How should I balance my Japanese Studies?
When you decide to learn Japanese you have to be ready to take on months to years of dedication. If you keep pushing through though, eventually you will know Japanese. In order to get there however you must dedicate time to learn a range of different skills along with picking up a huge amount of new knowledge. This is a daunting task but if you go about it the right way it can be quite enjoyable at the same time. The key is to balance what you study to efficiently feel like you are progressing in order to have the motivation to keep going.
INDEX
Above all try to Enjoy Learning
First, the most important thing to know is that if you keep on studying Japanese eventually you will learn it. The method does not really matter so much. Yes, some ways are more efficient than others and will help you get there quicker. But, no matter how good someone else says that their method is, the most important thing is to enjoy what you are doing. Because, if you don’t enjoy it you will have more trouble continuing and want to quit, or procrastinate so long that you are barely putting any time into it.
楽しく学ぼう – The Method you are most Interested in is The best way to Learn Japanese on your own
It does not matter if someone else enjoys flashcards, and can provide scientific research on how effective they are. If you get a headache thinking about doing flashcards then it is not the method for you. staying motivated is crucial in order to get to actually learn the language. Since it requires a long time to learn the language in the long term you need something more than just a method to pull you through. Since all methods get boring and you will want to try something different at several different points during your learning journey.
Why should I Balance my Japanese Studies?
So, basically, if you are doing what you enjoy all the time you don’t need to worry so much. If you enjoy what you are doing then continuing doing that until you feel like doing something else. If you continue this way then eventually you will cover all the areas of study that are required to know Japanese.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/This is not always practical, however. If you only study vocabulary because it is fun, then you will end up with a different problem. That problem is that when you try to remember words or use them in sentences you will not be able to easily pull out the words you know from your head.
All the areas of language learning are connected. If you learn to listen that will help you speak better. If you learn vocabulary that will help you read better. Sometimes if you focus too much on just one area of study it will be hard to feel like you are progressing. The only way around this is to study a little bit of everything. What that does is allows all areas of your Japanese to progress a little at a time. That is helpful since you can get a birds-eye view of how all those abilities work together. That will help you to feel like you are progressing.
How Should I Balance my Japanese Studies?
The exact way you will balance what you study and when will differ by person. Everyone is going to need to do things differently to feel like they are progressing. But I will explain how I would generally go about doing it.
Pick One Goal at a Time
The way I went about learning Japanese was by picking one thing goal to focus on for a short period of time. Once I achieved that goal I would move on to something else. For example, I aimed to finish a textbook in the beginning, then to learn the basic 2,000 or so Kanji I needed to read and so on. This is important to always have a goal with a definite aim at the end. That helps you feel motivated.
Make sure though that it is a small, short-term goal and that you focus on activity and not results. If you focus on results you will more than not be disappointed. You can not decide what you will and will not remember from what you studied. For that reason, you need to focus on doing the activity instead of the results. If you get to the end of your studies and feel dissatisfied with the results then you have the option to put a little more time into it or to pick a new goal that can help you obtain what you did not from your first goal.
Pick One or Two Focus Areas
When I say a focus area, that means focusing on improving your listening, speaking, learning more vocabulary, or one aspect of language learning. So you may decide that when you start learning Japanese, in the beginning, to focus on learning vocabulary and basic grammar. Your goals can come out of these focus areas. But your focus area is different from your goals. This is just deciding what you are going to do the majority of your active learning time into improving.
Most of us don’t have hours in the day to study so we can not practically decide to spend all our time learning everything at once. That would spread us too thin. The less time we have and the more things we try to do at once, the longer it will take for us to see those results. So, if you can focus on just a few things at one time you will sooner see those results and stay motivated.
Spend a little Time Studying Everything else
The exact breakdown is up to you, but spend the majority of your active studying in your focus area. The remainder should be used on studying a little bit of everything else. If you decide to focus most of your time on vocabulary then at the end of your daily studies take a few minutes to listen to something to improve your listening. Or, you can split things up by days. You can spend 3 days a week on vocabulary and one on grammar. You don’t need to decide to study everything every day. Do what makes sense for you.
Work on your Knowledge and Skills
You can break down Japanese studies into knowledge and skills. Knowledge would be everything you learn and skills would be using what you learned. Both take time to acquire. When you study Japanese make sure to spend time on both.
if you want to learn more Japanese I reviewed a dictionary of grammar series which I personally recommend and use myself.
