I am aware that you can forget kanji or vocab that you didn’t fix well enough from one day to the other.
What I mean is how long until you start forgetting grammar or vocab that you are comfortable with now.
For a bit of context, I will take a language exam on the 17th.
The problem is, up till the 14th I have exams at my university and I have little to no time/brainpower for Japanese.
Japanese being the special language that it is, I am afraid that I might forget some stuff right before the exam.
Could I get any advice on how to fix this? I don’t intend to learn anything new at this moment but at least I don’t want to forget anything.
With only 20 minutes a day(at best), how could I go about it?
Maybe 10 days without Japanese won’t change anything but if they do I don’t wanna suffer from it.
I am N3-N2 for grammar but my kanji is only around the first 50 N3 kanji.
Thanks and sorry if this question is stupid.
6 comments
Basically, you are always forgetting stuff, but some stuff will take longer depending on how deep it’s carved into your brain. Read up on SRS and “forgetting curves.”
In a nutshell, the harder something seems to be for you, the more you need to be reviewing it. Also, review everything before the test.
I took a 7 year hiatus and didn’t really forget anything. (but most of that was really etched into my brain at that point)
I know I needed a refresher on a handful of words but it all came back PDQ.
You’ll be safe setting it down probably entirely for exams. A little refresher after should be plenty
you always forget
hell i’m a native english speaker and i forget english words
but i also took japanese in college for 3 years, then didn’t use it for 18 years after graduation, and got back up to speed in about a month or two after i restarted, so it definitely congealed and hid itself somewhere inside me
don’t fret over it, but don’t expect 100% perfect recall
If it’s something you can wake up to for several days and remember, it’ll take a while of no usage for it to go away. Stuff you studied today or haven’t studied/seen for long is easily discarded, but stuff in your more long-term memory is encoded in such a way that going several days without using it will not make a big difference when you return.
If you are just starting out in Japanese, any forgetting is only minor, and even at a higher level forgetting from time to time is not an issue.
In my experience? If I go a full day without using Japanese I am noticeably worse.
The more advanced you are at a language, the less information you’ll lose. It also depends largely on how long of a break you’re taking.
In your case, being able to devote at least 20 minutes or so a day should help so you don’t forget too much. My advice would be to not start any new content during that time and just review what you already know.