Pushing Through Frustration

8 comments

1. Well, think of language learning like wanting to swim across the ocean. The shore is still a nice place to be. But the longer you swim, the more water needs to be crossed. _And there is so much water!_

   But still, the more you swim, the stronger you get. It doesn’t get easier or necessarily harder. You level up and new challenges appear, making you feel like you’re not progressing.

   Or think of a marathon. Anyone who ran one will tell you the _real_ marathon starts at km 30-40. That’s when you feel the brick wall; your storages are depleted, your legs feel like lead, blood sugar drops, you feel absolutely drained. “How am
   I supposed to finish this? The last 5k feel like 100k now.”

   But you gotta keep running. Gotta keep pushing through. Everyone goes through what you’re going through. It’s the nature of learning Japanese, to feel the plateau and stagnation especially at intermediate level. So many vocabs, kanji, grammar points already learnt and they keep coming. All those hours!! And still that feeling of “never enough hours”.

   How to push through? It’s always better to rest than to quit. Look back at what you’ve learnt. Realise that if you stop now, it’ll all be for nothing. Find something you enjoy and just enjoy it for the sake of entertainment. Read a manga or book that suddenly feels so breezy to read. Something to re-light your enthusiasm.

   Personally, when I sometimes feel like I even forgot basic beginner Japanese (which still happens every now and then lol) I just cuddle up with a tea, a super casual romance 少女マンガ that’s just enjoyable and easy to read and that’s not bombaring me with super complicated and elaborate Japanese and super obscure kanji. I want to enjoy knowing Japanese and having a good amount of literacy and not always learn and study and try to gain knowledge.

2. This is pretty normal in learning anything. It’s a combination of getting more knowledge about how much is ahead of you, and each increment being proportionally less than the total progress so far.

   When you just start out you might only know you need to learn some kana and phrases, and you can double your knowledge many times over in short order. Then you realize maybe you do need kanji more than you first thought. Then you realize there’s things like 人名用漢字. And all the flavors of 敬語. You become much more aware that the road ahead is longer than you originally knew, and also realize that it’s probably even longer than you currently know.

   And maybe now your vocabulary is 2000 words so your 10/day new words are barely moving the needle. Where it used to take a week or two to double your vocabulary it will take a year now. New words stop showing up everywhere so you don’t feel like what you’re learning is as useful.

   And probably finally your imbalances are getting highlighted. If you spend 40 hours on vocabulary and grammar and 10 hours on listening, you’re probably still pretty balanced for that level as a beginner. But now you’ve spent 800 hours on vocabulary and 200 on listening, you’re way out of whack. So you’ll have parts of your language that just aren’t up to the same level as other parts, and get frustrated that you’re not doing as well as you “should” because you compare yourself against your peak of a single element and not the overall ability. I can read 1000x better than I can listen or speak, and now I’m paying that debt off in frustration and targeted practice.

   I’ve been studying way less than you have, but I sometimes feel the same thing. What helps a lot for me is taking samples of materials I find difficult as I come across them, and returning to them in the future. For example, I struggled with [this](https://tadoku.org/japanese/book/7787/) graded reader the first time I read it, but now I can read it smoothly without having to look anything up. Or [this](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10014070231000/k10014070231000.html) NHK News article I read the other day, but only partly understood. It’s added to my pile and in a few weeks or months I’ll come back and see if it’s easier or not. I don’t really expect any major “aha” moments anymore so it’s just a matter of being able to find ways to recognize your growth and victories as they come along.

3. I’m not going to pretend to be fluent in Japanese, but for me things started “clicking” at around the 2.5 years mark..but this completely varies per individual… and the amount of time they spent and the way in which time is spent.

   I still struggle with the language, primarily with listening but am definitely getting better. up until things clicked for me I had been doing massive amounts of reading, anki, light listening, and kanji practice…totaling 8-12 hours daily without missing a day

   When I said things “clicked” for me, I meant that was the moment I realized I no longer needed to use anki much…if at all….around when I was studying for N2…there are still a ton of words I do not know, but things just “make sense” for the most part…I get so many things from context, most of the time when I need to look things up is mainly because I want to make sure I get the correct pronunciation…every now and then I still do anki…it’s only if I feel like it…which is almost never….I used to add 50 cards manually daily from my reading…and gradually that also stopped…

   Anyways…all this to just say this: it does get better….not a day went by before the 2 year mark were I wouldn’t doubt myself….but trust the process….your process….you will get there….just patience is all that’s needed. Good luck 🙂

4. It’s a herculean effort to become fluent in a second language as an adult. It’s like running a marathon, don’t focus on how far you’ve got to go.

   I’ll also add that in general when you come across a word or phrase you don’t fully understand in a second language it stings, but in your native tongue it happens all the time without you noticing it. You are gonna see words even on reddit that you probably couldn’t give the dictionary definiton of, yet somehow your mind just keeps going and doesn’t feel like a failure and give up comprehension part way through a paragraph.

5. I think something that would help you alleviate your frustration is to pick something anything to read, watch, etc. For instance, I have a game that’s completely in Japanese. I revisit every 6 months or so, and I understand a lot more than I did when I first got it several years ago.
   You are probably just getting to the point where you can’t write down everything you know in one sitting.

   Just keep pushing and come to the realization that you can always learn a new word or grammar. I still occasionally learn a new word in English.

6. How many hours per week do you spend listening/reading Japanese with NO English assistance?

7. I did a couple years of Japanese class in college, maybe 3. I think Japanese 2-6. It popped me out at a beginner level, slightly below N3.

   I’ve noticed some colleges have great language courses, most don’t. I also did the bare minimum because I just wanted an A and that’s it, so I didn’t learn much.

   If you wanna get good, you gotta self study. I went from N4-N2 in a year after I moved to Japan and self studied at least a couple hours every day.

   I’m guessing you’re in the same boat I was. Basically still a novice/beginner in the language.

8. Stop studying completely or if you enjoy your reps stop adding to whatever srs apps you use.

   Do a bunch of fun stuff in Japanese, even stuff people claim is bad like anime with English subs, until you can’t help yourself and start adding and studying again.