I’m losing motivation and don’t know what to do

10 comments

1. you’re overdoing it big time. it’s a marathon not a sprint. cool it before your head explodes. take a break and then study at a normal human rate next time. 😉

2. Is this normal? No. You’ve just started and you have no *need* to learn Japanese, yet you’re here studying like your life literally depends on it. Slow down. Japanese isn’t anything like a Romance language or English. It’s going to be a lot more difficult. If you forget words, so what. You’ll learn them eventually. Feeling bad about not learning an arbitrary list of words is even less useful than learning a list of arbitrary words. All this studying just puts you on pace to burn yourself out and quit learning entirely.

3. When you start learning, everything is very exciting because you make a lot of progress quickly. Then, the reality of learning sets in as you realize that you’re barely scratching the surface and it’s not so much fun anymore.

   Here’s the thing. It takes time. Don’t forget that your brain is also doing work when you’re resting. Believe in the power of intervals, of taking breaks and coming back refreshed.

   If you can do one hour a day everyday for five years, that will do a hell of a lot more for your japanese than doing seven hours a day for 8 months.

4. I read somewhere that your brain needs time to process/store all the new information you gain throughout the day, which is probably why studying for long period of time in a single seating, especially languages, isn’t as effective as more regular but shorter sessions.

   I can’t tell you how to get/stay motivated, as that’s a very personal process. But if you are discouraged because you can’t remember things as quickly as you had hoped.. just know that it’s a long process. And if you really want to do it, if you stick to it, you will get somewhere. You’re still young – you have the time!

   For reference, when I started learning Japanese, I only spent 3 hours a week attending a class (which had two breaks built in), and maybe another 30 minutes or so before class, doing homework. I didn’t have any particular goal going into it. A colleague wanted to learn and wanted some company. I didn’t have any particular motivation to learn it either, but overall I still think I’ve done pretty well.

5. If you’re overdoing anything at all, that will lose your interest because you are forcing yourself to study to much.

   Kind of like when you listen to a song you love so much it just becomes bland.

6. You’re experiencing burn out, bro. Going too hard on the studying. It would be better if you viewed learning Japanese as your leisure time. It will help a lot if you look forward to studying, rather than it being something you have to force yourself through.

   Cut things down a lot. Maybe only study 1 hour a day. If you want more, maybe watch an episode of two of anime a day and/or listen to an episode of a podcast.

   Learning a language is something that takes years. If you can’t see yourself studying tomorrow, how could you see yourself studying everyday for years?

   Little by little. Learn good habits first. You can push it after you learn how well you handle it.

7. i think its normal to have those thoughts, and as what others are saying here, u just gotta be consistent and dont over do it. i was in a similar situation to you, then i found wanikani, and then the wanikani anki deck. i highly reccomend it, and now that its holidays for me, ive been doing a level a day, which is about 100-120 words per level, which takes about 2 hours, then a hour of revision of past levels. this leaves plenty of leisure time during the day to game valorant or whatever. i think its just finding a good routine to be consistent with, and not underestimating your brain, which is very powerfull as long as you put in the work long term.

8. Slow down your pace, you dont need to do that many hours. You should study at most 3-4 hrs at a time and put your mind on something else. The brain can only retain information so much at one time, and your also killing your own motivation by over doing it.

   I personally study for 2 hrs after breakfast, and after dinner i study 3-4 hrs. This works perfectly for me, and my brain retains most of the information. This may not work but it spaces out my study sessions practically 12 hrs apart which allows my brain time to relax.

   Think about it this way, if you went to a language school in Japan, youd have clas for 3-4 hours Monday- Friday, with a bit of home work. Saturday and Sunday you dont have school which means you either go over areas your lacking or try and get ahead if you so chose to.

   You’re lack of motivation is coming from overwhelming yourself, even if you dont feel overwhelmed. My suggestion is slow down, take it easy, and pace yourself. There is zero reason to rush.

9. Tone it back.

   I totally did this when I was your age, and for all the hours I put in I didn’t really get a lot out of it. 1-2 hours is plenty.

   The other thing is, if it doesn’t feel like a leisure activity you cannot and should not spend that long on it.

   Now-a-days, I spend maybe an hour on active study a day, and not even every day and I’ve made far more leaps and bounds in the language than I did doing marathon study sessions.

   > I forgot some words that were in my mind as well and I used to spend almost an hour memorizing them

   🙂 I’m a master forgetter! I know I’m going to forget words a couple dozen times or more, I don’t even worry about retention anymore.

   Either I’ll get it in a dozen tries or so… or it will finally click somewhere further down the road. It’s just a matter of time. Though I don’t use SRS decks anymore because I have always hated flash cards, and those ones just don’t go away. (Well… they do… but I didn’t know you could mute cards…)

   > But I felt bad because I didn’t learn the basic Japanese verbs really easily (my first language is a Romance language and second is English), I had to watch a YouTube video from Yuki but it was my fault because I had to reread these pages at least 2 times and slowly to understand. I made lots of mistakes but I finally learned it.

   So you’re learning the language on hard mode anyway!

   That’s not your fault either! That’s actually really impressive!

   🙂 Take breaks before you completely burn yourself out and never touch it again. Japanese will still be here when you have more energy and you’ve relaxed a bit.

10. I just want to pile on and reply because I think the other comments aren’t being harsh enough – your study regime is not only not good, it’s really bad. You should immediately stop what you are doing!

    Your mind is only capable of taking in and storing so much information in a day. This sort of saturation approach delivers far worse results than a strategic approach which allows for that fact, and then to add to that, it absolutely kills motivation and leads most people to quit.

    Imagine if you had decided that you wanted to get really strong, so you ignored all the professional advice and decided you would work out 6 hours a day 7 days a week. Meanwhile I take the advice, have recovery periods, adjust my diet, plan my work outs in a smarter and more efficient way. You look at me in the gym and laugh, I’m hardly ever there and when I am I barely break a sweat compared to you… But in a year, who do you really think will have made the most gains? My bet would be you would have quit after day 4 when your body was in absolute bits lol.

    If you want to study one topic every day, then I think the sweet spot is 1-2 hours a day for maximum efficiency. Personally I think every day is not good, your mind needs breaks. I think you would get the same results from 4 days a week of 2-3 hours.