I think I'm starting to lose motivation, the more I study the harder it gets and the less sense it makes. I've been studying for 7-8 months now, and along the way I've met people who are instantly jp 2 or something within 2-3 months of studying. While I struggle to have a basic convo without sounding like a proper retard. I feel like that i'm just wasting my time.
Being bad at something is the first step to being sort of good at something. Just keep at it. The biggest mistake people make is worrying about how much better/how much faster others are picking things up. People learn at different speeds. Some people learn fast but can't grasp the more complicated things later on, others are slow to start but can really excel later.
Just do you, keep at it, and don't let others distract you from your goals.
You got this.
Being bad at something is the first step to being sort of good at something
Good ol' Jake the Dog
I've met people who are instantly jp 2 or something within 2-3 months of studying.
I'm assuming you're talking about N2. If someone claims to be N2 within 2-3 months of studying, that person is full of shit and you shouldn't be discouraged because it's simply impossible.
I feel like that i'm just wasting my time.
If you base your happiness on the end result and not the journey, you're going to be in for a miserable time. Fluency takes years, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Well I'm no scientist, so I certainly don't have any data to back this up. But I find it hard to believe someone can go from knowing 0 Japanese to knowing 1000 kanji, 5000 words, basic and intermediate grammar in 60-90 days. I don't even think the brain can even learn, let alone retain this much information in such little time. But I'm open to be proven wrong. If you can point me in the direction of someone who has gone from 0 to N2 in 3 months then I'd happily concede my position.
Self-Assessed N2 doesn't count
Failing N1 does not automatically mean you'd pass N2.
I made it like my life's goal to get N1
Set higher goals in life?
I did however manage to get 91 on last december's N1
I'm just going to straight up call bullshit on this one.
It may be possible to learn 10k vocab in 6 months with something like anki and learning 50-60 words a day and studying 5-6 hours a day just on vocab, and get close to perfect on JLPT vocab/kanji.
It may be also possible to cram every single grammar point in AB/I/ADoJG, and get close to perfect on grammar, if you're spending another 3-5 hours/day just on grammar.
But you have absolutely no more waking time left to practice reading/listening.
So just about the only way to physically be able to reach a 91 on N1 in 6 months would be focusing your entire life on maximizing your JLPT N1 score--but with no hope of passing it and no actual Japanese ability. (Japanese is not spoken in flashcard format.)
But bro... 5 months is almost double the time we were arguing about... (2-3months)
Haven’t seen such a BS in a while.
Ummm no.
I made it like my life's goal to get N1
Your life goal is to pass an inconsequential test? Wow your life is pathetic.
It also tests ~1000 kanji which you will need to know the readings and meaning to understand the vocab, listening skills for all that grammar and vocab, and japanese reading comprehension within a time limit. Most people take N2 after 2 or 3 years of continuous study. Its simply impossible to learn that much in 2 or 3 months. Even if you sat and read the book for the 14 hours a day it would take to memorize everything, your retention would probably be shit.
Even ignoring kanji (a bad idea, considering it's one of the most basic and essential tenets of japanese), it is still completely unfeasible to reach n2 level in 60-90 days. Tae Kim only goes covers upper n4/lower n3 grammar, so you would need to study at least a whole other textbook for n3-n2. You would also need enough reading practice to be able to comprehend a document around the complexity of a newspaper article, and enough listening skills to understand news report level conversation spoken at natural speed. And thats not even counting the several hundred review flashcards per day+80 new ones. Most people who take the jlpt n2 have studied for several years under the guide of a native teacher. It's not something a layman could pick up and learn from scratch in a few months.
I'm not sure what Tae Kim you're looking at, but here's the one I used: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/grammar_guide.pdf
The grammatical structures at the end, like やむを得ない、や否や、思いきや etc, etc are pretty much exclusive to N1. The others are not that hard to pick up once you see them used in context.
I wasn't saying to ignore kanji, but not to make cards solely for them since that's not a situation that you're presented with during the JLPT or real life for that matter. The actual words are what are important.
If someone really does have 14 hours a day, they can easily finish all the reviews and add more than 80 flash cards a day - they must be tenacious though, I do not deny this. Reading and listening comes with knowing the words, at least it did for me.
It is not impossible barring certain situations. 14 hours a day for 3 months is enough.
One must not underestimate the person with a desire to achieve something. 人類をあまりナメるんじゃねよ。
I believe you.
But I don't think most people are in a situation where they can devote that kind of time and energy to one specific pursuit. Let's assume romelako and king_kr1mson are basing their arguments around this.
It's also important in scenarios like these to differentiate between technical possibility and the realistic limits of a human being. Sure, a person could, theoretically, just sit at a desk and do nothing but study japanese and sleep, but that type of schedule simply isn't possible, even for a career academic, no matter how "dedicated" they are. Learning anything is like working out. You can't just go into a gym and pump iron for 300 hours straight and walk out jacked; you need to let your muscles rest/eat right/vary your workouts/ect... The brain is the same way. The type of studying the poster advocates is not only flat out impossible when looked at from a realistic perspective. It would likely be actively harmful to the scholar. 3 hours or so per day of quality book/flashcard work, and maybe some enjoyable japanese language media will take the average person far further without forcing them to burn out.
I agree what you're saying, and I'd also take into account that each person tends to have a different learning ability (often vastly different).
Even if you sat and read the book for the 14 hours a day it would take to memorize everything, your retention would probably be shit.
king_kr1mson did say this, I was just using their own condition.
Ahh. I missed that.
Don't worry, it isn't always easy to learn a language nor do you necessarily have to be at the same skill level as everyone else after studying for a certain amount of time. Nothing wrong with learning at your own pace. If you're confused, you can ask around for help. Especially on subreddit like this.
Of course, you can drop the language if you don't really want to learn it that much. Nobody's forcing you.
It's a long climb, and it's quite common to have these alternating periods of euphoria and despair. Worry about your own journey, which will go at its own pace. It can be refreshing to change up your materials--maybe try a Graded Reader, or some very simple manga, or hop on YouTube and watch a few episodes of "Let's Learn Japanese." Or even watch something with subtitles, and congratulate yourself whenever you recognize a word or a phrase.
It takes time--a lot of time. Don't kick yourself.
First of all NEVER compare yourself with others when learning, second don't worry because everyone gets somewhat stuck at some point, just keep working on it!
Set yourself a goal, but don't set it to high that's the mistake most people make. Multiple small milestones work best.
This! You are never "done" with learning Japanese. You don't wake up and go "Ok done now, what's next" it's a life-long journey. This is what I like about it (I find things with a clear finish line quite stressful as I naturally want to finish as quick as possible.) There's still targets but you set them where you want, for example for me:- 1. Reach 1000 words Vocab 2. Reach 2000 words vocab. 3. Finish RTK 4. Finish grammar section of Tae Kim. Right now I'm solidifying my knowledge so far and then I'll probably aim for 3000 words of vocab. Just aim a little bit more each time :)
Do you want to give more details? Maybe it's the process you're using or the tools...
I've not done anything for quite some time and I think maybe 2 week break might do you good. And asking for help is good. It means you care enough to do that...
You have two options: quit or continue. If quitting sounds like it'd be a relief, than quit. If quitting sounds like it's be unpleasant, than work through it under the belief that it'll improve. All pursuits are plagued with ups and downs; periods when you feel like you've almost magically improved and periods when you wonder if you're actually getting worse. This is true of all worthy goals. It's a good life lesson to remember that even though it is sometimes hard to keep in mind.
Having said that, if you honestly believe you are working earnestly and diligently and are still not seeing improvement (forget about how much improvement, I mean any improvement at all), you might wish to think more carefully about your learning strategy.