Losing hope after 6-7 months. I know

[MonoTranslucido]

Hello,

I would like to share my experience learning Japanese and try to connect with people who have gone through something similar and might be able to help me.

I’ve been learning Japanese for about six and a half months now. My journey obviously began with Duolingo, which I’ve since left behind, and I started with the main syllabaries. Once I learned hiragana and katakana, I thought the best idea was to learn some basic kanji—the first 100 most important ones.

A “problem” I encountered is that learning kanji turned out to be extremely interesting for me, almost like a memory game. I started using Wanikani, and as of today, I’ve reached the “learned” stage for the first 400 kanji.

To learn vocabulary, I naturally absorbed the words included in Wanikani, started experimenting with Anki, and continued with Duolingo (figuring it wouldn’t hurt).

I bought Genki and thought Bunpro was the best option for grammar, as it follows a system similar to Wanikani’s SRS, which I absolutely love.

I wanted to start strong, aiming to learn 3 grammar points and 10 vocabulary words each day. The first two weeks were relatively easy, but now I’ve hit the following point:

My accuracy rates rarely exceed 80%. In fact, after five weeks, my average accuracy rate is around 75% for N5 (the community average is 10 points higher, at 85%).

In recent days, I’ve noticed that a large number of reviews are practically guesses. Some answers come to mind immediately, but overall… I feel like retaining grammar has been incredibly difficult. This has left me feeling discouraged because I’ve generally always considered myself a diligent student with a knack for understanding new concepts.

I get the feeling that within a month or a month and a half, Bunpro will mark the N5 content as “completed.” And even though I need to keep perfecting each stage for every concept, I honestly think I won’t even come close to reaching that level.

Has anyone else hit this “wall” and felt disheartened? And more importantly, how did you overcome it? Was it just a matter of repeat, repeat, repeat?

Best regards, thanks, and sorry for the vent. I just needed to find someone with a similar experience and see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

[Miquill]

You’re still at the beginning of your journey. You can’t expect Bunpro to teach you everything. I just started using Bunpro after three years of study, and still find even N4 and N5 grammar difficult to internalize sometimes (Hence I started reviewing here). Are you reading Genki? Are you reading the example sentences for every single grammar point? When you fail a review, do you reread the article to make sure you understand it? Are you using the fill-in, or reveal study method? If you are using reveal, are you grading yourself on understanding just the grammar, rather than the whole sentence? (You should just be grading yourself on understanding the grammar tested). You need to be exposed to japanese outside of study flash cards. Bunpro is a review tool, not an everything tool.

Edit: Tbh you’re probably going too fast. Especially if you say you don’t have time to spend working with the language (Not assuming this, just I said similar things in the past. If you are taking too much time to review and feel like you don’t have time to read manga, or practice listening, or work through a textbook. I would chill out with the new bunpro lessons). You could probably reach an ok level of understanding of the language if you just only did all of the bunpro lessons and grammar. But you probably will need thousands of hours on top of that to truly feel competent with the language. N1 is only Upper Intermediate, approaching advanced level.

Edit 2: Japanese is a category 4 language. Expected to take 2200 class-room hours in a top-tier language school, and achieved by only the brightest of minds allowed to enter these schools. (Top-tier potential diplomats/interpreters). Its not for the weak. But its fun!

[louish02]

youre too harsh on yourself, youre only 6 months in. Im over 2 years in and only started using bunpro 4 months ago. I recommend using other resources to internalise the grammar learnt on bunpro rather than becoming too obsessed with the SRS part of bunpro. e.g Keep using Genki. For the basic N5 grammar points, I also highly recommend Cure Dolly on youtube. Her first 10 or so episodes helped me finally understand the different between が and は after nearly 2 years.

[Miquill]

Fully agree with Louish, I started with an app called Human Japanese, skimmed Genki 1, read Minna no nihongo beginner 2 grammar notes (And took a class in Japan covering this material). Watched all Cure Dolly grammar videos. Read most of Tae Kims. Completed all the N5, N4 articles on Bunpro, and I still get nuances wrong for this lower stuff sometimes.

[TJA836]

Hey you’re doing great work!

Despite the wealth of resources out there, I’ve found learning Japanese all comes down to one simple trick: never give up!

If you never give up, you will always keep learning. Japanese learning never stops, even after you complete all the green bars in the apps. That’s just the beginning.

Motivation is critical and the long journey ahead is why every write up online has a dedicated portion stressing motivation and sticking to your reason for wanting to learn japanese to begin with.

Here’s a fun game: take a sip for every “it’s a marathon not a sprint” you find in online japanese learning discussion! It’s very true though

Whenever I absolutely forget what I learned 6+ months ago and get 20% accuracy on reviews, a positive perception certainly helps. I get that it’s a bummer because this is something we all want to succeed in, but it’s a blessing because then you know what you don’t know. And then you know where to focus!

Maybe look at it from the other side: if we were getting 100% on every review and breezing through easily, are we really learning more efficiently? Challenging and stretching ourselves is how we get stronger.

It’s okay to make mistakes! It’s okay to forget things! Learning from mistakes is extremely effective from my experience.

One definition of mastery is 10,000 guided hours of practice in a field.

But my personal favorite definition of a master is
“One who has made every possible mistake in that field.”

[tahmidrahman]

Hola. Considering you’re only 6 months in, 2 grammar points a day and 10 words might be a bit too much. It’s completely okay to slow down and do maybe 2 grammar points a week/every 3 days. On top of that, since you now have spare time in that week, go over the grammar point yourself, outside of bunpro. (For now just continue to go over N5 before moving onto N4).

I know you considered yourself a quick learner and you might think that 2 grammar points a week is not good enough but clearly something isn’t working and you need to take a step back and re-evaluate. Maybe you need a different learning method, maybe you need more time, maybe you need a different kind of motivation. Also just a reminder, learning a language isn’t the same as learning maths or science or any other subject at school. You need to completely rewire the way your brain works and interprets the world. Maybe you were a quick/diligent learner at school but in school you were learning content presented in your native language. Japanese isn’t your native language so it may not be as easy to learn.

I only studied kanji and a little N5 (using busuu) before moving to Japan. When I arrived in Japan I didn’t study at all for 6 months! What a waste of time that was! But I finally found motivation in the fact that I wanted to make friends, talk to my colleagues and students. After that I speed-ran grammar and my motivation allowed me to keep up.

You gotta take it slow and find what’s best for you. Rushing things is a great way to burnout. Take your time and enjoy the journey (:

[Mango1]

It’s really easy to accidentally go through the content too fast. That’s something I did, because I found myself mostly focusing on filling out progress bars and getting that feeling of “finishing” instead of just going slow. I’m not saying that’s what you did, but the result for me was that I also got a giant stack of reviews and ended up not remembering certain N5/N4 that should’ve been well practiced. I ended up realizing something was seriously wrong and decided to restart from scratch and go slower. You don’t have to restart from scratch yourself, but it’s important to slow down before you get to that same point of no return. Going slow is pretty hard sometimes because it’s all exciting, and there’s always the impulse to try to speedrun decks lol, but ignoring that devil on your shoulder and going slow is worth it.

You don’t have to do new lessons every single day. Sometimes it’s good to take a break from adding new grammar and vocab, and just focus on practicing/reviewing before you add more. You can do that with Bunpro’s own SRS reviews of course, and there’s also a ton of other resources you can use to reinforce what you’re learning on Bunpro and in Genki. On this forum there’s a “Have You Written Your Japanese Sentence Today?” thread. It’s a great thread for practicing writing sentences based off of the new grammar you’ve learned, and often times people will reply to you with necessary corrections! You can practice writing simple sentences, and get the added bonus of practicing the Japanese keyboard. There’s also another tool I personally like to use called Satori Reader. It’s a great place to get some reading and listening practice as a beginner because it contains explanations for each grammar point, vocab word, and sentence. It also has voice recordings that you can play at variable speeds, which can help train your ear. Bunpro’s cram feature can also be useful, and is something you should probably use in order to get caught up on those grammar points/vocab words you have already been struggling with. It is able to tell you what your troubled grammar points are. You can go through your troubled grammar points one at a time and do cram sessions on each one until they become more comfortable. Last thing I can think of is to enable ghost reviews if you havent. These give you extra practice on grammar and vocab that you are having trouble remembering. You might get alot of ghosts at first, but eventually you will get enough practice that you slay the ghosts, and having all ghosts slain is a good indicator that you might be ready to learn a few new things.

I hope this helps!

[jrmr50]

When I feel like this, I will tweak how I learn Japanese.

Personally, I’d recommend speaking with Japanese people as a way of learning.

I got started with a tutor going through Genki. With the right tutor it’s a lot of fun and keeps you motivated. If you don’t/can’t spend money, then there are other options than a tutor, but for me it was the most convenient option.

[MonoTranslucido]

Oh thank you all for all the advice.

I’ll take the general “don’t worry, just keep working”. Also I’ll put more attention into Genki, since I stopped reading it once I started with Bunpro.

Also, maybe I should go slower, but also my plan was to finish N5 and then stay there for months trying to solidify all the points. Do you guys think this could be a good idea?

Thank you again! I feel more motivated now

[ThomasLowry]

TLDR;
I have been studying for a long time, switched to bunpro and rushed things. Bad mistake. Take it slow, don’t overload yourself. Learning a language is a life long hobby/skill. I envy those that can speak more than one language, to me they are superhuman. I just wanna be cool too.

---

I have been studying Japanese on-and-off for 10 years but never got past even the basic of basics. About 3 years ago I started taking actual classes at a language school. This was great for relearning the basics and correcting some of my misunderstandings. However it seemed as though I wasn’t getting much practice, so I switched to a tutor on iTalki instead. This helped me greatly since I was going from 15 minutes of total speaking practice time (in a 2 hour class, with 8 people) to a full 1 hour class one-on-one with a tutor speaking Japanese 95% of the time. However I then decided to supplement with Bunpro and WaniKani.

I made a mistake with Bunpro though. I tried going to fast. I went in and rushed a bunch of N5 vocabulary and grammar. This caused me to have upwards to 800+ reviews due for months! I was also trying to push doing 1 grammar point a day and 5 vocabulary words a day. To me that seemed reasonable, however I am wrong. I went in and took all my “beginner” level grammar points on N4 and if I wasn’t above like 50% correct on it, I reset it. This brought my grammar points down considerably. I am also still chipping away at those vocabs. It’s a daunting task and I feel like I wanna give up, but by resetting some stuff and taking it slower, it is encouraging me. Now I have no more than 3 grammar points at a time. Once I get my vocab down to a manageable amount, I am going to only do like 10-20 vocab in the beginner category at a time. This should help keep me from overloading myself.

[NekoJyo]

Hey, I’m reasonably new to Bunpro. Only been using it for a few months. I started using it knowing that I wanted to do N4 and that Grammar was by far my weakest area. I’ve been on and off studying Japanese for over a decade. My interest waxes and wains and that’s normal.

Here are some things I’ll do if I can’t a grammar point to stick:

1. I’ll check the answer and see what grammar point it was I was struggling with. I’ll then make a note of the point on paper and try construct some of my own sentences using the point.
2. I’ll try find a specific piece of media where that point has been used. Given I am interested in Tokusatsu, I’ve a wide bank to try to find things in but no way to search for it. So if you watch anime, or J-drama, or read manga, or listen to Japanese, you can use those. This can encourage active listening. Make note of any examples of the grammar point. This is easier to do if you have subtitles on in Japanese. It’s great if you can associate grammar or vocab points with a specific subplot or character, as you’ve something you can tie that memory to.
3. If got a yellow “can you try this another way” or “add something on the end”, or get it wrong and then realise what it is, I don’t beat up myself up about it. It means you’re close to grasping it, even if you aren’t quite there. Main thing in any language is being able to communicate, not about doing it perfectly.
4. Try reading other resources around the grammar point (Textbooks, YouTube, Kanshuudo, literally anything). Once you think you understand it, try explain it to someone (preferably someone who could correct you if you’re off base, and then maybe after that someone else who doesn’t know it). I work in healthcare, and hear the phrase “see one, do one, teach one” (sidenote: as an anxious person I often want to see it far more times before feeling confident). The idea being you have to understand something to be able to explain it. If you’ve no one you can share that with, then record a video of yourself explaining or even write how you would explain it (you don’t have to post it anywhere the idea is just have a way to output your understanding - preferably after and not while your looking at other resources).

[ErikShiken]

The success rate is a pretty good indicator if you are going at the right speed. If your success rate drops too low, it’s time to slow down. 3 grammar points a day is simply too much in my opinion and 10 new words alone is too much as well

I suggest dropping it to 1 grammar point and 5 words. You can then adjust your speed based on you following success rate

[MonoTranslucido]

I went down to 1 grammar point per day since it was my main nightmare. I even got surprised by some of the suggestions of 2-3 points per week. I feel fine about it, since I wouldn’t feel “ashamed” to go down to 1 grammer point per 2-3 days. My problem is… I put stupid milestones in front of me, like ending N5 in 2 months and things like that.

This topic helped me a lot to understand that, there’s no rush. This is a hobby, I shouldn’t feel bad if I get it right in 3 months instead of 3 weeks. But also… I need to feel like I’m advancing, and if I go to slow then that feeling diminishes quite a bit.

10 vocabulary still feels fine, I feel “good” at vocabulary, and even if I fail the first 2-3 days, after that, it tends to stick.

[Edo9]

Walls and road blocks are inevitable, but if all you’re concerned about is stats and numbers as a marker or success, then that wall will seem much taller.

Think about why you started learning Japanese in the first place and maybe do a little bit of that to see how far you’ve come. Whether it be anime, a video game, a TV show, or a live conversation with a person. Language learning communities, particularly Japanese learning communities are so fixated on stats and numbers, I think a lot of us forgot why were learning in the first place.

[MonoTranslucido]

That’s what normally turns my hopes up. I remember when I found learning hiragana was “too much for me”.

Now I know 400 kanjis!

I love when sometimes watch a random YouTube or Reels video and can pick some of the japanese conversation.

So yes… slow and steady, but I getting somewhere. The thing is, I’m a perfectionist and quite impatient regarding learning new skills. That’s my battle haha.

Thanks again!

[adorable]

Read more to somewhat familiarize yourself with words, kanji, and grammar before it’s even in your SRS, makes it stick very fast when you finally get to it.

[jayeljayel]

Hey friend, you are definitely not alone in this feeling. I’ve been learning for 2.5 years and have hit so many walls where it feels like I’m just stuck in the mud. But the most important thing is to remember these slumps are temporary and if you keep pushing and trying to have fun with the language I promise you’ll break through.

[zerohbeat]

My first thought was that you are going too fast! There will be many roadblocks on your journey. Main thing is to not give up!

Slow down and try to do stuff that you enjoy about Japanese from time to time not just study. The idea is to remind yourself why you are learning Japanese.
Eg - if you have a manga that you really really like (maybe even have read in your native language), just lightly for fun go through the first volume and see what you can read / translate. No expectations.

Maybe its time to experiment with different ideas. What is effective will slightly change over time.

• copy from Genki a few sentences that you can understand (eg from their conversations before each chapter) . It could help with comprehension
• Watch very simple Japanese videos / shorts (just for fun ) eg Seika no Japanese Room
• See on Bunpro / Genki what the future grammar is like. Not to learn it, this is more to get some light idea what is head and to give your brain time to make connections. Like - ohh there is a Japanese grammar point that expresses this. Oh if I want to say I want to do something, I will be using this grammar point.

Don’t worry, you seem to be doing really well and these roadblocks are just a natural thing that happens.

[SoreWaMaichiru]

happened to me multiple times and still does. push through it. a good nights sleep will refresh your motivation!

[MonoTranslucido]

Thanks everyone!!!