2024/11/26: proper weekly update:
TL:DR - starting to burn out again so switching things up to try to help me stay motivated while still allowing me to have fun and finally making progress with shadowing.
I’ve noted a bit of this above but the last week hasn’t been great for focus or for motivation. I feel I’ve been on a steady down slope since the beginning of the month, it got worse after I finished みんなの日本語 blue textbook and tried to switch back to 新完全マスター books. I don’t quite feel in burnout yet but like I’m heading back there 
not because of Japanese, just because of a lot of changes recently have made me feel more overwhelmed, which has a knock on effect. So I’ve been trying to find a way to get back into studying again so I can progress and not keep forgetting all the stuff I’ve learned (which is how I’ve felt since not being able to focus on reading recently even though I want to read).
After reading through all the fab comments in the “Textbook learners evangelize here” post, I decided to try out a routine, inspired by Taiyousea’s University study routine, the last few days. I think for me, the premise works and is something that I need (the intensive studying of one section across a few days) but the times and content I was trying to use was contributing to worsen the burnout sensation over the last few days. Decided that I maybe need to start on shorter times and build up even if it takes me longer to do. It’s the intensive study that I think is what I’ve been missing and why my learning seems to stagnate longer on the plateau phrases as well as take longer for me to be able to put the words and grammar into my long term memory since SRS is extremely difficult for me to use effectively and doesn’t seem to help me for grammar or vocab unless I’m seeing it in context.
Slight rant about my inability to learn effectively using SRS
I see this effect with WaniKani, especially with me being stuck for the last 3 months on lv 14 because I’m not actually learning the words when I’m using it, I’m not correctly remembering them even though I’ve seen them umpteen times now, I’m only using WaniKani to try to help me pick up the words I’m seeing regularly when reading which is where I am remembering and recognising the words from even though it’s more infrequent, it’s weird and I don’t know why flashcards don’t seem to help me. I also found the same issue when I was using physical flashcards while trying to learn hiragana and katakana and only ended up learning them by writing them out and reading them countless times, there’s a few katakana than still trip me up even now.
I’ve tried making my own both physical flashcards and digital ones. I had anki on my android phone before getting an iPhone, and also tried quizlet and the flashcard app in one of the dictionary apps I have. I wish it worked because it would save me a lot of time and hassle compared to how I review things by going through the textbook several times and redoing different textbooks covering the same stuff.
The biggest thing that helped me to get a lot of the N5 stuff into my long term memory was reading through the ミラーさん novels, Tadoku free books and then progressing onto the children’s books I have read. Now if I could just find a faster way to get all the N4 and N3 stuff in there, I would be over the moon. Anyway, rant over😂
On a better note, I now have some small topics to focus on each week linked to previous topics when speaking. My language exchanges we are now doing small sessions of specific subjects that lead onto the next subject, so we recently started with work, progressed to transport and directions (how to get to work and other places) then tickets (how to purchase these as well as the process for using certain transport), next week is directions to certain places near places I’ve mentioned before (in the cities) and purchasing fuel etc. They may seem mundane topics but I’m noticing patterns with how to use similar grammar for explaining different things as well as getting both the Scottish and Japanese methods/ differences for these so there is some cultural stuff mixed in. We’re both being quite surprised by the differences for relatively simple every day things.
For my tutor lessons we’re continuing with free talking though I’m now starting to open up the conversation to new things and treating it more like a conversation between friends than just me talking at someone/ responding to questions. Today’s lesson wasn’t that great from my end, I stumbled a lot and didn’t have a lot of the words I wanted or even alternatives but did manage a bit.
We are also Shadowing (this week went better and it only took me about 6-10 minutes to go through the section in two passes (last week it was almost 30 minutes for me to go through it struggling with almost every line), first as person A then as person B with my tutor being the second person in the conversation. We picked up that my issues with incorrect pronunciation were with Ko, So, A, Do words so those and the next section are my practice for next week.
For Shadowing, I’ve started to practice by listening with my headphones on, speaking out loud and recording my voice with my phone though I need to pic up a small microphone for better pick up as the tripod doesn’t hold the phone high enough and I can’t listen and record at the same time using the iPad. I have found that the recording when I play it back and play the Shadowing audio again, I can usually pick up where I’m off (I had also noticed my issue with Ko, So, A, Do words) so think this is going to be helpful going forwards.
Reading has mostly been the Breaking into Japanese literature book this week, mostly read while at work. I was getting the gist of the story though reading the English translation and actually translating the Japanese (which is what I tried as an alternative for Tobira - which I don’t have yet - for my study session on Sunday), shows that there were some liberties taken with additional descriptions in the English translation. I can understand where some of the add ins may have been implied, but some were just thrown in there and had no link to the Japanese at all.
Also decided that if I have enough money at end of December, I’ll add Tobira to the books I’ve got waiting on CD Japan. Decided I can never have enough textbooks. Besides, if any of my friends nearby decide they want to start learning Japanese they can borrow them when I’m done, or if they want a flick through to see if it works for them, I can let them test them out 
Plan for the next few weeks until beginning of next year (since there’s only 5 weeks now 
):
- Find a way to incorporate intensive study into my routine both for reading and listening that doesn’t contribute to worsening my burnout.
- Find a way to keep motivated (just wanting to do things isn’t enough now).
- Review the grammar from みんなの日本語 blue textbook, see if that may help with both of the above (as I’m sure it will help me understand more while reading and give a better foundation for me to work from).
- Get back to reading ふしぎ駄菓子屋銭天堂 series (since that seems to have fallen by the way side recently as well but I was really enjoying it).
- Continue Shadowing, doing 1-2 sessions a day then final session for each section in my lesson, also continue with the playback and trying to correct my mistakes as well as reviewing the previous section to ensure that I don’t go back to old habits
I have both old and new versions of Shadowing 日本語を話そ beginner to intermediate and the old version of the intermediate to advanced one with a view to get the new intermediate to advanced one as the beginner one has differences in the content covered, and the online audio is easier to access than the CD.
Any resource or type of study like shadowing won’t go anywhere if you come back to them later.
But, it’s also a chance to acknowledge that and just think something like, “right, I’m going to focus on a small improvement and learn x sound in particular, or dabble a bit in phonetics, or start learning pitch patterns and have that be enough for now.” Then you break up this massive, massive thing into a smaller goal that you can work on and experience progress faster with. I’ve found that to be a good way to stick with certain things that I wanted to do. 
Not that I don’t want to pay more money via Patreon to support him for creating such a great resource, it’s just a psychological thing knowing that it “costs” more the longer I take to do it. 
I could always bring the money each month from a second account (or pay it into the bank manually from actual cash) that has the amount I’m willing to pay total and then once the money is gone, that’s the last month and I cancel the subscription. Thanks, I didn’t think of something like that 
I’ll pick it up when I can early next year. Will end up getting all 3 only because I prefer working from books than online and I’m one of the strange people who like practicing Kanji 