When you don't want to study

I’m sure you’ve been there. You want to learn but you just don’t have motivation right now to study intently. I have my routine, I do the immersion, I do this and that too.

When I don’t want to study I usually watch Japanese movies. What do you do? I’m looking for new ideas.

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When I was too lazy to dedicate 1h to a textbook with grammar, I dedicated only half an hour to grammar and another half an hour to translation of something like manga.
I want to emphasise that it was a translation, not some fun time spending instead of learning. I took all those jishos, weblios, googles, hinatives and etc. as tools and translated text with precision and application of all skills possible. Sometimes nothing gets translated in the end of that half an hour period but you at least spend that time reading japanese questions answered on japanese forums about grammar of that particular sentence.

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I book a bunch of italki lessons (2-3 times/week) and chat away :wink:

Also works for getting the motivation to get up earlier. I was specifically looking for lessens early in the morning.

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If you are looking for ways to not intentionally study and still improve your Japanese, I don’t think you can find any. The fun part of studying is the result, not the process. You can combine studiying with doing something fun (for me it’s videogames) and thus making it less tedious and getting better results in the long run.You can play a game for hours because it’s not boring and you also take breaks from fokused learning all the time, which is not the case with a textbook. Thing is, there is still fokused learning involved even though in small portions. You have to look some words up in a dictionary or do some grammar research. And THAT is what makes the process productive. I’ve noticed when learning other languages already, that whenever I get to a decent level and can understand enough, I stop using a dictionary and my learning slows down immensely, but at that point I don’t care any more.

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I tell myself to do something small. Like write one sentence, do one lingo deer lesson, one exercise in Genki etc. the biggest hurdle usually is sitting down to do something. Once I do thatI don’t have a problem to go on anymore. And if that happens (that I don’t feel like doing more), at least I’ve done something.

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for me that’s usually a sign I’m headed toward burn out or just way too stressed with my current schedule, so I end up putting more focus on kanji and vocab. it’s not difficult and it doesn’t need to take up too much time or effort. :high_touch: I’ll keep up with WK, anki, and maybe look for vocab challenge on tumblr or some blog. other times I’ll tell myself to do something small each day, like write a sentence, look at one short news article, review 5 grammar points, etc. I don’t do it often, but I also like to watch things on Netflix using the LLN extension.

but if I’m already burnt out then I’ll give myself a break, anywhere from a few days to a week, before I push myself back into the usual routine. during that time I might watch an anime or Japanese drama, but it could be anything. I just let my brain checkout for a bit until I’m ready again.

altho there are weeks when I can’t afford to ‘slack off’ since I follow along with others to a study schedule, so I just do however much I can with whatever brain capacity and time I have available. that means lessening the study load on monday, tuesday, and thursday (for example), but hightailing it on the other days.

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Umm, I go squish the nearest cat :eyes:
It’s called procattinating
https://www.gif-vif.com/Squish-the-cat.gif

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I visit some forum :eyes:

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…so…can I be honest here? I assume yes, so I will be.

I never want to study. I spent 20 crappy years being content just understanding spoken Japanese well enough to watch slice of life Anime/J-Dramas without subtitles.

Then I decided I needed to do something to get this kanji thing completed and actually learn to speak properly.

I fight myself every morning, every lunch break, and ever evening to at least work through WK. And there are many days it is a fight, but a fight I’ve won 207 of the last 207 days when I started.

Anyway, my whine sessions wasn’t the intent of the topic. :smiley:

When I want to practice in ways other than study, I will watch Anime without subtitles. I will watch a J-Drama without subs. Sometimes I will pick up a graded reader or an easy children’s book (still learning to read properly/well). Sometimes I will fire up Audible and crack open the eBook while the Auidible person reads to me. The books I want to read are still much further down the pipe for me but the read along mentality seems to be helping me along with reading capabilitu.

Sorry for the whine session and hopefully you find some interesting ways to shore up your language learning! Technically watching an Anime or Japanese movie is still studying…it’s just not that boring textbook crap! :smiley:

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When i dont want to study I just stick to my review SRS and dont really try learning anything new. I usually avoid grammar at this point too

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I practice calligraphy when I don’t want to study. I find a proverb or saying that I like, memorise the words and write it with a brush pen. It’s fun!

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Japanese has become such a part of my life that I use it in some form or another every day. I realize that not everyone may have Japanese people they can talk to constantly, but one can read books for enjoyment or have hobbies that are mainly done in Japanese. Like I like to tell myself that Karuta is really just constant Japanese practice.

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This isn’t particularly when I don’t want to study. But when I feel like passively studying, I play visual novels. It’s great listening practice when I play one with english subtitles or good reading and listening practice when I play one entirely in Japanese, though these are obviously a more active study than the english ones.

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Caught! This one is true

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