For context, this is my first time learning a language and I’ve been learning on and off for about a year and a half but I still feel like I know so little and wouldn’t last 5 seconds in a conversation with a native speaker. I’ve tried learning through childrens books, anime, duolingo, anki flash cards, and more resources but nothing is really sticking. I’m also feeling overwhelmed by the amount of vocab to learn, grammar to understand, and kanji to memorize. Any advice?
4 comments
Take a break and rest when you need it, Japanese isn’t going anywhere, come back refreshed and ready to learn, try to do one thing at a time, don’t try and cram it all at once
The best you could possibly do is turn something bad into something good.
Take your level of Japanese (whatever it is) and try to do something fun with it during part of your studies.
IDK much about you so IDK what is fun for you, but you can figure that part out.
Examples would be:
* Read (you can read even if you’re a beginner with graded readers)
* Write (langcorrect)
* Translate game scripts
* Listen to podcasts
* Read magazines
Have you tried following a textbook? I plateaued at a similar point, and I finally realized that even though I was memorizing words, I didn’t understand enough of the “connective tissue” (ie. grammar) to do much with it. I picked up Genki and started doing the exercises, and now I can finally string together basic sentences without panicking.
Since textbooks are so linear, they can also help you break through that feeling of being overwhelmed. Instead of worrying about what to learn when, you just do the chapters in order. You can always add to it or change course later.
Start small and go slow,
This has helped me to learn Spanish, and it’s helping me develop my Japanese so far.
Even if you have to glue yourself to the basics, it’s important to develop those basics to go further.
If you have a textbook, then perfect! Use it to your benefit. But don’t fly through the chapters, go slow, and practice them.
Do you need to look at your notes everytime you write something in Japanese? Try your best not to.
It develops a habit that your knowledge of the language is in those notes, not in your mind.
But after you’ve written everything, then check your notes to see what mistakes you’ve made.
Don’t overwhelm yourself with vocab. If you’re getting overwhelmed, then slow down and reduce the amount of words you’re taking in. Consider their importance as well, and different ways you can memorise them.
The difficult thing is that by learning the language on and off through the year has probably been the biggest culprit. Japanese is so different from other languages, our brains aren’t suited to it. It needs the constant attention and focus, or it’ll easily go.
And try to stay motivated! Consider the end goal in mind and focus on that. Learning a language is hard, learning it unmotivated is even harder.