Ive come to find that the majority of posts in this sub are by a few people that have crazy amounts of time and effort for this one thing and then go off about it like it’s normal. I feel like the majority of people are in school or have jobs and cannot put it more than an hour a day if they are lucky. It’s super disincentivising to get on here and see people light-years ahead of me while I’ve been studying for 4x the years they have. I understand that these people just put in more time than me and I don’t expect to be on the same level but my goodness its like they live in a whole different world. I’d rather see more posts and advice about what a “normal” person could do to improve studying. Not advice for someone who lives at home with no responsibility and infinite time and energy to devote 100% of their being to this language. Let me know your thoughts. Am I just in the wrong sub? Did I join the “try-hard” Japanese sub and there’s another one with humans in it? Thank you for reading my opinion.
15 comments
Tell us about your study habits.
What is your point?
Yeah there are people who have tons of time like myself right now, but also when I was working before I was in school for Japanese my time went:
Morning drive to work listening to Japanese Pimsleur or Japanese podcasts/music
First 15 minute break: read Japanese
Lunch: eat while listening/reading (unless I went out with coworkers or my partner came to have lunch together)
2nd 15: read or listen to Japanese, or review flash cards
Drive home: you guessed it, Japanese
That’s about 2 hours of solid study time if you have a really short commute like I did, then you can go home and not study Japanese at all if you like, which if you are making dinner, taking care of children/time with spouse/housework it can feel overwhelming. You could replace evening TV time (if that’s your thing) by doing something in Japanese. You could replace evening book reading to wind down by reading something in Japanese instead.
I hope this doesn’t feel like an attack, I know where you’re coming from but a lot of people (me included) see this as a career thing or take the hobby pretty seriously. I used to feel like studying had to be like, I sit at my desk, get out my study materials, get my flash cards, do Genki exercises, highlight my textbook… in which case yeah a lot of people don’t have time for that. I don’t know your situation so im talking generally here and not specifically about you, but people have a lot more time than they think they do in most cases. While browsing social media, or this very subreddit, I feel like that time can be spent studying instead (via reading, listening, etc). When I had a job and was taking a couple classes (not language related) I spent my breaks looking at Japanese because that’s what was fun for me. My study time daily was down to about 2 hours a day because when I got home I just wanted to sleep, lol.
Also keep in mind people love to lie on the internet. So take the helpful and ignore the stuff that doesn’t speak to you.
Edit to add: if what you’re doing now makes you happy ignore me and ignore this subreddit. It’s supposed to be fun and engaging, if it makes you feel bad then do your own thing
I’m with you. It feels like there’s almost a “git gud” energy in here sometimes. I work from home and am able to study probably 2 hours a day at most before my brain refuses to take in more info. Some days I’ll get a burst of motivation and dig in more, and some days it’ll be too much for me. But I try not to put much weight on each day individually.
I don’t so much care about the people who talk about their more intense study habits, but it bothers me when it becomes like “You’ll never learn Japanese if you only study for *that* long!” It feels a little gatekeepy.
The comments about not comparing yourself to others are fine advice. I’m happy with the work I’m putting in and with the progress I’m making, and I don’t need approval from others. But it doesn’t change that the attitude on here around study habits can be frustrating, and I imagine plenty of people have been pushed out of learning by this sub because they didn’t meet the sub’s standards.
Nah man, I have the same feeling. But I am not salty about it cause if they can do it in a few years, then I certainly can in a few times more years.
getting anywhere near good in japanese takes thousands of hours for a non Chinese/Korean speaker. so of course people that have achieved a good level in japanese have always put enormous time and effort into it. I think there is no shortcut to learning japanese that putting in several hours a day for a few years or then a bit less time everyday but for 10 years
I don’t really see the problem though. Why would somebody who is studying twice as many hours/day as you are not also progress twice as fast? If you *really* want to compare yourself to others (which is probably a bad idea to begin with), can you not just take their total study time and compare that to yours? The main point of these posts is to give people ideas for how they could be studying, what resources they could be using, what books they could be reading, etc. or to maybe motivate a few people to finally take that leap to native media that so many seem to be avoiding.
Every community about a thing tends to be sampling-biased towards people who spend an above-average amount of time on that thing because the more casual people are less likely to seek out for a community about the thing.
As far I know this is the only mainstream Japanese learning sub so to answer your question there is no separate sub for people with less time.
However, as long as you are part of society you’ll be with people who are ahead of you or have more time and resources than you do, it’s not only about learning Japanese, or even about people on Reddit.
While I’m here to help (as a native Japanese speaker) I am also a part of other subs as a learner and I encounter people who are just simply better than me. Sometimes I even see people who are obviously flaunting their skills just for kicks. But I don’t let that discourage me, rather, I try to see if there’s anything I can emulate. If so, great. If not, then I just move on at my own pace
1 – Your incentive to study shouldn’t be influenced by the results of other people you don’t even know, ESPECIALLY if you know that they have a different life than yours. You should totally work this on yourself.
2 – Even if the discussion you see here or there is unrealistic to you (it is to me some times) you can adapt what you see and learn to what you can actually do.
3 – I do think that this sub has a lot of tryhards and advise you to leave it if it doesn’t help you anymore. There is a ton of communities and content creators out there to fill any gaps you would have.
why would a normal person learn japanese?
I just focus on quality and hours of study/immersion time, and not something like years studied. Also, with any more niche sub you are going to run out of unique and engaging content quickly so for a post to gain traction it has to be somewhat out of the ordinary.
What could be considered study habit to 90% of “normal” people you may find completely ineffective. I think it’s better to ask for specific help on the things that you are struggling with over generic “how do I study better? ps I’m a normal person”
I totally get you. I go to a class, it’s 2 hours on Saturdays, then I do my homework and study some Kanji during the week. I’m 32 I have a full time job, I literally can’t do more I’m exhausted already, but I feel like I’m barely progressing and this sub makes me feel so much worse.
Is this post for attention?
Here’s some advice: Stop comparing yourself to other people, and focus on self improvement. You have no idea what they’re actually going through right now, or what they went through to get to where they are today.
You’re not alone. 8y in and aiming to probably at best barely pass the N1 this December. Tired of seeing the “I went from zero to a perfect N1 in 9 months” type bragging that goes on. Most are either selling something or exaggerating or extreme outliers in terms of daily time spent or are part of this weird cult that seems to exist that bullies people into immersion heavy study and then attacks and degrades them for not having the same results as others or having any criticisms for that study balance choice.
It’s so weird in here sometimes. Honestly just be heavy with the block button, it doesn’t have to be for things that rise to the level of harassment, it can also just triage out people you’re tired of, and you’ll probably also in turn end up cutting off responses to those people’s posts and comments. Life is better with a filter, only you can set your boundaries, you’re allowed to funnel what you want to experience online or anywhere.
Be yourself. Take your time. Ask silly questions. You’re not alone.