I struggled using my resources consistently for quite some time. When I thought about why that was, I noticed that it’s more motivating for me when I see the progress I already made.
Recently I startet using Loop - Habit Tracker to track how often I’m using my resources. I put every resource in there wich is hard for me to use on a regular basis. I didn’t include Wanikani because I already use it quite often.
Maybe that’s helpful for some of ya’ll too.
What helps you if you struggle to stay consistent? /What keeps you motivated?
Late response to this old thread, but I just thought I would add what keeps me motivated!
I find that the thing that really gets me going is when I stumble across some Japanese, be it on my blog or when I’m reading or watching something, and I get it. Like, the other day I stumbled across a image set from an old, cheesy Japanese horror movie, and I could understand 90% of the text!
It just feels so good when you start to lose that dependence on translations or a dictionary.
Pretty much every time I have this moment - and it’s happening more and more - I run to WK and finish out my vocabulary lessons. My vocabulary lessons always pile up, because I just don’t really feel like doing them, whereas I always finish radicals and kanji so I can go up in levels. But then I see vocabulary that WK taught me and I think, “Well, what if some new Japanese media comes my way, and I’m just a few lessons away from being able to understand it!”
And that’s really how I keep myself going, is just by letting a wave of media come my way and sometimes things stick and I get really excited.
I’m sure that’s a big motivator for everyone, but just thought I would share.
I got the app and was using it for a couple of days. But it’s not like it was motivating me much
It’s fairly easy to keep track for me in my japanese studies (I keep a sort of blog ). But then these last days, motivation wise, reading has been my ultimate motivator. Seen all the books (they’re fairly basic, 20 pages pamphlet style stories) I’ve been reading these last months it’s really encouraging.
And actually seeing the part of my shelf where the unreaded ones are, doesn’t overwhelm me at all. It’s more like I have more and more stories to get into.
Most of my japanese learning can feel somewhat dry, with only numbers to confirm any achievement (WK level, vocab and grammar terms I’m aware, hours of listening, etc), but with reading I get so much more.
Well, this applies not only to study but also for work, or doing sport :).
I force myself to wake up earlier to study before going to work
I feel more motivated to do sport when it’s with friends
In general, I think everything becomes easier and you don’t need the motivation part as soon as it becomes routine. So, habit creation is a nice thing, but an App will not help with it by itself. What is good is to read some theory behind habit creation.
In addition, when you start doing too many things (as it looks like in your screenshots), you have to be very picky on what you stop doing.
I watch less/no TV
I play less with consoles/computer
I do almost no social network at all (I don’t pay attention anymore to facebook/twitter/instagram/whatsoever)
But well, that’s when you want to study a couple of hours a day, have a gf, a 9h job, sleep well, read from time to time, take your time to cook, and have free time to play board games with friends ^^.
So, habit creation is a nice thing, but an App will not help with it by itself. What is good is to read some theory behind habit creation.
yeah of course. that’s what I’m thinking too. Not the app itself motivates me, but the progress I’m seeing. I also read a little about that topic. I read the first 20 hours by John Hoffman. Maybe you’ve heard of it. I tried to implement some of his advice in my studies and it actually worked.
I watch less/no TV
I play less with consoles/computer
I do almost no social network at all (I don’t pay attention anymore to facebook/twitter/instagram/whatsoever)
That’s the ame for me too. I have to choose what I give up for building these habits. In my eyes these things are less important, than building a routine for my studies,so I ditched them or minimized their usage.
Thank you for your reply. It’s interesting to see what others think about this topic.
To recognize kanji in the wild on internet and to realize the progress of remembering better and better kanji meaning and reading itself are my motivation!
REEEEEALLY late here but I just started doing something that both tracks my progress and keeps me highly motivated to keep learning!
I just posted a video on my Youtube channel completely in Japanese:
Ignore the ridiculous thumbnail
I will be posting a new Japanese video every month.
This way, when I feel like I’m not getting anywhere, I can just watch a video of me back when I was a nihongo baby and see how far I’ve come.
AND now when I learn new vocabulary I think of how I could potentially use it in a future video, automatically making it stick better in my mind.
ANND my studying has picked back up again after deciding to do this.
ANNND, watching it back, I was able to notice a lot of pronunciation errors that I wasn’t even aware of.
SO GOOD.
If you have a Youtube channel and/or you’re comfortable with posting yourself online, you should give this a go!
Or just make videos for yourself!
Either way, highly recommend!
!