I am reaching out to gather some insights and advice on language learning strategies. I am eager to make steady progress but am finding it a bit challenging to stay motivated and track my progress effectively.
I have tried various methods, including traditional classes; self-study through apps; and language exchange with native speakers. While these approaches have been somewhat beneficial; I am struggling to find a method that consistently keeps me engaged and helps me improve efficiently.
How do you create a personalized study plan that balances vocabulary acquisition; grammar practice; and conversational skills? Are there any frameworks or tools you have found particularly useful?
What strategies do you use to stay motivated; especially during periods when progress seems slow? Are there any techniques or routines that you have found helpful in keeping your language learning on track?
What practice methods have you found most effective for mastering pronunciation and fluency? How do you integrate language practice into your daily routine in a way that doesnāt feel overwhelming?
Are there any specific resources; apps; or tools you recommend for language learners at my level? I am particularly interested in resources that offer interactive and engaging content.
Thank you in advance for your help and assistance.
This is posted in the āAll Languagesā section but you referred to a Japanese learning log, so I am going to assume you are learning Japanese. If you donāt, feel free to ignore this.
The framework that I have found particularly helpful is described in those guides:
If youāre interested in even more resources, you can also read through this huge document shock-full of links to interesting resources: A Year to Learn Japanese - Google Docs
However, be wary not to fall in the trap of spending more time reading about meta strategies to learn Japanese than actually immersing yourself and learning Japanese.
If you can have access to it, Iāve found the pronunciation section of DÅgenās pitch accent course extremely enlightening. Especially the parts on devoicing and the many possible pronunciations of ć. After you have learned the theory, chorusing can do wonders, though it is super tiring and the āflowverlappingā technical process in Audacity is a bit annoying, I feel like.
Recently, I found an app called Aomi Japanese Speaking which streamlines the process and quantitatively evaluates how good is your intonation on a word and sentence level. It is quite hard, I must say.
You havenāt described what your level is, nor what goals you have. A beginner who wants to be able to read weekly mangas as soon as they are released in Japan will not need the same resources than a person currently working in a Japanese office and who needs to communicate professionally with their colleagues and superiors. If youāre an advanced reading main who can read any historical fiction with relative ease but feels totally lost in raw listening scenarios with no subs, thatād be yet another story.
1.) Talking is the final boss. (usually) Your passive skills (listening, reading) will outpace talking by a lot. Talking practice is best saved for once you are in the upper intermediate range (imo) and have enough vocabulary and grammar to have actual conversations.
2.) Reading and listening are all you really need to acquire vocab and grammar, imo. Do some intensive reading and/or listening (i.e. looking up a lot) on your level and some extensive reading and/or listening (i.e. with minimal/no lookups) below your level and you will acquire vocab and grammar as you go. You can supplement this with making your own anki cards from your intensive reading/listening which will speed up the process somewhat. Or if you prefer a gamified approach, I can highly recommend Renshuu.
Achievable goals while allowing myself to rest, i.e. instead of āI want to be fluentā try āI want to read 10 minutes 5 times a weekā, āI want to listen to 30 minutes of podcasts 3 times a weekā etc. Progress happens while you do other things and once you are in the intermediate stage, progress is only really noticeable in hindsight. Things that were hard are no longer difficult. Words come out in conversation you donāt even remember learning. You might not be able to explain grammar, but you understand it and might even use it correctly.
Also, if there is a tangible goal, figure out what will be most helpful to you. I.e. if you know you are moving to Japan in 3 months, focusing on everyday language and on language found on documents, etc. will be more beneficial and likely keep you motivated more as you exactly know WHY you are studying.
If your goal is to read aozora stories, focusing on old kanji, grammar and vocab will yield more tangible progress than watching movies.
In short: Figure out your long term goal and the mid-term steps to get there and then break it down into the smallest possible chunk and make that your daily/weekly goal. Donāt focus on progress, focus on putting in the work/time.
And when motivation is completely gone, just do something else for a few days or lower the level of whatever it is you are focusing on. Sometimes our brain is just too exhausted to learn. Give it some mental candy.
For pronunciation, I think shadowing is one of the best practices as it really is just a matter of your mouth getting used to forming the words/sounds.
Fluency comes with time. Fluency comes with your brain knowing the language enough to simply use it without having to think about how to form sentences.
For routines, doubling up on time is helpful, e.g. listening to a podcast on your commute/while doing chores/while painting/while at the gym/ etc. as well as making it a fixed point in your day, e.g. 10 minutes of reading right after waking up (instead of scrolling on your phone ;)) or 10 minutes reading before lights out in the evening or 10 minutes reading during lunch break or taking a book to the loo instead of your phone, etc.
anchoring 1 habit with something else is very helpful in making sure it gets done.
A lot of people also enjoy keeping stats on their learning and watching the numbers go up. But for others this creates stress. Worth trying out.
Some people also thrive on challenges and by joining (book) clubs - giving them that extra bit of external pressure to help with their motivation.
what is your level?
Only apps I universally recommend are anki and renshuu, depending on your style.
If I feel like Iām plateauing, what I found really helps me is re-reading/reading the next volume of something I struggled with a year ago. Usually itās a lot easier than I remember and I can feel the progress I made.
Other more general advice: keep in mind that everyone learns differently. If someone swears by method A that does not mean that that is necessarily the best way for you to learn as well. So experiment with different stuff and try to find a way of learning that works for you.
My advice may not be as useful as those above but might help more with the motivation side of things if youāre struggling.
For me, I learn best through immersion (if you can, figuring out how you learn will take a lot of stress out of the process as you will then be able to tailor your study plan to you). I figured this out after around a year of trying and failing to pick things up from textbooks teaching Japanese in English. So doing rote memorisation doesnāt stick for me. Flash cards, vocabulary lists, detailed explanations of grammar points, etc, none of it sticks with me when trying to study. Iāve found I learn more by using the grammar or vocabulary and being corrected, or seeing the answer and trying to figure out why that one is correct.
My study plan changes based on how I feel, what my work and commitments schedule is like and what I feel I need to work on most. It constantly changes but I keep engaged in the language in some way every single day. So days when I canāt sit and read, Iāll listen instead (on a commute, while walking or while doing other tasks).
When I feel my motivation needs a kick and Iām struggling to keep things on track, I go back a step and re-read or re-listen to something Iāve done before that seemed quite difficult the first time round. Iāll work through whatever it is extensively then intensively again and see how much Iāve improved from the first time round. Some of the books Iāve read and podcasts Iāve listened to have been done several times now but it helps me internalise the grammar and the vocabulary. One of the YouTube Polyglots I follow does a similar thing with going back over older content theyāve used before and it helps them raise their foundation of the language giving them a better place to step up from.
If you donāt want to re-read stuff, look at articles about things you already have some knowledge off in Japanese and your native language and work through those.
For me, again, immersion. Shadowing helps me with my pronunciation, my pitch is off at times but I plan to use Dogenās pitch accent patreon course later this year. He does have some free stuff on Youtube that helped me a bit too. When reading, I also either read aloud or read in my head. I will also repeat certain words or phrases slowly then say them at normal speed a few times if Iāve picked them up during a lesson. I am no where near fluent though.
If I feel overwhelmed, then I will try to take the pressure off by engaging in a different way. If there is no outside influence that is causing that overwhelm and itās all from within, then try doing something easier in the language to still be engaging in it but take the pressure off. E.g. re-read or re-listen to something that youāve done before. Listen to music that you enjoy in Japanese or watch something in Japanese (with or without subs) that you already know in your native language. If you prefer gaming, then play a game with Japanese voice overs etc. I find that if I remove all English from my day, then sometimes I get overwhelmed and stressed very quickly, so Iāll do short bursts in Japanese or I will make the difficulty easier by listening in Japanese and having English subs or I already know whatever it is in English (the amount of times I default to Howlās moving Castle or Spirited Away is unreal lol).
Even just engaging by reading some short tweets, FB or insta posts and trying to translate them helps me on days Iām overwhelmed. It shows me I am improving and it helps my motivation and self-confidence.
Iām not sure what level you are currently so not sure what to suggest but this might help a bit for reading and listening as it has various articles based on JLPT level including some absolute beginner ones. It also has recordings with the articles read by a native speaker (I think it is a native speaker and not AI):
The link below has a reading list to help you get from beginner books up to reading Native level content but does give a steeper curve than natively does (I have read ććć®ę and Zoo by ä¹äø even though they are much higher on Natively than my current level but possibly wouldnāt have even started trying to read Native content at this stage if I hadnāt):
If you have any study clubs in your area (or can find any online that you like the idea of) you could also look at those if that suits. Some of them with meet up regularly and practice speaking in Japanese or discuss books/ shows/ games etc and even just having the regular meet up can help with motivation.
Edit: my links are for Japanese because I assumed it was Japanese from a comment earlier in the post that I may have misread but the rest of my comment should hold true no matter what language you are learning.
I donāt know exactly, but upon trying again and again to learn a second new language, I think it is in the sequence of
Overall basics of everything, e.g. from classroom / textbook. Be aware and practice things like phonology too (well?).
Try to get into immersion. Become comprehensive with reading and listening. Not necessarily 100%, but try to get better.
Continue with immersion, while consider improving input comprehension and improving output ability to be 2 different skills that support each other.
That Google Docs is interesting. It also mentions other languages.
About vocabularies, I think there are too many to remember perfectly in advance. There might be a few thousands to remember well first to get into immersion, but most otherwise can be forgotten and recalled later, maybe only with context.
Set a minimal daily goal that should be tried to achieve desperately.
For not so minimal goals, divide them into whether they are important or not, or otherwise urgent or not, that is, Eisenhower prioritization matrix.
Not just motivation, but also having good (smart) goals in mind most of the time, is also important. Say, what is planned in a week, in a month, in a semester, or over several years.
Stretch yourself to get more work done. Though of course, rest well (rest hard) later. Something like Pomodero timer, though I think working more is more important than limiting yourself to the initial goal.
I think vacations or cheat days are eventually acceptable, but not sure of the safe extentā¦
The secret to Gettinā Gud is reading tons of trash. Not even kidding. Read/watch what pleases you, even if dirty/stupid/embarassing and you will increase contact with the language and get better.
Also just want to call out that this userās profile says theyāre learning Korean Seeing Japanese specific advice being given
I donāt know if I can particularly speak for āeffective language learningā since I have been everything else but effective during my years of on and off study while struggling with life circumstances etc.
I guess itās obvious that a personalized plan will depend on what you personally want to focus on. And following that, the tools will also differ.
For example:
I think I have a good grasp on vocab and kanji, so I donāt do any focused practice here, just adding as many new words as will end up being like half an hour of SRS a day. If youāre a beginner you might want to start with a N5/4 or Core lists, or if you want to consume a specific media, go on jpdb and look for a deck there.
I need to improve my listening abilities specifically for the JLPT, so Iām looking for specific podcasts/Youtube channels that offer that.
I am satisfied with how much grammar I know so far, so Iām focusing more on distinguishing nuances and differentiate similar grammar points using a textbook and grammar dictionary.
Just examples.
Iām the type of learner that needs constant stimulation, so basically switching things up a bit, trying out a new book, a new channel, trying to focus on different areas that needs practice, finding a new fandom/media to devour and look for fanartists etcā¦
For me it also helps to set different types of goals where progress can be steadily evaluated and measured (like going through N3 vocab lists, finishing x chapters of my textbook)
Not sure if this is a bug or not because every time I go back to the main site today, my language flag on my profile changes to Korean and I donāt have it in my list of languages.
I know this may sound stupid but Iām not actually sure how to do that I know there is a section for them but donāt understand how to use the stuff that shows when I use the āproduct requestā tab, and donāt know what the trello link thing is
This happens usually if you check someoneās profile, books, etc. whose main language is Korean and then go back to your own stuff. Nonetheless I would also say itās a bug.
No worries! Most of that stuff is just a template; you can add/remove/delete as needed. Just ignore the Trello link, Iām not sure why itās there either.
!-- Please: Before posting make sure your request or bug report is not duplicated by searching in the product requests subcategory. Thank you for helping us keep everything organized! ā
Description of your request or bug report:
Trello link: (leave in blank)
Just remove that top bit before the bolded Description line and type in a description of the bug with screenshots. Iād leave the Trello line in, but you can remove it; I think itās supposed to be a space to document if the bug gets an entry on the Trello board, but itās not all that important.
Stephen Krashen (the language bro god and CI researcher) claims that itās in parentsā best interests to let their kids read comics and other junky types of books because the more you read the better you get at reading. This is in regards to first language literacy but thereās no reason it doesnāt also apply to foreign languages as well.
My problem is that all of the smutt trash I want to read is still too far above my level for a comfy extensive read. Someone needs to write lower level trash
i honestly read a lot of one-two page manga comics on twitter for a while before getting more confident. (And that includes trash manga, yes). Actually, a decent amount of artists/authors āwriteā in four-page chunks now for SNS, so the jump from there to āregularā manga was not as hard. You do have to find the stuff for your level though.
Iāve been reading the lowest level manga on Natively that I also enjoy enough to just read. Itās not exactly what I want to do, but Iām able to just read 1/2 to 1 manga a day with minimal lookups and that feels good.
A lot of the trash I really want to read is around level 25-27, so Iām trying to work my way up to thereā¦
Yeah, the high 20s is when smut adult literature starts to open up for you. The vocab is pretty repetitive though, so if you donāt mind the first one or two being slogs, you can probably Get Gud at a subset of it pretty quickly.
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Seeing Japanese specific advice being given
