I study 3 weeks and then stop for 8 months, this cycle is repeating for about 4 years now, lack of progress is the reason and that there is no urgent reason why I need Japanese in the first place. best motivation would be a real life use case, like a job where you need the language or you like someone very much that only speaks Japanese or maybe you want to be able to teach your children. without any solid reason like this it is very tough to study anything if you don’t have natural intrinsic motivation
Its a marathon not a sprint. Give yourself some space. The reasons will return.
Try to figure out why you want to learn Japanese in the first place and then try to do more things related to that. If nothing works then maybe now is not the time in your life that you should learn Japanese.
I know what you’re going through.
I just start watching Japanese music videos, cuz those always trigger my curiosity…(“wtf does ちょきちょき mean?” For example) (it’s the sound of scissors cutting)
In my experience there are 3 types of people who successfully learn a foreign language as hard as Japanese.
1- they move to, live in, or work in Japan. And therefore have no choice but to learn it.
2- they are driven to learn because they can, these people will tend to learn multiple languages over their lifetime.
3- those who have established plans to move, friends or family who speak Japanese or live in a place where access to native speakers is possible.
There is a 4th group and these are people who have serious willpower and can commit to anything they set their mind to for no reason other than “one day I decided to learn Japanese”
Most of us will flit in and out of learning because learning a language through any method other than immersion is a bit unnatural and not optimal, without a native to correct you or at least someone very proficient to converse with and correct you, you will likely not get very far unless you find the dedication to commit to 15 minutes a day, every day for a year to learn enough to then take part in another year of communicating online in Japanese while still studying 15 minutes per day to develop your vocabulary.
TL;Dr
Commit or move to Japan, those are your choices.
Edit –
This ain’t supposed to be a shut down of your Japanese, but more to be a realistic reminder that it won’t just “happen” you need to choose to do this thing or find an app for your smartphone that won’t turn off your alarm in the morning unless you do 15 minutes of anki
I feel your pain. I’ve studied Japanese on and off for about 20 years. The most intense studying I did, when I bought a Kanji dictionary, and practiced writing kanji and kana, was back in 2006. I’ve been sporadically learning again since I got to visit Tokyo in February 2020 . Some vocabulary here, some grammar there, and some kanji. I think what helped me motivate me was getting to use the little bit of Japanese I knew, which made getting around easier. You might want to try a language exchange like Italki, where you can talk to native speakers. I did a video language exchange through Facebook messenger, and although we both struggled with each other’s language, we had a fun conversation.
Honestly, don’t use motivation as your way to learn. It’s way too fickle, some days you’ll be hyped to study and sometimes you can go for months without wanting to do anything. The best way is the build habits and make benchmarks. My habit is I have a 30 min commute to work every day so my rule is that I am always working on conversation tapes during that drive. If I’m not feeling up to it that day and I want to listen to music, too bad. Most days I enjoy it but I have gone a month where I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere but I still did it and the enjoyment came back. I also do a weekly chat so that helps keep me on a schedule. But my advice would be have a little time carved out every day for Japanese study no matter what and have it very defined “writing 20 kanji, repeating 10 sentences..w/e.” This is a marathon, it doesn’t matter too much what you do but that you do it every day. The no zero days post helped me a lot as well.
Oh and benchmarks. Take notes on what you have accomplished, you’ve probably progressed much more than you think. It’s hard for me to believe that a year ago I couldn’t even read kana. Now I’m reading amdittedly very basic books but still.. wow I’m on my way.
Just go out there and practice every day and focus on why you started this in the first place…. And have fun!
I started learning last August and was streadily learning until this past December when I had a stroke. English became difficult so I didn’t even consider attempting to start learning Japanese again. I only started last week and it’s slowly coming back to me. Don’t lose heart. Learning a second or third language is all about pacing yourself. Finding someone to speak it with helps immensely. I’m not at that point yet as I had to basically start over, but that was my goal originally.
8 comments
I study 3 weeks and then stop for 8 months, this cycle is repeating for about 4 years now, lack of progress is the reason and that there is no urgent reason why I need Japanese in the first place. best motivation would be a real life use case, like a job where you need the language or you like someone very much that only speaks Japanese or maybe you want to be able to teach your children. without any solid reason like this it is very tough to study anything if you don’t have natural intrinsic motivation
Its a marathon not a sprint. Give yourself some space. The reasons will return.
Try to figure out why you want to learn Japanese in the first place and then try to do more things related to that. If nothing works then maybe now is not the time in your life that you should learn Japanese.
I know what you’re going through.
I just start watching Japanese music videos, cuz those always trigger my curiosity…(“wtf does ちょきちょき mean?” For example) (it’s the sound of scissors cutting)
In my experience there are 3 types of people who successfully learn a foreign language as hard as Japanese.
1- they move to, live in, or work in Japan. And therefore have no choice but to learn it.
2- they are driven to learn because they can, these people will tend to learn multiple languages over their lifetime.
3- those who have established plans to move, friends or family who speak Japanese or live in a place where access to native speakers is possible.
There is a 4th group and these are people who have serious willpower and can commit to anything they set their mind to for no reason other than “one day I decided to learn Japanese”
Most of us will flit in and out of learning because learning a language through any method other than immersion is a bit unnatural and not optimal, without a native to correct you or at least someone very proficient to converse with and correct you, you will likely not get very far unless you find the dedication to commit to 15 minutes a day, every day for a year to learn enough to then take part in another year of communicating online in Japanese while still studying 15 minutes per day to develop your vocabulary.
TL;Dr
Commit or move to Japan, those are your choices.
Edit –
This ain’t supposed to be a shut down of your Japanese, but more to be a realistic reminder that it won’t just “happen” you need to choose to do this thing or find an app for your smartphone that won’t turn off your alarm in the morning unless you do 15 minutes of anki
I feel your pain. I’ve studied Japanese on and off for about 20 years. The most intense studying I did, when I bought a Kanji dictionary, and practiced writing kanji and kana, was back in 2006. I’ve been sporadically learning again since I got to visit Tokyo in February 2020 . Some vocabulary here, some grammar there, and some kanji. I think what helped me motivate me was getting to use the little bit of Japanese I knew, which made getting around easier. You might want to try a language exchange like Italki, where you can talk to native speakers. I did a video language exchange through Facebook messenger, and although we both struggled with each other’s language, we had a fun conversation.
Honestly, don’t use motivation as your way to learn. It’s way too fickle, some days you’ll be hyped to study and sometimes you can go for months without wanting to do anything. The best way is the build habits and make benchmarks. My habit is I have a 30 min commute to work every day so my rule is that I am always working on conversation tapes during that drive. If I’m not feeling up to it that day and I want to listen to music, too bad. Most days I enjoy it but I have gone a month where I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere but I still did it and the enjoyment came back. I also do a weekly chat so that helps keep me on a schedule. But my advice would be have a little time carved out every day for Japanese study no matter what and have it very defined “writing 20 kanji, repeating 10 sentences..w/e.” This is a marathon, it doesn’t matter too much what you do but that you do it every day. The no zero days post helped me a lot as well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NonZeroDay/comments/1qbxvz/the_gospel_of_uryans01_helpful_advice_for_anyone/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Oh and benchmarks. Take notes on what you have accomplished, you’ve probably progressed much more than you think. It’s hard for me to believe that a year ago I couldn’t even read kana. Now I’m reading amdittedly very basic books but still.. wow I’m on my way.
Just go out there and practice every day and focus on why you started this in the first place…. And have fun!
I started learning last August and was streadily learning until this past December when I had a stroke. English became difficult so I didn’t even consider attempting to start learning Japanese again. I only started last week and it’s slowly coming back to me. Don’t lose heart. Learning a second or third language is all about pacing yourself. Finding someone to speak it with helps immensely. I’m not at that point yet as I had to basically start over, but that was my goal originally.