The title, basically. How do I ensure that the hours that I spend studying immersing are “quality hours”?
**Background**: I have been studying Japanese every day for the past 4 years. Over the past 2 alone, I would estimate that I have put in almost 3000 hours. I say “estimate” as I only started keeping track around 2 years ago so I would say the total amount is higher. After doing some research online, there seems to be a consensus that the 2500 hour ballpark should be enough to pass N1 comfortably. However, for some reason I find myself still struggling with N2 level Japanese and have feel as though I have completely stagnated for a 1 and half now. This has been extremely frustrating as my growth has been proportional to my time, investment and hardwork. I understand that language acquisition takes time but for the hours I have spent “grinding”, I’d expect my level to be significantly higher by now. (As comparison, I started going to gym to years and have increased my bench from 70 kg to 130kg through consistency alone. With Japanese, no such luck)
I have been told that the only explanation for my lack is progress is that “I am not not studying right” and that the 3000ish hours that have spent studying have not been “ quality hours” — although I am not fully sure what this means. This was discouraging to hear as I have been following all the standard advice to a T. My method is heavily focused on immersion, sentencing mining, and consuming content that is as comprehensible as possible (70-100% range). I have 1145 sentence cards, 983 vocab card, and 212 grammar cards and I spend almost entirety of my free time immersing. In the past 2 years, I have completed 75 light novels and over 200 anime shows. When I am not actively studying, I am doing passive listening using podcasts ad condensed audio. I send many hours a day listening to Japanese but despite all of this effort, I am don’t seem to be getting anywhere.
I was led believe that so long as I consistently do my anki reviews, immerse myself much as possible in comprehensible input (“compelling content”) and “turn up every day” that I would improve, which hasn’t been the case. At this point, I am not really what the issue is. Japanes is not sticking and I am starting question whether it is simply a matter of lack of “affinity”. .If the hours I am spending are not “quality”, how do I make them “quality”?
by Dyano88