese though :sweat_smile:

What about finding what’s common between Portuguese and Japanese? :stuck_out_tongue: I loved discovering how much we influenced today’s hiragana/katakana, for example. Apparently, the little 丸/circle on ぱ、ぴ、etc was suggested by the Portuguese. It seems that before, は and ぱ were written the same way? I’m not sure. I should check that out :scream:

5 Likes

Oh I had no idea about that! That’s really neat!

Was watching a Japanese quiz show the other day and they were talking about tempura, was quite surprised to learn that it was also a Portuguese influence :joy:

1 Like

wait till you see the 100+ batches after lvl 4. but they only look daunting, they can be done quickly.

I can’t wait til I see those 100+ batches because it’ll mean I got as far as level 4… which obviously might not seem like much in the long run, but right now to me it seems like a very imposing challenge :exploding_head:

2 Likes

I need to search for the source again. It’s been a while since I’ve last seen it :smiling_face: Wanna understand precisely how things happened. Will get back to you :v:

Yessss! And it’s funny because we no longer have our version of tenpura, but here we are admiring how JP have theirs :joy: パン is another easy example of a word they adopted from us.

Btw, I’m sure you know the content already, but reading about Portugal’s and Japan’s relations on wikipedia was very cool. The fact that we didn’t learn a single thing about Japan in school leaves me speechless (at least I didn’t learn).

3 Likes

Japanese is hard, but if you take it day by day it’s not to bad. Just keep with it, you got this :high_touch:

2 Likes

That can happen, or well it seems to happen.
Last level up I was surprised with like 60 lessons on top of the 60 I had so 120 in total >.<
I have most done.
You don’t have to do them at once, and likely shouldn’t (i think) unless learning Japanese is your full time thing.
What I have done is wake up early and do normally 10 lessons before I get ready for work.
On my days off I do around 15-20 depending.
Normally spend more time trying to catch up with reviews.

I wish you the best of luck, learning Japanese will take alot of effort but its worth it!

Even as a dedicated learner I don’t do them all at once. What I did on normal levels was usually 20 per day sometimes 30 if a level had more items than usual. Now that I’m on the fast levels I end up having to do 40 a day which is hectic but I can’t imagine the hell that it would be if I did all of them at once. In all of my SRS services I’ve used 40 is the max amount of lessons per day I allow myself to do. I just can’t handle any more, I can just barely handle 40.

1 Like

Nah, I just do them all, knowing I’m going to fail a bunch. I’m no worse off than if I waited until tomorrow to do them. Plus, some I get right (sometimes even a lot). :slight_smile:

Yeah, same for me too. At level 1 it was kinda easy. But I read in the forums that the workload would come more sooner than later, so I knew it would come. Then bam!: level 2. For now I got it done. But I’m a bit scared of what to come >.< Still have to find my pace in the next few levels.

But in the end I’m excited with WK and I think at the end of level 3, I’m buying at least a year subscription if not lifetime.

1 Like

@jprspereira Thankfully in my BA I had quite the opportunity to learn not only about the culture and history of Japan but also study Japan-Portugal relations, and Japan-Asia relations.

It really is a shame that our curriculum in public schools (don’t know about private schools) lacks so much regarding studying other cultures, which have had such an impact in today’s world.

@Akanbe ありがとう!:see_no_evil:

@Frosty-san I’m doing that too now, around 10 lessons a day, then reviews for the rest of the day. I hope I can pick up the pace and level 2 goes a bit faster than level 1 (12 days).

@RysingDragon Do you find it difficult to go back to items that you have learned months and months ago or do you have a system where you review them outside of WK to make sure you don’t forget?

I’m finding myself addicted to doing my reviews though. Never thought learning Kanji could be this fun and addictive.

1 Like