So I studied Jp back in 2015 or something, and I failed, BIG time. It was one of the biggest failures of my life as well because I gave it EVERYTHING I had. I was studying for 6 to 8 hours, I finished multiple textbooks, I attended meetups, I did TONS of anki, I did language exchange online, and I was watching a lot of media as well.
I burnt out and gave up.
I felt like I wasn’t learning anything. I learned a ton so I felt confident only to not be able to express the most basic of thoughts.
Well about 2 months ago I decided to give it another go, and to be honest, it didn’t really went very well. But I promised myself I’ll keep at it. Despite the fact that I forgot most of what I studied, I opened Tae Kim again, I did vocab, and I just kinda, enjoyed the process.
Today, after about 2 months of “getting back at it”, I tried to read lyrics again, I learned English a LOT through music so it was a massive emotional hurdle when I couldn’t do this years back. But now I could “magically” understand the lyrics of the music that I was pulling my hair out years before just to gain a basic understanding of.
Man, I’m supposed to be at a worse state now since I’m learning less (spending less time studying) and I forgot most of what I studied, but somehow, things clicked.
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I’m still a long way off when it comes to fluency, but it’s just a magical moment you know? Sounds corny but understanding lyrics means a lot to me, something I couldn’t do before when I was giving it my all, but now that I’m just chilling, I can suddenly understand.
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So I know it’s cliche, but I just want to encourage you not to quit. Relax, try a different approach, do whatever, but don’t quit.
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Watched a tiktok earlier talking about how it’s ok to set down ur hobbies, find something else you’re interested in and come back when your interest returns. That the notion of “failing” and “giving up” is unhealthy for your psyche.
With Japanese in particular, because it has such a high level of “grind” to get anywhere noticable, that mindset can sink in really easy.
I too started in 2014, learned Kana and N5, but then dropped it until this year. This year I went sober for new years and decided to slowly pick back up Japanese. So I’m working on RTK between customers at work, for now.
But I think it is healthy for me to look at what good I’ve already gotten from the past. I didn’t “fail” or “quit” I learned Kana. Something that has benifited me a lot as a manga and doujin reader. Has also helped me recognize Japanese in general, no longer do I make silly noises when emulating anime, music or vtuber quips, I’m actually able to type and hear the sylabols of what they are saying etc.
Good to hear ur back at it OP, glad to know I’m not the only one. がんばれ👊😆🎵
>I was studying for 6 to 8 hours […] I did TONS of anki […] I burnt out and gave up.
The number 1 obstacle when learning a language appears to be burning out and giving up entirely, yet not many people seem to optimise for consistency and long-term motivation. Instead it is always “the fastest way” or “the most efficient method”. Sure, *some* people will succeed this way and their stories will sound very impressive, but are the odds really in their favor? I’d rather do my ~2 hrs every day and try to not exceed 30 min of Anki and aim for sustaining this long-term. But this might also just be me trying to justify being lazy every time I read that other people study a lot more than I do haha
People often don’t notice their own progress because it’s very gradual.
Something I can recommend to remind oneself that one is making progress is to vist something one had difficulty with a couple of months back again and see how much difference one has made. Every so often I accidentally do that and then I realize I am absolutely making heaps of progress though I don’t notice i.
Look at me, it’s -10 degrees and I’m harvesting asiatic clams… NEVER GIVE UP!
Stress and sleep deprivation are inversely correlated with learning, especially languages. So you were also probably not doing yourself any favors pushing so hard. Taking breaks – from a few hours to a few years – is an important part of the process!
Sometimes you need a break so you can see things with fresh eyes.
“But now I could “magically” understand the lyrics of the music that I was pulling my hair out years before just to gain a basic understanding of.”
This happens to me a lot more often lately, and I’m just getting back into the swing of things also.
I started and stopped a few times as well, although my breaks were only months and not years, but I feel like this time it clicked as well. And because it clicked a little tiny bit, that’s exciting and motivating and allows me to actually spend time with the language in native contexts and learn something from it, so I am spending way more time now than I had because I wanna finish this manga, finish this game, start this web novel, etc. Oh God I wanna play 13 sentinels in japanese but I’m trying to finish at least one thing I started first.
I’ve also decided to start getting into japanese music too while driving, since i need to expand and update my music tastes and styles and playlists. I saw an interview with a japanese musician/singer and checked em out and it was dope music and I understood a bit. So then for new stuff I just went to YT and typed like best anime songs, because I don’t wanna listen to the japanese stories I listen to while driving, and didn’t wanna listen to a podcast in japanese cause my listening skills are potentially too weak but I do want to listen to something and settled on music, specifically anime music so far. If it’s the best 40 anime songs, odds are I’ve heard a good portion of them, and I can discover some great artists (Myth and Roid is my fave so far) and I’m surprised by how much I understand, which may not be a lot, but still. It’s fun, good music, and I can get used to hearing japanese in various different contexts.
I’ve been studying casually since 2017, only discovering “the right way to learn japanese” about a year back. I quickly burned out and got frustrated for not seeing any progress despite using most of my limited free time to immerse myself in the language. After a 6 months break, I’ve returned to studying. Only now I’m giving it 1~2 hours/day maximum and I really feel I’m able to concentrate on learning and still enjoying it.
Ajatting is pretty unrealistic method for most people, especially for me.
Christ, this kind of post makes this subreddit look like a cult.
You are allowed to not learn this language if you don’t think it’s worth it. Nothing bad will happen if you quit, assuming you don’t actually live in Japan.
Okay so I did the same mistake when I was learning other stuff – don’t study 6-8 hours a day. Your brain can only concentrate for a certain amount of time and after that it slowly loses ability to adapt information even if you think you’re learning. 1-2 hours a day is usually enough and every additional hour put is a waste of time and energy. Learning language, especially a hard one like japanese takes a shit ton of time, and even if you would practice 8 hours a day it’s still months of work and if you won’t see result quickly, you’ll become burned out. That’s why I think taking it slow and not putting too much expectations on your self is a way to go.
This is something I realized while studying Spanish (a much easier language for native English speakers). It’s very easy to get caught up in the idea and aesthetic of study, especially in the beginning when you’re excited and making big gains. Planning out what all to study, finding new resources, building Anki decks, doing kanji practice – you build all this stuff on top of itself. As time passes and your forward progress slows, that stuff turns into real work. One day you come home from a rough day at work and find you’ve got 200 Anki cards to review, plus half an hour of listening practice and a chapter of your textbook, and you just go to bed instead. And for me, at least, those moments usually mean I’m done for months.
These days I’m careful about how much I put on myself. There’s a voice in my head that says “if we just fit in another 30min of xyz, we would get better faster!” I have to manage that voice with a firm hand, reminding myself that studying an hour daily for a year would yield better results than studying 4hrs a day for a couple of months. Sometimes that even means telling myself NOT to study. Sorry, you’re limited to one grammar video a day. Sorry, you’re not allowed to study ahead on your flash cards. Sorry, you’re not allowed to read another chapter of that manga. Even when I want to. All of my daily practice goals are also daily practice limits. My first priority is to preserve a positive relationship with the work and protect myself from burnout.
Something similar happened to me when learning to juggle.
I couldnt do it for the longest time after practicing for like an hour every day for a week (I was told it’s learnable in a day by a few people), so I gave up. Few weeks later I could just do it. It’s like the muscle memory had to take some time to settle in.
No need to give up! Sounds like you were doing something wrong with the learning method though.
I got burnt out too studying Japanese for most of the day. You aren’t alone. I got back to studying Japanese last month and sometimes I even find myself having to force myself to stop studying even though I feel eager to learn more because I know I’m just going to feel tired of studying later on.
It might help you to have a more concrete goal and treat it like a process. Like if your goal is to get the N2, don’t be fixated on trying to pass it. Put it in your brain that every year until * however long it takes * you will take the N2 two times a year and you will study until you pass it. You can fail the test but you’ll never fail your goal if you treat it as a process.
This is also how I approach weight loss, strength training, etc. It’s not a destination, the process * is * the thing
Every couple of days I slowly learn a little more. Which is nice but self learning is such a nightmare. I got Japanese with Yuta and its pretty good and I do it with another website ALONG with japanesepod101 but man, slow progress feels like no progress.