Before I started Bunpro, I wasn’t able to stay consistent in my daily study. It’s always been a problem of mine actually, but Bunpro’s streak feature and medals helped me push forward and maintain consistency.
Now I’m almost at a 2 month streak (which is a record for me), and it feels good!
What about you all? What helps you stay consistent day to day?
The goal, I want to read japanese.
that screams like me. I’m incredibly bad at building habits and doing stuff on a regular basis without forgetting shit i have to do.
While i dont care too much about streaks, i noticed that whenever i didnt do anything japanese related (even for a single day), the next days it always took me some time to get back to my previous comprehension level. And it just gets worse the longer you take a break in my experience and that frustrated me every single time.
So, that somehow motivates me enough to do at least SOMETHING regarding japanese every day, even if its just 10 reviews on BP or a single nhk article.
Playing Pokemon in Japanese is really helping with keeping me engaged even when I’m burning out.
It’s been super interesting to play Pokemon Green, which we never got in the west. I got it in the mail recently, box and all! Japanese Red and Green run on a different code base from English Red and Blue, which are based off the later released Japanese Blue version which has “cleaned up” code (I say that loosely, because Game Freak’s coding skills have always been… a difficulty for them, and Red and Blue remain full of glitches).
If nothing else, it’s pretty cool to start comprehending how the translation was done, and how it differs from the original Japanese text. Some things that I thought would be completely changed are surprisingly similar, and vice versa.
One thing I can recommend you do, is if you know you’re going to miss a day, stick some Japanese news on while getting ready for bed and don’t worry too much about watching it, just listen.
It’ll get you a little bit more exposure without much mental effort. You probably won’t understand much, but just pick out little bits that you can.
Hi there,
For my part, to stay motivated and consistent, I’ve built a daily routine that I force myself to follow no matter what. Without this structure, I know I’m the kind of person who struggles to stay consistent.
Every day, I know that for my Japanese learning I have to do Anki, write half a page in Japanese, and watch immersion content. If I haven’t checked all these boxes, I don’t go to bed.
Another very important point is to always keep a clear goal in mind. In my opinion, the best way to stay motivated is to set several small, achievable goals that you can reach relatively quickly. And of course, you should never forget why you’re doing this in the first place, why you decided to learn Japanese.
I read in another thread, someone said, “I don’t rely on motivation, I rely on routine”, and I’ve been feeling this exact thing as well. If I get my routine down, then I will do it regardless of whether I feel like it or not, as it’s just what I do
I liken it to a marathon runner who keeps taking 1 step forward, whether they feel like it or not, it’s the discipline and routine that keeps them going.
The major fuel for the consistent is to reminding yourself on why you start. For me its a bit natural since my current mission right now is to work in Japan as soon as possible and to exit my job. I have a difficult boss to manage her expectation and the job market in my country is pretty worse so anytime she throw something nonsense then i will get fired up and double up my Japanese study time lol
It helped me with my “I don’t know the next step and where I am on the map” but writing down all the topic in one place and showing how many of them I have to complete to reach a certain level. It game a clear path I could go without thinking much about grammar part, which was the main for me at that time.
That would be nice, but doesn’t work for me. Well, for an “annual continuity” (= each year I learnt something, but it could be just an hour in the whole year) it works, but not for a daily, weekly or often even monthly continuity.
Therefor “I don’t rely on motivation, I rely on routine” is more helpful, but even sticking to a routine is difficult for me.
So at the moment the Bunpro streak helps me for a daily and my new japanese course for a weekly consistency/routine. Well, in the first two weeks or so I definitely needed the reminder function of Bunpro too.
I’m only on day 40, but maybe in half a year (= routine) or at a higher level (= more easy reading and listening material for motivation) I won’t need the Bunpro streak anymore to be consistent. Who knows ~
ps: do you say “continuity” or “consistency” in english? 
I don’t care about day to day consistency, and my experience says, streak and stuff are actually detrimental to my overall consistency and motivation.
I also don’t do too well with habits, but can rely heavy on sustaining my motivation. My motivation is to read and watch japanese media. And instead of daily habits, I basically just jump from one related project to another.
Maybe I’m focusing one reading a book for a while, or drastically increase my daily vocab for another while. Then I binge watching an anime is my next project. Or finishing a textbook.
I might even have a weeks weeks of pause every now and then. You take holidays from work, so why not taking the time off off japanese, too? Sure, those japanese skills take a hit for while, but they bounce back.
Forcing myself to do something small daily would have made me drop out of japanese so fast 
But it seems to work for a lot, I just really don’t understand how ^^
SRS just kinda automatically keeps me consistent because I don’t want to have to do double the work the next day (or triple the work the day after that, etc.), so I’ve never had trouble staying consistent with things like Anki or Bunpro. Since the JLPT I’ve had a bit of trouble staying consistent with immersion but I’m getting back on track with that, with the motivation that my Japanese is still nowhere near where I want it to be even after passing N1.
I completely agree with you!
I’m totally obsessed with streaks, and that’s exactly what allows me to progress! My current streak is 193 (can’t wait to reach 200!), and I’m pretty sure that without the streak system, I would have done half as much at best.
I “only” do 6 vocabulary words and one grammar point per day (in addition to Wanikani with a streak of 191 lol i’m obsessed 
) but in the end little by little without realizing it since we do it every day it progresses super fast!
I’ve never liked the codified “game” approach to study, but keeping a streak is like a tangible representation of the work accomplished. I find studying Japanese full of pitfalls and demotivating factors, but just seeing “look, you’ve been giving it your all for 193 days, you’re not going to stop today because you’re feeling lazy” gives me all the motivation in the world 
nothing. I can never stay consistent. I gave up on “being consistent”. My thing is returning 
so even if i stay consitent for 2-3 weeks, suddendly I need to focus on work/family for a few days, and I come back to 500+ reviews (and additional 500+ reviews for WaniKani… and anki…)
Anyway, somehow I always manage to clear the backlog and go on. Just finished the jlpt n4 set… and lvl 32 in wanikani…
Gamifying is definitely what got me to start being consistent several years back. I had already done it with Habitica, Anki and iKnow, but Bunpro was the first to really do it with grammar.
Now I’ve gotten to the point that streaks don’t really feel like a reward, so If I lose a month streak I’m like meh. But back then I had like a two year streak or something like that in iKnow.
I studied Japanese off and on from 2009-2018. I got N5 December 2018.
I was accepted into the JET Progam January 2020.
I’ve been pretty consitent since then, Necessity is the mother of Invention.
I now have 1945/1973=98.5% days in anki
honestly? the SRS system itself.
i know that if i don’t do the reviews, then they’ll pile up so i just have to suck it up 
lol
also i like how they are distributed throughout the day instead of everything at once like on anki, i think it makes it less tedious and gives you more chances to study and learn and see progress which makes it more motivating as well.
it’s been 204 days since i started bunpro and i haven’t missed a single day : D
My mans got both the best and the worst of the JET Program. Freedom to kinda travel with no other tourists.
Forced to do weird Covid things in regards to school and training. My Group in Chiba that came during Covid are SUPER tightknit that Im like a weird inbetween where I cant fit in with them, and now the newbies are just to excited to do all the things Ive already done. Such a hard knock life lmao.
But to answer the question, I have things I wanna do, and studying daily helps with that. Im not the best at it all but the better I get the more I naturally wanna use Japanese. So its hella hard at first because I was forcing myself, and now its still a hassle somedays but I HAVE to use it so I do. Simple as that.
Like yr idea of small goals…do you feel comfortable to give a current / recent example ?
Do them again. I like getting to be a Senpai
[this park is a rail trail, that’s why there is a steam engine in the park.
the convince store near the waterfall closed, so make sure to pack a picnic.
Last year 4 tourists drowned in this river, so I recommend this other river two towns over.
Yes, I’ll go with you to docomo and translate.
Here’s a play list of the bonodori. Let’s practice then dance together- I’ll help you put on the Yukata.
What anime do you like? I’ll send you the Subs2srs deck
There are free Japanese classes at the community center, but the Wi-Fi doesn’t reach the class room, so download the textbook and audio files in the lobby]
one of my friends says “you are such a local”