hey. i've never really posted here because i'm not too social. but i'd like to ask everyone here a… - Feed Post by starschoy
hey. i've never really posted here because i'm not too social. but i'd like to ask everyone here a question which is, "What keeps you going?". i've been studying for almost 5 months with little to show because my motivation goes on and off and I don't really have any friends that are interested in the language. how do you guys keep on studying? do you drop the language and pick it back up like i do?
posted by starschoy
Comments 7
Seems to depend on the person. Personally, I get a lot out of the simple repetition/routine. Studying on the day-to-day doesn't feel like a chore for me, so in that sense it's pretty easy for me to keep going even if it feels like I'm not progressing for long periods. That said, that's what works for me, but I'd say my strategy is in the minority probably.
Some people have much more concrete ideas. If you like to read manga, rotate some manga into your routine. If you like history, rotate that in. You won't be able to completely eliminate the drudgery of doing the things you still have to do (e.g. grammar textbooks, studying kanji by rote, etc.), but it's important to make sure you include enough things that you do like to keep it interesting.
People come and go frequently on this site (it's pretty easy to tell, just check out the number of daily new users vs. the number of people who even make it to level 2 or 3). By it's very nature, learning a language is hard, progress is slow, people get frustrated, and it's natural that people drop off. Guess the question is, can you find something that gets you excited enough to keep coming back regardless of progress? Not saying that such a thing as infinite motivation exists, but if you can do that, it does make it easier. Deriving satisfaction just from your progress in the language (which seems to be sporadic at best for most), probably won't be enough to keep you going if you rely on it alone.
Anyway, that's just my two cents :)
Yeah as Armerala-san said, each person has its own motivation.
In my case I have always liked the japanese culture and learning new languages.
Also I happened to really like learning new kanji, and how some kanji really mean what they're written like, for example:
火山 （かざん）- "volcano" and it's written 火 (ひ) - "fire" + 山 （やま）- "mountain"
So a volcano is a " fire mountain " I just find it really cool to learn the meaning of the kanji like that, and I keeps me interested in going further in the language.
Hope you find your motivation! (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑
For me, its because I love Japan and I want to try living therein the future (and hopefully fall in love with the country even more and reside there permanently.) Most of the money I have is used for college / essentials so its almost impossible for me to save up to travel to Japan, so I'm also trying to become fluent to make it easier to get a job in the future in Japan, that also keeps me motivated.
But like armerala explained, people get tired of it and frustrated of learning, so its important to have various things to keep you going to keep learning. I am one of those people, i get discouraged as soon as an obstacle appears so me studying Japanese has been difficult, but I always come back and each time I can endure the challenges even more.
Practice with me at [email protected] and google hangouts!
Thanks for the replies, I'm slowly gaining my motivation back from hearing these ideas. I mostly stopped because of the huge wall of kanji that I need to learn and how difficult it is to memorize each one. so far I've been learning kanji from vocabulary rather than starting with the easy kanji first so that might be why.
My method of motivation is very similar, infact, exactly the same as Yoshipon-San.
When I feel unmotivated, I watch some videos about Japanese culture.
I also try to find some fun-logic when learning Kanji. For example, 傘 literally looks like 4 people standing under an umbrella. Or 公害 "pollution" literally means "public harm/injury". 食べ物 "food" & 着物 "kimono" literally mean "thing (you) eat" & "thing (you) wear"! this makes Kanji less "omg how will I ever learn these?!?!".
I also read simple sentences when learning grammar. Since the sentences are simple, I understand the meaning and just feel happy, which keeps me motivated to learn more.- see you on google hangouts! I received your message!
