Learning with a full time job

Japanese
#1

This is going to be more of a rant post, I’m really just trying to figure this out for myself. Is anyone else here using Bunpro and adding vocab and grammar regularly while also balancing a full time job? (I don’t personally have kids but throw that into the full time job category as well).

Up until a month ago I was on summer break. Before that, I worked part time as a school admin. Using Bunpro/Kanjistudy for about 30min-1hr everyday was so easy then. I was also reading about an hour of manga everyday before bed and really enjoying it. I REALLY enjoy learning Japanese and I really don’t want to stop; but now that I’ve gotten my first full time job as a high school school admin and oh my gosh … I come home so exhausted. High school is insane. I’ve been able to maintain my streak the past month just doing ~10-30 reviews a day, but I’m getting to the point where my beginner category has dried up and adepts getting there and I’m like … I need to start adding again! But I’m so tired! And it’s not conductive to learning to learn while tired!

(Math rambling, how do I collapse paragraphs?) I’ve thought about maybe adding words only on the weekend. For grammar, this is totally fine. My goal is to finish N4 by Dec 31st, I’m at 99/178 points, there are 19 saturday and sundays left this year, I could add 2 points every saturday and sunday and just barely make it to my goal. Once in awhile I could probably add on a Wednesday or whatever even. I could do the same with vocab, add 10 every saturday and sunday and just barely make my goal (I have 773 vocab left in the N4 dec). It just feels so… slow. Especially with vocab. I’d like to be around N3 by sometime next year, whether that be end of summer or end of Dec I dunno. Also, I’m crazy and use fill-in for vocab. I tried reading and I just didn’t vibe with it mentally, my rention went way down.

I have a feeling that learning Japanese in general tends to skew younger as people have more time in highschool/college, but I thought I’d throw this question out there anyways.

TLDR Life transition struggles, I got my first full time job and I’m struggling to balance learning Japanese with it and am wondering what other people do. Tips appreciated or just how you pesonally balance Japanese and other life stuff.

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#2

This isn’t a full-time work perspective, but I have been dealing with a lot of health issues that make it difficult/impossible to learn new things, so I have been going into maintenance mode, adding a single grammar point here and there over the last several months, and falling farther behind and increasing my backlog in Anki for vocab. And that’s fine! It’s a bit hard mentally to adapt to, but other things in life come first.

I just wanted to chime in and say, your job sounds exhausting, I would prioritize adapting to it for now. I’m sure others will give you good advice at incorporating it into your new life stage. Good luck with everything!

#3

I can sympathize. The most realistic thing I think is to just scale back the studying until you have more time and mental energy to scale it back up again. If that means only a minute per day, so be it. It’s far easier to pick up from something than from nothing.

Ultimately it’s a choice between responsibilities and hobbies. I like to think of Japanese as a reward for me being a responsbile adult (or trying to be one, at least).

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#4

I remember my very first full-time job ages ago, right after completing my education. I remember thinking “is this life? how can I keep my hobbies with this?”. The good news is, you’ll get used to it eventually and once your rhythm starts feeling normal, you will actually have the energy to find time for your hobbies again. It just takes a moment.

Scale it back, maintain your streak. Eventually you’ll feel ready to add things once more. Don’t stress it.

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#5

Here’s what I do as someone that works 50-70 hour work weeks and can maybe give you some ideas of where to squeeze time in:
-Wake up
-Do Bunpro as I commute to the gym (I’m just a passenger so this may be impossible to replicate)
-Do Anki between sets, commute to work, work breaks, and commute home if I have a lot of reviews
-I also listen to Japanese when working when possible (although pretty rare since I have to collaborate often)
-If I have extra time I immerse on the commute back home instead
-After my getting home routine I eat and watch Japanese videos casually at the same time
-Follow that with mining 20 words from immersion
-Finally finish the day by reading as much as I can before I sleep

This is not realistic for most people obviously because I’m sure you might have noticed there’s no other time for social or family activities and such but the overall point is maybe squeeze in some study into the slow parts of the day. 頑張れ！

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#6

I’ve completed all Bunpro grammar points, and I’ve come to the realization that Bunpro is only a means. What’s important is to familiarize with grammar point as fast as possible - so I’ve deactivated ghost reviews - and then watch content you enjoy with Japanese subtitles, with tools like Migaku. Without feedback, immersion becomes passive immersion which unfortunately is weak. I consider regrettable that I passed so much time to learn most common words for arguments I don’t care; what’s more, I found it stressful as well. On the other hand I’ve discovered that words learned through sentence mining in tv show that I enjoy stick in my mind, since I don’t live in Japan.
These are my two cents.

#7

I super much sympathise with you, OP. I totally get it. In my opinion/experience, the key to keeping it all doable is to find a couple of moments during the day to chip away at a handful of reviews, so that you’ve got a little bit of time left to do some learning at the end of the day or during lunch break.

I have a full-time job with a lot of overtime. Fortunately not as much as Carnikun up there, but between 44~50 hrs a week. Currently, the way I structure my day is as follows:

  • Wake up. Chip away at a handful of reviews while still in bed.
  • Sometime during the morning at the office, chip away at a handful of reviews on the toilet. I’m sure I sound like I’m being facetious here, but doing reviews here is the perfect way to fill in otherwise wasted time. Make sure to check the bowl afterwards to see what kanji you produced.
  • Lunchtime. This is my go-to time for learning new items. The review pile is decently under control at this point due to the moments listed above. Grab a spot at the work cafeteria and take my laptop. Learning Japanese while having lunch is pretty enjoyable.
  • Home after work. I suppose it completely depends on your obligations, overtime, children, hobbies/gym and stuff whether you’ve got time here, but if you do, here’s a good moment to get a good number of reviews in. The new items from during lunch break should come up here.
  • In bed, just before going to sleep. Chip away a little more.

Now that I’m going over the list, I realise it kinda sounds like I spend every free moment studying Japanese, but it’s not like that. Other than lunch break, those little “chipping-away” moments take very little time and don’t actually take away from time I would have otherwise spent in a useful way. It’s just optimising daily downtime.

I hope you’ll be able to figure out something that works for you, and that reading this and the posts from other people gives you some good inspo for how to integrate learning into your daily routine.

Naamloos
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#8

Sounds like I’m a good twenty years older than you. I started late last year.

It is possible, and honestly I doubt I’d have been able to do as much while I was in school.

I don’t drive, so public transport is a good opportunity to do a little now and then, morning commute in particular is for the day’s new items. But basically, I replaced a lot of aimless social media scrolling with learning Japanese. I also try to keep an hour and change before going to sleep for it for reviews.

And also, I don’t know how much privacy you have at work and how much phone/internet use you can get away with, but a quick check now and then during the day also helps keep the reviews down little by little.

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#9

I used to be able to do most of my reviews at work, but lately I’ve been busy so I’ve been doing a lot at home.

I multitask, basically. Like right now I’m doing reviews while watching Star Trek. Sometimes I’ll do reviews while listening to new music. That’s really my only suggestion, lol, sorry man, best of luck.

#10

What has worked for me is to truly make studying feel like a reward. For me, study time isn’t work time, it’s fun time. I’ve invested in my desk area, made it very convenient and cozy for me to set up, I typically have a good coffee or snack. I also occasionally visit coffee shops if I can’t concentrate at home.

I look at studying not as something I “have” to do to get better, It’s something I get to do. I know that line if often said by TikTok influencers who don’t actually mean it 75% of the time, but it is true for me, and something that keeps me motivated even if I’m tired. And if you are tired it’s fine. Start fresh the next day, Japanese isn’t going anywhere and it’s not the end of the world if you pause your reviews for a day. For me skipping a day or two every now and then keeps me from burning out.

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#11

Proposed schedule
Learn Saturday, 10AM
Review Saturday, 2PM, 10PM
Review all other days ~10PM

Time commitment: 30-60m daily, 60-120m Saturday (Or Sunday)
Weekly Commitment: 4.5-5 hours

Going to slow? Learn both Saturday / Sunday or add more on Saturday
Going to fast? Do every other Saturday