Hey, I’ve been struggling a bit with studying lately. I’ve practiced Japanese for about 2 years. My Progress is pretty slow, especially the last 6 months because I had a few health related problems. I would say I’m about N4 level but I don’t really practice JLPT material instead I used to do textbooks and lately I’ve been mostly watching Youtube videos adressed to Japanese learners.
Lately I feel like I’m stuck on the famous intermediate plateau. I’ve finished Genki I and half of Genki II, listened to a few podcasts, music and played a few games in Japanese. Lately I feel like the only thing that can keep me interested is learning Kanji and playing Persona 5, but after playing video games I don’t really feel like I’ve learned too much.
Basically I’m looking for tips to get back into actually studying and improving at Japanese. I struggle especially with speaking and writing. I’m a pretty shy person so it’s hard for me to take italki lessons and speaking to a teacher. Also if you could recommend any immersion material for listening. I always try to listen to podcasts, but I’m too lazy so I eventually always go back to English/German podcasts. Also maybe some tips on immersion in general. I’m stuck in my ways and default to consume the same content (Books, Youtube, Movies, …) I consumed for the last few years which is mostly in English.
Thank you very much for your help!
5 comments
It’s an illusion. Try reading/watching something you already read/watched a month or so ago and you’ll see. There is no intermediate plateau, it’s just that when you know 1 word and learn 1 word more you have doubled your effective knowledge of the language, whereas when you know 1000 words and learn 1 more your effective knowledge of the language has increased by a thousandth. But you’ve still increased your absolute knowledge by the same amount. It’s just harder to notice when you hop between works, authors and genres because certain vocabulary doesn’t carry over. You won’t generally see words related to swords and sorcery in science fiction, for example, or words related to military and politics in slice-of-life, so if you learned a bunch of sword and sorcery vocabulary and then suddenly hopped over to science fiction it’ll seem as though you’ve learned nothing because none of the vocabulary you learned while reading fantasy carried over to the science fiction setting. Re-read a book, re-play a game or consume works in the same genre and preferably by the same author, who uses the same type of vocabulary and suddenly you’ll notice that yes, you are in fact still improving at roughly the same pace as before.
For listening practice, you could pay for a vpn to watch netflix in japanese. Japanese dubs are usually really good. I like to rewatch sitcoms I already know in japanese.
I can only talk from my own experience, and I know it’s controversial and goes against the prevailing doctrine of the sub, but taking a break from forcing myself to immerse in content that I had no interest in was the best thing I ever did for my Japanese.
I found content fell into two categories: comprehensible and boring, or interesting but incomprehensible and thus mind-numbingly boring. I’m sure it could have got better if I could force myself through it, but it was killing all passion I had for the language.
I instead basically took 5 months off, smashed through RTK in the first 3, and then started running through the core 6k as fast as I could, suspending cards I already knew. It sounds a lot, but I did the maths and I’ve only averaged something like 1hr a day.
About 4k words in I started trying to immerse again and it’s such a more pleasant experience. Smashing through the One Piece manga and rewatching Demon Slayer is actually enjoyable now, because I genuinely feel like I get what’s going on.
For some people 1.5hr a day of Anki may sound like hell, but for me, it was genuinely enjoyable (much more than the alternatives).
I can’t promise it’ll work for you, but if you’re the sort of person like me, with a low attention span, but easily motivated by big number go down quickly, then maybe you should consider something like that.
It’s all about finding new ways to keep you interested. At lower intermediate, you can definitely read manga (especially those with furigana) to immerse. All of the Jump titles have furigana, most manga directed at teenagers have them as well. Shounen can sometimes be a little tricky because of all the terms and techniques and their explanations but slice of life manga/romance manga have accessible Japanese and the repetition of vocab generally is high.
Japanese YouTubers often put Japanese subtitles in their videos. It depends on your interests, but you’ll be sure to find someone you enjoy watching if you search youtube in Japanese.
My personal favorite podcast ist YuYuの日本語. Then again, I don’t listen to too many podcasts, so I don’t really have that many おすすめ。
Basically: you need to find something that relights the spark so you feel motivated again. Sometimes it’s just that one piece of media that gives you a feeling of “wow, I understand this! The effort pays off!” Immersion is much more fun than textbook grinding, but sometimes you just need to get comfortable not knowing and understanding everything. Sometimes you have motivation to look up each unknown word, sometimes you just skip it.
The intermediate plateau is basically: you suddenly realise just how much there is to still
learn, how much vocab, how many grammar points are still unknown, and it feels overwhelming especially after hours and hours of hard work to even set the foundation.
Someone once wrote a comment that described it like this: you start a 1000 pcs puzzle and you pick the corner pieces first. The foundation is set really quickly and you feel confident. Then the inner parts move slower and slower and you lose your motivation. But eventually, you’ll finish the puzzle quickly because fewer pieces are left.
I really like this comparison; it just fits the intermediate feeling so perfectly.
The jump to understanding more Japanese was learning more kanji and vocabulary for me. After Genki 2 you’re left with the basics still.
I signed up for WaniKani I got to level 30 and I felt like I could live my life in Japan easier. I’m currently at level 52 and feel like I’ve learned most of what I see and hear around me. I recommend Vocab and kanji.