How do i study Japanese without going crazy

Do something else? Unless you are required to learn Japanese, why?

Can I ask the OP what routine you go through? How much SRS/Bunpro reviews do you do in a day? I tell you mine it’s just 8 new items per day*. I found out that this the sweet spot for me, where I’m not overwhelmed by reviews and have enough time to do real life engagement with the language (improving output, reading, watch movies).

I had cycles of being too motivated with SRS in the past and ended up ditching burnt out.

Funny side note: I got the number from the HackChinese SRS, there were rudimentary options for how many words you want to add per day. 8 just stuck, feels good man. Also lucky number.

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I don’t know, personally, I look forward to my reviews and lessons every day. Every day when I listen to my favourite music or watch a fun series in japanese I can pick out more and more words, understand more and more kanji. You have to put a short term goal for yourself. Not tomorrow I will be fluent, tomorrow I will know one more word. Every time you recognise something you learned is a success worthy of celebration. Maybe slow down if its overwhelming, don’t burn yourself out with too much new stuff. You won’t be fluent in a day, but if you treat every little recognized word or kanji like a success, you will have a lot more fun :slight_smile: ăŒă‚“ă°ăŁăŠăă ă•ă„ïŒ

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Don’t make the mistake I made. Avoid Duolingo for Japanese! I wasted almost three years trying to learn Japanese on Duolingo. Stick to wanikani and bunpro. It’s only been two months that I’ve been using those two apps/websites and already I’ve made tons of progress. One thing I like to do in addition is to watch YouTube streams involving walking the city streets in Japan. I read the signs on the shops. It helps.

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not contributing but im just gonna say nice sonny boy pfp. hope you find the motivation you need or made the right decision

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  1. Recognize that noticeable progress will not appear every day or every week but will appear sporadically. Also, however bad you are now is the worst that you’ll be, and you’ll definitely be better in the future.
  2. Trust that sound methodology and steady effort will eventually take you where you want to be.
  3. Balance fun Japanese study with boring study (if that exists :slight_smile: ).
  4. Try to build social connections online or in person that will encourage your Japanese study. For instance, an app like HelloTalk will allow you to connect with Japanese people trying to learn English.
  5. Don’t invest so much of your time and effort in Japanese study that you experience significant negative effects in the rest of your life.
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Make more bait threads and you’ll be hanasing nihongo mae kimi shiru sore.

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Respect for sonny boy on the avatar :+1:

Welcome to the club. And, in the end, it’s still worth it. é ‘ćŒ”ă‚ŒïŒ

You don’t have to see the progress, if you do it everyday, the progress is here, and one day for no reason you fell that u made a huge step ahead, find some fun things to add in your routine such as talking to japanese people on VR chat for exemple, very fun way to learn !

Embrace the craziness. Cuss the language if you want. Be the uncouth sailor and embark the high seas.

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I say this as a joke, but everyone who is serious about Japanese is crazy in some way. For almost all people, learning Japanese to high levels is a 5-10+ year endeavour and offers almost zero material benefit.

You’re probably learning Japanese because:

  1. You’re crazy about anime/manga/games/J-pop and want to enjoy it without a translation.
  2. You love learning languages and you were crazy enough to think learning Japanese was a good idea.
  3. You’re crazy about Japan and you see yourself moving/working in a country which is very challenging and hard to integrate in.

Pretty much all of these reasons offer little benefit for a language you have to spend 30+ minutes a day studying. The last one has a bit more nuance (if you’re not from a wealthy western country Japan is probably attractive economically) but I think there’s a bit of craziness in everyone who spends their time seriously learning Japanese.

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this is the way

hell persists
but so do you

you can’t put a price tag on access, experiences and happiness
lots of funny things in Japan are language gated
if you want to enjoy those, you need to speak Japanese.

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Lots of fun things overseas are gated behind other languages. Language learning is a joy and delight, but there’s many other languages to learn than Japanese which take less hardcore grinding.

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Straight up, you will not learn japanese if you don’t enjoy the process of learning the language in and of itself. You have to be a hobby language learner if you want to learn the language for non-compulsory reasons. You just can’t force yourself to do something you hate for years as a hobby. It’s not healthy. So you have to either learn to enjoy the process of studying and stop focusing on progress as your primary motivator or find a different hobby. Everyone I know who’s learned Japanese to a high level of proficiency finds studying fun and is curious about esoteric language details, because this is what they enjoy. I literally like doing Anki. It’s like the crossword, I look forward to my morning Anki ritual. That’s how you gotta be. It doesn’t have to be the exact study methods of other people but an enjoyment of learning and a genuine curiosity about the language itself is necessary.

This post may sound very harsh and discouraging but it shouldn’t. If you can manage to find the process fun, it will not feel hard despite how hard it is.

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(This post is a few months old now
I wonder how the OP is doing?)

There are some good takes in this thread. For me personally though, I’d say that motivation is a big factor in being able to push through the hard parts where you think you’re spinning your wheels and going nowhere (though those parts are a large part of being a beginner at anything). Whether that be personal language learning goals (pass the N5! Become able to watch the your favourite anime in Japanese! Be able to make small talk with your Japanese mother in law next time she visits!) or intrinsic motivation (like wanting to feel the thrill of finally being able to read a kanji you couldn’t read before).

I’ve been learning Japanese for a few years, and I’m on the road to N1 now. Through all of the journey leading up to this, I had various goals like, become able to read light novels, watch anime, talk to people when I go to Japan on holiday. They were always in the back of my mind, through the hard times, and every time I reached one, I somehow found a new one to replace it.

In contrast, I started learning French and gave it up within weeks because I had no real reason to do it other than curiosity, and that wasn’t enough to keep me coming back to the textbook day after day.

So yeah - why do you want to learn Japanese? Maybe think about that first.

I just read this post and I think 80,000憆 is definitely a price tag you’ve put on happiness and experiences :grin: It’s a good read, and your Japanese definitely was a prerequisite for that!

https://community.bunpro.jp/t/i-still-cant-speak-japanese-this-is-a-study-log-blog-now/179339/35?u=hairymini

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