Hi, I'm basically still a beginner in learning Japanese since I've been really interested in the language itself because I know I can do it but whenever I try to remember or even look at hiragana/katakana characters it makes my head spin without even trying. I don't know of it's a health condition, but let me know what y'all think. Also may I just add, can you give me like any phrases/words in Japanese? That all thank you.
When you were in first grade it took you a year to learn how to write and read 26 characters. Do you do writing practice? Writing things on paper often helps new terms stick. Like one row of あ(a) one row of か(ka) and so on
Time wont run away from you. Knowing hiragana is more important than words (for now, because theyre used everywhere) but words will also keep slipping away from you if you keep learning. I would say not to stress too much about the ones you miss for now and just practice when you feel like it.
Katakana isnt as important yet so i'd focus on hiragana to avoid mixing things up. For example け(ke hiragana) and サ(sa katakana) or せ(se hiragana) and セ(se katakana) look very similar. Itd be less overwhelming that way i think.
Ive been learning for 2 years and i still miss ぬ(nu) and ね(ne) sometimes.. thats probably worse than the average learner but it doesnt impact my other learning much. I find that you just learn the characters youve struggled with over time (through exposure and context). There's a saying "20% of the effort gets you 80% of the result", i think that works for languages too. If you dont seem to be making progress on a sheddule its best to take a break or start a new one and come back to it later.
Theres also a limited abount of things your brain can learn in a day. Trying to cram new things in pre-exam style will just end with you forgetting them again. Its probably better to take a day to practice 5-10 characters, try to understand them and then review the ones from the last few days
Language study is mentally fatiguing. It’s not a medical condition, just a heavy workout for your brain. You will feel less fatigue as you begin to build the neural connections that remember what you are learning.
You can help by taking care of your body. Food, exercise and rest are all essential. お大事に
It happens from time to time. The only difference compared to when I started is that I'm used to it by now. The only thing I can tell you is: It's fine to take your time =p It's even better and your will learn faster in the long term if you can do that.
As for the sentence:
もう無理 (もうむり, mou muri) -> I can't/No more/Get me out of here
That's me complaining to some japanese friend about their language after each burn out or down cycle
That is what would be called a burnout. You're pushing too hard and lose sight of it. This is a sign to take a break. When you get back at it, don't push yourself too hard. It's like straining yourself physically one day, then the next day when you get back at it, you'll be sore in places you didn't know existed. Be gentle.
There are places that have stuff to make it easier to get to know kana. Eventually you'll have it figured out, and believe it or not, this is the easiest part. Fortunately when you reach that stage, that will be easier to get through the sophisticated parts.
I think maybe you could try to lower your expectations a bit and just learn hiragana one row at a time; it might take longer but it will probably be easier on your brain. you also need to remember to eat and drink water and only practice when you want to. you got this! <3
Being someone who has had headaches and burnouts from learning before, the main thing is to take it one step at a time and try not to learn hundreds of things in one shot. Learning is a long marathon, not a sprint. (And I learnt this lesson the hard way)
Maybe aim to learn 5-10 things in a week and focus on that stuff, get familiar with it and move on (at least that is what I do but I normally wait until most things in my schedules are at least mastery 3-4 before learning something new to stop the schedules from giving me 500 things to do in a day and burnout)
Well, I simply did the tofugo's Hiragana/Katakana quiz for around 3-4 days and could recognize all characters, so maybe you could try that? I feel like it helped me a lot when I started out :)
I feel like doing it via SRS is too time-consuming if you could just push through it with a quiz in 2-4 days.
Well, I simply did the tofugo's Hiragana/Katakana quiz for around 3-4 days and could recognize all characters, so maybe you could try that? I feel like it helped me a lot when I started out :)
I feel like doing it via SRS is too time-consuming if you could just push through it with a quiz in 2-4 days.
omg thank you for that advice, actually I just started using Anki, which was very helpful just like any other of these replies. I never realized how many people had this problem as well😝
It's been mentioned, but the pomodoro technique is great for stopping headaches. I find 20 or so minutes of heavy studying can make my head hurt and my focus goes out the window. A quick 5 or so minute break helps to clear that up. But also try not to overdo it. It's easy to cram too much learning into a single day, and that's just not effective
Just pointing out that renshuu is flexible enough that you can treat the character schedules in the same way. You can crank up the Pace for the schedule as high as you want (there are no HARD limits on how much you can study), there's Focused Review if you want to review beyond what the SRS system thinks is best for you, and on top of that, you *still* benefit from SRS because renshuu is aware of what you are strongest in, so you don't need to hit a "flat" quiz over and over again, wasting time on terms you already know well.
Additionally, just because some people can knock out hiragana/katakana in a few days doesn't mean that another person will be able to do that. A person's age, mental situation, health, stress levels, environment, and a 1,000 other things affect progress. So if you ever see someone say "it took me xxx time do to this", and it takes you 10x or longer to do it, that doesn't implicitly speak negatively about you. We're all in different situations :)
