Hello,
I’m having some problems with my study routine and wanted to ask if you could give me some tips on how to improve.First of all, I usually study Japanese by myself. I can theoretically practice speaking and listening with my wife (who is Japanese), but we rarely do that and mostly speak in my mother tongue.
I use textbooks. At the moment, I’m in the second chapter of Genki 2. After that, I’ve already bought the Quartet text and practice books.Besides the books, I use Wanikani and Bunpro. Both daily, mostly on the way to work and during breaks. Sometimes I also use Anki, but unfortunately not as often as I would like.
My big problem is that I mostly only learn on my way to work and during my breaks, and then mostly only with Wanikani, Bunpro or Anki. In Wanikani I’m on level 50 and Bunpro I’ve completed N3 Grammar.
It’s just that my learning process is actually more book-based. By that I mean I learn something and repeat it in some exercises or texts and then I understand it. The N3 grammar on Bunpro caused me a lot of problems because none of the resources I use actually use it yet. So I could never really memorise it and at some point I reset my account to N2 so that I could relearn the grammar points and understand them better.But somehow I never have much energy or motivation in the evening to still learn with the one textbook. As a result, however, I only repeat grammar every day and don’t learn any new ones.
I’ve had the feeling for some time that I’ve reached a dead end. Somehow I learn for two hours every day, but somehow nothing new comes along.I’ve already tried two different teachers at iTalki (it’s not really my style though), use todai to read news, write another diary entry once or twice a week and correct it with my wife, bought several books to read in Japan, just bought a few games now to try to play in Japanese.
I see three big problems with myself:
– That I am not very good at speaking and listening.
– That I need to be more immersive to really get better at it.
– That I don’t learn new grammar and therefore stagnate at one level.I don’t know exactly how I can improve everything without getting a burnout.
Do you have any suggestions on how I can motivate myself or if there are other methods and materials that are better suited to my way of learning?
I’m still quite new to this Reddit and have been reading about nativshark, renshuu and kanshudo for the last few days and am trying to look at the tools. I just don’t know if they really fit my style of learning past (which I need to change since it doesn’t seem to work).I really want to get better and want the motivation for doing so. I want to finally be able to speak properly with my in-laws next year when I go back to Japan.
Thank you for your help
1 comment
May I ask why you don’t talk and practice Japanese with your wife? That’d be a great way to practice what you’ve learnt. (assuming she can speak Japanese; which she most likely does considering she corrects your writing)
Aside of that I’d say find more native material to immerse in. You’re facing the feared intermediate plateau and the only way out is through. Learning materials get sparse the higher you climb, so exposure to native material is the way to improve further. Reading is a great way to build vocab and new grammar points. Sounds to me like you’ve not found something to immerse in that really hooks you back to new discoveries and enjoyment. Have you looked into manga? Manga is great for immersion; there’s plenty of genres and it’s usually a quick read compared to a book. Plus, the drawings really help with unknown words since they provide context.
Sometimes, a break also helps. Might be that you have a slight “overdosis”, so to speak. It’s understandable that you’re tired after work. Maybe just try and get 10-30 mins in after work instead of setting the intention to study. I guess you’ve reached a point where you’d benefit more using and encountering Japanese rather than study.
Experiment around; you won’t forget what you’ve learnt if you step back and just enjoy using Japanese for reading, podcasts or movies/shows/anime. Then there’s always N2 and N1 preparation textbooks, if you’d rather go on a classic “study” approach.